Storm Tussey

Summer is one of my favorite times of year- it is when Brands go full force into experiential marketing- ie: attempting to connect customers with their brands in a personally relevant and memorable way. It’s a truly great way to promote a new product or line while engaging with customers or wooing new customers.

As a student, I was often the Brand Rep or Advocate on the ground. As an early graduate, I spent my time managing multiple experiential campaigns and working with PR and Sales teams on logistics. As a Brand Manager, I have spent quite a bit of time crunching numbers and looking at attendees to find the best tours or events that would entice my “core demographic”. As such, I am always very aware of the brands that show up at events I attend.

This week was a great week for me to check out some brand work first hand. I got to see three brands interacting with customers or future customers at events that I was very excited to attend. One brand did a great job, One brand did an ok job and one struck out harder than a Yankee at Fenway park.

This weekend, Boston hosted an Extreme Sailing event on the harbor front. There I ran across Mrs. Myers Clean Day. Let me preface this by saying: I already use and LOVE Mrs. Myers products and I was beyond excited to see them and receive some coupons for their products. However, what they did really well was hire friendly people that were educated on the products, knew about new products and cared about the environment and when I told them I was already a fan, they handed me more samples, additional coupons, and gave me a sincere “Thank you for choosing us”. Score for me & for them- I will continue to use their products and I’m sure they persuaded some of the attendees to give them a try.

The second brand I ran across was Red Bull. It made sense that they had a boat in the extreme Sailing event. Everything they do is a bit extreme. Their boat was amazing and their team exceptionally skilled. However, I was disappointed by the lack of outer presence at the events. There were banners, tents, etc but I didn’t come across one person who was a brand rep and couldn’t find a Red Bull to drink anywhere on site. #Fail.

The third brand did so many things poorly that I actually wanted to sit down with their reps and ask them, What were you thinking?

It all began Wednesday morning, when I received an awesome email from one of my favorite Boston sites- Mysecretboston.com. They advised me that I won VIP tickets from Lands End to the Matt & Kim contest at the House of Blues. Whoo Hoo! I received an email that was branded Lands End Canvas and gave me all the details on the event, Awesome. But wait, why didn’t it mention my favorite Boston site. They don’t get any credit or love? Hmmm, Fail #1.

We arrive at the event and are beyond excited. We walk in and are given our very special VIP passes and then told we could go get our picture taken at the Step & Repeat. Yes, please. Why wouldn’t we want to capture this VIP moment at the Matt & Kim show? But wait, the Step & Repeat only mentions Lands End. Um, where is House of Blues mentioned? Where is Matt & Kim mentioned? Why do I care about a pic of me & my betrothed in front of just a Lands End step & repeat? Won’t my friends just think I took this picture at Sears? Fail #2.

We then were led in to a Sound Check session with Matt & Kim. They did a fun sound check, talked with the 15 people watching and then came down for some Q & A’s, signatures, and photo ops. Sweet! I’m a big fan of Matt & Kim but after meeting them and experiencing their brand of quirky but charming charisma. I am officially obsessed and have a bit of a girl crush on Kim. Win #1 for experience. Fail #3 for the brand- No one mentioned Lands End & the photo op was just in front of the stage.

After the sound check, we were led upstairs to the Foundation Room in the House of Blues. Amazing décor and ambiance! We were then treated to some hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and a Canvas goodie bag. The food & drink were delicious and the canvas goodie bag started out great. It was a quality canvas bag- what you would expect from a Lands End Canvas event. However, that’s about where the quality stopped. Inside the bag was a poster for Lands End Canvas- um, ok what am I supposed to do with this? It also included 2 catalogs- Awesome! Something I can look at while I munch on my food and sip my drink, but wait it’s the same catalog. Nothing for me to keep to remember that this was for a Matt & Kim show or held at the house of blues or really anything I couldn’t pick up online or at Sears. Fail #4.

Finally, the show starts and we are beyond excited to see Matt & Kim live. If you haven’t had a chance, you should see them. They put on an amazing show. So, we go down to figure out where the Lands End area is and wait…there is no Lands End area. WHAT? What is my VIP if I don’t get to hang out with the other 13 people attending the show from Lands End? How do I bond and create an amazing memory and owe it all to Lands End? So, instead we stand at the back of the club, near the bar, watching the show. Fail #5.

Lastly, as I watch the show and do some people watching I noticed something very important. The people attending the Matt & Kim show were mostly college students in hipster wear. Yep, they were your typical skinny jean, mustache hat, scuffed up Chuck wearing hipsters. If they weren’t hipsters, they were indie types. Not one person at the show- outside of myself & my betrothed- would be caught dead wearing Lands End. In addition, Lands End had a banner near the bar and as people walked by; most made fun of the attractive couple on the banner or talked about the female model’s sunglasses. This wasn’t a great way to woo people to your brand but wait it gets worse…there wasn’t a URL, Not a QR code, Not a Facebook link, nothing. No single action. If they did dig the sunglasses, how do they know where to go? Fail # 6 & #7.

As we left the show, we were very pleased with the performance of Matt & Kim and really were thankful for the awesome tickets from Lands End & My Secret Boston but were definitely disappointed by the so called VIP treatment. It may be because I’ve done at least 50 of these events for brands that I’ve worked with or managed but Lands End didn’t impress me and definitely didn’t convert me to a buyer.

So, here are my tips to make an experiential event brand relevant & memorable.

Tip 1: If you utilize Step & Repeat for a photo op- Be sure to show what the event is and not just your brand. If people are going to share it with their friends, they want it to be cool or seem exclusive- not something that could happen at the mall.

Tip 2: If you are doing a show with an “Artist” or “Band” be sure to try and incorporate their content with your event. If you can’t incorporate their content- At least make sure the photo Op is in front of something about your brand.

Tip 3: Touch Points: Give your attendees something to touch, and to engage with. Think about texture. Holding something in their hand has been proven to drive value perception and ownership. Lands End did a good job with the Canvas bag but provide more engagement. If you can’t provide engagement, find a way to get a consumer to take action. Really, no URL, no QR, no coupon?

Tip 4: Know your audience. It’s terribly important to have a message and find a way to convey it to your audience. Also, make sure that the audience is right for your brand. Is it a logical fit? If not, should you be there? If you want to expand your audience, ask yourself how can I engage the audience?

Lastly, remember that people build perceptions through five lenses: emotion, reason, knowledge, personality and experience. It is exceedingly difficult to effectively address these through logos, signage and the like. To truly build a positive brand impression, you must build trust and develop a relationship. It ,also, requires some forethought into your partners and how you want to interact with your customers.

There is a difference between an event and an experiential event…the only one that will grow your brand is creating an experience