Download - Event Brand Experience Report 2014
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 111
BrandExperience
Report In association with
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 XX BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 2
Definingexperientialin 983090983088983089983093As part of Event rsquos Brand Experience
report983084 agencies were asked aboutthe shift in experiential and whatthe term will mean in 983090983088983089983093
W hen Event launched 17 years ago
as Marketing Event our role was to
cover what was then dubbed the
lsquoemergingrsquo channel of experiential
Now on the eve of our 18th birthday
we teamed up with Vivid Interface to ask our audience
about experiential in 2015 Michael Wyrley-Birch TROrsquos
chief operating officer EMEA believes experiential is a
channel that continues to lack true definition
ldquoIt means different things to different people and thatrsquos
one of the challenges ndash the industry hasnrsquot defined it
clearly enoughrdquo he says ldquoFor us it means giving people
experiences that either positively change their behaviour
towards a brand or further galvanise a deeper
relationship with that brandrdquo
Sharon Richey chief executive at Because agrees that
experiential is about providing an opportunity to
participate ldquoItrsquos about interaction between a brand
and consumerrdquo she says ldquoItrsquos dialogue versus
monologue so itrsquos about talking with rather than atthe consumer You just have to look at Apple and the rise
of huge brands It has gone way beyond the functional
benefit of the brand itrsquos about hearts and minds and
emotional engagementrdquo
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 XX
The buzzword of 2014 in this space has certainly been
immersive which TBArsquos managing director Guy Horner
believes is what brands are now seeking ldquoIt comes
down to creating engaging brand experiences that
connect with consumers Experiential marketing tries to
articulate that live event that interaction and what
brands want to create The growth area is engagement
and immersion bringing the brand world to liferdquo he says
DRIVEN BY SOCIAL As with any marketing channel the rampant nature of
social media has driven change and will continue to do
so ldquoOver the past three years the biggest development
has been the shareability elementrdquo says Wyrley-Birch
ldquoA lot of what wersquore doing focuses around how we canensure that the experience is something that a person
will want to share with their friends and almost give a
positive endorsement to the brand as a result of that
experiencerdquo
As social media has become a daily part of consumersrsquo
lives it has enabled experiential to have a longer lifeline
says Marcus Sandwith managing director at Haygarth
ldquoThe actual theory of experiential marketing hasnrsquot
changed at all it has always been about consumers
interacting and connecting with your brandrdquo he explainsldquoHowever the media space has become much more
cluttered and brands have recognised that they can
create a unique and valuable experience a proper
interaction between the consumer and brandrdquo
Furthermore Sandwith argues technology and social
media have become enablers for experiential to be
recognised as a valid media channel in its own rightldquoWhether it is by using sophisticated things such as
augmented reality beacons or face recognition there are
technologies that have allowed experiential marketing to
move into a whole new worldrdquo he says
Indeed complementing experiential has helped
galvanise the appeal of social media to many a
marketer and this in turn has meant that in 2015
experiential will be able to position itself in the centre
of the marketing mix
RPMrsquos managing director Dom Robertson explains
ldquoWe believe experiential marketing has been around for
years We simply define it as being when a brand takes
an action and then uses that action to help consumers
understand its purpose or its productrdquo
ldquoIn the past experiential possibly wasnrsquot considered
when brands were looking at their communications
strategyrdquo he continues ldquoIt was deemed as very event-
or sampling-led People didnrsquot view that as being
pertinent enough to be a key part of a marketing plan ndash
it felt like it was a tactic However over the past five or sixyears it has very much been understood and recognised
that an experiential campaign ndash or in our language the
actions of a brand ndash can in fact sit at the absolute heart of
a communications platformrdquo
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 3
It comes downto creatingengaging brandexperiences thatconnect withconsumersGuy Horner
Managing director
TBA
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Rank Agency
Experientialbillings2013 (pound)
Experientialbillings2012 (pound)
Grossturnover2013 (pound)
Grossturnover2012 (pound)
Numberof staff Location
1 Jack MortonWorldwide
55m 55m 55m 55m 90 London
2 George P Johnson 48m 40m 48m 40m 97 Kingston
upon Thames
3 WRG 26m 44m 307m 513m 102 London
Manchester
4 TRO 255m 217m 319m 241m Undisclosed London
5 RPM 167m 191m 223m 25m 131 London
6 Wasserman MediaGroup
152m 129m 152m 129m 55 London
7 ID Experiential 146m 127m 146m 127m 50 London
8 Brandfuel 125m 94m 129m 97m 24 London
9 TBA 124m 102m 124m 102m 38 London
10 Iris 99m 103m 99m 103m 50 London
11 Because 95m 7m 95m 7m 35 Ascot and
London
12 Amplify 84m 72m 84m 72m 41 London
13 Energy Live pound71m pound46m pound71m pound46m 21 London
14 RPMC pound58m pound66m pound58m pound66m 18 London
15 Haygarth 54m 4m 137m 105m 25 London
16 PS Live 5m 22m 5m 22m 16 London
17 AvantgardeLondon
47m 32m 47m 32m 25 London
18 Sledge 445m 385m 672m 466m 21 London
19 Smyle 4m 1m 86m 68m 15 Hertford
20 Sense London 4m 7m 6m 85m 38 London
21 Circle pound36m pound26m pound36m pound26m 18 Reading
22 Space 24m 2m 32m 28m 25 London
23 Vision Nine pound16m pound14m pound7m pound72m 30 London
24 Inkling 16m 08m 24m 12m 4 London
25 Ambient 11m 08m 16m 15m 5 London
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 4
Vivid Interface analysed the event landscape from 983090983088983089983090 and 983090983088983089983091 and rankedrespondents in terms of their experiential billings983086 Here we present the statsthat show how the main players ranked in terms of creating new experiences
Data and research compiled by Event forecast based on financial estimates
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 5
brands onexperiential
Heineken983084 Vita Coco and Adobe are among six brandsthat were asked what they look for from experiential
LAVAZZALUCINDA BRETT UK HEADOF MARKETING
From a UK perspective
Lavazzarsquos vision is to
immerse consumers in our
deep Italian heritage and quitesimply for them to experience our
brilliant Italian coffee whether that
is through tastings sampling
visually or by way of educating
As a brand we place huge
importance on quality which is
always at the forefront We have an
extensive outreach programme in
which we integrate consumer
touchpoints around the country
through an extensive events
programme
We created a true Lavazza coffee
destination at Jamie Oliverrsquos The Big
Feastival last summer where we
served our coffee provided product
demonstrations in a light immersive
and fun manner while providing
entertainment for both children and
adults at this family-orientated
event This allowed us to reach ourconsumers in a fun engaging and
inviting way We will be exploring the
realms of experiential marketing in
our planning for 2015 and beyond
VITA COCOPIP BROOK MARKETINGDIRECTOR EMEA
Experiential is about
making meaningful
connections with our
customers With Vita Coco wewerenrsquot only launching a new
product five years ago but a whole
new category Consumers needed
educating on what coconut water is
and the benefits it can offer They
are not going to buy the product if
they havenrsquot tried it so experiential
has been fundamental in building
awareness
Brands can go big and wide with an
advertising campaign and we have
a 360ordm marketing approach but it
has to be supported by experiential
activity to make a connection
ADOBEEMMA CHALWINDIRECTOR OF BRAND ANDEVENTS EMEA
Experiential is a great way
to exhibit the core values of
our brand and to createbrand advocates among our
customers who can then influence
others It adds to the strength of
our brand We always focus on
creating innovative and immersive
user experiences that are not only
fun but also meet the needs of the
customer and genuinely create
positive emotions as well as a
long-lasting memorable
experience Engagement is the
key objective
The focus in 2015 will be on the
explosion of digital and social
media channels and building that
into our events strategy We want to
create multi-touchpoints for the
user If we do an experiential event
we will want to replicate that
experience into social PR and even
viral activity to maximise the
effectiveness of our message Wewant creative content and to use
customer endorsements
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 6
HEINEKENMILLY HUTCHINSONPR MANAGER FORHEINEKENrsquoS PREMIUMBRANDS
Itrsquos important for us that
consumers leave any
experiential activity with abetter understanding of what our
brand stands for and an enhanced
opinion of its relevance to that
individual For example with
Desperados itrsquos about unlocking
music or party experiences that
lsquomoney simply canrsquot buyrsquo in unusual
or surprising venues Heineken did
this recently with the Next Level
party at the Bussey Building in
Peckham
For Heineken beer we are
encouraging participants to see
their own cities in a different light
and indeed to take the unbeaten
track on a night out We can do that
directly through our Starcab
activation or indirectly through our
content partnership with Metro
Overall our events must share the
characteristics of the brand and
build on the emotional values thatwe have created through above-
the-line investment
SKIPTON BUILDINGSOCIETYSTACEY STOTHARDCORPORATECOMMUNICATIONMANAGER
Experiential events for
Skipton must be innovative
and quirky to createenough intrigue to attract the
media but this must be finely
balanced with an event that
represents the brand credibly and
doesnrsquot take theming to the
extreme As a financial services
company it is essential that the
building society is presented as
trustworthy and an authority
Skipton recently held a media eventat the Royal Hospital Chelsea
an iconic retirement home The
venue was chosen in line with the
objective to position the company
as an authority on pensions one of
our service offerings and because
it is a trusted establishment with a
long heritage similar to our 161-
year history
To also raise awareness of our
pension services we presented
scientific research on the inner
psyche of humans in retirement
We created a subtle scientific
theme which included dry ice and
cocktails in test tubes and we
hooked up guests to probes and
conducted scientific experiments
on their attitudes to retirementrdquo
ALCATELONETOUCH
TRACEY HUDSONUK amp IRELAND MARKETINGMANAGER
We always try to use our marketing
budget wisely in a way that allows
us to target a wide number of
relevant people at a one-on-one
level through sponsorship and
experiential This year we were an
active partner to the Rugby Super
League and headline sponsor ofClothes Show Live This sees us
supporting the Fashion Theatre and
we had the main feature ndash an
experiential stand within the show
The partnership allows us to reach
more than 120000 16 to 25-year-
olds a really key market for us in
the UK By spending our marketing
budgets on events like this we
reach the right people who want to
engage with Alcatel Onetouch
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 7
Agencies from across the sector discuss how developing technology and thecontinued rise of social media is shaping marketing and events in experiential
983089THE POWER OF BIG DATA
Big data was one of 2014rsquos hottest topics and forKevin Jackson EMEA vice-president of sales and
marketing at agency George P Johnson using
technology to take a data-driven approach to experiential
can be very powerful for brands and their agencies
ldquoThe future for us is about collecting data to inform our
experiences in the marketing worldrdquo he says ldquoHoning a
data-driven approach allows you to tailor messages
the event and programme to the audience
as it appears in real timerdquo
983090MEASUREMENTNot so long ago measuring an
experiential campaignrsquos results
was near impossible ldquoExperi-
ential marketing campaigns were only
really evaluated on top-line metrics such
as how many people saw it or how many
samples were given outrdquo says Nick Adams
managing director of agency Sense ldquoNow at
Sense we have a tool called EMR (Experiential
Measurement Research) that measures
attitudes the impact on the companyrsquos bottom
line in terms of incremental sales and a range of
other measurements in accordance with the
eventrsquos objectivesrdquo And Sense isnrsquot alone More
and more agencies are using technology to
develop record and measure the results of activations
which in turn is leading to more sophisticated and
effective campaigns
983091
SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY Technology and social media have become
integral to the live event experience because
they make the connections between a brandand its target audience more seamless Jack Morton
Worldwidersquos head of consumer and digital Richard
Vincent believes the key to creating this connectivity is
invisible technology ldquoTechnology should be as invisible
as possible so that the message is the thing thatrsquos
carried not the tech Technology for technologyrsquos sakegenerally isnrsquot that interesting Itrsquos about being able to
make a connection and continue it or conversation with
the audience through their chosen digital interface which
is more often than not their smartphonerdquo
983092CREATING STANDOUT Vincent realises there are
exceptions to his invisible tech rule
though Head-turning technology
such as projection mapping and shiny new
products such as Oculus Rift and GoogleGlass can help to create standout for
brand experiences Vincent says ldquoIf you
put Oculus Rift in a shopping centre lots
of people are going to want to try it
However there are only a few pieces of
that sort of technologyrdquo
983093
AMPLIFICATION AND THEINCREASED IMPORTANCEOF EVENTSSocial media amplification can
provide a 365-day global opportunity for brands
beyond their events which shifts the event
industry into the realms of advertising Jackson
explains ldquoFrom a brand experience perspective
social media has put a premium on face-to-face
engagement We did an event recently for an audience of
7000 but it had a Twitter reach of 47 million Thatrsquos in
the realms of advertising It brings your cost of contacts
down and gives us in the live industry such a huge
advantage because wersquore creating a community or
interest and wersquore building that community around
content which is a live event Wersquore then driving socialmedia through the content we create and developing
that community throughout the world So instead of the
live event being a one-off it has turned into the high point
of the campaign 365 days of the yearrdquo
technology andsocial media trends
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 8
The summer of 2014
will be remembered inthe UK as one of the
hottest on record yet
few would have
imagined that respite would have
come in the form of an icy cold
bucket dousing filmed and
streamed by millions across social
media sites The ease with which the
Ice Bucket Challenge made its way
across the web is well documented
but does it point to a rise in PR stuntsor is this just an old tactic benefitting
from social media amplification
Stunts have always been a part of
humansrsquo lives argues TROrsquos chief
operating officer EMEA Michael
Wyrley Birch ldquoWersquove always liked
that element of surprise and we love
to be entertained The only difference
now is we have social media to
spread it far more widelyrdquo
Sally Gill business development
manager at Vision Nine agrees
ldquoPR stunts have been around under
different guises for centuries As
technology becomes more powerful
it will open more doors to create
noise in innovative ways Short-form
branded content currently seems to
be the prime vehicle for these stunts
and is often linked to an experiential
element It seems fair to say that thePR stunt is here to stay and is
becoming an even more integrated
part of brand campaignsrdquo
Indeed the speed and reach of the
Ice Bucket Challenge had many anagency feeling the client pressure as
brands sought to emulate such a far-
reaching stunt Sharon Richey chief
executive at Because believes
marketing agencies worldwide want
to emulate that ripple effect but
warns that brands are at greatest
risk by mimicking a tactic that was
ultimately about fundraising ldquoWhen
a brand tries to do something
theyrsquore obviously monetising so itmight not take off as much because
people might find the commercial
angle off-puttingrdquo
Authenticity is key to this particularly
as these stunts are rather short-lived
ldquoIf you can create something genuine
and theatrical which a stunt needs
to be and if it creates content that
people want to share yoursquove hit the
nail on the headrdquo says Avantgardersquos
managing director Stuart Bradbury
However he warns ldquoThink of
T-Mobile in Trafalgar Square when
Pink appeared and sang with the
crowd ndash you wouldnrsquot get away with
that these days because people see
itrsquos been prearranged and actually it
isnrsquot really a stuntrdquo
Nonetheless these stunts ndash whether
facilitated by social media or not ndash
will stay en vogue in 2015 Ben
Reed director of House of
Experience Big Cat Grouprsquos
experiential division believes they
are experiential events in their ownright ldquoThe planning insight and
delivery of a successful stunt follows
the same creative and activation
processes and resource as running a
traditional experiential eventrdquo
It is a view endorsed by Kim Myhre
senior vice-president international at
Freeman XP ldquoPR stunts are one of a
growing number of experience-
marketing tactics Applied in a waythat engages an audience while
reinforcing the brand PR stunts can
cut through the clutter As brands
look for ways of increasing live brand
interaction I expect wersquoll see many
more gorilla pop-up and
performance-based tactics emergerdquo
And Richard Vincent head of
consumer at Jack Morton Worldwide
concludes ldquoStunts are another part
of the toolkit Consumers want great
experiences they want things to get
involved with and they want to create
their own content and publish it so I
think ideas that can tap into some of
those elements are always going to
have a place
ldquoThe Ice Bucket Challenge went from
being exciting to slightly annoying
But I think the desire to get involved
with ideas and initiatives and createyour own version of content is simply
part of where we are now and it will
be part of the futurerdquo
The rise ofPR stuntsSocial media can make a stunt go global983084 but onlyif the original work promotes genuine interaction
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 9
The pitch processEvent rsquos Brand Experience research reveals five ways pitching is changing andhow agencies must rapidly adapt to stay ahead of the notoriously flawed process
983089GREAT EXPECTATIONSPitching is time-intensive expensive and
for Madison Byrne marketing manager of ID
Experiential tougher than ever before She
explains ldquoTwenty years ago we would sell an idea and the
client would be excited Today there are so many other
elements to consider such as social media and tech-nology In-depth research is needed too Agencies must
understand a brand to win the business and you have to
show the client how the experiential campaign will workrdquo
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP agrees
ldquoBrands are expecting more from their agency Winning
pitches are based on significant insight into the brand
and its target audienceThis insight is crafted into an
experience designed to achieve the brandrsquos objectives
The new breed of experience-marketing agencies
recognise that there is more to a winning brandexperience than event logistics but will instead look to all
relevant touchpoints both live and online and across the
entire portfolio to create client successrdquo
983090BRAND lsquoCONSULTANTSrsquoGone are the days of the lsquoclassicrsquo brief that
provides a specification now clients are
demanding a more consultative approach as
Michael Brown managing director of PS Live admits
ldquoBriefs are far more open looking at a brandrsquos objectives
rather than a specification They are looking for insight
and a creative consultant approachrdquo
It has been a similar experience for RPM
managing director Dom Robertson ldquoThe
pitch process has changed ndash the questions
are broader and often the answer is multi-
channel with some level of integrationrdquo
he says ldquoThere are still classic brand
experience briefs out there but
theyrsquore not as commonplace Wersquore
being presented with the companyrsquos
marketing challenge and asked torecommend solutionsrdquo
983091GROUP PITCHINGMore and more brand experience agencies are
finding that brands are looking for a collabor-
ative approach from all their agencies for the
good of the brand Brown explains ldquoIncreasingly we will
go into a pitch with a group of agencies The client will
give you a group brief and you will come back with all ofyour logos together along the bottom No one is given
the credit for individual elements itrsquos seen as a group of
agencies that are responding for the good of the brand
Clients want to see how the brand experience will
integrate with the rest of the campaign and what effect it
will have on ROI We will not be measured on our own It
is being measured as part of an overall campaignrdquo
983092LEAD983085TIMESShorter lead-times have been described as the
lsquonew normalrsquo for a few years but it continues tobe a challenge Matt Margetson creative
director at Smyle insists it is getting worse ldquoThere has
been a shift in terms of turnaround time People want
everything yesterday and when you look at the stats
lead times are getting shorter Thatrsquos been a trend for a
while but we get clients asking for things to be turned
around in days It is because of the velocity of events and
experiences Itrsquos getting quicker and quicker especially in
the B2C market and telcorsquos are a great example of this
They are launching something every other week
therefore the ideas have to be behind it do thatrdquo
983093TECHNOLOGY The days of Powerpoint presentations are gone
and many agencies are strong believers in lsquopitch
theatrersquo to bring the creative of a campaign to
life Kevin Jackson vice-president of business develop-
ment at George P Johnson says the agency has used
everything from ldquokey fobs containing the pitch presentation
to laser pens which when you shine them on a wall
show our ideas We have also used 3D printing instead
of flat 2D drawings to give some context to exhibition
stand concepts as well as projection mapping to give aclient an idea of how an event would lookrdquo
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 10
Experientialrsquos placein the marketing mixWhere does experiential fit within a marketing campaign Three agencies sharetheir views in the third instalment from Event rsquos Brand Experience Report 983090983088983089983092
STUART BRADBURYManaging director of
Avantgarde
He feels that experiential has
now become central to themarketing mix
Experiential has been
moving towards becoming
a mainstream marketing
platform and for some sectors it
has always been at the centre It is
often used to kick-start a campaign
and from there it follows into other
communication channels We are
all bombarded with messages all
the time but the most powerful way
that a marketer can communicate
to their target audience is by getting
them to remember something by
doing it face to face and creating an
experience that the consumer
wants to be part of and wants to
pass on to other people
SHARON RICHEYChief executive of Because
She suggests that the most
successful brands have
integrated marketing campaignswith experiential working as an
equal partner
Experiential is a good
partner for almost all of
your media channels
nowadays but I would also argue
that the brands that are the most
successful and the most talked
about are those that have truly
integrated strategies Experiential
sits at the table as an equal partner
to social media PR and digital
In respect of the overall media mix
there will always be a place for
above-the-line and broadcast
channels because naturally those
channels are all about reach and
pushing your message out to
millions and millions of people to
build your brand Above-the-line
channels will always dominate butbrand experience is vital ndash there is
more of a level playing field than
there ever wasrdquo
KEVIN JACKSON Vice-president EMEA at George
P Johnson
He sees the industry becoming
stronger
As an industry it has become
bigger stronger and more
knowledgeable and wersquore
finding it easier to make
our case in relation to advertising or
PR The world has moved on and
brands are looking for engagement
Consumers customers and clients
are looking for relationships
The greatest change in the past five
years has been a move towards
collaborative working with a clientrsquos
other communications agencies
Therersquos a recognition that the idea
can come from anywhere whereas
previously it usually came from the
ad agency Thatrsquos not true anymore
for the bigger global client Other
clients are recognising that spend
in the experience channel is out-
weighing spend in the advertisingchannel so we become the lead
agency or the idea-generating
agency that they come to firstrdquo
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 11
Hot trendsfor 983090983088983089983093
In search of the next biginfluencer983084 our first BrandExperience Report 983090983088983089983092
shows a digital983085centred future
AN lsquoACTIVErsquo AUDIENCEOne of the most important trends in the experience-
