The Great Experiential Debate

On 14 November, I chaired a lively debate held at The Hospital private member’s club in Covent Garden. Heads of experiential agencies and brand marketers came together to hear three marketing specialists give their take on how experiential is perceived by the wider marketing mix.

Mike Mathieson, chief executive of Cake, which began life focused on the PR side of marketing, Tove Okunniwa, managing partner of MEC Access, formerly MEC Sponsorship and Anna Watkins, director of branded content firm Hubbub presented to a room full of delegates, all armed with IML interactive handsets and ready to text opinions and questions provoked by what they were about to hear. After the three presentations, the questions and comments were organised during a short break in proceedings. When delegates had returned to their seats the texts formed the basis for the discussion. Here are some of the highlights from each speaker followed by soundbites from the debate.

Cake, chief executive Mike Mathieson
“I view this industry in terms of its seat at the table of an early 20th Century dinner party. The client sits at the head of the table and on each side are his advertising agency and his media agency. Then down the table sits the other marketing services agencies including experiential. After dinner, the client turns to the media and advertising agency and says: “Shall we go for port and cigars in the other room and leave the girls to chat?” My mission has always been to manoeuvre myself up that table. Through the demise of advertising agency control, those dinner seats are all now up for grabs. The old model of the live events industry saw silos around the discipline, each with their defined role to play. With the onset of experiential, disciplines such as field marketing and roadshow marketing can propel themselves into this new world. The danger is that the term experiential becomes meaningless. So I’ve decided to set the rules of what is experiential. First, it has to be creative and not just follow the advertising campaign. It then has to be attractive and create real brand conversation. Third, it should be immersive as consumers are becoming harder to reach so immersing them in the brand and its values is key. It should also be content rich and finally be accompanied by both amplification and measurement. Not everyone may go but everyone should know about a good piece of activity. When we nail down the justification of experiential marketing, only then will we move up the table.”

MEC Access, managing partner, Tove Okunniwa
“Our sponsorship offer is split between consultancy and strategy. Where it overlaps with experiential is in the implementation and leverage. There is a need for a deeper engagement with client campaigns and it’s the good innovative ideas that are driving the content. Sponsorship is no longer about properties charging for logo stamping. Now it’s all about activation and making the investment work harder by leveraging greater value from that sponsorship. Activation is being taken to a new level as the technology improves and marketers are tapping into the passion of the audience but the sponsorship arena has the same problems as the experiential sector – we need to crack the measurement and evaluation. We are part of a media agency and yet we can’t stack up sponsorship ROI with media ROI. Maybe both experiential and sponsorship could work together on this.”

Hubbub, managing director Anna Watkins
The future of branded conversations is to create enough noise and at Hubbub we mix live with other forms of branded content. Interruptive marketing is about delivering unwanted messages that often get ignored by media savvy consumers. Branded content is about drawing the consumer in and giving them an offer that they actively chose to engage with. This may be in the form of an event but it’s also digital content, mobile content and brand content. The average consumer is now bombarded by more than 4,000 messages a day. We have a bored, bamboozled consumer who is getting busier and needs to be engaged with more exciting offers. It is an exciting time for us all but the marketing roles are no longer defined so who will gain the ear of the client?
My four territories where whoever raises their game will prosper are: Insight – anyone can come up with a plan but not everyone can do the strategic long-term marketing objectives. The integrated planning has been wrestled away from the ad agency and now needs to come from us. Ideas – creativity and innovation will win through. The ideas need to reflect the integrated nature of the landscape. Integration – If you only specialise in one area, it needs to have amplification. Only then can you justify the investment and explode the idea across other channels. Accountability – We need to collaborate together to find a series of accepted measurement models. There are analysts such as Hall and Partners that have produced a branded content evaluation model and we need to use models such as this to justify brand investment.

Discussion Soundbites
Julian Mack, Sony Ericsson: “Experiential is a horrible word. Most people can’t even pronounce it. I challenge the industry to come up with a new piece of terminology.”

Hugh Robertson, RPM: “The term experiential has become a bit of a dumping ground and lacks clarity. I think clients are savvy enough to understand what each of us do without the need for one term.”

Simon Lethbridge, Jack Morton Worldwide: “It is necessary to have a big word to describe what we do, especially when competing against advertising terminology. Experiential is a big word.”

Tim Bourne, Exposure: “The client should be looking at creating networks of agencies that specialise in brand engagement across all forms. As agencies we are converging so how will we collaborate to all our advantage?”

