Report Targeting and the personalisation of communications have underpinned many marketing strategies in recent years. Data shows, however, that the consumers of the future will not demand more content, but better and more holistic brand experiences Words: Fred Attewill T he huge mass of consumer data that is now readily available to marketers can radically change companies strategies for consumer engagement. However, using technology simply to create and share more content more widely is to misunderstandthe fundamental realignment that is happening across all consumer-focused sectors. The traditional model of using ad campaigns as a primary tool of marketing communications is being overtaken by experiential marketing. At the same time, many consumers and particularly younger ones are rejecting materialism in favour of a broader perspective. KPMG global research, for example, reveals 78 per cent of millennials prefer to pay for experiences rather than products. As home to the majority of the worldsmillennials, this shift is arguably more crucial for Asias marketers than for those in any other region. Chris Dobson, a Hong Kong-based managing consultant at experience design consultancy The Labs, is blunt on what he sees as the failure of many firms to create marketing strategiesthat reflect this new reality. You still see people trying to do what theyve always done, but in a slightly different way, he says. We need to fundamentally rethink our approach to marketing and branding. Before, there was a mentality thatif you push out enough content youll create engagement. Now, the model has been turned on its head, and brands are creating real one-to-one engagement and then giving consumers the opportunity to share it. Its no longer about creating more content, or even more targeted content because people will just zone out. The biggest opportunity is creating smart experiences that people talkabout. Remember people trust people. If one of your friends says theyve been to a sportswear store and they were able to run a couple of laps to test a pair of trainers, thats a far more compelling way to drivetraffic to the store than branded content. Beyond frictionless retail Dobson cites retail as one of the sectors at the cutting edge of experiential marketing. He points to HMVs store in Central, Hong Kong, as a prime example of how atired brand can transform bricks and mortar spaces from an old-fashioned rack em and stack em store into a showcase of culture and a live entertainment hub. If you think back to high-street record stores 40 years ago, they were community gathering places. It was all about being part of the culture of music. People would go and get their record and then sit in those little listening booths and congregate, Dobson says. But, over time, it became very transactionary. Shoppers would grab a couple of CDs and make a quick purchase. This was overtaken rapidly by what was available online. Go to HMV in Hong Kong now and theyve reconnected with that idea of music and lifestyle. You can buy iconic vintage scooters such as Lambrettas and Vespas there, and theyve got a music venue on the top floor where they hold gigs, meet the band events and record signings. The wholething has become this experiential hub. In effect, the return to a more rounded in-store experience has been re-established as a reaction to the advent of frictionless retail. Dobson draws a distinction between online as an efficient facilitator for products, whereas contemporary in-store experiences are better suited to facilitating engagement and excitement, and encouraging people to spend time witha brand. Its a concept that was crystallised in a recent paper by marketing guru Joe Pine, author of theThe Experience Economyand evangelist for the need for memorable experiences. Providing a compelling or memorable physical experience is a different strategy that canwork, Pine wrote in December. Physical retailers must choose between timewell-saved and time-well-spent strategies. Collaborating to build affinity The challenge, therefore, is how to design, sell and deliver experiences that generate brand affinity and revenue. This will invariably involve disparate partsof a business, such as the brand marketing team, the retail department and digital. Successful companies must learn to develop collaborative models that overcome internal barriers. Dobson argues thisis where new companies, often founded by millennials, have a distinct advantage. Its why SMEs and start-ups are changing the game. Theyve got that nimbleness, they are born like that. They are unencumbered by that kind of siloedheritage, he says. Established companies that have proved adept at thriving in this new environment are those who have a decentralised and proactive management structure. Nikes awardwinning Unlimited Stadium experiential campaign in Manila saw the sportswear giant build a 200-metre running track that mimicked the shape of a footprint. Runners raced their own avatars displayed on a continuous wall of giant tracksideLED screens setting the pace of earlier laps. The experience was topped off by a pop-up retail store. It wasjust a really clever way of building affinity with the brand giving people something memorable, something they will cherish, particularly among millennials who will spend money on experiencesover products. The experience is the market, says Dobson. What Nike does so well is not making the whole thing about their shoes; itsabout making you a better runner; its about consumer enablement. Dobson also highlights Nikes determination to connect with its target audience by using highly focused specialists. In China, for example, it hires staff who play the sport for which the marketing department is promoting products. This reinforces the brands identity of grassroots participation and authenticity. Youve got to know what your place in the world is and have a purpose why you exist, what your proposition is. The narrativecan move and change from a campaign point of view. The new form of integration is having that proposition, that experience, at the heart of what the brand is, and using the marketing narrative in support of that. Buying from a virtual platform For brands that traditionally have been wedded to physical showrooms to sell products, there is huge potential to digitise their platforms. One eye-opening recent example comesfrom car manufacturer Maserati. It set up a virtual showroom on Tmall, Alibabas market-leading business-to-consumer e-commerce site, for Chinas annual Singles Day retail extravaganza. The event offered 100 high-end sports cars in a unique promotion. What was amazing wasthat they sold those 100 Maseratis in only 18 seconds, says Anson Bailey, head of consumer and retail at KPMG in Hong Kong. There E-commerce is already was a discount, yes, absolutely, but can you imagine a defining consumer few years ago saying youd bought a premium sports expectations car on a virtual platform?People would look at you and think you were crazy. Now, youve got some really l 50 per cent of Asian marketers feelinteresting innovation, brand experiences help and that is affecting the way we buy, the way we sell, and the way we behave. increase sales l 47 per cent agree it builds loyalty Other brands are moving in the opposite direction to marry the best of on- and l 44 per cent