Drawing on research recently uncovered by ‘Research Now,’ Marketing Week looked into the importance of ensuring customer experience is effectively integrated across all consumer touch points. Full article here

Cast from ice, The Melting Machine,  appeared on the street of Buenos Aires offering passers-by a perfectly cold drink on a hot day. Being truly Guerilla in leaving no visible traces behing, the machine melts to allow passers-by to take an ice cold can of 7Up. Certainly a nice little stunt in itself.  Where the extra cool element kicks in is taking the activity online to twitter, inviting consumers to guess what time they think the last can will be freed from its icy casing.

It’s not the most engaging full integrated brand experience we’ve seen but this approach is certainly a cost effective one with such small scale production involved. The lesson here is that experiential doesn’t have to have the largest budget to generate PR, reach, buzz and targeted consumer engagement across multiple platforms and channels. So my question to the fanatical ‘mass media’ investors is in what other channel can you garner such brand equity than with something as tangible and interactive as a real live brand experience?

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Celebrating their ‘Join Our Core’ competition, Ben & Jerry’s have teamed up with ‘Ashoka’ (global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs) and the brains behind some of the UK’s most influential and inspiring ethical companies. At last night’s ‘Food’ event – held at the Century Club, Soho, attendees had the pleasure of hearing from Jo Fairley (Green & Blacks), Renee Elliott (Planet Organic) and 2012 Ben and Jerry’s Join Our Core winner, Jenny Dawson (Rubies in the Rumble).

Sundae School is really for anyone interested in companies who are giving back; those ready to take that first step in business; those who have a fantastic business idea they want to take to the next level; or for anyone who just wants to be inspired by some of the nation’s best industry moo-vers to help realise their dream. Falling into the latter, though admitting to harbouring a budding food based business idea, I was keen to learn more and find out about business with a cause. So here’s a round up of the first in their trio is school school.

Upon arrival we were greeted by two ladies who ticked off our names on the door before showing us into the reception area – a bar lined up with an array of alcoholic and soft drinks and a enormous fridge fully stoked with an eye watering display of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Photographers circulated the room looking to take photos and interview willing attendees, putting on camera their thoughts of the event so far and what they were hoping to learn. Though due to begin at 7pm, it was long after 8 before we were seated in rows of black and white chairs to hear from our speakers. Not before we hadn’t all helped ourselves to the various delicious bite sized foods being offered around by waiters, and the assortment of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream too of course! So a very warm reception and start to the evening indeed.

With bums on seats, the first person to take to the stage was Rhodri Morgan, Senior Brand Manager for Ben & Jerry’s here in the UK. Painting a very colourful picture of the history behind Ben & Jerry’s – two boys who hated running but loved food – a captive audience learned of the reason behind the big chunks in the ice cream, ‘Ben had no sense of taste so relied on what he called ‘mouth feel’’, along with heritage of the progressive values the brand supports. And no we weren’t all requested to turn off our phones for the remainder of the evening. ‘Please do feel free to tweet as we go along – and remember to include #SundaeSchool’ was the request instead.

Though the brains behind the series of events, it was lovely to watch Ben & Jerry’s then take a step back on the night and allow other brands to shine.  Stepping back and introducing Sophie Heawood (journalist and panel chairman), we then moved on to the Q&A with guest speakers.

From left to right: Sophie, Jo, Renee and Jenny. Image copyright of Ben & Jerry’s ‘Sundae School’ ©

Jo Fairley, Green & Black's. Image copyright of Ben & Jerry’s ‘Sundae School’ ©

First up, Jo Fairley from Green & Blacks. A lively and engaging individual, Jo introduced us to the history behind the brand – her macrobiotic restauranteur husband being unable to serve up regular chocolate – along with her breakthrough moment; Sharon Osbourne coming up to her at Buckingham Palace and admitting she’s eaten a tub of Green & Black’s at 2am the other morning. Quote of the night ‘there’s plenty of time to slow down…when you’re dead’ seems typical of Jo’s no nonsense, get on with it attitude. A real inspiration!

Next, we’re introduced to Renee Elliott from Planet Organic – a highly passionate lady with a turbulent business background – she was left bankrupt and nearly sold out entirely in the businesses earlier years. Key advice from Renee was to ‘find the best financial person you can – you should be doing what you love about the business.’ Wise words indeed!