marketing world is the change in audiences from passive
observers to active participants No longer content to sit
and be spoken to today they want a voice in proceedings
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP saysldquoAs experience marketers it is our job to provide ways
for consumers to engage with the experience the
content and other event attendees This has created
tremendous opportunities to rethink event formats how
content is presented packaged and consumed new
learning models and how audiences are engagedrdquo
MOBILE983085FIRSTBut Sally Gill business development manager of Vision
Nine predicts that pop-ups cross-brand experiential
collaborations and partnerships and immersiveexperiences in brand-owned spaces will continue to rise
the biggest trends lie with digital She says ldquoWith
worldwide mobile penetration of 93 per cent a key trend
is lsquomobile firstrsquo Millennials are the mobile-first generation
and optimised geo-targeted and real-time social content
will become the norm Social content will continue to be a
central directive for marketers whose need for engaging
visuals and authentic stories is paramountrdquo
She adds ldquoWith the aggressive growth of Google+ and
continued market fragmentation wersquoll be keeping our eye
on how social audiences continue to splinter in 2015rdquo
BLURRED LINESNick Adams managing director of Sense believes the
line between live experience and social media will
become even more blurred and suggests there will be a
move away from tactical campaigns to more creative
strategy work ldquoThe debate about what is a brand
experience and what isnrsquot will become even more
blurred You see brands now who are doing a one-day or
a five-minute stunt in a public place just to then create a
social campaign off the back of that Thatrsquos 99 per cent asocial media campaign versus a live onerdquo
The live and digital experience will continue to merge as
virtual reality technology develops Matt Margetson
together and there are better tools being developed to
measure the return on investmentrdquo he says
TECHNOLOGY IN THE BACK SEATWhile the future of experiential centres around digital
there is an awareness that technology must also take a
back seat Natasha Davidson account director at
RPMC concludes ldquoThere will be a move from
technology being at the centre of the experience to it
being a facilitator that allows brands to create
connections with the target audience Technology hasgiven us amazing opportunities but it can lead to a lack
of genuine relationship-building We will see technology
still have its role but be more complementary helping the
process of engagement but not being the engagementrdquo
creative director at Smyle says ldquoSamsung has launched
virtual reality headset Gear VR and Oculus Rift will go on
sale in 2015 You will be able to see what it looks like on
stage for your favourite band when you are in your front
room Itrsquos a hybrid of a live and digital experiencerdquo
MEASUREMENTStuart Bradbury managing director of Avantgarde
London agrees social and live media experiences will
become more integrated but also that performance
measurement tools will become more sophisticated
ldquoSocial and face to face is becoming very much knitted
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 XX BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 2
Definingexperientialin 983090983088983089983093As part of Event rsquos Brand Experience
report983084 agencies were asked aboutthe shift in experiential and whatthe term will mean in 983090983088983089983093
W hen Event launched 17 years ago
as Marketing Event our role was to
cover what was then dubbed the
lsquoemergingrsquo channel of experiential
Now on the eve of our 18th birthday
we teamed up with Vivid Interface to ask our audience
about experiential in 2015 Michael Wyrley-Birch TROrsquos
chief operating officer EMEA believes experiential is a
channel that continues to lack true definition
ldquoIt means different things to different people and thatrsquos
one of the challenges ndash the industry hasnrsquot defined it
clearly enoughrdquo he says ldquoFor us it means giving people
experiences that either positively change their behaviour
towards a brand or further galvanise a deeper
relationship with that brandrdquo
Sharon Richey chief executive at Because agrees that
experiential is about providing an opportunity to
participate ldquoItrsquos about interaction between a brand
and consumerrdquo she says ldquoItrsquos dialogue versus
monologue so itrsquos about talking with rather than atthe consumer You just have to look at Apple and the rise
of huge brands It has gone way beyond the functional
benefit of the brand itrsquos about hearts and minds and
emotional engagementrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 XX
The buzzword of 2014 in this space has certainly been
immersive which TBArsquos managing director Guy Horner
believes is what brands are now seeking ldquoIt comes
down to creating engaging brand experiences that
connect with consumers Experiential marketing tries to
articulate that live event that interaction and what
brands want to create The growth area is engagement
and immersion bringing the brand world to liferdquo he says
DRIVEN BY SOCIAL As with any marketing channel the rampant nature of
social media has driven change and will continue to do
so ldquoOver the past three years the biggest development
has been the shareability elementrdquo says Wyrley-Birch
ldquoA lot of what wersquore doing focuses around how we canensure that the experience is something that a person
will want to share with their friends and almost give a
positive endorsement to the brand as a result of that
experiencerdquo
As social media has become a daily part of consumersrsquo
lives it has enabled experiential to have a longer lifeline
says Marcus Sandwith managing director at Haygarth
ldquoThe actual theory of experiential marketing hasnrsquot
changed at all it has always been about consumers
interacting and connecting with your brandrdquo he explainsldquoHowever the media space has become much more
cluttered and brands have recognised that they can
create a unique and valuable experience a proper
interaction between the consumer and brandrdquo
Furthermore Sandwith argues technology and social
media have become enablers for experiential to be
recognised as a valid media channel in its own rightldquoWhether it is by using sophisticated things such as
augmented reality beacons or face recognition there are
technologies that have allowed experiential marketing to
move into a whole new worldrdquo he says
Indeed complementing experiential has helped
galvanise the appeal of social media to many a
marketer and this in turn has meant that in 2015
experiential will be able to position itself in the centre
of the marketing mix
RPMrsquos managing director Dom Robertson explains
ldquoWe believe experiential marketing has been around for
years We simply define it as being when a brand takes
an action and then uses that action to help consumers
understand its purpose or its productrdquo
ldquoIn the past experiential possibly wasnrsquot considered
when brands were looking at their communications
strategyrdquo he continues ldquoIt was deemed as very event-
or sampling-led People didnrsquot view that as being
pertinent enough to be a key part of a marketing plan ndash
it felt like it was a tactic However over the past five or sixyears it has very much been understood and recognised
that an experiential campaign ndash or in our language the
actions of a brand ndash can in fact sit at the absolute heart of
a communications platformrdquo
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 3
It comes downto creatingengaging brandexperiences thatconnect withconsumersGuy Horner
Managing director
TBA
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
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Rank Agency
Experientialbillings2013 (pound)
Experientialbillings2012 (pound)
Grossturnover2013 (pound)
Grossturnover2012 (pound)
Numberof staff Location
1 Jack MortonWorldwide
55m 55m 55m 55m 90 London
2 George P Johnson 48m 40m 48m 40m 97 Kingston
upon Thames
3 WRG 26m 44m 307m 513m 102 London
Manchester
4 TRO 255m 217m 319m 241m Undisclosed London
5 RPM 167m 191m 223m 25m 131 London
6 Wasserman MediaGroup
152m 129m 152m 129m 55 London
7 ID Experiential 146m 127m 146m 127m 50 London
8 Brandfuel 125m 94m 129m 97m 24 London
9 TBA 124m 102m 124m 102m 38 London
10 Iris 99m 103m 99m 103m 50 London
11 Because 95m 7m 95m 7m 35 Ascot and
London
12 Amplify 84m 72m 84m 72m 41 London
13 Energy Live pound71m pound46m pound71m pound46m 21 London
14 RPMC pound58m pound66m pound58m pound66m 18 London
15 Haygarth 54m 4m 137m 105m 25 London
16 PS Live 5m 22m 5m 22m 16 London
17 AvantgardeLondon
47m 32m 47m 32m 25 London
18 Sledge 445m 385m 672m 466m 21 London
19 Smyle 4m 1m 86m 68m 15 Hertford
20 Sense London 4m 7m 6m 85m 38 London
21 Circle pound36m pound26m pound36m pound26m 18 Reading
22 Space 24m 2m 32m 28m 25 London
23 Vision Nine pound16m pound14m pound7m pound72m 30 London
24 Inkling 16m 08m 24m 12m 4 London
25 Ambient 11m 08m 16m 15m 5 London
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 4
Vivid Interface analysed the event landscape from 983090983088983089983090 and 983090983088983089983091 and rankedrespondents in terms of their experiential billings983086 Here we present the statsthat show how the main players ranked in terms of creating new experiences
Data and research compiled by Event forecast based on financial estimates
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 511
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 5
brands onexperiential
Heineken983084 Vita Coco and Adobe are among six brandsthat were asked what they look for from experiential
LAVAZZALUCINDA BRETT UK HEADOF MARKETING
From a UK perspective
Lavazzarsquos vision is to
immerse consumers in our
deep Italian heritage and quitesimply for them to experience our
brilliant Italian coffee whether that
is through tastings sampling
visually or by way of educating
As a brand we place huge
importance on quality which is
always at the forefront We have an
extensive outreach programme in
which we integrate consumer
touchpoints around the country
through an extensive events
programme
We created a true Lavazza coffee
destination at Jamie Oliverrsquos The Big
Feastival last summer where we
served our coffee provided product
demonstrations in a light immersive
and fun manner while providing
entertainment for both children and
adults at this family-orientated
event This allowed us to reach ourconsumers in a fun engaging and
inviting way We will be exploring the
realms of experiential marketing in
our planning for 2015 and beyond
VITA COCOPIP BROOK MARKETINGDIRECTOR EMEA
Experiential is about
making meaningful
connections with our
customers With Vita Coco wewerenrsquot only launching a new
product five years ago but a whole
new category Consumers needed
educating on what coconut water is
and the benefits it can offer They
are not going to buy the product if
they havenrsquot tried it so experiential
has been fundamental in building
awareness
Brands can go big and wide with an
advertising campaign and we have
a 360ordm marketing approach but it
has to be supported by experiential
activity to make a connection
ADOBEEMMA CHALWINDIRECTOR OF BRAND ANDEVENTS EMEA
Experiential is a great way
to exhibit the core values of
our brand and to createbrand advocates among our
customers who can then influence
others It adds to the strength of
our brand We always focus on
creating innovative and immersive
user experiences that are not only
fun but also meet the needs of the
customer and genuinely create
positive emotions as well as a
long-lasting memorable
experience Engagement is the
key objective
The focus in 2015 will be on the
explosion of digital and social
media channels and building that
into our events strategy We want to
create multi-touchpoints for the
user If we do an experiential event
we will want to replicate that
experience into social PR and even
viral activity to maximise the
effectiveness of our message Wewant creative content and to use
customer endorsements
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 6
HEINEKENMILLY HUTCHINSONPR MANAGER FORHEINEKENrsquoS PREMIUMBRANDS
Itrsquos important for us that
consumers leave any
experiential activity with abetter understanding of what our
brand stands for and an enhanced
opinion of its relevance to that
individual For example with
Desperados itrsquos about unlocking
music or party experiences that
lsquomoney simply canrsquot buyrsquo in unusual
or surprising venues Heineken did
this recently with the Next Level
party at the Bussey Building in
Peckham
For Heineken beer we are
encouraging participants to see
their own cities in a different light
and indeed to take the unbeaten
track on a night out We can do that
directly through our Starcab
activation or indirectly through our
content partnership with Metro
Overall our events must share the
characteristics of the brand and
build on the emotional values thatwe have created through above-
the-line investment
SKIPTON BUILDINGSOCIETYSTACEY STOTHARDCORPORATECOMMUNICATIONMANAGER
Experiential events for
Skipton must be innovative
and quirky to createenough intrigue to attract the
media but this must be finely
balanced with an event that
represents the brand credibly and
doesnrsquot take theming to the
extreme As a financial services
company it is essential that the
building society is presented as
trustworthy and an authority
Skipton recently held a media eventat the Royal Hospital Chelsea
an iconic retirement home The
venue was chosen in line with the
objective to position the company
as an authority on pensions one of
our service offerings and because
it is a trusted establishment with a
long heritage similar to our 161-
year history
To also raise awareness of our
pension services we presented
scientific research on the inner
psyche of humans in retirement
We created a subtle scientific
theme which included dry ice and
cocktails in test tubes and we
hooked up guests to probes and
conducted scientific experiments
on their attitudes to retirementrdquo
ALCATELONETOUCH
TRACEY HUDSONUK amp IRELAND MARKETINGMANAGER
We always try to use our marketing
budget wisely in a way that allows
us to target a wide number of
relevant people at a one-on-one
level through sponsorship and
experiential This year we were an
active partner to the Rugby Super
League and headline sponsor ofClothes Show Live This sees us
supporting the Fashion Theatre and
we had the main feature ndash an
experiential stand within the show
The partnership allows us to reach
more than 120000 16 to 25-year-
olds a really key market for us in
the UK By spending our marketing
budgets on events like this we
reach the right people who want to
engage with Alcatel Onetouch
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 7
Agencies from across the sector discuss how developing technology and thecontinued rise of social media is shaping marketing and events in experiential
983089THE POWER OF BIG DATA
Big data was one of 2014rsquos hottest topics and forKevin Jackson EMEA vice-president of sales and
marketing at agency George P Johnson using
technology to take a data-driven approach to experiential
can be very powerful for brands and their agencies
ldquoThe future for us is about collecting data to inform our
experiences in the marketing worldrdquo he says ldquoHoning a
data-driven approach allows you to tailor messages
the event and programme to the audience
as it appears in real timerdquo
983090MEASUREMENTNot so long ago measuring an
experiential campaignrsquos results
was near impossible ldquoExperi-
ential marketing campaigns were only
really evaluated on top-line metrics such
as how many people saw it or how many
samples were given outrdquo says Nick Adams
managing director of agency Sense ldquoNow at
Sense we have a tool called EMR (Experiential
Measurement Research) that measures
attitudes the impact on the companyrsquos bottom
line in terms of incremental sales and a range of
other measurements in accordance with the
eventrsquos objectivesrdquo And Sense isnrsquot alone More
and more agencies are using technology to
develop record and measure the results of activations
which in turn is leading to more sophisticated and
effective campaigns
983091
SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY Technology and social media have become
integral to the live event experience because
they make the connections between a brandand its target audience more seamless Jack Morton
Worldwidersquos head of consumer and digital Richard
Vincent believes the key to creating this connectivity is
invisible technology ldquoTechnology should be as invisible
as possible so that the message is the thing thatrsquos
carried not the tech Technology for technologyrsquos sakegenerally isnrsquot that interesting Itrsquos about being able to
make a connection and continue it or conversation with
the audience through their chosen digital interface which
is more often than not their smartphonerdquo
983092CREATING STANDOUT Vincent realises there are
exceptions to his invisible tech rule
though Head-turning technology
such as projection mapping and shiny new
products such as Oculus Rift and GoogleGlass can help to create standout for
brand experiences Vincent says ldquoIf you
put Oculus Rift in a shopping centre lots
of people are going to want to try it
However there are only a few pieces of
that sort of technologyrdquo
983093
AMPLIFICATION AND THEINCREASED IMPORTANCEOF EVENTSSocial media amplification can
provide a 365-day global opportunity for brands
beyond their events which shifts the event
industry into the realms of advertising Jackson
explains ldquoFrom a brand experience perspective
social media has put a premium on face-to-face
engagement We did an event recently for an audience of
7000 but it had a Twitter reach of 47 million Thatrsquos in
the realms of advertising It brings your cost of contacts
down and gives us in the live industry such a huge
advantage because wersquore creating a community or
interest and wersquore building that community around
content which is a live event Wersquore then driving socialmedia through the content we create and developing
that community throughout the world So instead of the
live event being a one-off it has turned into the high point
of the campaign 365 days of the yearrdquo
technology andsocial media trends
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 8
The summer of 2014
will be remembered inthe UK as one of the
hottest on record yet
few would have
imagined that respite would have
come in the form of an icy cold
bucket dousing filmed and
streamed by millions across social
media sites The ease with which the
Ice Bucket Challenge made its way
across the web is well documented
but does it point to a rise in PR stuntsor is this just an old tactic benefitting
from social media amplification
Stunts have always been a part of
humansrsquo lives argues TROrsquos chief
operating officer EMEA Michael
Wyrley Birch ldquoWersquove always liked
that element of surprise and we love
to be entertained The only difference
now is we have social media to
spread it far more widelyrdquo
Sally Gill business development
manager at Vision Nine agrees
ldquoPR stunts have been around under
different guises for centuries As
technology becomes more powerful
it will open more doors to create
noise in innovative ways Short-form
branded content currently seems to
be the prime vehicle for these stunts
and is often linked to an experiential
element It seems fair to say that thePR stunt is here to stay and is
becoming an even more integrated
part of brand campaignsrdquo
Indeed the speed and reach of the
Ice Bucket Challenge had many anagency feeling the client pressure as
brands sought to emulate such a far-
reaching stunt Sharon Richey chief
executive at Because believes
marketing agencies worldwide want
to emulate that ripple effect but
warns that brands are at greatest
risk by mimicking a tactic that was
ultimately about fundraising ldquoWhen
a brand tries to do something
theyrsquore obviously monetising so itmight not take off as much because
people might find the commercial
angle off-puttingrdquo
Authenticity is key to this particularly
as these stunts are rather short-lived
ldquoIf you can create something genuine
and theatrical which a stunt needs
to be and if it creates content that
people want to share yoursquove hit the
nail on the headrdquo says Avantgardersquos
managing director Stuart Bradbury
However he warns ldquoThink of
T-Mobile in Trafalgar Square when
Pink appeared and sang with the
crowd ndash you wouldnrsquot get away with
that these days because people see
itrsquos been prearranged and actually it
isnrsquot really a stuntrdquo
Nonetheless these stunts ndash whether
facilitated by social media or not ndash
will stay en vogue in 2015 Ben
Reed director of House of
Experience Big Cat Grouprsquos
experiential division believes they
are experiential events in their ownright ldquoThe planning insight and
delivery of a successful stunt follows
the same creative and activation
processes and resource as running a
traditional experiential eventrdquo
It is a view endorsed by Kim Myhre
senior vice-president international at
Freeman XP ldquoPR stunts are one of a
growing number of experience-
marketing tactics Applied in a waythat engages an audience while
reinforcing the brand PR stunts can
cut through the clutter As brands
look for ways of increasing live brand
interaction I expect wersquoll see many
more gorilla pop-up and
performance-based tactics emergerdquo
And Richard Vincent head of
consumer at Jack Morton Worldwide
concludes ldquoStunts are another part
of the toolkit Consumers want great
experiences they want things to get
involved with and they want to create
their own content and publish it so I
think ideas that can tap into some of
those elements are always going to
have a place
ldquoThe Ice Bucket Challenge went from
being exciting to slightly annoying
But I think the desire to get involved
with ideas and initiatives and createyour own version of content is simply
part of where we are now and it will
be part of the futurerdquo
The rise ofPR stuntsSocial media can make a stunt go global983084 but onlyif the original work promotes genuine interaction
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 9
The pitch processEvent rsquos Brand Experience research reveals five ways pitching is changing andhow agencies must rapidly adapt to stay ahead of the notoriously flawed process
983089GREAT EXPECTATIONSPitching is time-intensive expensive and
for Madison Byrne marketing manager of ID
Experiential tougher than ever before She
explains ldquoTwenty years ago we would sell an idea and the
client would be excited Today there are so many other
elements to consider such as social media and tech-nology In-depth research is needed too Agencies must
understand a brand to win the business and you have to
show the client how the experiential campaign will workrdquo
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP agrees
ldquoBrands are expecting more from their agency Winning
pitches are based on significant insight into the brand
and its target audienceThis insight is crafted into an
experience designed to achieve the brandrsquos objectives
The new breed of experience-marketing agencies
recognise that there is more to a winning brandexperience than event logistics but will instead look to all
relevant touchpoints both live and online and across the
entire portfolio to create client successrdquo
983090BRAND lsquoCONSULTANTSrsquoGone are the days of the lsquoclassicrsquo brief that
provides a specification now clients are
demanding a more consultative approach as
Michael Brown managing director of PS Live admits
ldquoBriefs are far more open looking at a brandrsquos objectives
rather than a specification They are looking for insight
and a creative consultant approachrdquo
It has been a similar experience for RPM
managing director Dom Robertson ldquoThe
pitch process has changed ndash the questions
are broader and often the answer is multi-
channel with some level of integrationrdquo
he says ldquoThere are still classic brand
experience briefs out there but
theyrsquore not as commonplace Wersquore
being presented with the companyrsquos
marketing challenge and asked torecommend solutionsrdquo
983091GROUP PITCHINGMore and more brand experience agencies are
finding that brands are looking for a collabor-
ative approach from all their agencies for the
good of the brand Brown explains ldquoIncreasingly we will
go into a pitch with a group of agencies The client will
give you a group brief and you will come back with all ofyour logos together along the bottom No one is given
the credit for individual elements itrsquos seen as a group of
agencies that are responding for the good of the brand
Clients want to see how the brand experience will
integrate with the rest of the campaign and what effect it
will have on ROI We will not be measured on our own It
is being measured as part of an overall campaignrdquo
983092LEAD983085TIMESShorter lead-times have been described as the
lsquonew normalrsquo for a few years but it continues tobe a challenge Matt Margetson creative
director at Smyle insists it is getting worse ldquoThere has
been a shift in terms of turnaround time People want
everything yesterday and when you look at the stats
lead times are getting shorter Thatrsquos been a trend for a
while but we get clients asking for things to be turned
around in days It is because of the velocity of events and
experiences Itrsquos getting quicker and quicker especially in
the B2C market and telcorsquos are a great example of this
They are launching something every other week
therefore the ideas have to be behind it do thatrdquo
983093TECHNOLOGY The days of Powerpoint presentations are gone
and many agencies are strong believers in lsquopitch
theatrersquo to bring the creative of a campaign to
life Kevin Jackson vice-president of business develop-
ment at George P Johnson says the agency has used