Anna Watkins, Hubbub: “Recent work for P&G was won pitching against the media agency, the PR agency and the advertising agency. Briefs are being handed out to a wider remit of agencies and we are competing against each other.”

Ian Irving, Sledge: “It is criminal that a brand’s activation investment is not the same as the initial sponsorship outlay.”

David Hornby, Visit London: “When it comes to measurement you have to have the feel good factor and the accountability together.”

Anna Watkins, Hubbub: “If you want to be at the top table you have to evaluate and stop being seen as the fluffy side of marketing.”

Ian Irving, Sledge: “How can you make an experience better year on year unless you discover the consumer’s thoughts and are able to prove the value of our marketing force?”

Julian Mack, Sony Ericsson: “If you don’t measure you will miss consumer insights and current consumer thinking.”

David Boreham, D3: “For agencies looking to offer a fully internal solution, do you think they are turning a full circle and becoming what they once rejected, a full-service agency? Collaboration with specialists is the way forward.”

See more photos by visiting the Event 100 Live sponsor's blog

Experiencing Canon

Canon chose to launch two camera models to 90 European trade journalists by taking them on safari to trial the products in the heat and dust of Kenya. I was asked along to write about the launch and how experience is the key to creating brand advocates. Two features were commissioned and published by Event magazine and Conference & Incentive Travel. I also reviewed the new 1DS Mark III which featured on Stuff.TV
Check out the review

Event magazine, Haymarket Media Group, November / December 2007
In the shadow of Mount Kenya in Laikipia, a private ranch dedicated to conservancy sprawls across the East African landscape. Borana Ranch, home to the Dyer family, boasts two luxury lodges. The smaller, Laragai House, sits on the top of an escarpment, with the 17,000-feet snow-capped peaks of Mount Kenya looming over the horizon and the natural habitats for scores of wildlife on Lewa Downs cascading off to the east.

For one week in mid-October, Abercrombie and Kent carpeted the grounds of Laragai House with a luxury-tented village, comprising around 200 tents, each with their own shower, beds and solar powered lighting. The inhabitants of 90 of these canvas homes were specialist photographic trade media who had flown to Kenya via London from 16 European countries courtesy of Canon Consumer Imaging. Their purpose was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the EOS camera system and to test two recently launched models, the 40-D and the 1DS Mark III via a bespoke EOS Safari.

The remainder tents housed tent butlers, cooks, Canon technical staff, product specialists and four members of agency GSP, responsible for the logistics, management and orchestration of a week’s worth of safari game drives, helicopter rides, presentations, horse riding, visits to local schools and evening entertainment – all against a backdrop of breathtaking beauty.

According to the head of Canon Consumer Imaging Europe Mogens Jensen, the idea to run an event that would not only celebrate the anniversary of EOS but also give delegates their first real taste of what the cameras were capable of was conceived a year before. “We wanted a location that would show off the equipment,” he says. “Wildlife is fast moving and the 40-D fires 6.5 frames per second. Kenya has perfect lighting conditions, amazing landscapes and subjects that you just don’t find in a city. So many product launches are based purely on theory and presentations. We’ve built them into the program also but the most important thing for this audience is to let them discover for themselves what these products can do in the dust and the heat of a safari.”

GSP project manager Claire Walton was tasked with finding Borana Ranch and overcoming the countless logistics of transporting guests whilst ensuring they had a life changing experience. She says: “Canon wanted game with less than ten hours flight time and a similar time zone. Delegates were flying in from all over Europe for four days so we couldn’t deal with the threat of jet lag. Africa was the obvious choice and the two most suitable locations are Kenya or Tanzania. Kenya is less of a tourist trap and Virgin Atlantic has recently opened its new route to Nairobi so we were able to secure the seats from Heathrow. We then had the logistical nightmare of getting everyone to London from 16 countries but thanks to the expertise of Events By Appointment, our travel company, everyone arrived on time.”

GSP also had the problem of transporting the 3.5 tons of camera equipment earmarked for testing by the media. The camera bodies and lenses valued at £2bn Euros needed to clear customs in just two days and permits needed to be obtained so that delegates were free to film and take photographs anywhere in the region.