Jenny Dawson, Rubies in the Rubble. Image copyright of Ben & Jerry’s ‘Sundae School’ ©

Last, but not least, 2012 Join Our Core Winner Jenny Dawson takes a seat on stage, admitting that people thought she was ‘bonkers’ when she said she was going to make chutney and jam.  Built on the model that ‘as lovers of good food’ they couldn’t stomach the idea of the millions of tonnes of fresh fruits and vegetables going to waste, Rubies in the Rubble is a response to make an assortment of delicious, handmade chutneys and jams from surplus fruits and vegetables before hey get discarded. In terms of ethical business values, Jenny is an undeniable 10/10.

The most memorable sound bite from the Q&A that shortly followed was Jo Fairley’s response to a question on whether she had ever felt comprised to sell short her ethical values when scaling up. Jo vehemently denied ever having been in such a position and went further declaring Green & Black’s acquisition by Cadbury (Kraft) actually enabled these values to grow further within Cadburys existing portfolio of brands.  ‘Scaling up is not the enemy.’

So as the event draws to a close and we’re left to network  at leisure, I am left wondering as to whether this is an ‘intelligent brand experience’ and what benefit the event had been to Ben & Jerry’s brand.  But that’s a separate article altogether – which I’ll be concluding after the third and final event.

Until then, I’ll be contributing to Ben & Jerry’s core by tucking into a tub or two. Thanks for the coupons guys!

Part 2: ‘Digital’ Sundae School with Ben & Jerry’s due out Wednesday 15^th May

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Many brand choose to invest in most other channels before experiential gets even a sniff of the marketing budget. Working with Samantha Lyster (former Grocer Journalist) we provide some tangible insights and expert advice on how experiential can – and should – be used to encourage shoppers to add more of the good fresh produce to their baskets. Read the article below for all our top tips.

Don’t get me wrong, the annual Big Egg Hunt London always proves a success, but other than a savvy sponsorship from Lindt, this event is brand absent.

Granted, we have Tesco’s Easter Egg hunt which combines the unique interactivity of Google Street with Easter spirit in the Virtual Easter Egg Hunt and Thorntons rather bland Easter egg QR code campaign; It seems the geese who lays the golden eggs has truly left its UK nest.

There’s a distinct lack of experiential from the usual choc egg suspects here in the UK. Cadbury and Nestle I’m looking at you. Over in Madrid however, Milka recently installed some rather strange slides in subways.

The 15m slide near the Moncloa station in Madrid was designed to invite travels to discover the new product launch of Milka Lu and Milka Tuc.

Whilst sliding down, participants were invited to grab samples from brand ambassadors stationed either side, right down to the rather odd giant mascot awaiting them at the bottom.

It’s hardly the most innovative or exciting experiential campaign we’ve seen, but judging from the photos, the activity was certainly enjoyed by those who took part.

Next year, can we bring some of the theatre back to the UK please. It lessens the guilt when overindulging.

What a week the last one was– first it is revealed that Unilever is reappraising its in-store marketing as it considers that social media – a focus hitherto of its marketing spend – is not delivering ROI and now Simon Lloyd, the marketing director of Virgin Atlantic states that digital communication is no substitute for human connection.

There are probably no 2 brand marketing businesses I admire more than Unilever and Virgin. Both have their centre of gravity very much in the real world and have not allowed the cyber space to cloud their determination to put the customer at the heart of their marketing communications. To this end it is clear that it is the customer experience of engaging with the brand – seeing, feeling, touching, smelling (maybe in the case of Marmite) – that results in customers buying or coming back for more.

The Advertising Association insists on claiming that all forms of marketing communications are ‘advertising’ – therefore Paul Kitcatt, of Kitcatt Nohr Digitas fame, has a great way of differentiating advertising into 2 camps – there is ‘do Advertising’ and ‘do nothing advertising’.  Well the right human connection must be ‘do advertising’ as it not only moves the consumer to feel totally connected to the brand but also delivers the right incentive to ensure that they purchase (or go on to repurchase).