everything from ldquokey fobs containing the pitch presentation
to laser pens which when you shine them on a wall
show our ideas We have also used 3D printing instead
of flat 2D drawings to give some context to exhibition
stand concepts as well as projection mapping to give aclient an idea of how an event would lookrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 10
Experientialrsquos placein the marketing mixWhere does experiential fit within a marketing campaign Three agencies sharetheir views in the third instalment from Event rsquos Brand Experience Report 983090983088983089983092
STUART BRADBURYManaging director of
Avantgarde
He feels that experiential has
now become central to themarketing mix
Experiential has been
moving towards becoming
a mainstream marketing
platform and for some sectors it
has always been at the centre It is
often used to kick-start a campaign
and from there it follows into other
communication channels We are
all bombarded with messages all
the time but the most powerful way
that a marketer can communicate
to their target audience is by getting
them to remember something by
doing it face to face and creating an
experience that the consumer
wants to be part of and wants to
pass on to other people
SHARON RICHEYChief executive of Because
She suggests that the most
successful brands have
integrated marketing campaignswith experiential working as an
equal partner
Experiential is a good
partner for almost all of
your media channels
nowadays but I would also argue
that the brands that are the most
successful and the most talked
about are those that have truly
integrated strategies Experiential
sits at the table as an equal partner
to social media PR and digital
In respect of the overall media mix
there will always be a place for
above-the-line and broadcast
channels because naturally those
channels are all about reach and
pushing your message out to
millions and millions of people to
build your brand Above-the-line
channels will always dominate butbrand experience is vital ndash there is
more of a level playing field than
there ever wasrdquo
KEVIN JACKSON Vice-president EMEA at George
P Johnson
He sees the industry becoming
stronger
As an industry it has become
bigger stronger and more
knowledgeable and wersquore
finding it easier to make
our case in relation to advertising or
PR The world has moved on and
brands are looking for engagement
Consumers customers and clients
are looking for relationships
The greatest change in the past five
years has been a move towards
collaborative working with a clientrsquos
other communications agencies
Therersquos a recognition that the idea
can come from anywhere whereas
previously it usually came from the
ad agency Thatrsquos not true anymore
for the bigger global client Other
clients are recognising that spend
in the experience channel is out-
weighing spend in the advertisingchannel so we become the lead
agency or the idea-generating
agency that they come to firstrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 11
Hot trendsfor 983090983088983089983093
In search of the next biginfluencer983084 our first BrandExperience Report 983090983088983089983092
shows a digital983085centred future
AN lsquoACTIVErsquo AUDIENCEOne of the most important trends in the experience-
marketing world is the change in audiences from passive
observers to active participants No longer content to sit
and be spoken to today they want a voice in proceedings
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP saysldquoAs experience marketers it is our job to provide ways
for consumers to engage with the experience the
content and other event attendees This has created
tremendous opportunities to rethink event formats how
content is presented packaged and consumed new
learning models and how audiences are engagedrdquo
MOBILE983085FIRSTBut Sally Gill business development manager of Vision
Nine predicts that pop-ups cross-brand experiential
collaborations and partnerships and immersiveexperiences in brand-owned spaces will continue to rise
the biggest trends lie with digital She says ldquoWith
worldwide mobile penetration of 93 per cent a key trend
is lsquomobile firstrsquo Millennials are the mobile-first generation
and optimised geo-targeted and real-time social content
will become the norm Social content will continue to be a
central directive for marketers whose need for engaging
visuals and authentic stories is paramountrdquo
She adds ldquoWith the aggressive growth of Google+ and
continued market fragmentation wersquoll be keeping our eye
on how social audiences continue to splinter in 2015rdquo
BLURRED LINESNick Adams managing director of Sense believes the
line between live experience and social media will
become even more blurred and suggests there will be a
move away from tactical campaigns to more creative
strategy work ldquoThe debate about what is a brand
experience and what isnrsquot will become even more
blurred You see brands now who are doing a one-day or
a five-minute stunt in a public place just to then create a
social campaign off the back of that Thatrsquos 99 per cent asocial media campaign versus a live onerdquo
The live and digital experience will continue to merge as
virtual reality technology develops Matt Margetson
together and there are better tools being developed to
measure the return on investmentrdquo he says
TECHNOLOGY IN THE BACK SEATWhile the future of experiential centres around digital
there is an awareness that technology must also take a
back seat Natasha Davidson account director at
RPMC concludes ldquoThere will be a move from
technology being at the centre of the experience to it
being a facilitator that allows brands to create
connections with the target audience Technology hasgiven us amazing opportunities but it can lead to a lack
of genuine relationship-building We will see technology
still have its role but be more complementary helping the
process of engagement but not being the engagementrdquo
creative director at Smyle says ldquoSamsung has launched
virtual reality headset Gear VR and Oculus Rift will go on
sale in 2015 You will be able to see what it looks like on
stage for your favourite band when you are in your front
room Itrsquos a hybrid of a live and digital experiencerdquo
MEASUREMENTStuart Bradbury managing director of Avantgarde
London agrees social and live media experiences will
become more integrated but also that performance
measurement tools will become more sophisticated
ldquoSocial and face to face is becoming very much knitted
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
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BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 XX
The buzzword of 2014 in this space has certainly been
immersive which TBArsquos managing director Guy Horner
believes is what brands are now seeking ldquoIt comes
down to creating engaging brand experiences that
connect with consumers Experiential marketing tries to
articulate that live event that interaction and what
brands want to create The growth area is engagement
and immersion bringing the brand world to liferdquo he says
DRIVEN BY SOCIAL As with any marketing channel the rampant nature of
social media has driven change and will continue to do
so ldquoOver the past three years the biggest development
has been the shareability elementrdquo says Wyrley-Birch
ldquoA lot of what wersquore doing focuses around how we canensure that the experience is something that a person
will want to share with their friends and almost give a
positive endorsement to the brand as a result of that
experiencerdquo
As social media has become a daily part of consumersrsquo
lives it has enabled experiential to have a longer lifeline
says Marcus Sandwith managing director at Haygarth
ldquoThe actual theory of experiential marketing hasnrsquot
changed at all it has always been about consumers
interacting and connecting with your brandrdquo he explainsldquoHowever the media space has become much more
cluttered and brands have recognised that they can
create a unique and valuable experience a proper
interaction between the consumer and brandrdquo
Furthermore Sandwith argues technology and social
media have become enablers for experiential to be
recognised as a valid media channel in its own rightldquoWhether it is by using sophisticated things such as
augmented reality beacons or face recognition there are
technologies that have allowed experiential marketing to
move into a whole new worldrdquo he says
Indeed complementing experiential has helped
galvanise the appeal of social media to many a
marketer and this in turn has meant that in 2015
experiential will be able to position itself in the centre
of the marketing mix
RPMrsquos managing director Dom Robertson explains
ldquoWe believe experiential marketing has been around for
years We simply define it as being when a brand takes
an action and then uses that action to help consumers
understand its purpose or its productrdquo
ldquoIn the past experiential possibly wasnrsquot considered
when brands were looking at their communications
strategyrdquo he continues ldquoIt was deemed as very event-
or sampling-led People didnrsquot view that as being
pertinent enough to be a key part of a marketing plan ndash
it felt like it was a tactic However over the past five or sixyears it has very much been understood and recognised
that an experiential campaign ndash or in our language the
actions of a brand ndash can in fact sit at the absolute heart of
a communications platformrdquo
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 3
It comes downto creatingengaging brandexperiences thatconnect withconsumersGuy Horner
Managing director
TBA
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 411
Rank Agency
Experientialbillings2013 (pound)
Experientialbillings2012 (pound)
Grossturnover2013 (pound)
Grossturnover2012 (pound)
Numberof staff Location
1 Jack MortonWorldwide
55m 55m 55m 55m 90 London
2 George P Johnson 48m 40m 48m 40m 97 Kingston
upon Thames
3 WRG 26m 44m 307m 513m 102 London
Manchester
4 TRO 255m 217m 319m 241m Undisclosed London
5 RPM 167m 191m 223m 25m 131 London
6 Wasserman MediaGroup
152m 129m 152m 129m 55 London
7 ID Experiential 146m 127m 146m 127m 50 London
8 Brandfuel 125m 94m 129m 97m 24 London
9 TBA 124m 102m 124m 102m 38 London
10 Iris 99m 103m 99m 103m 50 London
11 Because 95m 7m 95m 7m 35 Ascot and
London
12 Amplify 84m 72m 84m 72m 41 London
13 Energy Live pound71m pound46m pound71m pound46m 21 London
14 RPMC pound58m pound66m pound58m pound66m 18 London
15 Haygarth 54m 4m 137m 105m 25 London
16 PS Live 5m 22m 5m 22m 16 London
17 AvantgardeLondon
47m 32m 47m 32m 25 London
18 Sledge 445m 385m 672m 466m 21 London
19 Smyle 4m 1m 86m 68m 15 Hertford
20 Sense London 4m 7m 6m 85m 38 London
21 Circle pound36m pound26m pound36m pound26m 18 Reading
22 Space 24m 2m 32m 28m 25 London
23 Vision Nine pound16m pound14m pound7m pound72m 30 London
24 Inkling 16m 08m 24m 12m 4 London
25 Ambient 11m 08m 16m 15m 5 London
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 4
Vivid Interface analysed the event landscape from 983090983088983089983090 and 983090983088983089983091 and rankedrespondents in terms of their experiential billings983086 Here we present the statsthat show how the main players ranked in terms of creating new experiences
Data and research compiled by Event forecast based on financial estimates
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 511
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 5
brands onexperiential
Heineken983084 Vita Coco and Adobe are among six brandsthat were asked what they look for from experiential
LAVAZZALUCINDA BRETT UK HEADOF MARKETING
From a UK perspective
Lavazzarsquos vision is to
immerse consumers in our
deep Italian heritage and quitesimply for them to experience our
brilliant Italian coffee whether that
is through tastings sampling
visually or by way of educating
As a brand we place huge
importance on quality which is
always at the forefront We have an
extensive outreach programme in
which we integrate consumer
touchpoints around the country
through an extensive events
programme
We created a true Lavazza coffee
destination at Jamie Oliverrsquos The Big
Feastival last summer where we
served our coffee provided product
demonstrations in a light immersive
and fun manner while providing
entertainment for both children and
adults at this family-orientated
event This allowed us to reach ourconsumers in a fun engaging and
inviting way We will be exploring the
realms of experiential marketing in
our planning for 2015 and beyond
VITA COCOPIP BROOK MARKETINGDIRECTOR EMEA
Experiential is about
making meaningful
connections with our
customers With Vita Coco wewerenrsquot only launching a new
product five years ago but a whole
new category Consumers needed
educating on what coconut water is
and the benefits it can offer They
are not going to buy the product if
they havenrsquot tried it so experiential
has been fundamental in building
awareness
Brands can go big and wide with an
advertising campaign and we have
a 360ordm marketing approach but it
has to be supported by experiential
activity to make a connection
ADOBEEMMA CHALWINDIRECTOR OF BRAND ANDEVENTS EMEA
Experiential is a great way
to exhibit the core values of
our brand and to createbrand advocates among our
customers who can then influence
others It adds to the strength of
our brand We always focus on
creating innovative and immersive
user experiences that are not only
fun but also meet the needs of the
customer and genuinely create
positive emotions as well as a
long-lasting memorable
experience Engagement is the
key objective
The focus in 2015 will be on the
explosion of digital and social
media channels and building that
into our events strategy We want to
create multi-touchpoints for the
user If we do an experiential event
we will want to replicate that
experience into social PR and even
viral activity to maximise the
effectiveness of our message Wewant creative content and to use
customer endorsements
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 611
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 6
HEINEKENMILLY HUTCHINSONPR MANAGER FORHEINEKENrsquoS PREMIUMBRANDS
Itrsquos important for us that
consumers leave any
experiential activity with abetter understanding of what our
brand stands for and an enhanced
opinion of its relevance to that
individual For example with
Desperados itrsquos about unlocking
music or party experiences that
lsquomoney simply canrsquot buyrsquo in unusual
or surprising venues Heineken did
this recently with the Next Level
party at the Bussey Building in
Peckham
For Heineken beer we are
encouraging participants to see
their own cities in a different light
and indeed to take the unbeaten
track on a night out We can do that
directly through our Starcab
activation or indirectly through our
content partnership with Metro
Overall our events must share the
characteristics of the brand and
build on the emotional values thatwe have created through above-
the-line investment
SKIPTON BUILDINGSOCIETYSTACEY STOTHARDCORPORATECOMMUNICATIONMANAGER
Experiential events for
Skipton must be innovative
and quirky to createenough intrigue to attract the
media but this must be finely
balanced with an event that
represents the brand credibly and
doesnrsquot take theming to the
extreme As a financial services
company it is essential that the
building society is presented as
trustworthy and an authority
Skipton recently held a media eventat the Royal Hospital Chelsea
an iconic retirement home The
venue was chosen in line with the
objective to position the company
as an authority on pensions one of
our service offerings and because
it is a trusted establishment with a
long heritage similar to our 161-
year history
To also raise awareness of our
pension services we presented
scientific research on the inner
psyche of humans in retirement
We created a subtle scientific
theme which included dry ice and
cocktails in test tubes and we
hooked up guests to probes and
conducted scientific experiments
on their attitudes to retirementrdquo
ALCATELONETOUCH
TRACEY HUDSONUK amp IRELAND MARKETINGMANAGER
We always try to use our marketing
budget wisely in a way that allows
us to target a wide number of
relevant people at a one-on-one
level through sponsorship and
experiential This year we were an
active partner to the Rugby Super
League and headline sponsor ofClothes Show Live This sees us
supporting the Fashion Theatre and
we had the main feature ndash an
experiential stand within the show
The partnership allows us to reach
more than 120000 16 to 25-year-
olds a really key market for us in
the UK By spending our marketing
budgets on events like this we
reach the right people who want to
engage with Alcatel Onetouch
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 711
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 7
Agencies from across the sector discuss how developing technology and thecontinued rise of social media is shaping marketing and events in experiential
983089THE POWER OF BIG DATA
Big data was one of 2014rsquos hottest topics and forKevin Jackson EMEA vice-president of sales and
marketing at agency George P Johnson using
technology to take a data-driven approach to experiential
can be very powerful for brands and their agencies
ldquoThe future for us is about collecting data to inform our
experiences in the marketing worldrdquo he says ldquoHoning a
data-driven approach allows you to tailor messages
the event and programme to the audience
as it appears in real timerdquo
983090MEASUREMENTNot so long ago measuring an
experiential campaignrsquos results
was near impossible ldquoExperi-
ential marketing campaigns were only
really evaluated on top-line metrics such
as how many people saw it or how many
samples were given outrdquo says Nick Adams
managing director of agency Sense ldquoNow at
Sense we have a tool called EMR (Experiential
Measurement Research) that measures
attitudes the impact on the companyrsquos bottom
line in terms of incremental sales and a range of
other measurements in accordance with the
eventrsquos objectivesrdquo And Sense isnrsquot alone More
and more agencies are using technology to
develop record and measure the results of activations
which in turn is leading to more sophisticated and
effective campaigns
983091
SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY Technology and social media have become
integral to the live event experience because
they make the connections between a brandand its target audience more seamless Jack Morton
Worldwidersquos head of consumer and digital Richard
Vincent believes the key to creating this connectivity is
invisible technology ldquoTechnology should be as invisible
as possible so that the message is the thing thatrsquos
carried not the tech Technology for technologyrsquos sakegenerally isnrsquot that interesting Itrsquos about being able to
make a connection and continue it or conversation with
the audience through their chosen digital interface which
is more often than not their smartphonerdquo
983092CREATING STANDOUT Vincent realises there are
exceptions to his invisible tech rule
though Head-turning technology
such as projection mapping and shiny new
products such as Oculus Rift and GoogleGlass can help to create standout for
brand experiences Vincent says ldquoIf you
put Oculus Rift in a shopping centre lots
of people are going to want to try it
However there are only a few pieces of
that sort of technologyrdquo
983093
AMPLIFICATION AND THEINCREASED IMPORTANCEOF EVENTSSocial media amplification can
provide a 365-day global opportunity for brands
beyond their events which shifts the event
industry into the realms of advertising Jackson
explains ldquoFrom a brand experience perspective
social media has put a premium on face-to-face
engagement We did an event recently for an audience of
7000 but it had a Twitter reach of 47 million Thatrsquos in
the realms of advertising It brings your cost of contacts
down and gives us in the live industry such a huge
advantage because wersquore creating a community or
interest and wersquore building that community around
content which is a live event Wersquore then driving socialmedia through the content we create and developing
that community throughout the world So instead of the
live event being a one-off it has turned into the high point
of the campaign 365 days of the yearrdquo
technology andsocial media trends
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 811
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 8
The summer of 2014
will be remembered inthe UK as one of the
hottest on record yet
few would have
imagined that respite would have
come in the form of an icy cold
bucket dousing filmed and
streamed by millions across social
media sites The ease with which the
Ice Bucket Challenge made its way
across the web is well documented
but does it point to a rise in PR stuntsor is this just an old tactic benefitting
from social media amplification
Stunts have always been a part of
humansrsquo lives argues TROrsquos chief
operating officer EMEA Michael
Wyrley Birch ldquoWersquove always liked
that element of surprise and we love
to be entertained The only difference
now is we have social media to
spread it far more widelyrdquo
Sally Gill business development
manager at Vision Nine agrees
ldquoPR stunts have been around under
different guises for centuries As
technology becomes more powerful
it will open more doors to create
noise in innovative ways Short-form
branded content currently seems to
be the prime vehicle for these stunts
and is often linked to an experiential
element It seems fair to say that thePR stunt is here to stay and is
becoming an even more integrated
part of brand campaignsrdquo
Indeed the speed and reach of the
Ice Bucket Challenge had many anagency feeling the client pressure as
brands sought to emulate such a far-
reaching stunt Sharon Richey chief
executive at Because believes
marketing agencies worldwide want
to emulate that ripple effect but
warns that brands are at greatest
risk by mimicking a tactic that was
ultimately about fundraising ldquoWhen
a brand tries to do something
theyrsquore obviously monetising so itmight not take off as much because
people might find the commercial
angle off-puttingrdquo
Authenticity is key to this particularly
as these stunts are rather short-lived
ldquoIf you can create something genuine
and theatrical which a stunt needs
to be and if it creates content that
people want to share yoursquove hit the
nail on the headrdquo says Avantgardersquos
managing director Stuart Bradbury
However he warns ldquoThink of
T-Mobile in Trafalgar Square when
Pink appeared and sang with the
crowd ndash you wouldnrsquot get away with
that these days because people see
itrsquos been prearranged and actually it
isnrsquot really a stuntrdquo
Nonetheless these stunts ndash whether
facilitated by social media or not ndash
will stay en vogue in 2015 Ben
Reed director of House of
Experience Big Cat Grouprsquos
experiential division believes they
are experiential events in their ownright ldquoThe planning insight and
delivery of a successful stunt follows
the same creative and activation
processes and resource as running a
traditional experiential eventrdquo
It is a view endorsed by Kim Myhre
senior vice-president international at
Freeman XP ldquoPR stunts are one of a
growing number of experience-
marketing tactics Applied in a waythat engages an audience while
reinforcing the brand PR stunts can
cut through the clutter As brands
look for ways of increasing live brand
interaction I expect wersquoll see many
more gorilla pop-up and
performance-based tactics emergerdquo
And Richard Vincent head of
consumer at Jack Morton Worldwide
concludes ldquoStunts are another part
of the toolkit Consumers want great
experiences they want things to get
involved with and they want to create
their own content and publish it so I
think ideas that can tap into some of
those elements are always going to
have a place
ldquoThe Ice Bucket Challenge went from
being exciting to slightly annoying
But I think the desire to get involved
with ideas and initiatives and createyour own version of content is simply
part of where we are now and it will
be part of the futurerdquo
The rise ofPR stuntsSocial media can make a stunt go global983084 but onlyif the original work promotes genuine interaction
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 911
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 9
The pitch processEvent rsquos Brand Experience research reveals five ways pitching is changing andhow agencies must rapidly adapt to stay ahead of the notoriously flawed process
983089GREAT EXPECTATIONSPitching is time-intensive expensive and
for Madison Byrne marketing manager of ID
Experiential tougher than ever before She
explains ldquoTwenty years ago we would sell an idea and the
client would be excited Today there are so many other
elements to consider such as social media and tech-nology In-depth research is needed too Agencies must
understand a brand to win the business and you have to
show the client how the experiential campaign will workrdquo
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP agrees
ldquoBrands are expecting more from their agency Winning
pitches are based on significant insight into the brand
and its target audienceThis insight is crafted into an
experience designed to achieve the brandrsquos objectives
The new breed of experience-marketing agencies
recognise that there is more to a winning brandexperience than event logistics but will instead look to all
relevant touchpoints both live and online and across the
entire portfolio to create client successrdquo
983090BRAND lsquoCONSULTANTSrsquoGone are the days of the lsquoclassicrsquo brief that
provides a specification now clients are
demanding a more consultative approach as
Michael Brown managing director of PS Live admits
ldquoBriefs are far more open looking at a brandrsquos objectives
rather than a specification They are looking for insight
and a creative consultant approachrdquo
It has been a similar experience for RPM
managing director Dom Robertson ldquoThe
pitch process has changed ndash the questions
are broader and often the answer is multi-
