In the car industry, engaging consumers into a personal experience with the vehicle is key; and there is no better way to achieve this than with real-life, face-to-face marketing. More and more, we’ve been seeing great examples of car brands using experiential marketing to create an emotional connection with consumers – after all, they are not only selling a product, they are selling a whole complexity of feelings, design, experiences and a lifestyle.

By replicating the car’s attributes within a real experience, involving consumers on a journey and thus shaping the whole campaign according to their needs and expectations it is certainly a win-win situation. When you create a remarkable experience that is in line with the performance and features of the car, your consumers will be more likely to pay attention and get involved.

A great example of creativity in a marketing approach can be seen in BMW’s Mini Cooper. The unconventional smart design, which has been revamped over the time, has turned Mini into more than just a car. The brand sells a lifestyle and has developed a massive community of fans and enthusiasts who love to get involved with the Mini “message” and accessorise their cars accordingly.

Hyundai also exemplifies their experiential approach through their current positioning: New Thinking, New Possibilities. The brand has taken the 3D projection mapping to another level by vertically suspending a real car onto the face of a building and integrating it into an impressive futuristic computerised cityscape. This great viral represents their forward-thinking positioning, pushing the boundaries of a projection mapping experience, and making it more real and engaging.

Other car brands such as Nissan and VW are also receiving great results in establishing and maintaining a relationship with consumers who have already bought into their brands. Last year, Nissan ran a cheeky guerrilla campaign in Dubai to promote their new Nissan Patrol SUV. They went around car parks “parking” in front of other SUV’s, then leaving a note on the windscreen explaining they had to run, but feel free to move the car. This is a great example of ambush marketing, which forced unsuspecting SUV owners to test drive the new Nissan model and encouraged them to contact the dealership for a real one. Over 78% of people signed up after the accidental test drive proving the campaign a creative and overwhelming success.

Volkswagen have been experimenting in a number of viral marketing campaigns to attract attention to their green credentials. We have featured some brilliant examples on our blog such as the Piano Stairs from ‘The Fun Theory’ campaign, which was dedicated to promoting environmentally friendly thinking and show that something as simple as fun is a good way to change people’s behaviour for the better.

The Fast Lane Slide was another amazing viral campaign dedicated to everyone who loves to speed things up. These stunts by Volkswagen are great examples that marketing a car doesn’t always have to be directly connected to the vehicle. VW’s grass roots experiential initiative encouraged consumers to engage with the brand, while demonstrating the company’s values through a fun and personal experience.

It is always important for car manufacturers to ultimately build a lifetime brand loyalty by meeting the needs of consumers at different life stages. Here at Hotcow, we love when brands create amazing real-life experiences tapping into the online communities to engage social media users.

The American car brand Dodge encouraged people to embrace a real-life scavenger hunt for a chance to win a car. Within the tagline “you find it, you keep it”, Dodge had hidden three Journey crossovers across America in the West, Midwest and East, and utilised their Youtube channel to offer clues and updates. People were invited to find a series of video clues and embark on a real-life journey to find the hidden cars.

Challenging people to engage with the brand and offer a chance to win a car is a great way to showcase new models and create an emotional connection with less affluent consumers. Furthermore, having a strong online presence is paramount to ensure that consumers can get involved and you can hear what they have to say. In this way you will also be able to create an emotional bond with younger consumers who are constantly connected to social networks, which will pay off in the long term as their incomes grow and their affluence rises.

Check out Hotcow’s website for other great examples of experiential campaigns from around the world.

The role of brands in the frontline of consumerism is changing as consumers are looking for ownership and customisation. According to a study by Insites Consulting, ‘over 50% of consumers are asking to take part in co-creation of products and advertising’, therefore understanding how people use your brand is paramount to steer the direction of your brand’s development and the level of engagement with your consumers.

Consumers are more aware of how their actions can impact on brands’ development, and with social media platforms empowering people to actively talk about their life experiences, companies are required to be more authentic in their marketing approach. Some brands are willingly embracing the co-creation trends and encouraging the creative expression of consumers to add more value to their campaigns and ultimately build stronger brand connections.

Heineken have recently embraced the co-creation trend by inviting social network users to create an unique bottle design in celebration of the brand’s 140th anniversary. Consumers could submit their work to an online gallery on Heineken’s Facebook page, and pair up to another participant and complement their designs for a chance to see their bottle go into production in a limited edition gift pack, celebrating Heineken’s anniversary.

By opening up new communication channels with consumers and producing thought provoking campaigns, brands are able to get beneficial feedback from consumers and give them a more positive image of their brand and marketing strategy. However, it is important for brands to think about what consumers are looking for in terms of experience and then how their message fits within that.

