Check out which brands are making waves with experiential marketing. And maximises their sales in the process.

1. 32 | The Grocer | 3 December 2011 | www.thegrocer.co.uk
EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
ARE YOU
EXPERIENCED?
Truvia is just one of many brands trying to make a
splash using experiential marketing – often with a
tangible impact on sales, says Samantha Lyster

2. www.thegrocer.co.uk | 3 December 2011 | The Grocer | 33
W
ith a cocktail in one ing the conversations. Black cherry Jim
hand and an iPhone Beam brand extension Red Stag is lining
in the other, Adam
Stewart epitomises
Consumers up music-related events at O2 Academies
across the country next year after becom-
the new holy grail for are no longer ing the music venues’ official shot. And
marketers. He’s at St Aunt Bessie’s is planning a campaign
Paul’s Church in spectators. They around its recently launched Twitter feed
Birmingham, where Jameson Whiskey is
hosting a Halloween screening of Alfred demand to be that could see TV ad characters Margaret
and Mabel step from the screen into the
Hitchcock’s The Birds. All the while Stewart
is updating his followers on Twitter and
participants in real world for brand-building events.
The key to creating great brand experi-
Facebook. When the 24-year-old film buff
gets home he’ll blog about his experience
marketing ence is making sure it is relevant to the
target audience and extending its engage-
at the Jameson Cult Film Club.
The club is one of a growing number
campaigns ment by following up with more commu-
nication. The best experiential marketing
of experiential marketing campaigns uses live and online tactics, believes Chris
launched by food and drink brands. Next Cowman, head of experiential at Disrupt,
year, many more brands will target web- the creative brand experience and events
savvy consumers like Stewart through arm of marketing agency Reach.
innovative event and social media-led “Social media has been used by brands
campaigns – including Red Stag bourbon, to shape events with consumers contrib-
Häagen-Dazs ice cream and Aunt Bessie’s. uting to what they want the experience at
“Across the board food and drink brands the live event to be,” he says. “We see this
are expanding their campaigns into next synergy between live face-to-face events,
year, demonstrating the importance of digital and social media continuing and
event-led marketing,” confirms Chris believe it will begin to work harder for
Walsh, business development manager brands and retailers. Combining a deeper
at RPM, the marketing agency behind brand experience like an experiential live
Smirnoff’s Nightlife Exchange Project. event with this immediate, more direct
So has a tipping point been reached? sales tactic gives brands greater opportu-
And if so, how have brands resolved the nity to push shoppers from awareness, to
thorny issue of ROI – seen by many as low consideration and conversion.”
or impossible to measure and therefore the
main barrier to investment in the channel? Getting results
There is no doubt that the relatively low Of course, it’s about more than just cre-
cost of experiential marketing coupled ating a buzz online. It’s also about ROI
with the ease with which it allows brands and Sandwith feels that many of the old
to target younger consumers has made issues have now been addressed. “Things
it increasingly potent in the downturn. have changed quickly and significantly,”
Its rise has also dovetailed with that of he says. “Increasing client accountability,
social media. The hope is that consumers competition for budgets and a prolifera-
like Stewart will go on to rave about their tion of agencies entering the space have
experiences with their online friends and all played their role. The key questions of
become powerful brand advocates, says reach, impact and value can be answered
Sara Gil, strategy and insight director at accurately and quickly.”
marketing agency The Lounge Group. Using footfall data and dwell times to
“The world is changing because of social move beyond the traditional “opportu-
media – there is a hunger for content,” nities to see” data, as well as qualitative
she adds. “Smartphones have fuelled our research to understand the impact on
socialising any time, anywhere.” brand perceptions and consumer behav-
We also expect to be able to interact iour, brands can now robustly evaluate the
more directly with our favourite brands. impact of their campaigns across a broad
“Consumers are no longer passive specta- range of metrics, says Sandwith.
tors of marketing,” says Marcus Sandwith, “By accurately measuring the number
MD of Haygarth. “They now demand to be of consumers engaged and overlaying this
active participants in brand conversations with the impact on future versus previous
and campaigns.” propensity to purchase, we are able to use
More and more brands are now start- average customer values, weight of 34