channel with some level of integrationrdquo
he says ldquoThere are still classic brand
experience briefs out there but
theyrsquore not as commonplace Wersquore
being presented with the companyrsquos
marketing challenge and asked torecommend solutionsrdquo
983091GROUP PITCHINGMore and more brand experience agencies are
finding that brands are looking for a collabor-
ative approach from all their agencies for the
good of the brand Brown explains ldquoIncreasingly we will
go into a pitch with a group of agencies The client will
give you a group brief and you will come back with all ofyour logos together along the bottom No one is given
the credit for individual elements itrsquos seen as a group of
agencies that are responding for the good of the brand
Clients want to see how the brand experience will
integrate with the rest of the campaign and what effect it
will have on ROI We will not be measured on our own It
is being measured as part of an overall campaignrdquo
983092LEAD983085TIMESShorter lead-times have been described as the
lsquonew normalrsquo for a few years but it continues tobe a challenge Matt Margetson creative
director at Smyle insists it is getting worse ldquoThere has
been a shift in terms of turnaround time People want
everything yesterday and when you look at the stats
lead times are getting shorter Thatrsquos been a trend for a
while but we get clients asking for things to be turned
around in days It is because of the velocity of events and
experiences Itrsquos getting quicker and quicker especially in
the B2C market and telcorsquos are a great example of this
They are launching something every other week
therefore the ideas have to be behind it do thatrdquo
983093TECHNOLOGY The days of Powerpoint presentations are gone
and many agencies are strong believers in lsquopitch
theatrersquo to bring the creative of a campaign to
life Kevin Jackson vice-president of business develop-
ment at George P Johnson says the agency has used
everything from ldquokey fobs containing the pitch presentation
to laser pens which when you shine them on a wall
show our ideas We have also used 3D printing instead
of flat 2D drawings to give some context to exhibition
stand concepts as well as projection mapping to give aclient an idea of how an event would lookrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1011
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 10
Experientialrsquos placein the marketing mixWhere does experiential fit within a marketing campaign Three agencies sharetheir views in the third instalment from Event rsquos Brand Experience Report 983090983088983089983092
STUART BRADBURYManaging director of
Avantgarde
He feels that experiential has
now become central to themarketing mix
Experiential has been
moving towards becoming
a mainstream marketing
platform and for some sectors it
has always been at the centre It is
often used to kick-start a campaign
and from there it follows into other
communication channels We are
all bombarded with messages all
the time but the most powerful way
that a marketer can communicate
to their target audience is by getting
them to remember something by
doing it face to face and creating an
experience that the consumer
wants to be part of and wants to
pass on to other people
SHARON RICHEYChief executive of Because
She suggests that the most
successful brands have
integrated marketing campaignswith experiential working as an
equal partner
Experiential is a good
partner for almost all of
your media channels
nowadays but I would also argue
that the brands that are the most
successful and the most talked
about are those that have truly
integrated strategies Experiential
sits at the table as an equal partner
to social media PR and digital
In respect of the overall media mix
there will always be a place for
above-the-line and broadcast
channels because naturally those
channels are all about reach and
pushing your message out to
millions and millions of people to
build your brand Above-the-line
channels will always dominate butbrand experience is vital ndash there is
more of a level playing field than
there ever wasrdquo
KEVIN JACKSON Vice-president EMEA at George
P Johnson
He sees the industry becoming
stronger
As an industry it has become
bigger stronger and more
knowledgeable and wersquore
finding it easier to make
our case in relation to advertising or
PR The world has moved on and
brands are looking for engagement
Consumers customers and clients
are looking for relationships
The greatest change in the past five
years has been a move towards
collaborative working with a clientrsquos
other communications agencies
Therersquos a recognition that the idea
can come from anywhere whereas
previously it usually came from the
ad agency Thatrsquos not true anymore
for the bigger global client Other
clients are recognising that spend
in the experience channel is out-
weighing spend in the advertisingchannel so we become the lead
agency or the idea-generating
agency that they come to firstrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1111
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 11
Hot trendsfor 983090983088983089983093
In search of the next biginfluencer983084 our first BrandExperience Report 983090983088983089983092
shows a digital983085centred future
AN lsquoACTIVErsquo AUDIENCEOne of the most important trends in the experience-
marketing world is the change in audiences from passive
observers to active participants No longer content to sit
and be spoken to today they want a voice in proceedings
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP saysldquoAs experience marketers it is our job to provide ways
for consumers to engage with the experience the
content and other event attendees This has created
tremendous opportunities to rethink event formats how
content is presented packaged and consumed new
learning models and how audiences are engagedrdquo
MOBILE983085FIRSTBut Sally Gill business development manager of Vision
Nine predicts that pop-ups cross-brand experiential
collaborations and partnerships and immersiveexperiences in brand-owned spaces will continue to rise
the biggest trends lie with digital She says ldquoWith
worldwide mobile penetration of 93 per cent a key trend
is lsquomobile firstrsquo Millennials are the mobile-first generation
and optimised geo-targeted and real-time social content
will become the norm Social content will continue to be a
central directive for marketers whose need for engaging
visuals and authentic stories is paramountrdquo
She adds ldquoWith the aggressive growth of Google+ and
continued market fragmentation wersquoll be keeping our eye
on how social audiences continue to splinter in 2015rdquo
BLURRED LINESNick Adams managing director of Sense believes the
line between live experience and social media will
become even more blurred and suggests there will be a
move away from tactical campaigns to more creative
strategy work ldquoThe debate about what is a brand
experience and what isnrsquot will become even more
blurred You see brands now who are doing a one-day or
a five-minute stunt in a public place just to then create a
social campaign off the back of that Thatrsquos 99 per cent asocial media campaign versus a live onerdquo
The live and digital experience will continue to merge as
virtual reality technology develops Matt Margetson
together and there are better tools being developed to
measure the return on investmentrdquo he says
TECHNOLOGY IN THE BACK SEATWhile the future of experiential centres around digital
there is an awareness that technology must also take a
back seat Natasha Davidson account director at
RPMC concludes ldquoThere will be a move from
technology being at the centre of the experience to it
being a facilitator that allows brands to create
connections with the target audience Technology hasgiven us amazing opportunities but it can lead to a lack
of genuine relationship-building We will see technology
still have its role but be more complementary helping the
process of engagement but not being the engagementrdquo
creative director at Smyle says ldquoSamsung has launched
virtual reality headset Gear VR and Oculus Rift will go on
sale in 2015 You will be able to see what it looks like on
stage for your favourite band when you are in your front
room Itrsquos a hybrid of a live and digital experiencerdquo
MEASUREMENTStuart Bradbury managing director of Avantgarde
London agrees social and live media experiences will
become more integrated but also that performance
measurement tools will become more sophisticated
ldquoSocial and face to face is becoming very much knitted
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 411
Rank Agency
Experientialbillings2013 (pound)
Experientialbillings2012 (pound)
Grossturnover2013 (pound)
Grossturnover2012 (pound)
Numberof staff Location
1 Jack MortonWorldwide
55m 55m 55m 55m 90 London
2 George P Johnson 48m 40m 48m 40m 97 Kingston
upon Thames
3 WRG 26m 44m 307m 513m 102 London
Manchester
4 TRO 255m 217m 319m 241m Undisclosed London
5 RPM 167m 191m 223m 25m 131 London
6 Wasserman MediaGroup
152m 129m 152m 129m 55 London
7 ID Experiential 146m 127m 146m 127m 50 London
8 Brandfuel 125m 94m 129m 97m 24 London
9 TBA 124m 102m 124m 102m 38 London
10 Iris 99m 103m 99m 103m 50 London
11 Because 95m 7m 95m 7m 35 Ascot and
London
12 Amplify 84m 72m 84m 72m 41 London
13 Energy Live pound71m pound46m pound71m pound46m 21 London
14 RPMC pound58m pound66m pound58m pound66m 18 London
15 Haygarth 54m 4m 137m 105m 25 London
16 PS Live 5m 22m 5m 22m 16 London
17 AvantgardeLondon
47m 32m 47m 32m 25 London
18 Sledge 445m 385m 672m 466m 21 London
19 Smyle 4m 1m 86m 68m 15 Hertford
20 Sense London 4m 7m 6m 85m 38 London
21 Circle pound36m pound26m pound36m pound26m 18 Reading
22 Space 24m 2m 32m 28m 25 London
23 Vision Nine pound16m pound14m pound7m pound72m 30 London
24 Inkling 16m 08m 24m 12m 4 London
25 Ambient 11m 08m 16m 15m 5 London
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 4
Vivid Interface analysed the event landscape from 983090983088983089983090 and 983090983088983089983091 and rankedrespondents in terms of their experiential billings983086 Here we present the statsthat show how the main players ranked in terms of creating new experiences
Data and research compiled by Event forecast based on financial estimates
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 511
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 5
brands onexperiential
Heineken983084 Vita Coco and Adobe are among six brandsthat were asked what they look for from experiential
LAVAZZALUCINDA BRETT UK HEADOF MARKETING
From a UK perspective
Lavazzarsquos vision is to
immerse consumers in our
deep Italian heritage and quitesimply for them to experience our
brilliant Italian coffee whether that
is through tastings sampling
visually or by way of educating
As a brand we place huge
importance on quality which is
always at the forefront We have an
extensive outreach programme in
which we integrate consumer
touchpoints around the country
through an extensive events
programme
We created a true Lavazza coffee
destination at Jamie Oliverrsquos The Big
Feastival last summer where we
served our coffee provided product
demonstrations in a light immersive
and fun manner while providing
entertainment for both children and
adults at this family-orientated
event This allowed us to reach ourconsumers in a fun engaging and
inviting way We will be exploring the
realms of experiential marketing in
our planning for 2015 and beyond
VITA COCOPIP BROOK MARKETINGDIRECTOR EMEA
Experiential is about
making meaningful
connections with our
customers With Vita Coco wewerenrsquot only launching a new
product five years ago but a whole
new category Consumers needed
educating on what coconut water is
and the benefits it can offer They
are not going to buy the product if
they havenrsquot tried it so experiential
has been fundamental in building
awareness
Brands can go big and wide with an
advertising campaign and we have
a 360ordm marketing approach but it
has to be supported by experiential
activity to make a connection
ADOBEEMMA CHALWINDIRECTOR OF BRAND ANDEVENTS EMEA
Experiential is a great way
to exhibit the core values of
our brand and to createbrand advocates among our
customers who can then influence
others It adds to the strength of
our brand We always focus on
creating innovative and immersive
user experiences that are not only
fun but also meet the needs of the
customer and genuinely create
positive emotions as well as a
long-lasting memorable
experience Engagement is the
key objective
The focus in 2015 will be on the
explosion of digital and social
media channels and building that
into our events strategy We want to
create multi-touchpoints for the
user If we do an experiential event
we will want to replicate that
experience into social PR and even
viral activity to maximise the
effectiveness of our message Wewant creative content and to use
customer endorsements
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 611
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 6
HEINEKENMILLY HUTCHINSONPR MANAGER FORHEINEKENrsquoS PREMIUMBRANDS
Itrsquos important for us that
consumers leave any
experiential activity with abetter understanding of what our
brand stands for and an enhanced
opinion of its relevance to that
individual For example with
Desperados itrsquos about unlocking
music or party experiences that
lsquomoney simply canrsquot buyrsquo in unusual
or surprising venues Heineken did
this recently with the Next Level
party at the Bussey Building in
Peckham
For Heineken beer we are
encouraging participants to see
their own cities in a different light
and indeed to take the unbeaten
track on a night out We can do that
directly through our Starcab
activation or indirectly through our
content partnership with Metro
Overall our events must share the
characteristics of the brand and
build on the emotional values thatwe have created through above-
the-line investment
SKIPTON BUILDINGSOCIETYSTACEY STOTHARDCORPORATECOMMUNICATIONMANAGER
Experiential events for
Skipton must be innovative
and quirky to createenough intrigue to attract the
media but this must be finely
balanced with an event that
represents the brand credibly and
doesnrsquot take theming to the
extreme As a financial services
company it is essential that the
building society is presented as
trustworthy and an authority
Skipton recently held a media eventat the Royal Hospital Chelsea
an iconic retirement home The
venue was chosen in line with the
objective to position the company
as an authority on pensions one of
our service offerings and because
it is a trusted establishment with a
long heritage similar to our 161-
year history
To also raise awareness of our
pension services we presented
scientific research on the inner
psyche of humans in retirement
We created a subtle scientific
theme which included dry ice and
cocktails in test tubes and we
hooked up guests to probes and
conducted scientific experiments
on their attitudes to retirementrdquo
ALCATELONETOUCH
TRACEY HUDSONUK amp IRELAND MARKETINGMANAGER
We always try to use our marketing
budget wisely in a way that allows
us to target a wide number of
relevant people at a one-on-one
level through sponsorship and
experiential This year we were an
active partner to the Rugby Super
League and headline sponsor ofClothes Show Live This sees us
supporting the Fashion Theatre and
we had the main feature ndash an
experiential stand within the show
The partnership allows us to reach
more than 120000 16 to 25-year-
olds a really key market for us in
the UK By spending our marketing
budgets on events like this we
reach the right people who want to
engage with Alcatel Onetouch
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 711
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 7
Agencies from across the sector discuss how developing technology and thecontinued rise of social media is shaping marketing and events in experiential
983089THE POWER OF BIG DATA
Big data was one of 2014rsquos hottest topics and forKevin Jackson EMEA vice-president of sales and
marketing at agency George P Johnson using
technology to take a data-driven approach to experiential
can be very powerful for brands and their agencies
ldquoThe future for us is about collecting data to inform our
experiences in the marketing worldrdquo he says ldquoHoning a
data-driven approach allows you to tailor messages
the event and programme to the audience
as it appears in real timerdquo
983090MEASUREMENTNot so long ago measuring an
experiential campaignrsquos results
was near impossible ldquoExperi-
ential marketing campaigns were only
really evaluated on top-line metrics such
as how many people saw it or how many
samples were given outrdquo says Nick Adams
managing director of agency Sense ldquoNow at
Sense we have a tool called EMR (Experiential
Measurement Research) that measures
attitudes the impact on the companyrsquos bottom
line in terms of incremental sales and a range of
other measurements in accordance with the
eventrsquos objectivesrdquo And Sense isnrsquot alone More
and more agencies are using technology to
develop record and measure the results of activations
which in turn is leading to more sophisticated and
effective campaigns
983091
SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY Technology and social media have become
integral to the live event experience because
they make the connections between a brandand its target audience more seamless Jack Morton
Worldwidersquos head of consumer and digital Richard
Vincent believes the key to creating this connectivity is
invisible technology ldquoTechnology should be as invisible
as possible so that the message is the thing thatrsquos
carried not the tech Technology for technologyrsquos sakegenerally isnrsquot that interesting Itrsquos about being able to
make a connection and continue it or conversation with
the audience through their chosen digital interface which
is more often than not their smartphonerdquo
983092CREATING STANDOUT Vincent realises there are
exceptions to his invisible tech rule
though Head-turning technology
such as projection mapping and shiny new
products such as Oculus Rift and GoogleGlass can help to create standout for
brand experiences Vincent says ldquoIf you
put Oculus Rift in a shopping centre lots
of people are going to want to try it
However there are only a few pieces of
that sort of technologyrdquo
983093
AMPLIFICATION AND THEINCREASED IMPORTANCEOF EVENTSSocial media amplification can
provide a 365-day global opportunity for brands
beyond their events which shifts the event
industry into the realms of advertising Jackson
explains ldquoFrom a brand experience perspective
social media has put a premium on face-to-face
engagement We did an event recently for an audience of
7000 but it had a Twitter reach of 47 million Thatrsquos in
the realms of advertising It brings your cost of contacts
down and gives us in the live industry such a huge
advantage because wersquore creating a community or
interest and wersquore building that community around
content which is a live event Wersquore then driving socialmedia through the content we create and developing
that community throughout the world So instead of the
live event being a one-off it has turned into the high point
of the campaign 365 days of the yearrdquo
technology andsocial media trends
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 811
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 8
The summer of 2014
will be remembered inthe UK as one of the
hottest on record yet
few would have
imagined that respite would have
come in the form of an icy cold
bucket dousing filmed and
streamed by millions across social
media sites The ease with which the
Ice Bucket Challenge made its way
across the web is well documented
but does it point to a rise in PR stuntsor is this just an old tactic benefitting
from social media amplification
Stunts have always been a part of
humansrsquo lives argues TROrsquos chief
operating officer EMEA Michael
Wyrley Birch ldquoWersquove always liked
that element of surprise and we love
to be entertained The only difference
now is we have social media to
spread it far more widelyrdquo
Sally Gill business development
manager at Vision Nine agrees
ldquoPR stunts have been around under
different guises for centuries As
technology becomes more powerful
it will open more doors to create
noise in innovative ways Short-form
branded content currently seems to
be the prime vehicle for these stunts
and is often linked to an experiential
element It seems fair to say that thePR stunt is here to stay and is
becoming an even more integrated
part of brand campaignsrdquo
Indeed the speed and reach of the
Ice Bucket Challenge had many anagency feeling the client pressure as
brands sought to emulate such a far-
reaching stunt Sharon Richey chief
executive at Because believes
marketing agencies worldwide want
to emulate that ripple effect but
warns that brands are at greatest
risk by mimicking a tactic that was
ultimately about fundraising ldquoWhen
a brand tries to do something
theyrsquore obviously monetising so itmight not take off as much because
people might find the commercial
angle off-puttingrdquo
Authenticity is key to this particularly
as these stunts are rather short-lived
ldquoIf you can create something genuine
and theatrical which a stunt needs
to be and if it creates content that
people want to share yoursquove hit the
nail on the headrdquo says Avantgardersquos
managing director Stuart Bradbury
However he warns ldquoThink of
T-Mobile in Trafalgar Square when
Pink appeared and sang with the
crowd ndash you wouldnrsquot get away with
that these days because people see
itrsquos been prearranged and actually it
isnrsquot really a stuntrdquo
Nonetheless these stunts ndash whether
facilitated by social media or not ndash
will stay en vogue in 2015 Ben
Reed director of House of
Experience Big Cat Grouprsquos
experiential division believes they
are experiential events in their ownright ldquoThe planning insight and
delivery of a successful stunt follows
the same creative and activation
processes and resource as running a
traditional experiential eventrdquo
It is a view endorsed by Kim Myhre
senior vice-president international at
Freeman XP ldquoPR stunts are one of a
growing number of experience-
marketing tactics Applied in a waythat engages an audience while
reinforcing the brand PR stunts can
cut through the clutter As brands
look for ways of increasing live brand
interaction I expect wersquoll see many
more gorilla pop-up and
performance-based tactics emergerdquo
And Richard Vincent head of
consumer at Jack Morton Worldwide
concludes ldquoStunts are another part
of the toolkit Consumers want great
experiences they want things to get
involved with and they want to create
their own content and publish it so I
think ideas that can tap into some of
those elements are always going to
have a place
ldquoThe Ice Bucket Challenge went from
being exciting to slightly annoying
But I think the desire to get involved
with ideas and initiatives and createyour own version of content is simply
part of where we are now and it will
be part of the futurerdquo
The rise ofPR stuntsSocial media can make a stunt go global983084 but onlyif the original work promotes genuine interaction
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 911
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 9
The pitch processEvent rsquos Brand Experience research reveals five ways pitching is changing andhow agencies must rapidly adapt to stay ahead of the notoriously flawed process
983089GREAT EXPECTATIONSPitching is time-intensive expensive and
for Madison Byrne marketing manager of ID
Experiential tougher than ever before She
explains ldquoTwenty years ago we would sell an idea and the
client would be excited Today there are so many other
elements to consider such as social media and tech-nology In-depth research is needed too Agencies must
understand a brand to win the business and you have to
show the client how the experiential campaign will workrdquo
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP agrees
ldquoBrands are expecting more from their agency Winning
pitches are based on significant insight into the brand
and its target audienceThis insight is crafted into an
experience designed to achieve the brandrsquos objectives
The new breed of experience-marketing agencies
recognise that there is more to a winning brandexperience than event logistics but will instead look to all
relevant touchpoints both live and online and across the
entire portfolio to create client successrdquo
983090BRAND lsquoCONSULTANTSrsquoGone are the days of the lsquoclassicrsquo brief that
provides a specification now clients are
demanding a more consultative approach as
Michael Brown managing director of PS Live admits
ldquoBriefs are far more open looking at a brandrsquos objectives
rather than a specification They are looking for insight
and a creative consultant approachrdquo
It has been a similar experience for RPM
managing director Dom Robertson ldquoThe
pitch process has changed ndash the questions
are broader and often the answer is multi-
channel with some level of integrationrdquo
he says ldquoThere are still classic brand
experience briefs out there but
theyrsquore not as commonplace Wersquore
being presented with the companyrsquos
marketing challenge and asked torecommend solutionsrdquo
983091GROUP PITCHINGMore and more brand experience agencies are
finding that brands are looking for a collabor-
ative approach from all their agencies for the
good of the brand Brown explains ldquoIncreasingly we will
go into a pitch with a group of agencies The client will
give you a group brief and you will come back with all ofyour logos together along the bottom No one is given
the credit for individual elements itrsquos seen as a group of
agencies that are responding for the good of the brand
Clients want to see how the brand experience will
integrate with the rest of the campaign and what effect it
will have on ROI We will not be measured on our own It
is being measured as part of an overall campaignrdquo
983092LEAD983085TIMESShorter lead-times have been described as the
