Experiential activations that prioritise social over ‘IRL’ experiences create purgatory, not pleasure

experiential activations

It’s a sunny weekend and I’m standing in a queue inside a Brooklyn warehouse. There are dozens of people around me…waiting. My boredom is palpable, closely followed by irritation and disbelief — compounded by the realisation that I will have to go through this repeatedly, should I wish to get value out of the experience.

You might assume that I am lining up for food at Smorgasburg in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but no, I am attending an (expensive) event known to be one of the many “Insta-worthy” experiential activations that pop up across New York City.

Don’t get me wrong, at the end of most queues there is a bit of pleasure – the fun and creative inspiration that the significant hype has promised. But once I reach that moment, I am briskly ushered through by zealous brand ambassadors trying to alleviate some of the congestion behind me.

During my 90 minutes at the event, I estimate that I experienced 10 or 15 minutes of “the good stuff.” So, less than 20% of my experience was enjoyable. As a marketer who creates and delivers live brand experiences, I felt short-changed.

Experiential activation missing the point

This experiential activation made me think, “When did the ‘IRL’ experience become a by-product of the pre-promotional hype, and when did this hype become the priority? When did the paying customer become less important than the social observer?”

The doomed Fyre Festival is a well-documented and unfortunate example of this, and it’s impossible to ignore the fall-out. Two anxiety-inducing documentaries have been produced, countless court cases remain unsettled, and numerous people’s lives have been turned upside down. All because an actual event failed despite a highly effective social media, influencer, and PR campaign. This is a prime and radical example of when a brand gets so wrapped up in selling an idea that they neglect the important process around its delivery.

Back to Brooklyn. At this warehouse event, all that seemed to matter was the ‘Instagramability’ that would make the event appear to be a roaring success to those “watching at home.”

But what about the people who did attend? Surely, if given the choice, most would have opted for 100% genuine enjoyment? For real-life moments of surprise, delight, and entertainment. The stuff that makes experiential marketing great versus a social performance that is all smoke and mirrors. I think consumers want and deserve both. Brands need to create dynamic social media moments and an enjoyable IRL experiential activation.

From my experience, there are seven key considerations involved in creating memorable moments on and offline to avoid IRL purgatory:

1) When social commentary is a key objective, consider what people will post during a bad IRL experience as much as how they’ll respond to your promotional posts.

2) At each stage of the event planning process, before finalizing decisions, keep in mind what the experience will be like for the attendees. Get non-biased advice on concepts and don’t be idealistic about whether something will work.

3) Keep the consumer journey front of mind and remember that it doesn’t end once an attendee posts a photo of your event. Momentum, entertainment, and service are all essential elements of an experiential activation. Think about how your event will keep delivering on these elements, even after it’s over.

4) Try to predict what may go awry and have a back-up plan. Then, have a back-up plan for that back-up plan. If queues become unruly despite your best efforts, bring out free drinks or snacks to keep consumers busy and happy.

5) Don’t have unrealistic expectations of your audience. Take my recent experience in Brooklyn, for example: if people are known to become impatient waiting in line for their morning coffee, why would an event be any different?

6) Don’t expend all of your creative energies and resources on the ‘big moments.’ Along with paying attention to day-of details, be sure to have a pre/post event strategy. Some of the ‘surprise and delight’ moments should happen during the lead up to or after an event to make the overall experience amazing.

7) Finally, learn from the masters: when in doubt, think about what Disney would do.

Sarah Priestman is president of Sense New Yorkexperienti

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Discover our latest guides to help brighten your brand experience strategy or amplify your retail marketing moves. Get them here at The Futures Lab.

London

5th Floor Century House
100 Oxford Street
London
W1D 1LN

New York

243 E 14th
#2 C/O SQ
New York
NY 10003

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Discover our latest guides to help brighten your brand experience strategy here at The Future Lab

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Experiential

Whether it be Festivals, Trade Shows, PR Stunts, Installations or Pop Ups to name a few, we believe brand experiences are one of the most powerful forms of marketing to impact consumer perception and attitude towards a brand. They can create real behaviour change when born out of a deep consumer insight allied to a compelling idea. And it’s these fundamentals we look to get right whatever the live, virtual or hybrid task in hand.

Sampling.

Sampling is all too often perceived as an unsophisticated, somewhat ‘blunt’ marketing tool. Over the last 16 years Sense has pioneered a set of strategic principles which underpin our unique approach to sampling and which are highly measurable from both an ROI and consumer behaviour change perspective. We will happily guide brands through the myriad of sampling channels and products available so whether it’s mass face to face sampling, in offices, digitally, at home or just a strategic framework that you are after, we can provide a blend of tactics to fulfil both brand and sales objectives.

Retail.

With many clients now focused on activating in channels more closely associated with a sale, our heavyweight retail experience closes the loop on a typical shopper journey by encompassing the moment of truth in store. Be it prize promotions, shopper toolkits, key visual creation, path-to-purchase communications, category strategy, B2B campaigns or Amazon optimisation, our goal is to create forward-thinking retail experiences that deliver demonstrable brand value. We aim to make ‘retail fail’ a thing of the past for ambitious brands looking to thrive is an ever-competitive landscape and believe our streamlined team is perfectly placed to do this.

Foresight.

Knowing what will keep a brand bright, exciting, and vital means we need to keep one step ahead of the curve. Our thought leadership hub, The Futures Lab, helps us to understand the marketing trends of tomorrow. It’s also the origin of strategies and methodologies which have created over 65 award-winning campaigns. 

Rigour.

Creativity is nothing without results. And we know that commissioning bold concepts, capable of changing minds, requires reassurance that it’s the right thing to do. 

Data, insights, and research precedes every campaign we do, and our proprietary measurement tool, EMR, gives us a decade of campaign performance metrics. Which is why we’re proud to have been recognised as industry-leading by brands like The Economist, Coca-Cola, and Molson Coors. 

Trust.

We believe brand experience is inherently more varied than other forms of marketing. No formula, no template, no cookie-cutter approach – and often no precedent. 

That’s why, Sense places trust at the heart of its business – grounded in teamwork between our people and yours. Our processes are efficient, our senior team stay involved and our partnership mentality had helped us sustain powerful client relationships, some lasting over 10 years.