Heinz ‘Get Well Soup’ is another great example of social integration inviting Facebook fans to personalise a soup can with the ‘Get Well’ message and send it as a gift to their friends. Another clever use of social media is Coca Cola’s Vitamin Water ‘flavor creator lab’. The brand asked their Facebook fans to vote for their favourite flavour and design a new label for the product. 40,000 Facebook users created unique label designs via the lab and participants spent an average of 7 minutes engaging with the application and therefore the brand.

Social media is a great channel that brands can use to make the co-creation process to work effectively. Consumers want to ensure they are getting the necessities from your brand as they want to tell their own stories and be involved in an experience, which they can reap good rewards from it.

Using the social sphere to entice consumers to embrace the idea with easy access and transparency will only add more value to the entire experience. Additionally, by exploiting the creative side of consumers, brands are giving people who consume their products a say in their development and campaign, which ultimately help them to differentiate themselves from the competition.

From the experiential standpoint, a fantastic example is Slurpee’s ‘Bring Your Own Cup Day’ in Australia. The brand decided to embrace consumers inner-opportunistic side to promote their frozen drinks range. For a 24 hour period, customers could take any vessel they could get their hands on to fill with Slurpee products. Excited Slurpee fanatics across Australia ventured to their nearest 7-Eleven stores armed with kettles, watering cans and boots to name a few ‘cups’ used, with a new drink being sold every 1.8 seconds.

If you wish to embrace your consumers’ creativity and add more value to their lives, you need to understand those magical touchpoints that already exist in people’s interactions with brands and create great experiences around that. Consumers don’t experience the advertising, they experience the brand and this is where experiential takes place. When knowing how people are using your brand, and embracing their creative side, you can reap the rewards of consumer’s preference by creating remarkable experiences that stand out, deeply engage and generate the involvement that your consumers want with your brand.

So how are you ensuring you are listening to what your consumers want?

Check out Hotcow’s website for great examples of creative inspiration from around the world.

Having a complete and deep understanding of your target audience is essential to successful marketing. With such a large amount of media channels and services available, marketers must find new ways to ensure brands are included in the initial consideration set that consumers develop in the beginning of their decision journey. Rather than using traditional media to push one way messages, brands need to focus on customer-led channels, which encourages two way interaction, drives engagement and influences decisions.

Multichannel marketing is key to building stronger lifetime value through sustained, long term relationships with customers. However, it demands a deep understanding of your consumers behaviour. Consumers have evolved and so have the way they share information and communicate with one another. What actions do you want your consumers to take as they move through the stages of their relationship with your brand? What channels are they likely to prefer? And more importantly, how to successfully integrate each different dialogue effectively?

Using multiple channels to communicate with consumers requires detailed planning and clear process as traditional advertising messages are no longer direct enough for this ever evolving dynamic environment. The relevance of new channels are increasingly becoming pivotal to contact your consumers as brands focus on pulling in customers rather than pushing out products. There are a range of various multiple and personal touch-points, including mobile devices, experiential channels and pop-up stores, which improves both consumer experience and reach.

People interact and react with a variety of platforms in various ways. Whilst some may be more engaged in digital touchpoints, there are others who are likely to respond more positively to live experiences. Taking a strategic approach will play a decisive role in building longer term relationships and short term results; and mapping the decision journey becomes critical if you want to have a real impact on your ROI.

Consumers appreciate brands that approach them with a personal experience and by leveraging customer information and analytical capabilities, you can gain a deeper insight into your consumers behavior and deliver more effective, targeted messages throughout the complete customer journey. Customers want to be heard and no matter which channel your customers choose, you need to respond intimately.

With so much cluttered mass communications being exposed to people daily, experiential marketing differentiates and gives consumers a reason to take more notice of your message. A successful multichannel marketing approached requires brands to understand how customers can directly communicate, experience and immerse themselves in your brand’s story line to fully comprehend the message or communication being conveyed. It must be integrated, with online efforts being consistent and supportive of your offline efforts to ensure that our brand is offering the best customer service which is easy to access.

Ultimately the type of experience you want to implement is dependent on the desired outcome. For example, a sampling campaign would be an effective method to encourage consumers to trial a product whereas a live experience would be implemented to create a personal customer interaction, providing a memorable experience which people would talk about. Regardless of the customer experience you plan to deliver, it must be consistent and executed seamlessly, maintaining your brand promise throughout every stage of the process.

Check out our website for more information on the experiential marketing tools you can implement into your multi-channel marketing strategy.