lsquonew normalrsquo for a few years but it continues tobe a challenge Matt Margetson creative
director at Smyle insists it is getting worse ldquoThere has
been a shift in terms of turnaround time People want
everything yesterday and when you look at the stats
lead times are getting shorter Thatrsquos been a trend for a
while but we get clients asking for things to be turned
around in days It is because of the velocity of events and
experiences Itrsquos getting quicker and quicker especially in
the B2C market and telcorsquos are a great example of this
They are launching something every other week
therefore the ideas have to be behind it do thatrdquo
983093TECHNOLOGY The days of Powerpoint presentations are gone
and many agencies are strong believers in lsquopitch
theatrersquo to bring the creative of a campaign to
life Kevin Jackson vice-president of business develop-
ment at George P Johnson says the agency has used
everything from ldquokey fobs containing the pitch presentation
to laser pens which when you shine them on a wall
show our ideas We have also used 3D printing instead
of flat 2D drawings to give some context to exhibition
stand concepts as well as projection mapping to give aclient an idea of how an event would lookrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1011
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 10
Experientialrsquos placein the marketing mixWhere does experiential fit within a marketing campaign Three agencies sharetheir views in the third instalment from Event rsquos Brand Experience Report 983090983088983089983092
STUART BRADBURYManaging director of
Avantgarde
He feels that experiential has
now become central to themarketing mix
Experiential has been
moving towards becoming
a mainstream marketing
platform and for some sectors it
has always been at the centre It is
often used to kick-start a campaign
and from there it follows into other
communication channels We are
all bombarded with messages all
the time but the most powerful way
that a marketer can communicate
to their target audience is by getting
them to remember something by
doing it face to face and creating an
experience that the consumer
wants to be part of and wants to
pass on to other people
SHARON RICHEYChief executive of Because
She suggests that the most
successful brands have
integrated marketing campaignswith experiential working as an
equal partner
Experiential is a good
partner for almost all of
your media channels
nowadays but I would also argue
that the brands that are the most
successful and the most talked
about are those that have truly
integrated strategies Experiential
sits at the table as an equal partner
to social media PR and digital
In respect of the overall media mix
there will always be a place for
above-the-line and broadcast
channels because naturally those
channels are all about reach and
pushing your message out to
millions and millions of people to
build your brand Above-the-line
channels will always dominate butbrand experience is vital ndash there is
more of a level playing field than
there ever wasrdquo
KEVIN JACKSON Vice-president EMEA at George
P Johnson
He sees the industry becoming
stronger
As an industry it has become
bigger stronger and more
knowledgeable and wersquore
finding it easier to make
our case in relation to advertising or
PR The world has moved on and
brands are looking for engagement
Consumers customers and clients
are looking for relationships
The greatest change in the past five
years has been a move towards
collaborative working with a clientrsquos
other communications agencies
Therersquos a recognition that the idea
can come from anywhere whereas
previously it usually came from the
ad agency Thatrsquos not true anymore
for the bigger global client Other
clients are recognising that spend
in the experience channel is out-
weighing spend in the advertisingchannel so we become the lead
agency or the idea-generating
agency that they come to firstrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1111
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 11
Hot trendsfor 983090983088983089983093
In search of the next biginfluencer983084 our first BrandExperience Report 983090983088983089983092
shows a digital983085centred future
AN lsquoACTIVErsquo AUDIENCEOne of the most important trends in the experience-
marketing world is the change in audiences from passive
observers to active participants No longer content to sit
and be spoken to today they want a voice in proceedings
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP saysldquoAs experience marketers it is our job to provide ways
for consumers to engage with the experience the
content and other event attendees This has created
tremendous opportunities to rethink event formats how
content is presented packaged and consumed new
learning models and how audiences are engagedrdquo
MOBILE983085FIRSTBut Sally Gill business development manager of Vision
Nine predicts that pop-ups cross-brand experiential
collaborations and partnerships and immersiveexperiences in brand-owned spaces will continue to rise
the biggest trends lie with digital She says ldquoWith
worldwide mobile penetration of 93 per cent a key trend
is lsquomobile firstrsquo Millennials are the mobile-first generation
and optimised geo-targeted and real-time social content
will become the norm Social content will continue to be a
central directive for marketers whose need for engaging
visuals and authentic stories is paramountrdquo
She adds ldquoWith the aggressive growth of Google+ and
continued market fragmentation wersquoll be keeping our eye
on how social audiences continue to splinter in 2015rdquo
BLURRED LINESNick Adams managing director of Sense believes the
line between live experience and social media will
become even more blurred and suggests there will be a
move away from tactical campaigns to more creative
strategy work ldquoThe debate about what is a brand
experience and what isnrsquot will become even more
blurred You see brands now who are doing a one-day or
a five-minute stunt in a public place just to then create a
social campaign off the back of that Thatrsquos 99 per cent asocial media campaign versus a live onerdquo
The live and digital experience will continue to merge as
virtual reality technology develops Matt Margetson
together and there are better tools being developed to
measure the return on investmentrdquo he says
TECHNOLOGY IN THE BACK SEATWhile the future of experiential centres around digital
there is an awareness that technology must also take a
back seat Natasha Davidson account director at
RPMC concludes ldquoThere will be a move from
technology being at the centre of the experience to it
being a facilitator that allows brands to create
connections with the target audience Technology hasgiven us amazing opportunities but it can lead to a lack
of genuine relationship-building We will see technology
still have its role but be more complementary helping the
process of engagement but not being the engagementrdquo
creative director at Smyle says ldquoSamsung has launched
virtual reality headset Gear VR and Oculus Rift will go on
sale in 2015 You will be able to see what it looks like on
stage for your favourite band when you are in your front
room Itrsquos a hybrid of a live and digital experiencerdquo
MEASUREMENTStuart Bradbury managing director of Avantgarde
London agrees social and live media experiences will
become more integrated but also that performance
measurement tools will become more sophisticated
ldquoSocial and face to face is becoming very much knitted
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 511
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 5
brands onexperiential
Heineken983084 Vita Coco and Adobe are among six brandsthat were asked what they look for from experiential
LAVAZZALUCINDA BRETT UK HEADOF MARKETING
From a UK perspective
Lavazzarsquos vision is to
immerse consumers in our
deep Italian heritage and quitesimply for them to experience our
brilliant Italian coffee whether that
is through tastings sampling
visually or by way of educating
As a brand we place huge
importance on quality which is
always at the forefront We have an
extensive outreach programme in
which we integrate consumer
touchpoints around the country
through an extensive events
programme
We created a true Lavazza coffee
destination at Jamie Oliverrsquos The Big
Feastival last summer where we
served our coffee provided product
demonstrations in a light immersive
and fun manner while providing
entertainment for both children and
adults at this family-orientated
event This allowed us to reach ourconsumers in a fun engaging and
inviting way We will be exploring the
realms of experiential marketing in
our planning for 2015 and beyond
VITA COCOPIP BROOK MARKETINGDIRECTOR EMEA
Experiential is about
making meaningful
connections with our
customers With Vita Coco wewerenrsquot only launching a new
product five years ago but a whole
new category Consumers needed
educating on what coconut water is
and the benefits it can offer They
are not going to buy the product if
they havenrsquot tried it so experiential
has been fundamental in building
awareness
Brands can go big and wide with an
advertising campaign and we have
a 360ordm marketing approach but it
has to be supported by experiential
activity to make a connection
ADOBEEMMA CHALWINDIRECTOR OF BRAND ANDEVENTS EMEA
Experiential is a great way
to exhibit the core values of
our brand and to createbrand advocates among our
customers who can then influence
others It adds to the strength of
our brand We always focus on
creating innovative and immersive
user experiences that are not only
fun but also meet the needs of the
customer and genuinely create
positive emotions as well as a
long-lasting memorable
experience Engagement is the
key objective
The focus in 2015 will be on the
explosion of digital and social
media channels and building that
into our events strategy We want to
create multi-touchpoints for the
user If we do an experiential event
we will want to replicate that
experience into social PR and even
viral activity to maximise the
effectiveness of our message Wewant creative content and to use
customer endorsements
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 611
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 6
HEINEKENMILLY HUTCHINSONPR MANAGER FORHEINEKENrsquoS PREMIUMBRANDS
Itrsquos important for us that
consumers leave any
experiential activity with abetter understanding of what our
brand stands for and an enhanced
opinion of its relevance to that
individual For example with
Desperados itrsquos about unlocking
music or party experiences that
lsquomoney simply canrsquot buyrsquo in unusual
or surprising venues Heineken did
this recently with the Next Level
party at the Bussey Building in
Peckham
For Heineken beer we are
encouraging participants to see
their own cities in a different light
and indeed to take the unbeaten
track on a night out We can do that
directly through our Starcab
activation or indirectly through our
content partnership with Metro
Overall our events must share the
characteristics of the brand and
build on the emotional values thatwe have created through above-
the-line investment
SKIPTON BUILDINGSOCIETYSTACEY STOTHARDCORPORATECOMMUNICATIONMANAGER
Experiential events for
Skipton must be innovative
and quirky to createenough intrigue to attract the
media but this must be finely
balanced with an event that
represents the brand credibly and
doesnrsquot take theming to the
extreme As a financial services
company it is essential that the
building society is presented as
trustworthy and an authority
Skipton recently held a media eventat the Royal Hospital Chelsea
an iconic retirement home The
venue was chosen in line with the
objective to position the company
as an authority on pensions one of
our service offerings and because
it is a trusted establishment with a
long heritage similar to our 161-
year history
To also raise awareness of our
pension services we presented
scientific research on the inner
psyche of humans in retirement
We created a subtle scientific
theme which included dry ice and
cocktails in test tubes and we
hooked up guests to probes and
conducted scientific experiments
on their attitudes to retirementrdquo
ALCATELONETOUCH
TRACEY HUDSONUK amp IRELAND MARKETINGMANAGER
We always try to use our marketing
budget wisely in a way that allows
us to target a wide number of
relevant people at a one-on-one
level through sponsorship and
experiential This year we were an
active partner to the Rugby Super
League and headline sponsor ofClothes Show Live This sees us
supporting the Fashion Theatre and
we had the main feature ndash an
experiential stand within the show
The partnership allows us to reach
more than 120000 16 to 25-year-
olds a really key market for us in
the UK By spending our marketing
budgets on events like this we
reach the right people who want to
engage with Alcatel Onetouch
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 711
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 7
Agencies from across the sector discuss how developing technology and thecontinued rise of social media is shaping marketing and events in experiential
983089THE POWER OF BIG DATA
Big data was one of 2014rsquos hottest topics and forKevin Jackson EMEA vice-president of sales and
marketing at agency George P Johnson using
technology to take a data-driven approach to experiential
can be very powerful for brands and their agencies
ldquoThe future for us is about collecting data to inform our
experiences in the marketing worldrdquo he says ldquoHoning a
data-driven approach allows you to tailor messages
the event and programme to the audience
as it appears in real timerdquo
983090MEASUREMENTNot so long ago measuring an
experiential campaignrsquos results
was near impossible ldquoExperi-
ential marketing campaigns were only
really evaluated on top-line metrics such
as how many people saw it or how many
samples were given outrdquo says Nick Adams
managing director of agency Sense ldquoNow at
Sense we have a tool called EMR (Experiential
Measurement Research) that measures
attitudes the impact on the companyrsquos bottom
line in terms of incremental sales and a range of
other measurements in accordance with the
eventrsquos objectivesrdquo And Sense isnrsquot alone More
and more agencies are using technology to
develop record and measure the results of activations
which in turn is leading to more sophisticated and
effective campaigns
983091
SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY Technology and social media have become
integral to the live event experience because
they make the connections between a brandand its target audience more seamless Jack Morton
Worldwidersquos head of consumer and digital Richard
Vincent believes the key to creating this connectivity is
invisible technology ldquoTechnology should be as invisible
as possible so that the message is the thing thatrsquos
carried not the tech Technology for technologyrsquos sakegenerally isnrsquot that interesting Itrsquos about being able to
make a connection and continue it or conversation with
the audience through their chosen digital interface which
is more often than not their smartphonerdquo
983092CREATING STANDOUT Vincent realises there are
exceptions to his invisible tech rule
though Head-turning technology
such as projection mapping and shiny new
products such as Oculus Rift and GoogleGlass can help to create standout for
brand experiences Vincent says ldquoIf you
put Oculus Rift in a shopping centre lots
of people are going to want to try it
However there are only a few pieces of
that sort of technologyrdquo
983093
AMPLIFICATION AND THEINCREASED IMPORTANCEOF EVENTSSocial media amplification can
provide a 365-day global opportunity for brands
beyond their events which shifts the event
industry into the realms of advertising Jackson
explains ldquoFrom a brand experience perspective
social media has put a premium on face-to-face
engagement We did an event recently for an audience of
7000 but it had a Twitter reach of 47 million Thatrsquos in
the realms of advertising It brings your cost of contacts
down and gives us in the live industry such a huge
advantage because wersquore creating a community or
interest and wersquore building that community around
content which is a live event Wersquore then driving socialmedia through the content we create and developing
that community throughout the world So instead of the
live event being a one-off it has turned into the high point
of the campaign 365 days of the yearrdquo
technology andsocial media trends
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 811
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 8
The summer of 2014
will be remembered inthe UK as one of the
hottest on record yet
few would have
imagined that respite would have
come in the form of an icy cold
bucket dousing filmed and
streamed by millions across social
media sites The ease with which the
Ice Bucket Challenge made its way
across the web is well documented
but does it point to a rise in PR stuntsor is this just an old tactic benefitting
from social media amplification
Stunts have always been a part of
humansrsquo lives argues TROrsquos chief
operating officer EMEA Michael
Wyrley Birch ldquoWersquove always liked
that element of surprise and we love
to be entertained The only difference
now is we have social media to
spread it far more widelyrdquo
Sally Gill business development
manager at Vision Nine agrees
ldquoPR stunts have been around under
different guises for centuries As
technology becomes more powerful
it will open more doors to create
noise in innovative ways Short-form
branded content currently seems to
be the prime vehicle for these stunts
and is often linked to an experiential
element It seems fair to say that thePR stunt is here to stay and is
becoming an even more integrated
part of brand campaignsrdquo
Indeed the speed and reach of the
Ice Bucket Challenge had many anagency feeling the client pressure as
brands sought to emulate such a far-
reaching stunt Sharon Richey chief
executive at Because believes
marketing agencies worldwide want
to emulate that ripple effect but
warns that brands are at greatest
risk by mimicking a tactic that was
ultimately about fundraising ldquoWhen
a brand tries to do something
theyrsquore obviously monetising so itmight not take off as much because
people might find the commercial
angle off-puttingrdquo
Authenticity is key to this particularly
as these stunts are rather short-lived
ldquoIf you can create something genuine
and theatrical which a stunt needs
to be and if it creates content that
people want to share yoursquove hit the
nail on the headrdquo says Avantgardersquos
managing director Stuart Bradbury
However he warns ldquoThink of
T-Mobile in Trafalgar Square when
Pink appeared and sang with the
crowd ndash you wouldnrsquot get away with
that these days because people see
itrsquos been prearranged and actually it
isnrsquot really a stuntrdquo
Nonetheless these stunts ndash whether
facilitated by social media or not ndash
will stay en vogue in 2015 Ben
Reed director of House of
Experience Big Cat Grouprsquos
experiential division believes they
are experiential events in their ownright ldquoThe planning insight and
delivery of a successful stunt follows
the same creative and activation
processes and resource as running a
traditional experiential eventrdquo
It is a view endorsed by Kim Myhre
senior vice-president international at
Freeman XP ldquoPR stunts are one of a
growing number of experience-
marketing tactics Applied in a waythat engages an audience while
reinforcing the brand PR stunts can
cut through the clutter As brands
look for ways of increasing live brand
interaction I expect wersquoll see many
more gorilla pop-up and
performance-based tactics emergerdquo
And Richard Vincent head of
consumer at Jack Morton Worldwide
concludes ldquoStunts are another part
of the toolkit Consumers want great
experiences they want things to get
involved with and they want to create
their own content and publish it so I
think ideas that can tap into some of
those elements are always going to
have a place
ldquoThe Ice Bucket Challenge went from
being exciting to slightly annoying
But I think the desire to get involved
with ideas and initiatives and createyour own version of content is simply
part of where we are now and it will
be part of the futurerdquo
The rise ofPR stuntsSocial media can make a stunt go global983084 but onlyif the original work promotes genuine interaction
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 911
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 9
The pitch processEvent rsquos Brand Experience research reveals five ways pitching is changing andhow agencies must rapidly adapt to stay ahead of the notoriously flawed process
983089GREAT EXPECTATIONSPitching is time-intensive expensive and
for Madison Byrne marketing manager of ID
Experiential tougher than ever before She
explains ldquoTwenty years ago we would sell an idea and the
client would be excited Today there are so many other
elements to consider such as social media and tech-nology In-depth research is needed too Agencies must
understand a brand to win the business and you have to
show the client how the experiential campaign will workrdquo
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP agrees
ldquoBrands are expecting more from their agency Winning
pitches are based on significant insight into the brand
and its target audienceThis insight is crafted into an
experience designed to achieve the brandrsquos objectives
The new breed of experience-marketing agencies
recognise that there is more to a winning brandexperience than event logistics but will instead look to all
relevant touchpoints both live and online and across the
entire portfolio to create client successrdquo
983090BRAND lsquoCONSULTANTSrsquoGone are the days of the lsquoclassicrsquo brief that
provides a specification now clients are
demanding a more consultative approach as
Michael Brown managing director of PS Live admits
ldquoBriefs are far more open looking at a brandrsquos objectives
rather than a specification They are looking for insight
and a creative consultant approachrdquo
It has been a similar experience for RPM
managing director Dom Robertson ldquoThe
pitch process has changed ndash the questions
are broader and often the answer is multi-
channel with some level of integrationrdquo
he says ldquoThere are still classic brand
experience briefs out there but
theyrsquore not as commonplace Wersquore
being presented with the companyrsquos
marketing challenge and asked torecommend solutionsrdquo
983091GROUP PITCHINGMore and more brand experience agencies are
finding that brands are looking for a collabor-
ative approach from all their agencies for the
good of the brand Brown explains ldquoIncreasingly we will
go into a pitch with a group of agencies The client will
give you a group brief and you will come back with all ofyour logos together along the bottom No one is given
the credit for individual elements itrsquos seen as a group of
agencies that are responding for the good of the brand
Clients want to see how the brand experience will
integrate with the rest of the campaign and what effect it
will have on ROI We will not be measured on our own It
is being measured as part of an overall campaignrdquo
983092LEAD983085TIMESShorter lead-times have been described as the
lsquonew normalrsquo for a few years but it continues tobe a challenge Matt Margetson creative
director at Smyle insists it is getting worse ldquoThere has
been a shift in terms of turnaround time People want
everything yesterday and when you look at the stats
lead times are getting shorter Thatrsquos been a trend for a
while but we get clients asking for things to be turned
around in days It is because of the velocity of events and
experiences Itrsquos getting quicker and quicker especially in
the B2C market and telcorsquos are a great example of this
They are launching something every other week
therefore the ideas have to be behind it do thatrdquo
983093TECHNOLOGY The days of Powerpoint presentations are gone
and many agencies are strong believers in lsquopitch
theatrersquo to bring the creative of a campaign to
life Kevin Jackson vice-president of business develop-
ment at George P Johnson says the agency has used
everything from ldquokey fobs containing the pitch presentation
to laser pens which when you shine them on a wall
show our ideas We have also used 3D printing instead
of flat 2D drawings to give some context to exhibition
stand concepts as well as projection mapping to give aclient an idea of how an event would lookrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1011
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 10
Experientialrsquos placein the marketing mixWhere does experiential fit within a marketing campaign Three agencies sharetheir views in the third instalment from Event rsquos Brand Experience Report 983090983088983089983092
STUART BRADBURYManaging director of
Avantgarde
He feels that experiential has
now become central to themarketing mix
Experiential has been
moving towards becoming
a mainstream marketing
platform and for some sectors it
has always been at the centre It is
often used to kick-start a campaign
and from there it follows into other
communication channels We are
all bombarded with messages all
the time but the most powerful way
that a marketer can communicate
to their target audience is by getting
them to remember something by
doing it face to face and creating an
experience that the consumer
wants to be part of and wants to
pass on to other people
SHARON RICHEYChief executive of Because
She suggests that the most
successful brands have
integrated marketing campaignswith experiential working as an
equal partner
Experiential is a good
partner for almost all of
your media channels
nowadays but I would also argue
that the brands that are the most
successful and the most talked
about are those that have truly
integrated strategies Experiential
sits at the table as an equal partner
to social media PR and digital
In respect of the overall media mix
