Last week, several “Switchers” flew out to The City By The Bay to attend Event Marketer’s Experiential Marketing Summit. With keynote speakers from Bacardi and Target, the annual conference drew in about 1,500 eager marketers. So what did Switch take from the event? Any new trends? Exciting advances in technology? Cool swag? We asked Switch attendees to each contribute a takeaway.
Nicole Phillips, V.P. – Account Management + Business Development
Two words (one hyphenated) … Human-powered helicopter. Crazy, right? Like something out of a cartoon? Maybe. Impossible? Not at all.
At Switch, we are often asked how to pull off what seems impossible. How do we do it? The same way Cameron Robertson and Todd Reichert, builders of the first human-powered helicopter, did it. We create a plan. We determine that plan needs some changes. We put together a team. We subtract, we add. We break stuff. We build stuff. We crash. We burn. We conquer. And we liberate. Together. As a team.
Our team looks a little different than that at most agencies. Authors, artists, strategists and builders. That team is the key to bringing the impossible into reality. Check out how Cameron and Todd’s team did it in the video above. And check out how the Switch team does it.
John Roth, Account Executive:
Most of what I saw felt like a sales pitch for data-capturing technology or social media content. There are so many versions of the same thing out there from so many brands, it was rare when a speech felt like a genuine “best practices” case study.
Of the speakers that I saw, the presenters for the Zappos’ #TravelHappy activation really did a nice job explaining what they did, why they did it and how your brand could do it too. And that’s what I think people want to see at these types of events; we don’t want to hear someone brag about having a bazillion dollar budget so they pretty much did whatever they wanted. Show us how difficult it was to pull of your activation and what you had to do to succeed. What made it successful? Don’t just try and sell us on your particular product.
Chris Jobst, Business Development Manager
I wasn’t surprised to learn that experiential marketing is alive and well, helping boost brand interactions for companies small and large. While music festivals and large-scale events are the norm for these types of activations, we at EMS were reminded that it can happen anywhere and at any time … from college campuses to airports.
It was also very interesting to see that even though it seems every big brand is activating, very few are collecting data – or if they are collecting data, they’re not doing anything with it. Questions about data came up a few times with no definitive answer.
Josh Kell, Executive Creative Director
The age old question: If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it still make a sound? (The answer is yes, obviously, as sound is simply vibrations that would be created whether or not there is a human ear to pick them up.) But that same question can be asked of experiential events: If an event takes place and no one outside of that event knows about it, did it really matter? Simply creating a great experience or event isn’t enough anymore. They should be shared with the world. Those activations are limited to a small number of people who actually get to attend and experience them in person. But amplification of what you have done becomes an awareness tool that allows you to reach more consumers than the event was able to on its own. It further communicates and solidifies what the brand is all about, building greater affinity for the brand. So whether it’s a PR push, sharing a video on YouTube, using event footage for broadcast and pre-roll spots, or promoting and sharing the experience on social channels, the activation isn’t truly a success until the world knows about it.
As an example, Mattel was at EMS to present about a recent activation in a mall. They created a stunt to surprised random passersby with the chance to play Pictionary with someone who appeared to be a model in a digital out-of-home (DOOH) ad in the mall. But the real value came from the video that was created and released online to share that experience with the world. Check it out below. And try to hold back a smile.
Terry Hobbs, Sr. V.P. of Production Operations
Overall, EMS reaffirmed what I already knew: clients have more money today than in the past several years. Above-the-line and Below-the-line agencies are co-mingling more than ever, with the latter developing strategy for above-the-line agencies. Data collection and research is growing rapidly, playing into the rise of social media integration. CPG brands are ramping up their sampling and face-to-face interactions with their consumers – focusing on creating experiences, not just distributing product.
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