This kind of immersion marketing is the domain of the experiential agency as the creative output not only delivers the call to action that results in purchase but also creates an emotional connection to the brand. Ant and Dec say in Saturday Night Takeaway that you can win the ads, well when experiential works its best it is as if you are in the ads. TV and Cinema believe the experience is enhanced by seeing their content in 3D but as Simon Lloyd says there is no substitution for live human connection.

Unilever has significantly invested in social media, with brands such as Marmite, Sure and Lynx all promoted through Twitter in recent months. However, a well-placed source told Marketing that Unilever marketing teams are questioning the logic of shifting big budgets to social media, when the equivalent spent on in-store promotions can deliver an ROI up to 50% higher.

The source claimed that Unilever is likely to skew marketing spend toward in-store promotions on brands such as Timotei, Radox and Marmite at the expense of social-media campaigns, in search of better ROI.

Noting the above it strikes me as a complete U-turn from Unilever who have become famed for their ‘more magic less logic’ marketing approach. What they are looking to achieve however, cannot be done solely by aggressive digital marketing or purely with in store promotions. Unilever appear to desire an emotional connection that converts short and long-term sales. So what they need is a more intelligent approach that does both.

So imagine if we could create a live brand experience that gained this crucial emotional traction and drove sales through coupon redemptions in store. Imagine too if we could create both of these and include branded content for social media activity also at no extra cost?

As creators of intelligent brand experiences at The Lounge, our campaigns are designed to deliver high emotional traction with brands’ target audience whilst working to achieve strong tangible commercial objectives. It’s our integrated approach that ensures you achieve the greatest ROI from working this way.

By working with our own community of brands’ consumers we are uniquely placed to uncover that spark that will draw them to your brand, that gets them talking about your brand and that importantly encourages them to purchase your brand.

Our work with Havana Club for the Mint Revolution is an iconic industry example – the most awarded experiential campaign of 2012 we’ve been told – of this integrated approach working to achieve tangible results for the brand.

The Mint Revolution captured the attention of, and truly engaged not only Havana Clubs core audience, but also the trade and the media. We increased sales of Havana Club in participating bars by 100-120% during the campaign and by an average of 50% ongoing post campaign. The brand’s Facebook community increased by 105% in just 4 weeks – all organic without any paid-for media.

The media were engaged by the originality of the Mint Gardens and the revitalisation of corners of urban cities and campaign achieved extensive coverage in local media as well as national exposure in The Guardian.

So can you achieve both the emotional consumer connection and drive those sales? Absolutely. It’s about using a more intelligent integrated approach to a brand experience.  You can watch the ROI follow…

Unilever owned Magnum Pop Up Westfield Summer 2012. Magnum achieved unprecedented growth for the remainder of the year and in 2013 is now worth £0.8 Bn to Unilever. You could say that's the magic of experiential.

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Recent research indicates that consumers are increasingly welcoming simplicity in their daily lives, in turn meaning they are taking greater pleasure in simple values, transparency and freedom from choice. Here provides the foundations for why they are no longer fearful of missing out.

According to a recent survey by branding consultant Siegel + Gale, consumers are willing to pay an average premium of 5 percent to 6.5 percent for brands they believe offer a greater degree of simplicity (defined as ease of understanding, transparency, innovation, and usefulness of communications) over their competitors. So with consumers actively simplifying their lives, what’s the opportunity here for brands to best engage them experientially?

Here at The Lounge, we have the unique ability to tap into our network to best understand the drivers behind these trends for a key  target audience. This enables us to tailor our strategy specifically to most effectively engage a particular group of consumers.

Here are 2 of our best examples on how we most effectively engaged a key audience group in the age of simplicity by tapping into our network.

Our fine dining pop up restaurant with Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut, which toured the busiest shopping centres in the country last summer, catered for the ‘slowing down’ consumer. This audience were eager to enjoy eating breakfast at a table, driven out of a desire to make time for simple and traditional values. 100% of  our 22,000 visitors fed back positively on how much they enjoyed the experience ; appreciating the opportunity to really breakfast the treatment it deserves.  We’ve been saturated with messages telling us ‘you’re too busy’ so here’s a ‘grab and go’ product. The reality is the consumer would much rather sit and enjoy.  Simple, exactly what they were looking for.