there will always be a place for
above-the-line and broadcast
channels because naturally those
channels are all about reach and
pushing your message out to
millions and millions of people to
build your brand Above-the-line
channels will always dominate butbrand experience is vital ndash there is
more of a level playing field than
there ever wasrdquo
KEVIN JACKSON Vice-president EMEA at George
P Johnson
He sees the industry becoming
stronger
As an industry it has become
bigger stronger and more
knowledgeable and wersquore
finding it easier to make
our case in relation to advertising or
PR The world has moved on and
brands are looking for engagement
Consumers customers and clients
are looking for relationships
The greatest change in the past five
years has been a move towards
collaborative working with a clientrsquos
other communications agencies
Therersquos a recognition that the idea
can come from anywhere whereas
previously it usually came from the
ad agency Thatrsquos not true anymore
for the bigger global client Other
clients are recognising that spend
in the experience channel is out-
weighing spend in the advertisingchannel so we become the lead
agency or the idea-generating
agency that they come to firstrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1111
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 11
Hot trendsfor 983090983088983089983093
In search of the next biginfluencer983084 our first BrandExperience Report 983090983088983089983092
shows a digital983085centred future
AN lsquoACTIVErsquo AUDIENCEOne of the most important trends in the experience-
marketing world is the change in audiences from passive
observers to active participants No longer content to sit
and be spoken to today they want a voice in proceedings
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP saysldquoAs experience marketers it is our job to provide ways
for consumers to engage with the experience the
content and other event attendees This has created
tremendous opportunities to rethink event formats how
content is presented packaged and consumed new
learning models and how audiences are engagedrdquo
MOBILE983085FIRSTBut Sally Gill business development manager of Vision
Nine predicts that pop-ups cross-brand experiential
collaborations and partnerships and immersiveexperiences in brand-owned spaces will continue to rise
the biggest trends lie with digital She says ldquoWith
worldwide mobile penetration of 93 per cent a key trend
is lsquomobile firstrsquo Millennials are the mobile-first generation
and optimised geo-targeted and real-time social content
will become the norm Social content will continue to be a
central directive for marketers whose need for engaging
visuals and authentic stories is paramountrdquo
She adds ldquoWith the aggressive growth of Google+ and
continued market fragmentation wersquoll be keeping our eye
on how social audiences continue to splinter in 2015rdquo
BLURRED LINESNick Adams managing director of Sense believes the
line between live experience and social media will
become even more blurred and suggests there will be a
move away from tactical campaigns to more creative
strategy work ldquoThe debate about what is a brand
experience and what isnrsquot will become even more
blurred You see brands now who are doing a one-day or
a five-minute stunt in a public place just to then create a
social campaign off the back of that Thatrsquos 99 per cent asocial media campaign versus a live onerdquo
The live and digital experience will continue to merge as
virtual reality technology develops Matt Margetson
together and there are better tools being developed to
measure the return on investmentrdquo he says
TECHNOLOGY IN THE BACK SEATWhile the future of experiential centres around digital
there is an awareness that technology must also take a
back seat Natasha Davidson account director at
RPMC concludes ldquoThere will be a move from
technology being at the centre of the experience to it
being a facilitator that allows brands to create
connections with the target audience Technology hasgiven us amazing opportunities but it can lead to a lack
of genuine relationship-building We will see technology
still have its role but be more complementary helping the
process of engagement but not being the engagementrdquo
creative director at Smyle says ldquoSamsung has launched
virtual reality headset Gear VR and Oculus Rift will go on
sale in 2015 You will be able to see what it looks like on
stage for your favourite band when you are in your front
room Itrsquos a hybrid of a live and digital experiencerdquo
MEASUREMENTStuart Bradbury managing director of Avantgarde
London agrees social and live media experiences will
become more integrated but also that performance
measurement tools will become more sophisticated
ldquoSocial and face to face is becoming very much knitted
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 611
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 6
HEINEKENMILLY HUTCHINSONPR MANAGER FORHEINEKENrsquoS PREMIUMBRANDS
Itrsquos important for us that
consumers leave any
experiential activity with abetter understanding of what our
brand stands for and an enhanced
opinion of its relevance to that
individual For example with
Desperados itrsquos about unlocking
music or party experiences that
lsquomoney simply canrsquot buyrsquo in unusual
or surprising venues Heineken did
this recently with the Next Level
party at the Bussey Building in
Peckham
For Heineken beer we are
encouraging participants to see
their own cities in a different light
and indeed to take the unbeaten
track on a night out We can do that
directly through our Starcab
activation or indirectly through our
content partnership with Metro
Overall our events must share the
characteristics of the brand and
build on the emotional values thatwe have created through above-
the-line investment
SKIPTON BUILDINGSOCIETYSTACEY STOTHARDCORPORATECOMMUNICATIONMANAGER
Experiential events for
Skipton must be innovative
and quirky to createenough intrigue to attract the
media but this must be finely
balanced with an event that
represents the brand credibly and
doesnrsquot take theming to the
extreme As a financial services
company it is essential that the
building society is presented as
trustworthy and an authority
Skipton recently held a media eventat the Royal Hospital Chelsea
an iconic retirement home The
venue was chosen in line with the
objective to position the company
as an authority on pensions one of
our service offerings and because
it is a trusted establishment with a
long heritage similar to our 161-
year history
To also raise awareness of our
pension services we presented
scientific research on the inner
psyche of humans in retirement
We created a subtle scientific
theme which included dry ice and
cocktails in test tubes and we
hooked up guests to probes and
conducted scientific experiments
on their attitudes to retirementrdquo
ALCATELONETOUCH
TRACEY HUDSONUK amp IRELAND MARKETINGMANAGER
We always try to use our marketing
budget wisely in a way that allows
us to target a wide number of
relevant people at a one-on-one
level through sponsorship and
experiential This year we were an
active partner to the Rugby Super
League and headline sponsor ofClothes Show Live This sees us
supporting the Fashion Theatre and
we had the main feature ndash an
experiential stand within the show
The partnership allows us to reach
more than 120000 16 to 25-year-
olds a really key market for us in
the UK By spending our marketing
budgets on events like this we
reach the right people who want to
engage with Alcatel Onetouch
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 711
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 7
Agencies from across the sector discuss how developing technology and thecontinued rise of social media is shaping marketing and events in experiential
983089THE POWER OF BIG DATA
Big data was one of 2014rsquos hottest topics and forKevin Jackson EMEA vice-president of sales and
marketing at agency George P Johnson using
technology to take a data-driven approach to experiential
can be very powerful for brands and their agencies
ldquoThe future for us is about collecting data to inform our
experiences in the marketing worldrdquo he says ldquoHoning a
data-driven approach allows you to tailor messages
the event and programme to the audience
as it appears in real timerdquo
983090MEASUREMENTNot so long ago measuring an
experiential campaignrsquos results
was near impossible ldquoExperi-
ential marketing campaigns were only
really evaluated on top-line metrics such
as how many people saw it or how many
samples were given outrdquo says Nick Adams
managing director of agency Sense ldquoNow at
Sense we have a tool called EMR (Experiential
Measurement Research) that measures
attitudes the impact on the companyrsquos bottom
line in terms of incremental sales and a range of
other measurements in accordance with the
eventrsquos objectivesrdquo And Sense isnrsquot alone More
and more agencies are using technology to
develop record and measure the results of activations
which in turn is leading to more sophisticated and
effective campaigns
983091
SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY Technology and social media have become
integral to the live event experience because
they make the connections between a brandand its target audience more seamless Jack Morton
Worldwidersquos head of consumer and digital Richard
Vincent believes the key to creating this connectivity is
invisible technology ldquoTechnology should be as invisible
as possible so that the message is the thing thatrsquos
carried not the tech Technology for technologyrsquos sakegenerally isnrsquot that interesting Itrsquos about being able to
make a connection and continue it or conversation with
the audience through their chosen digital interface which
is more often than not their smartphonerdquo
983092CREATING STANDOUT Vincent realises there are
exceptions to his invisible tech rule
though Head-turning technology
such as projection mapping and shiny new
products such as Oculus Rift and GoogleGlass can help to create standout for
brand experiences Vincent says ldquoIf you
put Oculus Rift in a shopping centre lots
of people are going to want to try it
However there are only a few pieces of
that sort of technologyrdquo
983093
AMPLIFICATION AND THEINCREASED IMPORTANCEOF EVENTSSocial media amplification can
provide a 365-day global opportunity for brands
beyond their events which shifts the event
industry into the realms of advertising Jackson
explains ldquoFrom a brand experience perspective
social media has put a premium on face-to-face
engagement We did an event recently for an audience of
7000 but it had a Twitter reach of 47 million Thatrsquos in
the realms of advertising It brings your cost of contacts
down and gives us in the live industry such a huge
advantage because wersquore creating a community or
interest and wersquore building that community around
content which is a live event Wersquore then driving socialmedia through the content we create and developing
that community throughout the world So instead of the
live event being a one-off it has turned into the high point
of the campaign 365 days of the yearrdquo
technology andsocial media trends
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 811
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 8
The summer of 2014
will be remembered inthe UK as one of the
hottest on record yet
few would have
imagined that respite would have
come in the form of an icy cold
bucket dousing filmed and
streamed by millions across social
media sites The ease with which the
Ice Bucket Challenge made its way
across the web is well documented
but does it point to a rise in PR stuntsor is this just an old tactic benefitting
from social media amplification
Stunts have always been a part of
humansrsquo lives argues TROrsquos chief
operating officer EMEA Michael
Wyrley Birch ldquoWersquove always liked
that element of surprise and we love
to be entertained The only difference
now is we have social media to
spread it far more widelyrdquo
Sally Gill business development
manager at Vision Nine agrees
ldquoPR stunts have been around under
different guises for centuries As
technology becomes more powerful
it will open more doors to create
noise in innovative ways Short-form
branded content currently seems to
be the prime vehicle for these stunts
and is often linked to an experiential
element It seems fair to say that thePR stunt is here to stay and is
becoming an even more integrated
part of brand campaignsrdquo
Indeed the speed and reach of the
Ice Bucket Challenge had many anagency feeling the client pressure as
brands sought to emulate such a far-
reaching stunt Sharon Richey chief
executive at Because believes
marketing agencies worldwide want
to emulate that ripple effect but
warns that brands are at greatest
risk by mimicking a tactic that was
ultimately about fundraising ldquoWhen
a brand tries to do something
theyrsquore obviously monetising so itmight not take off as much because
people might find the commercial
angle off-puttingrdquo
Authenticity is key to this particularly
as these stunts are rather short-lived
ldquoIf you can create something genuine
and theatrical which a stunt needs
to be and if it creates content that
people want to share yoursquove hit the
nail on the headrdquo says Avantgardersquos
managing director Stuart Bradbury
However he warns ldquoThink of
T-Mobile in Trafalgar Square when
Pink appeared and sang with the
crowd ndash you wouldnrsquot get away with
that these days because people see
itrsquos been prearranged and actually it
isnrsquot really a stuntrdquo
Nonetheless these stunts ndash whether
facilitated by social media or not ndash
will stay en vogue in 2015 Ben
Reed director of House of
Experience Big Cat Grouprsquos
experiential division believes they
are experiential events in their ownright ldquoThe planning insight and
delivery of a successful stunt follows
the same creative and activation
processes and resource as running a
traditional experiential eventrdquo
It is a view endorsed by Kim Myhre
senior vice-president international at
Freeman XP ldquoPR stunts are one of a
growing number of experience-
marketing tactics Applied in a waythat engages an audience while
reinforcing the brand PR stunts can
cut through the clutter As brands
look for ways of increasing live brand
interaction I expect wersquoll see many
more gorilla pop-up and
performance-based tactics emergerdquo
And Richard Vincent head of
consumer at Jack Morton Worldwide
concludes ldquoStunts are another part
of the toolkit Consumers want great
experiences they want things to get
involved with and they want to create
their own content and publish it so I
think ideas that can tap into some of
those elements are always going to
have a place
ldquoThe Ice Bucket Challenge went from
being exciting to slightly annoying
But I think the desire to get involved
with ideas and initiatives and createyour own version of content is simply
part of where we are now and it will
be part of the futurerdquo
The rise ofPR stuntsSocial media can make a stunt go global983084 but onlyif the original work promotes genuine interaction
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 911
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 9
The pitch processEvent rsquos Brand Experience research reveals five ways pitching is changing andhow agencies must rapidly adapt to stay ahead of the notoriously flawed process
983089GREAT EXPECTATIONSPitching is time-intensive expensive and
for Madison Byrne marketing manager of ID
Experiential tougher than ever before She
explains ldquoTwenty years ago we would sell an idea and the
client would be excited Today there are so many other
elements to consider such as social media and tech-nology In-depth research is needed too Agencies must
understand a brand to win the business and you have to
show the client how the experiential campaign will workrdquo
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP agrees
ldquoBrands are expecting more from their agency Winning
pitches are based on significant insight into the brand
and its target audienceThis insight is crafted into an
experience designed to achieve the brandrsquos objectives
The new breed of experience-marketing agencies
recognise that there is more to a winning brandexperience than event logistics but will instead look to all
relevant touchpoints both live and online and across the
entire portfolio to create client successrdquo
983090BRAND lsquoCONSULTANTSrsquoGone are the days of the lsquoclassicrsquo brief that
provides a specification now clients are
demanding a more consultative approach as
Michael Brown managing director of PS Live admits
ldquoBriefs are far more open looking at a brandrsquos objectives
rather than a specification They are looking for insight
and a creative consultant approachrdquo
It has been a similar experience for RPM
managing director Dom Robertson ldquoThe
pitch process has changed ndash the questions
are broader and often the answer is multi-
channel with some level of integrationrdquo
he says ldquoThere are still classic brand
experience briefs out there but
theyrsquore not as commonplace Wersquore
being presented with the companyrsquos
marketing challenge and asked torecommend solutionsrdquo
983091GROUP PITCHINGMore and more brand experience agencies are
finding that brands are looking for a collabor-
ative approach from all their agencies for the
good of the brand Brown explains ldquoIncreasingly we will
go into a pitch with a group of agencies The client will
give you a group brief and you will come back with all ofyour logos together along the bottom No one is given
the credit for individual elements itrsquos seen as a group of
agencies that are responding for the good of the brand
Clients want to see how the brand experience will
integrate with the rest of the campaign and what effect it
will have on ROI We will not be measured on our own It
is being measured as part of an overall campaignrdquo
983092LEAD983085TIMESShorter lead-times have been described as the
lsquonew normalrsquo for a few years but it continues tobe a challenge Matt Margetson creative
director at Smyle insists it is getting worse ldquoThere has
been a shift in terms of turnaround time People want
everything yesterday and when you look at the stats
lead times are getting shorter Thatrsquos been a trend for a
while but we get clients asking for things to be turned
around in days It is because of the velocity of events and
experiences Itrsquos getting quicker and quicker especially in
the B2C market and telcorsquos are a great example of this
They are launching something every other week
therefore the ideas have to be behind it do thatrdquo
983093TECHNOLOGY The days of Powerpoint presentations are gone
and many agencies are strong believers in lsquopitch
theatrersquo to bring the creative of a campaign to
life Kevin Jackson vice-president of business develop-
ment at George P Johnson says the agency has used
everything from ldquokey fobs containing the pitch presentation
to laser pens which when you shine them on a wall
show our ideas We have also used 3D printing instead
of flat 2D drawings to give some context to exhibition
stand concepts as well as projection mapping to give aclient an idea of how an event would lookrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1011
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 10
Experientialrsquos placein the marketing mixWhere does experiential fit within a marketing campaign Three agencies sharetheir views in the third instalment from Event rsquos Brand Experience Report 983090983088983089983092
STUART BRADBURYManaging director of
Avantgarde
He feels that experiential has
now become central to themarketing mix
Experiential has been
moving towards becoming
a mainstream marketing
platform and for some sectors it
has always been at the centre It is
often used to kick-start a campaign
and from there it follows into other
communication channels We are
all bombarded with messages all
the time but the most powerful way
that a marketer can communicate
to their target audience is by getting
them to remember something by
doing it face to face and creating an
experience that the consumer
wants to be part of and wants to
pass on to other people
SHARON RICHEYChief executive of Because
She suggests that the most
successful brands have
integrated marketing campaignswith experiential working as an
equal partner
Experiential is a good
partner for almost all of
your media channels
nowadays but I would also argue
that the brands that are the most
successful and the most talked
about are those that have truly
integrated strategies Experiential
sits at the table as an equal partner
to social media PR and digital
In respect of the overall media mix
there will always be a place for
above-the-line and broadcast
channels because naturally those
channels are all about reach and
pushing your message out to
millions and millions of people to
build your brand Above-the-line
channels will always dominate butbrand experience is vital ndash there is
more of a level playing field than
there ever wasrdquo
KEVIN JACKSON Vice-president EMEA at George
P Johnson
He sees the industry becoming
stronger
As an industry it has become
bigger stronger and more
knowledgeable and wersquore
finding it easier to make
our case in relation to advertising or
PR The world has moved on and
brands are looking for engagement
Consumers customers and clients
are looking for relationships
The greatest change in the past five
years has been a move towards
collaborative working with a clientrsquos
other communications agencies
Therersquos a recognition that the idea
can come from anywhere whereas
previously it usually came from the
ad agency Thatrsquos not true anymore
for the bigger global client Other
clients are recognising that spend
in the experience channel is out-
weighing spend in the advertisingchannel so we become the lead
agency or the idea-generating
agency that they come to firstrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1111
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 11
Hot trendsfor 983090983088983089983093
In search of the next biginfluencer983084 our first BrandExperience Report 983090983088983089983092
shows a digital983085centred future
AN lsquoACTIVErsquo AUDIENCEOne of the most important trends in the experience-
marketing world is the change in audiences from passive
observers to active participants No longer content to sit
and be spoken to today they want a voice in proceedings
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP saysldquoAs experience marketers it is our job to provide ways
for consumers to engage with the experience the
content and other event attendees This has created
tremendous opportunities to rethink event formats how
content is presented packaged and consumed new
learning models and how audiences are engagedrdquo
MOBILE983085FIRSTBut Sally Gill business development manager of Vision
Nine predicts that pop-ups cross-brand experiential
collaborations and partnerships and immersiveexperiences in brand-owned spaces will continue to rise
the biggest trends lie with digital She says ldquoWith
worldwide mobile penetration of 93 per cent a key trend
is lsquomobile firstrsquo Millennials are the mobile-first generation
and optimised geo-targeted and real-time social content
will become the norm Social content will continue to be a
central directive for marketers whose need for engaging
visuals and authentic stories is paramountrdquo
She adds ldquoWith the aggressive growth of Google+ and
continued market fragmentation wersquoll be keeping our eye
on how social audiences continue to splinter in 2015rdquo
BLURRED LINESNick Adams managing director of Sense believes the
line between live experience and social media will
become even more blurred and suggests there will be a
move away from tactical campaigns to more creative
strategy work ldquoThe debate about what is a brand
experience and what isnrsquot will become even more
blurred You see brands now who are doing a one-day or
a five-minute stunt in a public place just to then create a
social campaign off the back of that Thatrsquos 99 per cent asocial media campaign versus a live onerdquo
The live and digital experience will continue to merge as
virtual reality technology develops Matt Margetson
together and there are better tools being developed to
measure the return on investmentrdquo he says
TECHNOLOGY IN THE BACK SEATWhile the future of experiential centres around digital
there is an awareness that technology must also take a
back seat Natasha Davidson account director at
RPMC concludes ldquoThere will be a move from
technology being at the centre of the experience to it
being a facilitator that allows brands to create
connections with the target audience Technology hasgiven us amazing opportunities but it can lead to a lack
of genuine relationship-building We will see technology
still have its role but be more complementary helping the
process of engagement but not being the engagementrdquo
creative director at Smyle says ldquoSamsung has launched
virtual reality headset Gear VR and Oculus Rift will go on
sale in 2015 You will be able to see what it looks like on
stage for your favourite band when you are in your front
room Itrsquos a hybrid of a live and digital experiencerdquo
MEASUREMENTStuart Bradbury managing director of Avantgarde
London agrees social and live media experiences will
become more integrated but also that performance
measurement tools will become more sophisticated
ldquoSocial and face to face is becoming very much knitted
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 711
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 7
Agencies from across the sector discuss how developing technology and thecontinued rise of social media is shaping marketing and events in experiential
983089THE POWER OF BIG DATA
Big data was one of 2014rsquos hottest topics and forKevin Jackson EMEA vice-president of sales and
marketing at agency George P Johnson using
technology to take a data-driven approach to experiential
can be very powerful for brands and their agencies