appreciate it for the ability offline platforms, to narrowly target and an maximise both service and convenience for the consumer. Hong Kong fashion e-commerce start-up Grana has opened abricks-and-mortar flagship audience l 40 per cent feel it creates a memorable store,experience known as Fitting Room, in the citys arty Sheung Wan district. This has helped forthe important audiences to build brand awareness and overcome a key disadvantage to buying clothes online l One in three companies expects tonot allocate between 21 try per them cent on. Customers can orderitems using in-store terminals, and being able to and 50 per cent of overall marketing budget to brand experience purchases can be delivered to their home or the store for collection. l The top three tactics used to drive brand experience are Play the role of customer social media (50 per cent), website (46 per cent) and sensory Whatever the platform, it is imperative not to lose sight of a businesss core focus l 31 per cent of Asian companies arenow virtual reality (VR) McKelvey, managing partner of Hong Kong e-commerce theusing consumer. Carson to aid their experiential marketing solutionscompany Tofugear, stresses that marketers should always think from a customers perspective. Source: 2017 Freeman Global Brand Experience Study. Sign up for your own companys loyalty programme. Immerse yourself in your brand. It may sound a bit mundane, especially if you are the architect of these processes, but if you really wantto know what its like for a customer, you need to actually play the role as a real customer, he says. I think it goes without saying that the power of thinking like a customer, in an industry that has become saturated with business processes, systems, channels andplatforms, gives one a real competitive advantage. However, putting the customer atthe centre of the business isnt just a gimmick, its what the retail business should be allabout. Those focused on consumers needs and experiences can then take advantage of the latest advances to tailor their offer still further. Proximity marketing based on beacon technology now allows stores to communicate with customers smartphones via Bluetooth, offering personalised discounts, rewards and recommendations, and even helping confused shoppers navigate through the store. Retailers can also gain valuabledata by tracking shopping habits and preferences. interaction (42 per cent) Foregrounding authenticity Retail is not the only sector at the forefront of experiential marketing and data. Hospitality, too, is leading the race to engage meaningfully with consumers both on- and offline. Much like leading e-commerce retailers desire to project their brand by opening physical hubs, many campaigns launched by innovative hospitality names are not focused on boosting specific KPIs, but are aimed at enhancing image and reach among certain target audiences. Media agency Golin was the creative lead in Asia charged with making hotel chain Hyatts World of Understanding campaign relevant for the regional market. To do this, Hyatt took a back seat and used local social media influencers to engage with potential consumers to create an authentic message about the places its hotels were located. Erin Hung, content marketing specialist at the agency in Hong Kong, says it was her aim to unearth the human truth that would guide the campaign narrative and reverberate with consumers own experiences of travel and leisure. At its heart was a series of short videos, made in Asia, and with a localised message full of the sights, sounds and stories unique to the region. Its about finding what the truth is here, rather than saying this is the truth I want to assign to this particular campaign, says Hung. The research phase of a campaign should always be the one you dedicate the most time to. Then you can have a solid base from which to draw data. Nothing replaces on-the-ground knowledge and general observation of what people are saying. Golin took influencers from three contrasting Asia-Pacific markets Australia, China and Japan to explore new Hyatt destinations in the region. The experiences of the influencers were the basis for a series of mini movies, each two minutes long and shown on Hyatts YouTube channel. One video showed a Japanese social media influencer immersing herself in Hong Kongs legendary food culture with the help of a Hyatt chef, and diving into the citys teeming wet markets. Hung describes the process as a moment of discovery: We only had two days to shoot each of the four films. To some extent, you can map out the film schedule, location, the people the influencer will meet, and certain scenarios, but, when the moment arrived in which she had to explore the market and cook the dish, it suddenly became very real. The understanding that came from the experience was tangible. We had the influencer dress in chefs clothing, and the moment she was in front of the wok, with the flames jumping and dancing as she was preparing and seasoning the ingredients, it was really intense. The heat of the wok was real, the fact it was a new experience was real, and the fact she was learning on the spot was real. You cant stage that. Its about finding what the truth is here, rather than saying this is the truth I want to assign to this particular campaign erin hung, manager, social and digital, golin Closing the loop For Hung, one of the key successes of the campaign is that it is only tangentially about Hyatt the influencers own experience took centre stage. But, while that might underpin a sense of authenticity that resonates with an audience, where does it leave Hyatts own brand investment? Hung stresses that the creative is only one aspect of the campaign. The marketing team was also constantly tuned to the feedback gleaned from social media as the movies were shared. If youre doing a consumer activation on the ground, or if youre doing a social media campaign, or a big digital media buy on Google, pay-per-click, or programmatic, once everything is activated, you should also be collecting the data on the performance of all those elements, to make sure you are tracking toward your goals, too, she says. Hungs team is currently analysing how well the videos performed on a host of platforms, including Weibo and Facebook. The data might already suggest the campaign has delivered for all parties, but she also adds a note of caution. Were getting to the point where we can be enslaved by the data, she says. But, we always need to be informed by the data. We need to use it as a tool. Here, the interplay between experience and data forms a continual loop rather like Nikes footprint running track. The experience produces the data, and that data hones the experience. And the key operator, throughout, is the consumer. The days of brands simply being broadcasters of sales and marketing messages are numbered. cim.co.uk/exchange The speed read The future of consumer engagement may lie in smart experiences, not branded content Todays successful bricks-andmortar retailers are prioritising experience over producte Start-ups have shown how collaborative organisational structures can benefit marketing A strong brand purpose foregrounds consumer enablement and affinity from which revenue follows Always measure to ensure your marketing is meeting consumer needs and business goals