The legacy of our Havana Club Mint Revolution, the most awarded experiential campaign of 2012, was founded on the very honest and earthy traditional values of Guerrilla Gardening. Switching off from the digital, disingenuous modern life and plugging into Mother Nature was a direct result of our insights into generation Y; they want to channel their energy into something more real. The Mint Revolution was a simple and honest nationwide crusade to stand up for the real and natural; values which are intrinsically linked with Havana Club brand. The simplicity here is both in a transparency of communications and in the experiential activity itself.

If you’re interested in learning how The Lounge can create an intelligent brand experience for you based on what we know about your target audience, do get in touch at eve.bottomley@theloungegroup.com

In the interim, don’t forget to KISS (keep it simple stupid)

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Encouraging us all to become our own editors in a very simple and easy to use app, Vine is deliberately set up to play without the typical play button. With the ability to seed to both Twitter and Facebook, the opportunity for brands to integrate this into their experiential marketing is vast.

Firstly it’s evident that the simplicity of the service enables brands to create engaging content wherever and whenever they choose.

Brands could use this to send out pre live experience teasers to create intrigue and encourage sign up to the brand experience.  An example of a campaign could include ‘what happens next?’ whereby consumers have to guess what the final piece of footage should be.

There’s the opportunity to run competitions both prior to the event and during the activation through footage captured. Clues on the location of a brand experience could be seeded out in advance, with consumers being tasked to guess where it is. Correct guesses could win a VIP ticket to the experience. This has the potential to generate mass awareness through all online channels in the build up to the activity and encourages conversation with your target audience.

Live footage can be captured at the experience by both brand and consumer; the former using this to drive higher footfall to the experience, the latter to share online both out of personal choice and with a reason to do so as encouraged by the brand.

The branded content provided by such a simple social sharing tool is a fantastic means of engaging your key audience at pre, during and post activation points. The simplicity of Vine ensures that your consumers can use the app as easily as your brand, enabling you both to communicate at exactly the same level.

So, the upshot? Your consumers feel even more connected and part of your brand world than ever.

Though in it’s infancy, here’s some examples of brands taking their first exciting steps.

We even created our first ever video this morning too! Check it out here.

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Lyle’s Golden Syrup has launched a crusade to reignite the nation’s love affair with pancakes. Fronted by the Fabulous Baker Brothers, The Save Our Pancakes push, has been met in response to some 50% of consumers planning to shun the tradition this year.

With 17% of Brits feeling it has become and overrated celebration, Lyle’s are hoping their campaign will reinforce just how quick and easy pancakes are to make and encourage families to sit down together this pancake day.

But has it hit the sweet spot?

That I only stumbled across this campaign by chance is perhaps the first issue. I would have expected more of a song and dance around the campaign and to have at least known about it before the afternoon on Pancake Day itself. The campaign should have come to us, the consumer, not us having to seek it out.

The possibilities could have been great. And relatively inexpensive too. Why not use the media friendly Fabulous Baker Brothers to create a pop up pancake hut featuring live demos and educate us ignorant lot on how to make the perfect batter for the perfect pancake. Apparently 1 in 10 of us have never even had a pancake! Teach us the art of pancake flipping and use as a competition to award the best. The perfect Pancake takeaway pack would be an ideal prize win to enable us to go home and perfect our new skills.

Digital content would be created during the experience as visitors pose for pictures mid pancake flip. A guerilla Pancake Day race could take over an area to astonish passers by promoting the Save Our Campaign Cause. Helpful handouts would be distributed at high footfall areas generate mass awareness in the build up to the big day.

Yet we experienced none of the above and are still in the dark on the Great British tradition of Pancake Making. Which really is a terrible shame as the website content is rather interesting with tips on how to flip your pancake in 3 easy steps and how to impress with gourmet recipes. For us ‘artisan’ bunch, there’s even a Sourdough pancake recipe for a thoroughly modern take on the tradition.

So let that be a lesson. Don’t expect your consumers to come to you. No matter how good your communications are when they get there. You may be very disappointed with the engagement if so!

To get behind the cause, and I think it needs it, hop on over to twitter to help #SaveOurPancakes

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