ldquoThe future for us is about collecting data to inform our
experiences in the marketing worldrdquo he says ldquoHoning a
data-driven approach allows you to tailor messages
the event and programme to the audience
as it appears in real timerdquo
983090MEASUREMENTNot so long ago measuring an
experiential campaignrsquos results
was near impossible ldquoExperi-
ential marketing campaigns were only
really evaluated on top-line metrics such
as how many people saw it or how many
samples were given outrdquo says Nick Adams
managing director of agency Sense ldquoNow at
Sense we have a tool called EMR (Experiential
Measurement Research) that measures
attitudes the impact on the companyrsquos bottom
line in terms of incremental sales and a range of
other measurements in accordance with the
eventrsquos objectivesrdquo And Sense isnrsquot alone More
and more agencies are using technology to
develop record and measure the results of activations
which in turn is leading to more sophisticated and
effective campaigns
983091
SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY Technology and social media have become
integral to the live event experience because
they make the connections between a brandand its target audience more seamless Jack Morton
Worldwidersquos head of consumer and digital Richard
Vincent believes the key to creating this connectivity is
invisible technology ldquoTechnology should be as invisible
as possible so that the message is the thing thatrsquos
carried not the tech Technology for technologyrsquos sakegenerally isnrsquot that interesting Itrsquos about being able to
make a connection and continue it or conversation with
the audience through their chosen digital interface which
is more often than not their smartphonerdquo
983092CREATING STANDOUT Vincent realises there are
exceptions to his invisible tech rule
though Head-turning technology
such as projection mapping and shiny new
products such as Oculus Rift and GoogleGlass can help to create standout for
brand experiences Vincent says ldquoIf you
put Oculus Rift in a shopping centre lots
of people are going to want to try it
However there are only a few pieces of
that sort of technologyrdquo
983093
AMPLIFICATION AND THEINCREASED IMPORTANCEOF EVENTSSocial media amplification can
provide a 365-day global opportunity for brands
beyond their events which shifts the event
industry into the realms of advertising Jackson
explains ldquoFrom a brand experience perspective
social media has put a premium on face-to-face
engagement We did an event recently for an audience of
7000 but it had a Twitter reach of 47 million Thatrsquos in
the realms of advertising It brings your cost of contacts
down and gives us in the live industry such a huge
advantage because wersquore creating a community or
interest and wersquore building that community around
content which is a live event Wersquore then driving socialmedia through the content we create and developing
that community throughout the world So instead of the
live event being a one-off it has turned into the high point
of the campaign 365 days of the yearrdquo
technology andsocial media trends
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 811
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 8
The summer of 2014
will be remembered inthe UK as one of the
hottest on record yet
few would have
imagined that respite would have
come in the form of an icy cold
bucket dousing filmed and
streamed by millions across social
media sites The ease with which the
Ice Bucket Challenge made its way
across the web is well documented
but does it point to a rise in PR stuntsor is this just an old tactic benefitting
from social media amplification
Stunts have always been a part of
humansrsquo lives argues TROrsquos chief
operating officer EMEA Michael
Wyrley Birch ldquoWersquove always liked
that element of surprise and we love
to be entertained The only difference
now is we have social media to
spread it far more widelyrdquo
Sally Gill business development
manager at Vision Nine agrees
ldquoPR stunts have been around under
different guises for centuries As
technology becomes more powerful
it will open more doors to create
noise in innovative ways Short-form
branded content currently seems to
be the prime vehicle for these stunts
and is often linked to an experiential
element It seems fair to say that thePR stunt is here to stay and is
becoming an even more integrated
part of brand campaignsrdquo
Indeed the speed and reach of the
Ice Bucket Challenge had many anagency feeling the client pressure as
brands sought to emulate such a far-
reaching stunt Sharon Richey chief
executive at Because believes
marketing agencies worldwide want
to emulate that ripple effect but
warns that brands are at greatest
risk by mimicking a tactic that was
ultimately about fundraising ldquoWhen
a brand tries to do something
theyrsquore obviously monetising so itmight not take off as much because
people might find the commercial
angle off-puttingrdquo
Authenticity is key to this particularly
as these stunts are rather short-lived
ldquoIf you can create something genuine
and theatrical which a stunt needs
to be and if it creates content that
people want to share yoursquove hit the
nail on the headrdquo says Avantgardersquos
managing director Stuart Bradbury
However he warns ldquoThink of
T-Mobile in Trafalgar Square when
Pink appeared and sang with the
crowd ndash you wouldnrsquot get away with
that these days because people see
itrsquos been prearranged and actually it
isnrsquot really a stuntrdquo
Nonetheless these stunts ndash whether
facilitated by social media or not ndash
will stay en vogue in 2015 Ben
Reed director of House of
Experience Big Cat Grouprsquos
experiential division believes they
are experiential events in their ownright ldquoThe planning insight and
delivery of a successful stunt follows
the same creative and activation
processes and resource as running a
traditional experiential eventrdquo
It is a view endorsed by Kim Myhre
senior vice-president international at
Freeman XP ldquoPR stunts are one of a
growing number of experience-
marketing tactics Applied in a waythat engages an audience while
reinforcing the brand PR stunts can
cut through the clutter As brands
look for ways of increasing live brand
interaction I expect wersquoll see many
more gorilla pop-up and
performance-based tactics emergerdquo
And Richard Vincent head of
consumer at Jack Morton Worldwide
concludes ldquoStunts are another part
of the toolkit Consumers want great
experiences they want things to get
involved with and they want to create
their own content and publish it so I
think ideas that can tap into some of
those elements are always going to
have a place
ldquoThe Ice Bucket Challenge went from
being exciting to slightly annoying
But I think the desire to get involved
with ideas and initiatives and createyour own version of content is simply
part of where we are now and it will
be part of the futurerdquo
The rise ofPR stuntsSocial media can make a stunt go global983084 but onlyif the original work promotes genuine interaction
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 911
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 9
The pitch processEvent rsquos Brand Experience research reveals five ways pitching is changing andhow agencies must rapidly adapt to stay ahead of the notoriously flawed process
983089GREAT EXPECTATIONSPitching is time-intensive expensive and
for Madison Byrne marketing manager of ID
Experiential tougher than ever before She
explains ldquoTwenty years ago we would sell an idea and the
client would be excited Today there are so many other
elements to consider such as social media and tech-nology In-depth research is needed too Agencies must
understand a brand to win the business and you have to
show the client how the experiential campaign will workrdquo
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP agrees
ldquoBrands are expecting more from their agency Winning
pitches are based on significant insight into the brand
and its target audienceThis insight is crafted into an
experience designed to achieve the brandrsquos objectives
The new breed of experience-marketing agencies
recognise that there is more to a winning brandexperience than event logistics but will instead look to all
relevant touchpoints both live and online and across the
entire portfolio to create client successrdquo
983090BRAND lsquoCONSULTANTSrsquoGone are the days of the lsquoclassicrsquo brief that
provides a specification now clients are
demanding a more consultative approach as
Michael Brown managing director of PS Live admits
ldquoBriefs are far more open looking at a brandrsquos objectives
rather than a specification They are looking for insight
and a creative consultant approachrdquo
It has been a similar experience for RPM
managing director Dom Robertson ldquoThe
pitch process has changed ndash the questions
are broader and often the answer is multi-
channel with some level of integrationrdquo
he says ldquoThere are still classic brand
experience briefs out there but
theyrsquore not as commonplace Wersquore
being presented with the companyrsquos
marketing challenge and asked torecommend solutionsrdquo
983091GROUP PITCHINGMore and more brand experience agencies are
finding that brands are looking for a collabor-
ative approach from all their agencies for the
good of the brand Brown explains ldquoIncreasingly we will
go into a pitch with a group of agencies The client will
give you a group brief and you will come back with all ofyour logos together along the bottom No one is given
the credit for individual elements itrsquos seen as a group of
agencies that are responding for the good of the brand
Clients want to see how the brand experience will
integrate with the rest of the campaign and what effect it
will have on ROI We will not be measured on our own It
is being measured as part of an overall campaignrdquo
983092LEAD983085TIMESShorter lead-times have been described as the
lsquonew normalrsquo for a few years but it continues tobe a challenge Matt Margetson creative
director at Smyle insists it is getting worse ldquoThere has
been a shift in terms of turnaround time People want
everything yesterday and when you look at the stats
lead times are getting shorter Thatrsquos been a trend for a
while but we get clients asking for things to be turned
around in days It is because of the velocity of events and
experiences Itrsquos getting quicker and quicker especially in
the B2C market and telcorsquos are a great example of this
They are launching something every other week
therefore the ideas have to be behind it do thatrdquo
983093TECHNOLOGY The days of Powerpoint presentations are gone
and many agencies are strong believers in lsquopitch
theatrersquo to bring the creative of a campaign to
life Kevin Jackson vice-president of business develop-
ment at George P Johnson says the agency has used
everything from ldquokey fobs containing the pitch presentation
to laser pens which when you shine them on a wall
show our ideas We have also used 3D printing instead
of flat 2D drawings to give some context to exhibition
stand concepts as well as projection mapping to give aclient an idea of how an event would lookrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1011
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 10
Experientialrsquos placein the marketing mixWhere does experiential fit within a marketing campaign Three agencies sharetheir views in the third instalment from Event rsquos Brand Experience Report 983090983088983089983092
STUART BRADBURYManaging director of
Avantgarde
He feels that experiential has
now become central to themarketing mix
Experiential has been
moving towards becoming
a mainstream marketing
platform and for some sectors it
has always been at the centre It is
often used to kick-start a campaign
and from there it follows into other
communication channels We are
all bombarded with messages all
the time but the most powerful way
that a marketer can communicate
to their target audience is by getting
them to remember something by
doing it face to face and creating an
experience that the consumer
wants to be part of and wants to
pass on to other people
SHARON RICHEYChief executive of Because
She suggests that the most
successful brands have
integrated marketing campaignswith experiential working as an
equal partner
Experiential is a good
partner for almost all of
your media channels
nowadays but I would also argue
that the brands that are the most
successful and the most talked
about are those that have truly
integrated strategies Experiential
sits at the table as an equal partner
to social media PR and digital
In respect of the overall media mix
there will always be a place for
above-the-line and broadcast
channels because naturally those
channels are all about reach and
pushing your message out to
millions and millions of people to
build your brand Above-the-line
channels will always dominate butbrand experience is vital ndash there is
more of a level playing field than
there ever wasrdquo
KEVIN JACKSON Vice-president EMEA at George
P Johnson
He sees the industry becoming
stronger
As an industry it has become
bigger stronger and more
knowledgeable and wersquore
finding it easier to make
our case in relation to advertising or
PR The world has moved on and
brands are looking for engagement
Consumers customers and clients
are looking for relationships
The greatest change in the past five
years has been a move towards
collaborative working with a clientrsquos
other communications agencies
Therersquos a recognition that the idea
can come from anywhere whereas
previously it usually came from the
ad agency Thatrsquos not true anymore
for the bigger global client Other
clients are recognising that spend
in the experience channel is out-
weighing spend in the advertisingchannel so we become the lead
agency or the idea-generating
agency that they come to firstrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1111
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 11
Hot trendsfor 983090983088983089983093
In search of the next biginfluencer983084 our first BrandExperience Report 983090983088983089983092
shows a digital983085centred future
AN lsquoACTIVErsquo AUDIENCEOne of the most important trends in the experience-
marketing world is the change in audiences from passive
observers to active participants No longer content to sit
and be spoken to today they want a voice in proceedings
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP saysldquoAs experience marketers it is our job to provide ways
for consumers to engage with the experience the
content and other event attendees This has created
tremendous opportunities to rethink event formats how
content is presented packaged and consumed new
learning models and how audiences are engagedrdquo
MOBILE983085FIRSTBut Sally Gill business development manager of Vision
Nine predicts that pop-ups cross-brand experiential
collaborations and partnerships and immersiveexperiences in brand-owned spaces will continue to rise
the biggest trends lie with digital She says ldquoWith
worldwide mobile penetration of 93 per cent a key trend
is lsquomobile firstrsquo Millennials are the mobile-first generation
and optimised geo-targeted and real-time social content
will become the norm Social content will continue to be a
central directive for marketers whose need for engaging
visuals and authentic stories is paramountrdquo
She adds ldquoWith the aggressive growth of Google+ and
continued market fragmentation wersquoll be keeping our eye
on how social audiences continue to splinter in 2015rdquo
BLURRED LINESNick Adams managing director of Sense believes the
line between live experience and social media will
become even more blurred and suggests there will be a
move away from tactical campaigns to more creative
strategy work ldquoThe debate about what is a brand
experience and what isnrsquot will become even more
blurred You see brands now who are doing a one-day or
a five-minute stunt in a public place just to then create a
social campaign off the back of that Thatrsquos 99 per cent asocial media campaign versus a live onerdquo
The live and digital experience will continue to merge as
virtual reality technology develops Matt Margetson
together and there are better tools being developed to
measure the return on investmentrdquo he says
TECHNOLOGY IN THE BACK SEATWhile the future of experiential centres around digital
there is an awareness that technology must also take a
back seat Natasha Davidson account director at
RPMC concludes ldquoThere will be a move from
technology being at the centre of the experience to it
being a facilitator that allows brands to create
connections with the target audience Technology hasgiven us amazing opportunities but it can lead to a lack
of genuine relationship-building We will see technology
still have its role but be more complementary helping the
process of engagement but not being the engagementrdquo
creative director at Smyle says ldquoSamsung has launched
virtual reality headset Gear VR and Oculus Rift will go on
sale in 2015 You will be able to see what it looks like on
stage for your favourite band when you are in your front
room Itrsquos a hybrid of a live and digital experiencerdquo
MEASUREMENTStuart Bradbury managing director of Avantgarde
London agrees social and live media experiences will
become more integrated but also that performance
measurement tools will become more sophisticated
ldquoSocial and face to face is becoming very much knitted
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 811
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 8
The summer of 2014
will be remembered inthe UK as one of the
hottest on record yet
few would have
imagined that respite would have
come in the form of an icy cold
bucket dousing filmed and
streamed by millions across social
media sites The ease with which the
Ice Bucket Challenge made its way
across the web is well documented
but does it point to a rise in PR stuntsor is this just an old tactic benefitting
from social media amplification
Stunts have always been a part of
humansrsquo lives argues TROrsquos chief
operating officer EMEA Michael
Wyrley Birch ldquoWersquove always liked
that element of surprise and we love
to be entertained The only difference
now is we have social media to
spread it far more widelyrdquo
Sally Gill business development
manager at Vision Nine agrees
ldquoPR stunts have been around under
different guises for centuries As
technology becomes more powerful
it will open more doors to create
noise in innovative ways Short-form
branded content currently seems to
be the prime vehicle for these stunts
and is often linked to an experiential
element It seems fair to say that thePR stunt is here to stay and is
becoming an even more integrated
part of brand campaignsrdquo
Indeed the speed and reach of the
Ice Bucket Challenge had many anagency feeling the client pressure as
brands sought to emulate such a far-
reaching stunt Sharon Richey chief
executive at Because believes
marketing agencies worldwide want
to emulate that ripple effect but
warns that brands are at greatest
risk by mimicking a tactic that was
ultimately about fundraising ldquoWhen
a brand tries to do something
theyrsquore obviously monetising so itmight not take off as much because
people might find the commercial
angle off-puttingrdquo
Authenticity is key to this particularly
as these stunts are rather short-lived
ldquoIf you can create something genuine
and theatrical which a stunt needs
to be and if it creates content that
people want to share yoursquove hit the
nail on the headrdquo says Avantgardersquos
managing director Stuart Bradbury
However he warns ldquoThink of
T-Mobile in Trafalgar Square when
Pink appeared and sang with the
crowd ndash you wouldnrsquot get away with
that these days because people see
itrsquos been prearranged and actually it
isnrsquot really a stuntrdquo
Nonetheless these stunts ndash whether
facilitated by social media or not ndash
will stay en vogue in 2015 Ben
Reed director of House of
Experience Big Cat Grouprsquos
experiential division believes they
are experiential events in their ownright ldquoThe planning insight and
delivery of a successful stunt follows
the same creative and activation
processes and resource as running a
traditional experiential eventrdquo
It is a view endorsed by Kim Myhre
senior vice-president international at
Freeman XP ldquoPR stunts are one of a
growing number of experience-
marketing tactics Applied in a waythat engages an audience while
reinforcing the brand PR stunts can
cut through the clutter As brands
look for ways of increasing live brand
interaction I expect wersquoll see many
more gorilla pop-up and
performance-based tactics emergerdquo
And Richard Vincent head of
consumer at Jack Morton Worldwide
concludes ldquoStunts are another part
of the toolkit Consumers want great
experiences they want things to get
involved with and they want to create
their own content and publish it so I
think ideas that can tap into some of
those elements are always going to
have a place
ldquoThe Ice Bucket Challenge went from
being exciting to slightly annoying
But I think the desire to get involved
with ideas and initiatives and createyour own version of content is simply
part of where we are now and it will
be part of the futurerdquo
The rise ofPR stuntsSocial media can make a stunt go global983084 but onlyif the original work promotes genuine interaction
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 911
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 9
The pitch processEvent rsquos Brand Experience research reveals five ways pitching is changing andhow agencies must rapidly adapt to stay ahead of the notoriously flawed process
983089GREAT EXPECTATIONSPitching is time-intensive expensive and
for Madison Byrne marketing manager of ID
Experiential tougher than ever before She
explains ldquoTwenty years ago we would sell an idea and the
client would be excited Today there are so many other
elements to consider such as social media and tech-nology In-depth research is needed too Agencies must
understand a brand to win the business and you have to
show the client how the experiential campaign will workrdquo
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP agrees
ldquoBrands are expecting more from their agency Winning
pitches are based on significant insight into the brand
and its target audienceThis insight is crafted into an
experience designed to achieve the brandrsquos objectives
The new breed of experience-marketing agencies
recognise that there is more to a winning brandexperience than event logistics but will instead look to all
relevant touchpoints both live and online and across the
entire portfolio to create client successrdquo
983090BRAND lsquoCONSULTANTSrsquoGone are the days of the lsquoclassicrsquo brief that
provides a specification now clients are
demanding a more consultative approach as
Michael Brown managing director of PS Live admits
ldquoBriefs are far more open looking at a brandrsquos objectives
rather than a specification They are looking for insight
and a creative consultant approachrdquo
It has been a similar experience for RPM
managing director Dom Robertson ldquoThe
pitch process has changed ndash the questions
are broader and often the answer is multi-
channel with some level of integrationrdquo
he says ldquoThere are still classic brand
experience briefs out there but
theyrsquore not as commonplace Wersquore
being presented with the companyrsquos
marketing challenge and asked torecommend solutionsrdquo
983091GROUP PITCHINGMore and more brand experience agencies are
finding that brands are looking for a collabor-
ative approach from all their agencies for the
good of the brand Brown explains ldquoIncreasingly we will
go into a pitch with a group of agencies The client will
give you a group brief and you will come back with all ofyour logos together along the bottom No one is given
the credit for individual elements itrsquos seen as a group of
agencies that are responding for the good of the brand
Clients want to see how the brand experience will
integrate with the rest of the campaign and what effect it
will have on ROI We will not be measured on our own It
is being measured as part of an overall campaignrdquo
983092LEAD983085TIMESShorter lead-times have been described as the
lsquonew normalrsquo for a few years but it continues tobe a challenge Matt Margetson creative
director at Smyle insists it is getting worse ldquoThere has
been a shift in terms of turnaround time People want
everything yesterday and when you look at the stats
lead times are getting shorter Thatrsquos been a trend for a
while but we get clients asking for things to be turned
around in days It is because of the velocity of events and
experiences Itrsquos getting quicker and quicker especially in
the B2C market and telcorsquos are a great example of this
They are launching something every other week
therefore the ideas have to be behind it do thatrdquo
983093TECHNOLOGY The days of Powerpoint presentations are gone
and many agencies are strong believers in lsquopitch
theatrersquo to bring the creative of a campaign to
life Kevin Jackson vice-president of business develop-
ment at George P Johnson says the agency has used
everything from ldquokey fobs containing the pitch presentation
to laser pens which when you shine them on a wall
show our ideas We have also used 3D printing instead
of flat 2D drawings to give some context to exhibition
stand concepts as well as projection mapping to give aclient an idea of how an event would lookrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1011
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 10
Experientialrsquos placein the marketing mixWhere does experiential fit within a marketing campaign Three agencies sharetheir views in the third instalment from Event rsquos Brand Experience Report 983090983088983089983092
STUART BRADBURYManaging director of
Avantgarde
He feels that experiential has
now become central to themarketing mix
Experiential has been
moving towards becoming
a mainstream marketing
platform and for some sectors it
