Tell a good story, and make it authentic
While brand experiences have grown in scope, scale, sophistication and
effectiveness in recent years, there are a host of new issues and
challenges marketers must understand and manage to take these
experiences to the next level and to make them meaningful to—you guessed
it—millennials.
Fred Porro
Consumers, particularly influential millennials, have a constantly
changing set of habits, interests and concerns. Brands need to be quick
on their feet and work hard to entice, entertain and captivate consumers
to provide highly engaged and unforgettable experiences they crave and
want to share with peers. For millennials and their younger brothers and
sisters in Gen Z, if they can't create or take part in the content, comment on it and share all on their terms, well, it's not content.
Here's a shortlist of the most important things marketers need to know
right now as they confront the future of brand experiences.
Quality over quantity: Millennial influencers are more
skeptical and critical of brands and the messages they receive from
them, placing more trust in their peers and those they respect. This
means brands need to invest more in higher-quality experiences which
speak to fewer but more influential people.
That approach will create experiences that organically become their own
online influencer strategies. We'll see brand experiences begin to drop
forced-sharing elements, such as the photo booth, in favor of exclusive
experiences such as the hugely successful Departure Roulette campaign from Heineken. Brands will increasingly influence the few as a way to connect to the many.
Deeper immersion: To supplement this influencer
strategy, we'll see a rise in clever, unique tech experiences in the
form of multi-sensory 2.0. This new stage will fuse physical sensations
with creative technology to build unique brand experiences for
consumers, both out and about and at home. Content filmed at events will
become even more immersive thanks to 360-degree video, supplemented by
Facebook and YouTube launching their own 360 video players.
Virtual reality
at home will become affordable for the mass market as sales of new
consumer headsets from Samsung Gear VR, Oculus, Sony, HTC and Merge VR
reach an expected 24 million units by 2018. This expansion of VR will
mean that huge swaths of consumers will be able to enjoy a brand
experience virtually, before, during and after the main event.
Rise of second screens in live experiences: While some
brands have built brilliant physical experiences, most have not fully
tapped into the power of engaging consumers through their mobile devices
during live events.
The coming year will see much greater focus from brands on ways to get
consumers to share opinions and content on social media at live events
in the same way they now do at home.
Examples include Formula E enabling fans to vote for their favorite
driver to receive an extra boost of speed during a race, and certain
stadiums that allow NFL fans to access exclusive replays during the
game. As more cities and venues improve their connectivity through
improved Wi-Fi and mobile signals, consumers will move away from a
spectator-only position toward becoming more active participants.
Social responsibility: It's not new, but it will play a
more critical role in successful brand experiences. Consumers,
particularly millennials, are more informed than ever on social issues
such as obesity, gender, sexuality and equality. Brands need to be
increasingly conscious of and sensitive to these issues when planning
experiences.
Measuring advocacy: With the growing influence of
experiences, especially via word of mouth and social media, the success
of physical engagement can no longer be measured in terms of direct
interactions and linked uplifts in sales alone. Brands should consider
other effective ways of measuring success, perhaps including a move
toward looking more at advocacy by focusing on metrics such as Net
Promoter Score and its positive shift thanks to experiences.
Make it authentic: Finally, this audience doesn't want
to be marketed to; they want to connect with brands on their own terms.
To be successful, brands need to think about how they can complement
millennials' habits, passions and lifestyle attributes.Engaging them
through a storytelling-led approach will help ensure a brand's
personality shines authentically while building a foundation for an
emotional connection.
Millennial consumers value experiences above all else. Moving forward,
brand activations will continue to become more effective through the use
of smart, creative technology and ongoing keen insights into the
attitudes of consumers and opinions they trust the most.
And if you don't give it to them, they might just go out and create it for themselves. They are millennials after all.
Originally Posted At Adweek.com