3. 34 | The Grocer | 3 December 2011 | www.thegrocer.co.uk
EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
TRUVIA – A
VOYAGE OF
DISCOVERY
In July madcap experiential
markets and jelly sculptors
Bompas & Parr flooded
Selfridges’ roof with
emerald green water to
create a boating lake,
complete with a gushing
waterfall. The idea behind
the lake, which customers
could row around on in one
of 12 boats while munching
sweetened strawberries,
was to introduce the public
to American sweetener
Truvia, which is made from
the green stevia plant.
Elizabeth Fay, Truvia Europe’s
head of external relations
and communications, says
the event exceeded
expectations and that it is
looking to do more activity
in the new year.
33 purchase and margin data to produce we’ve created an opportunity to influence This summer, Maxxium UK elected to
an ROI over set periods of time,” he adds. consumer perceptions of the brand.” use party organisers End of the World and
The brands certainly believe they are With good campaigns, the sales spike is Underground Rebel Bingo to promote its
generating tangible ROIs. RPM claims that not necessarily temporary either. Havana new Red Stag brand, launched in May. By
Smirnoff spirit sales more than quadru- Club’s Mint Revolution – a campaign in hosting events that would pinpoint the
pled when its Nightlife Exchange Project which an app directed drinkers to pop-up right drinkers, Red Stag reached 50,000
– a scheme in which 12 countries swapped ‘mint field’ gardens complete with Boom consumers directly and built a following
their top clubbing nights with each other Bikes (bike/wheelbarrow/music decks con- through word of mouth. It also made it
– brought a Miami pool party and rap act traptions) to sample a Havana Club mojito on to the shelves of all of the big four and
N.E.R.D amongst others to London venue – yielded a 120% sales boost at participat- smashed initial expectations of achieving
Troxy in November 2010. ing bars. More importantly, Havana Club listings in 500 stores – it’s now in 1,350.
Pernod Ricard claims The Jameson Cult sales have remained up 50% since the cam- It wanted to put the limited resources
Film Club nights not only created great paign, says The Lounge Group, the agency available to smarter use, says Maxxium
theatre, providing plenty of photo oppor- behind the campaign. marketing controller Eileen Livingston. As
tunities and entertainment for people to Such results are prompting some to well as teaming up with the O2 Academies,
fill their social network pages with, they eschew the traditional advertising route. Red Stag shunned TV, choosing instead to
also contributed to a 7.1% rise in values show its commercial online through Chan-
sales and a 4.9% hike in volume through nel 4’s 4 On Demand website. “We’re a new
the grocery channel in the past year. launch and so we had to optimise our mar-
Patrick Venning, head of UK marketing The event has to suit keting budget,” says Livingston. “Research
at Pernod Ricard, says it’s the most suc-
cessful experiential campaign the com- the brand. People need suggests our target market is watching TV
through on-demand services.”
pany has ever run. “We’ve seen increases
in sales in areas where the events have run to be emotionally More established brands may prefer a
more integrated approach. Indeed, says
and among consumers who have attended.
Critically, the activity has shifted consum-
involved because if it Sandwith: “Experiential campaigns are
best used as part of, or at the heart of, a
ers’ attitudes and driven new consumers
to the brand. Through targeting cult film
goes well it's just like a fully integrated campaign – providing
an opportunity for consumers to engage
fans, rather than simply Jameson fans, mass press trip with and influence events and for media

4. www.thegrocer.co.uk | 3 December 2011 | The Grocer | 35
to amplify the campaign through bought
and earned media coverage.”
He cites the recent Febreze Breathe
THE EXPERIENCE COMES TO LIFE
Happy Experiment, in which real people
were led blindfolded into situations (dirty COURVOISIER’S DICKENS
kitchens, rooms in which dogs had been PUNCH TOUR
kept, etc) and asked what they could smell. Courvoisier attributes its market share growth
Because the rooms had been sprayed with (last year it had 57% of the brandy market – this
Febreze, the response was consistently year it’s 65%) to its experiential-led push that
positive. “Total footfall was over 700,000 put punch at the heart of its marketing tactics.
with huge reach achieved through social Last year, it launched the Dickens Punch Tour,
media and the press,” he says, adding that which has been brought back for a second run
the event resulted in a 37% increase in the on a larger scale this December. The ticketed
consumer’s propensity to buy Febreze. event involves an interactive hour-long walking
Another example of this approach can tour of Dickensian London, culminating in drinks
be found in this summer’s Häagen-Dazs at Courvoisier’s very own Old Curiosity Shop.
mini-cups campaign, an integrated press
and events initiative co-developed by
Shaz Smilansky, co-founder of market- G – BRING OUT YOUR INNER
ing agency Blazinsta. At events such as ROCK STAR
The Clothes Show and Goodwood Vintage This May, the chocolate dessert brand installed
Fair, Häagen-Dazs photographed women an oversized drum kit (an interactive poster) just
whom they considered had perfect taste. off Tottenham Court Road in London for a day
The nation can now vote for their most and invited the public to play it. It filmed people
stylish women on Facebook. “auditioning” and uploaded the content to
YouTube with the aim of getting the participants
Emotional involvement to encourage their social networks to view the
The cost of such campaigns can vary footage. The person with the most views was
wildly, of course. Sam Bompas – one half of then rewarded with a £200 Virgin Experience
oddball experiential marketing duo Bom- voucher.
pas & Parr – says the cost of a live experi-
ence starts at about £20,000 but really it
depends on how much the brand is willing MO T’S FIREWORKS HIT
to spend. In July, Bompas & Parr flooded MANCHESTER
the roof of Selfridges to create a ‘voyage of Last November, Mo t & Chandon partnered
discovery’ for the US sweetener Truvio as with Manchester City Council to put on a huge
part of a £5m campaign that included press fireworks display during the switching on of the
ads. Red Stag, meanwhile, has forked out city centre’s Christmas lights. As part of this
£1m on its marketing. activity, a Mo t branded light show was beamed
But Bompas sounds a note of caution. onto Manchester Town Hall. The show was
“The event has to suit the brand’s person- broadcast on regional television and video
ality otherwise it will not connect with footage of the Mo t content was uploaded to
the consumer,” he says. “You want people YouTube and Facebook by members of the
to be emotionally involved in the experi- public.
ence because if it goes well, then it is just
like organising a mass press trip.” If the
event turns out to be a damp squib, nega- RED STAG – BOURBON BINGO
tive blogs, tweets and other online feed- Red Stag, made with four-year-old Jim Beam
back could easily damage a brand. If it’s bourbon whiskey and infused with a natural
a success it will yield incredibly valuable black cherry flavour, partnered with a series of
returns – positive word of mouth. cult party organisers over the summer, notably
As Stewart blogged: “The Jameson cock- Underground Rebel Bingo. The bourbon was
tails were lovely. I enjoyed the complete served at the nights from chilled shot machines
production Jameson put on as well as the in branded glassware and Rebel Bingo players
film itself. I would thoroughly recommend were offered the chance to win Red Stag prizes.
others to attend a Cult Film Club night.” It was supported with a social media campaign
Now that’s the sort of feedback money on both the Red Stag and The Underground
can’t buy. Rebel Bingo Club Facebook and Twitter pages.