has always been at the centre It is
often used to kick-start a campaign
and from there it follows into other
communication channels We are
all bombarded with messages all
the time but the most powerful way
that a marketer can communicate
to their target audience is by getting
them to remember something by
doing it face to face and creating an
experience that the consumer
wants to be part of and wants to
pass on to other people
SHARON RICHEYChief executive of Because
She suggests that the most
successful brands have
integrated marketing campaignswith experiential working as an
equal partner
Experiential is a good
partner for almost all of
your media channels
nowadays but I would also argue
that the brands that are the most
successful and the most talked
about are those that have truly
integrated strategies Experiential
sits at the table as an equal partner
to social media PR and digital
In respect of the overall media mix
there will always be a place for
above-the-line and broadcast
channels because naturally those
channels are all about reach and
pushing your message out to
millions and millions of people to
build your brand Above-the-line
channels will always dominate butbrand experience is vital ndash there is
more of a level playing field than
there ever wasrdquo
KEVIN JACKSON Vice-president EMEA at George
P Johnson
He sees the industry becoming
stronger
As an industry it has become
bigger stronger and more
knowledgeable and wersquore
finding it easier to make
our case in relation to advertising or
PR The world has moved on and
brands are looking for engagement
Consumers customers and clients
are looking for relationships
The greatest change in the past five
years has been a move towards
collaborative working with a clientrsquos
other communications agencies
Therersquos a recognition that the idea
can come from anywhere whereas
previously it usually came from the
ad agency Thatrsquos not true anymore
for the bigger global client Other
clients are recognising that spend
in the experience channel is out-
weighing spend in the advertisingchannel so we become the lead
agency or the idea-generating
agency that they come to firstrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1111
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 11
Hot trendsfor 983090983088983089983093
In search of the next biginfluencer983084 our first BrandExperience Report 983090983088983089983092
shows a digital983085centred future
AN lsquoACTIVErsquo AUDIENCEOne of the most important trends in the experience-
marketing world is the change in audiences from passive
observers to active participants No longer content to sit
and be spoken to today they want a voice in proceedings
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP saysldquoAs experience marketers it is our job to provide ways
for consumers to engage with the experience the
content and other event attendees This has created
tremendous opportunities to rethink event formats how
content is presented packaged and consumed new
learning models and how audiences are engagedrdquo
MOBILE983085FIRSTBut Sally Gill business development manager of Vision
Nine predicts that pop-ups cross-brand experiential
collaborations and partnerships and immersiveexperiences in brand-owned spaces will continue to rise
the biggest trends lie with digital She says ldquoWith
worldwide mobile penetration of 93 per cent a key trend
is lsquomobile firstrsquo Millennials are the mobile-first generation
and optimised geo-targeted and real-time social content
will become the norm Social content will continue to be a
central directive for marketers whose need for engaging
visuals and authentic stories is paramountrdquo
She adds ldquoWith the aggressive growth of Google+ and
continued market fragmentation wersquoll be keeping our eye
on how social audiences continue to splinter in 2015rdquo
BLURRED LINESNick Adams managing director of Sense believes the
line between live experience and social media will
become even more blurred and suggests there will be a
move away from tactical campaigns to more creative
strategy work ldquoThe debate about what is a brand
experience and what isnrsquot will become even more
blurred You see brands now who are doing a one-day or
a five-minute stunt in a public place just to then create a
social campaign off the back of that Thatrsquos 99 per cent asocial media campaign versus a live onerdquo
The live and digital experience will continue to merge as
virtual reality technology develops Matt Margetson
together and there are better tools being developed to
measure the return on investmentrdquo he says
TECHNOLOGY IN THE BACK SEATWhile the future of experiential centres around digital
there is an awareness that technology must also take a
back seat Natasha Davidson account director at
RPMC concludes ldquoThere will be a move from
technology being at the centre of the experience to it
being a facilitator that allows brands to create
connections with the target audience Technology hasgiven us amazing opportunities but it can lead to a lack
of genuine relationship-building We will see technology
still have its role but be more complementary helping the
process of engagement but not being the engagementrdquo
creative director at Smyle says ldquoSamsung has launched
virtual reality headset Gear VR and Oculus Rift will go on
sale in 2015 You will be able to see what it looks like on
stage for your favourite band when you are in your front
room Itrsquos a hybrid of a live and digital experiencerdquo
MEASUREMENTStuart Bradbury managing director of Avantgarde
London agrees social and live media experiences will
become more integrated but also that performance
measurement tools will become more sophisticated
ldquoSocial and face to face is becoming very much knitted
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 911
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 9
The pitch processEvent rsquos Brand Experience research reveals five ways pitching is changing andhow agencies must rapidly adapt to stay ahead of the notoriously flawed process
983089GREAT EXPECTATIONSPitching is time-intensive expensive and
for Madison Byrne marketing manager of ID
Experiential tougher than ever before She
explains ldquoTwenty years ago we would sell an idea and the
client would be excited Today there are so many other
elements to consider such as social media and tech-nology In-depth research is needed too Agencies must
understand a brand to win the business and you have to
show the client how the experiential campaign will workrdquo
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP agrees
ldquoBrands are expecting more from their agency Winning
pitches are based on significant insight into the brand
and its target audienceThis insight is crafted into an
experience designed to achieve the brandrsquos objectives
The new breed of experience-marketing agencies
recognise that there is more to a winning brandexperience than event logistics but will instead look to all
relevant touchpoints both live and online and across the
entire portfolio to create client successrdquo
983090BRAND lsquoCONSULTANTSrsquoGone are the days of the lsquoclassicrsquo brief that
provides a specification now clients are
demanding a more consultative approach as
Michael Brown managing director of PS Live admits
ldquoBriefs are far more open looking at a brandrsquos objectives
rather than a specification They are looking for insight
and a creative consultant approachrdquo
It has been a similar experience for RPM
managing director Dom Robertson ldquoThe
pitch process has changed ndash the questions
are broader and often the answer is multi-
channel with some level of integrationrdquo
he says ldquoThere are still classic brand
experience briefs out there but
theyrsquore not as commonplace Wersquore
being presented with the companyrsquos
marketing challenge and asked torecommend solutionsrdquo
983091GROUP PITCHINGMore and more brand experience agencies are
finding that brands are looking for a collabor-
ative approach from all their agencies for the
good of the brand Brown explains ldquoIncreasingly we will
go into a pitch with a group of agencies The client will
give you a group brief and you will come back with all ofyour logos together along the bottom No one is given
the credit for individual elements itrsquos seen as a group of
agencies that are responding for the good of the brand
Clients want to see how the brand experience will
integrate with the rest of the campaign and what effect it
will have on ROI We will not be measured on our own It
is being measured as part of an overall campaignrdquo
983092LEAD983085TIMESShorter lead-times have been described as the
lsquonew normalrsquo for a few years but it continues tobe a challenge Matt Margetson creative
director at Smyle insists it is getting worse ldquoThere has
been a shift in terms of turnaround time People want
everything yesterday and when you look at the stats
lead times are getting shorter Thatrsquos been a trend for a
while but we get clients asking for things to be turned
around in days It is because of the velocity of events and
experiences Itrsquos getting quicker and quicker especially in
the B2C market and telcorsquos are a great example of this
They are launching something every other week
therefore the ideas have to be behind it do thatrdquo
983093TECHNOLOGY The days of Powerpoint presentations are gone
and many agencies are strong believers in lsquopitch
theatrersquo to bring the creative of a campaign to
life Kevin Jackson vice-president of business develop-
ment at George P Johnson says the agency has used
everything from ldquokey fobs containing the pitch presentation
to laser pens which when you shine them on a wall
show our ideas We have also used 3D printing instead
of flat 2D drawings to give some context to exhibition
stand concepts as well as projection mapping to give aclient an idea of how an event would lookrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1011
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 10
Experientialrsquos placein the marketing mixWhere does experiential fit within a marketing campaign Three agencies sharetheir views in the third instalment from Event rsquos Brand Experience Report 983090983088983089983092
STUART BRADBURYManaging director of
Avantgarde
He feels that experiential has
now become central to themarketing mix
Experiential has been
moving towards becoming
a mainstream marketing
platform and for some sectors it
has always been at the centre It is
often used to kick-start a campaign
and from there it follows into other
communication channels We are
all bombarded with messages all
the time but the most powerful way
that a marketer can communicate
to their target audience is by getting
them to remember something by
doing it face to face and creating an
experience that the consumer
wants to be part of and wants to
pass on to other people
SHARON RICHEYChief executive of Because
She suggests that the most
successful brands have
integrated marketing campaignswith experiential working as an
equal partner
Experiential is a good
partner for almost all of
your media channels
nowadays but I would also argue
that the brands that are the most
successful and the most talked
about are those that have truly
integrated strategies Experiential
sits at the table as an equal partner
to social media PR and digital
In respect of the overall media mix
there will always be a place for
above-the-line and broadcast
channels because naturally those
channels are all about reach and
pushing your message out to
millions and millions of people to
build your brand Above-the-line
channels will always dominate butbrand experience is vital ndash there is
more of a level playing field than
there ever wasrdquo
KEVIN JACKSON Vice-president EMEA at George
P Johnson
He sees the industry becoming
stronger
As an industry it has become
bigger stronger and more
knowledgeable and wersquore
finding it easier to make
our case in relation to advertising or
PR The world has moved on and
brands are looking for engagement
Consumers customers and clients
are looking for relationships
The greatest change in the past five
years has been a move towards
collaborative working with a clientrsquos
other communications agencies
Therersquos a recognition that the idea
can come from anywhere whereas
previously it usually came from the
ad agency Thatrsquos not true anymore
for the bigger global client Other
clients are recognising that spend
in the experience channel is out-
weighing spend in the advertisingchannel so we become the lead
agency or the idea-generating
agency that they come to firstrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1111
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 11
Hot trendsfor 983090983088983089983093
In search of the next biginfluencer983084 our first BrandExperience Report 983090983088983089983092
shows a digital983085centred future
AN lsquoACTIVErsquo AUDIENCEOne of the most important trends in the experience-
marketing world is the change in audiences from passive
observers to active participants No longer content to sit
and be spoken to today they want a voice in proceedings
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP saysldquoAs experience marketers it is our job to provide ways
for consumers to engage with the experience the
content and other event attendees This has created
tremendous opportunities to rethink event formats how
content is presented packaged and consumed new
learning models and how audiences are engagedrdquo
MOBILE983085FIRSTBut Sally Gill business development manager of Vision
Nine predicts that pop-ups cross-brand experiential
collaborations and partnerships and immersiveexperiences in brand-owned spaces will continue to rise
the biggest trends lie with digital She says ldquoWith
worldwide mobile penetration of 93 per cent a key trend
is lsquomobile firstrsquo Millennials are the mobile-first generation
and optimised geo-targeted and real-time social content
will become the norm Social content will continue to be a
central directive for marketers whose need for engaging
visuals and authentic stories is paramountrdquo
She adds ldquoWith the aggressive growth of Google+ and
continued market fragmentation wersquoll be keeping our eye
on how social audiences continue to splinter in 2015rdquo
BLURRED LINESNick Adams managing director of Sense believes the
line between live experience and social media will
become even more blurred and suggests there will be a
move away from tactical campaigns to more creative
strategy work ldquoThe debate about what is a brand
experience and what isnrsquot will become even more
blurred You see brands now who are doing a one-day or
a five-minute stunt in a public place just to then create a
social campaign off the back of that Thatrsquos 99 per cent asocial media campaign versus a live onerdquo
The live and digital experience will continue to merge as
virtual reality technology develops Matt Margetson
together and there are better tools being developed to
measure the return on investmentrdquo he says
TECHNOLOGY IN THE BACK SEATWhile the future of experiential centres around digital
there is an awareness that technology must also take a
back seat Natasha Davidson account director at
RPMC concludes ldquoThere will be a move from
technology being at the centre of the experience to it
being a facilitator that allows brands to create
connections with the target audience Technology hasgiven us amazing opportunities but it can lead to a lack
of genuine relationship-building We will see technology
still have its role but be more complementary helping the
process of engagement but not being the engagementrdquo
creative director at Smyle says ldquoSamsung has launched
virtual reality headset Gear VR and Oculus Rift will go on
sale in 2015 You will be able to see what it looks like on
stage for your favourite band when you are in your front
room Itrsquos a hybrid of a live and digital experiencerdquo
MEASUREMENTStuart Bradbury managing director of Avantgarde
London agrees social and live media experiences will
become more integrated but also that performance
measurement tools will become more sophisticated
ldquoSocial and face to face is becoming very much knitted
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1011
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 10
Experientialrsquos placein the marketing mixWhere does experiential fit within a marketing campaign Three agencies sharetheir views in the third instalment from Event rsquos Brand Experience Report 983090983088983089983092
STUART BRADBURYManaging director of
Avantgarde
He feels that experiential has
now become central to themarketing mix
Experiential has been
moving towards becoming
a mainstream marketing
platform and for some sectors it
has always been at the centre It is
often used to kick-start a campaign
and from there it follows into other
communication channels We are
all bombarded with messages all
the time but the most powerful way
that a marketer can communicate
to their target audience is by getting
them to remember something by
doing it face to face and creating an
experience that the consumer
wants to be part of and wants to
pass on to other people
SHARON RICHEYChief executive of Because
She suggests that the most
successful brands have
integrated marketing campaignswith experiential working as an
equal partner
Experiential is a good
partner for almost all of
your media channels
nowadays but I would also argue
that the brands that are the most
successful and the most talked
about are those that have truly
integrated strategies Experiential
sits at the table as an equal partner
to social media PR and digital
In respect of the overall media mix
there will always be a place for
above-the-line and broadcast
channels because naturally those
channels are all about reach and
pushing your message out to
millions and millions of people to
build your brand Above-the-line
channels will always dominate butbrand experience is vital ndash there is
more of a level playing field than
there ever wasrdquo
KEVIN JACKSON Vice-president EMEA at George
P Johnson
He sees the industry becoming
stronger
As an industry it has become
bigger stronger and more
knowledgeable and wersquore
finding it easier to make
our case in relation to advertising or
PR The world has moved on and
brands are looking for engagement
Consumers customers and clients
are looking for relationships
The greatest change in the past five
years has been a move towards
collaborative working with a clientrsquos
other communications agencies
Therersquos a recognition that the idea
can come from anywhere whereas
previously it usually came from the
ad agency Thatrsquos not true anymore
for the bigger global client Other
clients are recognising that spend
in the experience channel is out-
weighing spend in the advertisingchannel so we become the lead
agency or the idea-generating
agency that they come to firstrdquo
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1111
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 11
Hot trendsfor 983090983088983089983093
In search of the next biginfluencer983084 our first BrandExperience Report 983090983088983089983092
shows a digital983085centred future
AN lsquoACTIVErsquo AUDIENCEOne of the most important trends in the experience-
marketing world is the change in audiences from passive
observers to active participants No longer content to sit
and be spoken to today they want a voice in proceedings
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP saysldquoAs experience marketers it is our job to provide ways
for consumers to engage with the experience the
content and other event attendees This has created
tremendous opportunities to rethink event formats how
content is presented packaged and consumed new
learning models and how audiences are engagedrdquo
MOBILE983085FIRSTBut Sally Gill business development manager of Vision
Nine predicts that pop-ups cross-brand experiential
collaborations and partnerships and immersiveexperiences in brand-owned spaces will continue to rise
the biggest trends lie with digital She says ldquoWith
worldwide mobile penetration of 93 per cent a key trend
is lsquomobile firstrsquo Millennials are the mobile-first generation
and optimised geo-targeted and real-time social content
will become the norm Social content will continue to be a
central directive for marketers whose need for engaging
visuals and authentic stories is paramountrdquo
She adds ldquoWith the aggressive growth of Google+ and
continued market fragmentation wersquoll be keeping our eye
on how social audiences continue to splinter in 2015rdquo
BLURRED LINESNick Adams managing director of Sense believes the
line between live experience and social media will
become even more blurred and suggests there will be a
move away from tactical campaigns to more creative
strategy work ldquoThe debate about what is a brand
experience and what isnrsquot will become even more
blurred You see brands now who are doing a one-day or
a five-minute stunt in a public place just to then create a
social campaign off the back of that Thatrsquos 99 per cent asocial media campaign versus a live onerdquo
The live and digital experience will continue to merge as
virtual reality technology develops Matt Margetson
together and there are better tools being developed to
measure the return on investmentrdquo he says
TECHNOLOGY IN THE BACK SEATWhile the future of experiential centres around digital
there is an awareness that technology must also take a
back seat Natasha Davidson account director at
RPMC concludes ldquoThere will be a move from
technology being at the centre of the experience to it
being a facilitator that allows brands to create
connections with the target audience Technology hasgiven us amazing opportunities but it can lead to a lack
of genuine relationship-building We will see technology
still have its role but be more complementary helping the
process of engagement but not being the engagementrdquo
creative director at Smyle says ldquoSamsung has launched
virtual reality headset Gear VR and Oculus Rift will go on
sale in 2015 You will be able to see what it looks like on
stage for your favourite band when you are in your front
room Itrsquos a hybrid of a live and digital experiencerdquo
MEASUREMENTStuart Bradbury managing director of Avantgarde
London agrees social and live media experiences will
become more integrated but also that performance
measurement tools will become more sophisticated
ldquoSocial and face to face is becoming very much knitted
7182019 Event Brand Experience Report 2014
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullevent-brand-experience-report-2014 1111
BRAND EXPERIENCE REPORT 2014 11
Hot trendsfor 983090983088983089983093
In search of the next biginfluencer983084 our first BrandExperience Report 983090983088983089983092
shows a digital983085centred future
AN lsquoACTIVErsquo AUDIENCEOne of the most important trends in the experience-
marketing world is the change in audiences from passive
observers to active participants No longer content to sit
and be spoken to today they want a voice in proceedings
Kim Myhre senior vice-president of FreemanXP saysldquoAs experience marketers it is our job to provide ways
for consumers to engage with the experience the
content and other event attendees This has created
tremendous opportunities to rethink event formats how
content is presented packaged and consumed new
learning models and how audiences are engagedrdquo
MOBILE983085FIRSTBut Sally Gill business development manager of Vision
Nine predicts that pop-ups cross-brand experiential
collaborations and partnerships and immersiveexperiences in brand-owned spaces will continue to rise
the biggest trends lie with digital She says ldquoWith
worldwide mobile penetration of 93 per cent a key trend
is lsquomobile firstrsquo Millennials are the mobile-first generation
and optimised geo-targeted and real-time social content
will become the norm Social content will continue to be a
central directive for marketers whose need for engaging
visuals and authentic stories is paramountrdquo
She adds ldquoWith the aggressive growth of Google+ and
continued market fragmentation wersquoll be keeping our eye
on how social audiences continue to splinter in 2015rdquo
BLURRED LINESNick Adams managing director of Sense believes the
line between live experience and social media will
become even more blurred and suggests there will be a
move away from tactical campaigns to more creative
strategy work ldquoThe debate about what is a brand
experience and what isnrsquot will become even more
blurred You see brands now who are doing a one-day or
a five-minute stunt in a public place just to then create a
social campaign off the back of that Thatrsquos 99 per cent asocial media campaign versus a live onerdquo
The live and digital experience will continue to merge as
virtual reality technology develops Matt Margetson
together and there are better tools being developed to
measure the return on investmentrdquo he says
TECHNOLOGY IN THE BACK SEATWhile the future of experiential centres around digital
there is an awareness that technology must also take a
back seat Natasha Davidson account director at
RPMC concludes ldquoThere will be a move from
technology being at the centre of the experience to it
being a facilitator that allows brands to create
connections with the target audience Technology hasgiven us amazing opportunities but it can lead to a lack
of genuine relationship-building We will see technology
still have its role but be more complementary helping the
process of engagement but not being the engagementrdquo
creative director at Smyle says ldquoSamsung has launched
virtual reality headset Gear VR and Oculus Rift will go on
sale in 2015 You will be able to see what it looks like on
stage for your favourite band when you are in your front
room Itrsquos a hybrid of a live and digital experiencerdquo
MEASUREMENTStuart Bradbury managing director of Avantgarde
London agrees social and live media experiences will
become more integrated but also that performance
measurement tools will become more sophisticated
ldquoSocial and face to face is becoming very much knitted