We all know what it is like to be confronted by a charity fundraiser, and have tried and tested multiple responses to escape their annoyingly persistent wrath. The ‘chugging’ moral dilemma was recently stirred up during a London Borough of Islington debate, which came about as the borough is on the brink of banning charity canvassers due to local resident outrage towards persistent disturbances.

People are not uncharitable, a 2010/11 UK Giving report highlighted that 6 of 10 UK adults donated a total of £11 billion last year alone. However, pestering people into donating not only creates annoyance but also disreputes the charity in the eyes of those who are unlucky enough to encounter a chugger. So, what are the best alternative platforms for charities to adopt, and what are the implications?

New media platforms are having an unrivaled impact upon worldwide business and also the third sector. It would be ludicrous if charities didn’t sit up and take notice of such influential examples such as the £50 million raised in just 2 weeks following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake as well as Oxfam naming the 2010 Pakistan floods as the “first social media emergency” due to the overwhelming online response. This is proof that digital philanthropy has the potential to encourage millions of people from around the world to donate simultaneously towards a cause, which can be spread exponentially through social media platforms.

Charities seem to have developed a more holistic view towards fundraising and are considering the wider picture to generate long term relationships according to an nfpSynergy report. It is no surprise that 66.5% of sampled charities are now using Facebook and Twitter to engage people in a real time educational and fundraising capacity due to social media and online transparency allowing direct two-way communication with consumers.

Mobile technologies and QR codes have become an essential marketing platform and charities have began to implement them to great effect. An incredibly moving example of using QR codes was demonstrated by Fundadora Proanimal in Chile. Hundreds of stray dogs facing a mass cull had QR codes around their necks giving the animals a ‘voice’ with a message that was easily shared across social media, helping to highlight their plight. With mobile internet usage predicted to take over from desktop usage by 2014, more philanthropic focus should be placed upon this form of technology as a viable and logical communicative route to pursue.

Offline charity collection efforts can venture far beyond street canvassing. Providing consumers with an experience, challenge, competition or surprise, they are incentivised to donate through compassion rather than pressure. Bob Geldof’s iconic 1985 Live Aid concert is an early memorable example of experiential fundraising. It rallied musical talent in order to raise over £110 million  by broadcasting to 1.5 billion people worldwide.

Rather than demanding cash with no acknowledgement of implementation experiential shock tactics can be used as great effect. By physically demonstrating the end-result of donations you can encourage people to part with their money. A simple but poignant campaign by the Global Angels charity, demonstrated that people are more than willing to stop and ‘help someone nearby’ by using an actor tripping and dropping groceries in the street, yet are less responsive to ‘help someone far away’. Another great example is ‘Half for Happiness’ supermarket campaign in Brazil, which creatively highlighted the impact of donations through selling half packets of food at full price. 50% of the amount paid was donated to malnutrition charity Casa do Zezinho.

Here at Hotcow, we strongly believe in making every experience sensational, to stand out from the crowd and grab the whole-hearted attention of passers by. Never is this sentiment more true than in a charitable marketing capacity. With widespread negative attitude towards street canvassers, charities can implement experiential live elements to differentiate their campaign from such associations, and generate mass buzz around their campaign.

Check out our website for more thoughts on how to make your next charity campaign sensational, differentiated and attention-grabbing.

The rapid growth in technology has left the traditional marketing model at best ineffective. Consumers are better equipped to manage their choices, looking for a more perceived value and convenience. Savvy shoppers care a lot about customer experience and are increasingly using their smartphones for online support and price comparison. Adapting your strategy to lure and help consumers to get the most out of their shopping experience is critical if you want to influence decisions and make them choose your brand.

With Facebook commerce and the latest digital innovations seizing the gap between the online and offline worlds, brands and retailers are now required to find inventive ways to best fit their customers desires, beliefs and lifestyles. Shopping in the real world has become an important leisure experience where consumers look for personalized experiences and value brands who treat them as individuals. How are you responding to this ever-changing environment and engaging your audience to consider and buy your products?

According to McKinsey research, up to 40% of shoppers change their minds in-store. Brands not only have to align all the elements of marketing communications, but also create a maximum impact through different touch-points across the consumer decision journey.

With the current economical downturn, price becomes a major factor to influence purchase decision. Brands can not rely on just giving away coupons; a real experience with your brand is a powerful way to bring new consumers into the fold, giving the opportunity for consumers to try your product, explain your brand benefits and start conversations.