Canon classroom project
As plans for the event developed, the notion of conservation and corporate social responsibility moved swiftly up Canon’s priority list. Laikipia is remote enough not to suffer from the damaging impact of tourism on the local eco system whilst Borana ranch is so committed to conservation that all the revenue from the EOS Safari went directly back into animal welfare.
The amount of game that guests were likely to see on Borana couldn’t be guaranteed however since the region is neither a national park nor the Mara so prides of lions and herds of elephants are not found roaming in large numbers.

GSP’s Walton had to fill a four-day itinerary with guaranteed photographic opportunities so added helicopter rides provided by Tropic Air around the glacier-clad peaks of Mount Kenya. On each flight guests were taken to 17,000 feet and then dropped-off in the surrounding alpine forests for a walking tour in search of macro photographic images of insects and plants.

With the helicopters increasing the event’s carbon footprint and with too many flights to offset, Canon was determined to again increase the cultural and community aspect of the trip. Walton was thus introduced to the locality’s educational needs which led to Canon agreeing to invest in three school rooms – two classrooms and a library. “On a reconnaissance mission in August, I visited the schools located locally to Borana and I was stunned by the conditions,” she says. “At one there were 52 children sitting on the floor of a grass hut. There was no point in us offering camera workshops or equipment since these schools had no electricity. What they desperately need is classroom space so we launched the Canon Classroom Project.”
Canon press and media events manager Melanie Dubois says: “Acting on the advice of the Dyer family we were able to determine what the local community needed the most. It’s not realistic to try and off-set an event of this magnitude so leaving the locality with a lasting legacy was our preferred option.”

By the time Canon and its guests arrived in Laikipia, each of the classroom projects were at various stages of development. As part of Walton’s planning for each the 16 country’s groups, GSP’s Laura Morrison ran trips to each school so that guests could turn their hand to portrait photography with the children as subjects. For Canon’s Jensen, this was a particular highlight. He says: “It was both an emotional and motivating experience to visit the schools. The children were so welcoming and had rehearsed a song to sing to us. We took a lot of shots and printed them out on portable printers to produce photos that could be donated to the school. For many of these children it was the first time they had ever seen themselves in a photograph and we were moved by their reactions. If you can combine the marketing objective of an event with a socially responsible purpose then it becomes so much more worthwhile. As a global market leader we pay so much money to hotels and venues across the world. Our strategy now is to try and redirect a proportion of that money into leaving a legacy on all future events.”

Professional photographers from the worlds of National Geographic, war-torn Serbia and conflicts around the globe spent each evening of the EOS Safari presenting their work to attendees. On the final night, guests were transported from their three nights in the African wilds and flown back to Nairobi in preparation for their flights home. “The transition from three nights in a campsite to a Hilton hotel room was difficult so it was important that guests saw something of contemporary Nairobi to show that Kenya has moved on from its status as a second world country,” Walton says. “We ran a photography competition throughout the week and announced the winners during a fashion show that showcased local designers. Only the night before, guests had dined on a spit roast lamb and witnessed a display by 40 authentic tribal dancers and here they were dining in a five-star hotel witnessing the other side of African culture. Even for an experienced agency like us this was a truly amazing event and I’m proud to have achieved my brief of staging a life-changing experience on behalf of Canon.”
See the coverage as it appeared in Event magazine

Today's Media - the landscape to be conquered

Wise words on current thinking within online and magazine publishing:

“If you’ve developed a site where your staff are providing more than 5% of the material then it’s not a site at all. It’s advertising. And it’s probably not sustainable.”
David Hepworth, editorial director, Development Hell.

“All this kind of market gardening activity needs to be tended seven days a week. You can’t turn off a community at five on a Friday and say hold that thought until Monday. You need staff, which are passionate and you also need to engage hard-core readers who wish to be part of the team. It’s hard, different work. It’s the diametric opposite of what publishers and advertisers are tempted to do – which is, no matter how you dress it up, spam.”
David Hepworth.

“One of the problems about the internet is that information is everywhere and editing is nowhere. So it ends up being dominated by he who shouts the loudest, which is generally Ron from Dagenham. There will always be a place for thought-through, planned and edited media and a magazine remains the best format for that.”
Richard Cook, Wallpaper Guides.

“Magazines continue to offer companionship, entertainment, escapism, and diversions both mindless and thought provoking. They furnish the home and hang around as long as the next spring clean or attic clearout. Until we do away with the material world entirely and upload our very beings on to the internet magazines will continue to have a place in our lives.”
Will Hodgkinson, Media Guardian.