A great example of ultimate customer experience are the Apple Retail Stores. Famously known for its customer-friendly environment, the intensive staff training can deliver a personal shopping service, demonstrating helpfulness in solving problems. The interactivity with displayed products also creates a unique experience for each individual consumer, which is very influential during the consumer decision journey, leading to immediate purchase or next time purchase consideration.

In our blog we discuss how experiential activities near or in-side retail are becoming catalyst for engaging consumers and influencing buying consideration. Hotcow’s award winning Honey Monster cereal campaign exemplifies this perfectly. We created a playful and engaging experience with product sampling in front of supermarkets, giving customers the chance to taste, trial and enjoy the product. We achieved a very high level of brand awareness and product sales increased up to 900% in retail locations, having continued to rise for up to 4 weeks after the activity.

Another great example is the experiential campaign for the Fairtrade ‘All Good Bananas’ in a supermarket in New Zealand. In order to persuade shoppers to purchase their products, they have used an audio-spotlight device, which could only be heard by one person at a time, making it the perfect tool for communicating their intimate message. When shoppers stepped onto the floor sticker, they could hear a message claiming to be the listener’s inner voice and subtly encouraging them to buy their products.

If you want to encourage shoppers to go in store and buy your products, a clear understanding of how people act and react to live brand experiences is critical in order to maximise the ROI achieved from your campaign. Interactive experiences with fun elements will always create a positive engagement with your brand, which will not only stimulate sales, but lead to a high level of conversion after initial purchase.

Check out our website for more of our thoughts on this subject.

With the economic downturn having a dramatic impact on consumer spending, brands have the challenge of balancing value for money offers with a greater emphasis on the consumer experience. Savvy consumers expect the ‘best of the best’ in every purchase, and are increasingly driven by the desire to be in control of branded activities.

The current Expectation Economy is pushing marketers to gain real insight into the way consumers behave in response to promotional activities. The overload of marketing information also makes consumers increasingly skeptical about traditional communications. Now more than ever, brands need to focus more on the customer experience if they want to increase consumers rates of brand satisfaction.

Due to the extra interactive and personalised offerings, experiential marketing is responding to this new consumer trend with the clever use of new technologies and a touch of emotional engagement. According to Trendwatching, consumers want to walk away from a brand experience feeling like they have been part of something cool, new, and interesting. They want to be seen as being in the know and discuss experiences with their friends.

As well as demonstrating your brand’s value with a real experience, the consumer insights you can gain from experiential activities are invaluable. Additionally, with a carefully considered plan and strategy, you can help your audience to understand your brand offerings and craft a coordinated, consistent response according to consumers expectations and needs.

Read our blog article Living in the Expectation Economy and let us know your thoughts.

Consumer segmentation consists of variables that can be easily identified through demographics, geographics and behavioural aspects. However, with the proliferation of consumer segments and declining effectiveness of traditional media, a clear understanding of how people are most likely to interact with your brand can increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and entice your consumers to make impulse purchases.

In order to leverage consumer brand choices and allocate your promotional efforts to best effect, mapping the consumer journey is paramount to understanding your consumers’ behaviour and how they connect with your brand. What makes your brand unique is positioning your product or service within the right groups and finding an ideal balance between satisfying consumers’ wants and achieving increased value through performing organisational functions more effectively.

When delivering a more personal brand experience that is in line with your customers preferences and lifestyles, experiential marketing can help you gain insight into how your consumers like to interact with your brand and focus on particular touchpoints that they will love and value. We can get consumers to understand your brand and product better by spending time with them.

In our blog we discuss how experiential activities can influence decisions and actions by implementing processes and technologies to extend the customer lifecycle, whilst focusing on retaining more customers in the long term. By selecting the relevant markets and engaging with your target consumers in two-way conversations about your brand offerings, we can help you create a highly effective customer experience for your selected audience, which can ultimately affect the memorability of your brand, as well as the frequency of purchases and new sales.

Read our blog post Consumer segmentation: How it affects your Experiential Marketing activity and tweet us your thoughts @Hotcow.

At Hotcow, we are constantly talking about how great experiences change emotions, actions and beliefs. When building a great brand, good products or services must be coupled with the delivery of positive experiences at every point of consumer interaction with your brand. However, moving your consumers towards advocacy it is not a simple task. In order to increase the chance of this occurrence and thus benefit from free marketing from these loyal consumers, a personalised experiential touch can be a highly beneficial strategy.

Experiential marketing goes a long way towards influencing consumer actions and decisions, bringing your brand message to life. In the highly technological market, with more savvy and connected consumers, it is vital to master the different stages of buying behaviour and to understand what works in the live environment in order to encourage consumers participation and to put your brand on top of mind. Subsequently, brands that create real experiences to consumers, using creativity and collaboration, can have the highest chances of standing out and generating great talkability around its actions.

The speed and effect of word of mouth communication is also greatly affected by the digital revolution. The implementation of Live Experiences, PR stunts and Guerrilla Marketing techniques, amplified by other media channels, can help get your brand noticed and create great online content and broad online conversations. Brands that actively work to create fantastic experiences are increasingly valued by consumers. As consumers are also empowered to instantly share their opinions on brands, it makes it all easy for brand advocates spread positive word of mouth regarding the personal value and benefits they draw from your brand.

In order to convert regular consumers to advocates, you must consider the level of engagement and awareness that your brand already has with your customers. You will need to ensure consistent and coordinated interactions, in order to build a positive experience and guarantee satisfaction and loyalty. With experiential marketing, unexpected experiences can help to develop a strong bond between your brand and consumers, facilitating the transition towards an active customer community. This subsequently encourages positive word of mouth within your brand advocate’s personal networks.

Read our blog post From regular consumer to brand advocate: How to move consumers through the ranks and check out our top tips to turn your consumers into brand advocates.

People are increasingly accessing information and connecting with each other through technological platforms. New technologies that can be used when people are on the move are of paramount significance for enhancing your brand’s interaction with consumers, especially when you are looking to achieve a ‘cool’ and a ‘wow’ factor. Using mobile initiatives to engage with your consumers can lead to improved sales figures and greater customer feedback. However, how can you strike the perfect balance between engagement, interactivity that all important usability factor?

In a world of ever evolving technologies, the desire to remain innovative and ahead of the latest trends has encouraged brands to implement mobile applications and online platforms more and more. Brands expect agencies to think outside the box and focus on things that matter – inspiring people to interact with and share your brand, through simplifying and encouraging various methods of participation.

In our blog, we discuss some great examples of mobile technologies offered by brands. From creative and useful mobile apps, to digital touch screens, to controlling a digital billboard with the swipe of your smartphone, there are endless opportunities of technological innovation. Consumers are savvy and they love the use of a cleverly integrated and interactive technology within a campaign.

The changes in human behaviour brought forth by new technologies are becoming even more personalised. Mobile devices are now an important element of interaction within experiential marketing, as this platform allows easy access to relevant information on demand, and is a fantastic mechanism for connecting digital with physical.

From an experiential standpoint, when consumers are able to experience products or services through a mobile platform, the measurement of brand perceptions and interactions can be evaluated in real time. By capturing this impact as it occurs, it is possible to understand the effect that your brand has upon consumers, allowing you to better analyse their emotional response and how it leads to purchase.

Mobile devices including phones, tablets and digital screens can offer endless interaction opportunities, on a more personal level. Furthermore, experiential techniques combined with mobile technologies can add more value to the consumer experience, whilst engaging them with exciting content that they will be eager to share with others.

What do you think? Read our blog post The Future is in Innovation and let us know your thoughts by tweeting us @Hotcow.

Peer-to-peer marketing has always been labelled as a great way of driving word of mouth about your brand through friends recommendations. The F-Factor trend acknowledges the ways that consumers are discovering new products, looking for ratings and reviews, and asking for validated feedback through social networks and experiences from their friends. Although this type of communication has a great impact on consumption decisions, the F-Factor only works if you have a great brand, great content and the right people using it.

Today, social media is driving a lot conversations about brands, as users are actively commenting on, and sharing information, purchases and experiences with their networks. Therefore, brands that are constantly engaging their fans and followers in positive discussions can lead and control the conversations, whilst simultaneously adding more value to the social experience.

From an experiential standpoint, if you want to develop genuine relationships with your consumers online, you need to provide real interactions with added value and personality.  Research by the Keller Fay Group has revealed that 94% of brand conversations come as a result of face-to-face conversations, whilst 6% of word-of-mouth conversations about brands occur online. In addition, the study has found that UK adults talk about brands 78 times per week, which translates into more than 3 million brand impressions via word-of-mouth every 7 days.

As we discuss in our blog, experiential marketing has a major impact on the F-Factor trend, as it can give people a meaningful brand experience and trigger positive word-of-mouth around your brand. It is all about making people ‘feel good’ by using experiential activities to showcase your brands personality and create meaningful two-way conversations with your consumers. When you show that your brand has the ‘feel good’ Factor with a personal experience, you are giving your consumers a reason to engage with your brand and ultimately share their experiences with others.

Read our blog post about the Feel-good trend and let us know how are you influencing friends, fans and followers on consumer purchasing decisions. We’d love to hear from you!