Leveraging Technology for Experiential Marketing

Introduction

Experiential marketing is a marketing strategy that was born by the incorporation of technology in the business environment. With the rise in technology platforms and techniques that can be utilized to enhance efficiency in business operations, organizations are now focused on facilitating a real-time interaction with their shareholders. As a result, in the marketing sector, the experiential marketing approach has been widely adopted (Andreasen, 2006). The growth of social network platforms now allows marketers to increase the tangibility of their brand to their customers. These online platforms offer a physical space where marketers and their target customers can interact in the real time. The customers are offered an engagement where they can provide their feedback about a product or a service.

This research project is inclined to investigating the impact of experiential marketing on the brand advertising. Particularly it seeks to answer the research question;

How does technology drive consumer and businesses engagement in experiential marketing?

This research question will be pursued alongside the objective of the research project which is;

To find out the role of technology in driving engagement in experiential marketing.

Importantly to note from the beginning of the project is that technology is the primary resource utilized by experiential marketers. The research paper will utilize data from online product launching and campaigns to determine what role these technological platforms have played to ensuring that customers are engaged during these campaigns.

Literature Review

In today’s marketing business environment, the objectives of marketing have grown from just creating awareness about the availability of a product to collecting critical information to be used when producing the products for a target market (Belz, 2006). Over the years, the approaches to marketing have developed from product marketing to relationship marketing. In the past, organizations used the product marketing approach where the primary role of the marketing function was to create awareness concerning the available products. The disadvantage of the two marketing approaches is that the inventory often ended up being a dead stock. Great losses emerged from the inability of organizations to recover the production cost after having large dead stock. Later, improvements were made through quality control measures. Using quality assurance techniques, organizations increased the propensity of the consumers to purchase by ensuring that the reduced productivity also attained the quality of products required in the market. The marketing function, however, is not primary focused on availing the products to a target market but also investigating the customers' taste and preferences. A business idea must only be pursued upon a satisfactory determination that it will avail a product or a service with the each characteristic required by the buyer. This relationship marketing approach pursued over the years and primarily facilitated by marketing research and analytics that utilize sophisticated technology tools has further developed to the experiential marketing. Experiential marketing allows a real-time customer engagement. It is a technique that physically or digitally pulls customers into the brand. It allows them to not only want the brand but also engage in activities that make them identify with it. It is essential to amplifying brand messages making them tangible and available for virtual viewing. Experiential marketing has evolved from being used to market services such as movies, music, and consultant to commercialization of big physical products such as cars, houses, and electronics. Some of the platforms used include YouTube videos, social networks such as facebook, tweeter, and Instagram (Albinsson and Perera, 2012). Due to increased competition in the business environment, organizations have moved from identify a physical target market to creating or utilizing already created virtual markets. Virtual markets are on the net spaces that allow the interaction of customers and organization. These platforms do not necessarily require the marketer advertise the product they have bust rather the potential customers utilize them to check in or to communicate what they would like the organization to produce (Keller and Richey, 2006). Apart from platforms owned by organizations, there are other anonymous platforms such as Google where the organizations can examine what customers are searching for and then avail them through suggestive and pop advertisements on the searching device.

E-commerce is the oldest business practice that utilized technology and which did not necessary offer or require a real-time interaction. After this, interactive advertising through platforms such as TV and radios emerged. The sophisticated digital platforms available today have combined the working of these other practices and also facilitated real-time interaction and thus the experiential marketing. Notably, however, e-commerce and interactive advertising are the primary tools used in this type of marketing (Albinsson and Perera, 2012). Therefore the role that technology played to facilitate e-commerce is still essential to ensuring that experiential marketers achieve their objectives. Some of the modern experiential marketing include the Heineken's, Departure Roulette. This is used in the airports, and it avails the travelers to make trips to unplanned or unscheduled location. Another example is the Aston Martin On Ice campaign. This was a marketing campaign that invited participants into testing their product. The participants included journalists and other company insiders. The campaign involved drive testing on an icy road in Colorado. Lastly is the recent Google’s Bay Area. This comprised of the installation of interactive posters that allowed Google users to vote some philanthropies that the company should fund (Lee, Hsiao and Yang, 2010).

Methods and Data

This research project will use a primary research design. It will also use primary data. This research design is used if the research is directly involved in the collection of original data for use in the study. Primary data refers to an original set of data that is gathered by the researcher for the purpose of a particular research study. This means that the researcher does not require documentaries and reviews on reports that have been used in other related or unrelated research (Karimova, 2015). The main advantage of a primary research design is that the data used is factual and the accounts used are first hand. The source of data is a person or an element that is a part of the research. The researcher also forms a part of the research, and therefore the validity of the findings is guaranteed since they are not built on the views of other researchers. The researcher has the freedom to interpret the findings in any way they choose, and past findings do not influence it. This research will utilize primary data from YouTube videos of experiential marketing in the UK for different products. The research will then utilize online data detailing the successes of the reviewed video. Such information will include the impact that the experiential marketing practice on sale or product awareness of the product under promotions. The analysis will particularly be focused on determining the type of technology utilized to facilitate the campaign on the YouTube video. Also, the analysis will also contain the details of the videos and where they were conducted in the UK, for example by which company and where in particular they were performed.

Data

This research paper will be conducted on four campaigns carried out in UK based companies. Three of these companies are a multinational bust the particular marketing activities examined in this research paper were conducted in the UK.

These companies and products are;

Colgate-Palmolive Manufacturing Company; Colgate

Vodafone

PepsiCo: Pepsi Max

British Airways; British Airways

Colgate and PepsiCo are multinational companies while the British Airways and Vodafone are based in the UK and offer services for airport travelers into and out of the country. The primary date collected include the number of viewers of the YouTube video, the number or nature of campaign participants, the objective of the campaign, the technologies used to facilitate the campaign and the impact of the campaign. It is presented in the table below.

Date Analysis

The data collected for this research is primary and qualitative. Qualitative data approximate and characterizes the attributes and properties of a research element. It presents phenomenology qualities of the research topic. It is descriptive and is based on the researchers’ opinion and judgment. In this study, various properties were used to describe the nature and the experiential marketing videos for the four companies under study. These properties are the nature of campaign participants, the impact of the campaign to the company, the objectives of the campaign, the technology used and a number of viewers. This last property is quantitative in that it measures the quantity of the video viewers. Notably, however, in the analysis, it will be used with other elements such as to determine whether the company achieved its objectives and the possible impact of the video. The analysis will be conducted exclusively for each company, and then an inclusive analysis will be performed aggregating the findings for all the companies. From this analysis and an explanation of the results will be used to develop a conclusion that will answer the research question for the study. The objective of this research project is to find out the role of technology in driving consumer engagement on experiential marketing. Colgate; this is a product produced by the Colgate-Palmolive manufacturing company which is a multinational company situated in America. In the UK, the company has its corporate offices in Guildford Business Park Rd. The Colgate Keep Britain Smiling is the experiential marketing campaign that was conducted in 2011. The campaign was sponsored by the Blazinstar Experiential at the West London shopping center. The YouTube video available in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDqoqb7SB_g provides a visual of the activities during the campaign. The participants were the primary voluntary shopper who is also users of the product. This video has attracted about 8000 viewers since it was posted in 2011. Although this number is low, it cannot be used to measure the success of the campaign. The objective which was to create a live brand experience with the users of the product is West Field can be measured by the number of participants viewed the video. Colgate Keep Britain Smiling was supposed to provide a platform where product users would volunteer to take a photo of them smiling and then post the photo on the Colgate Facebook page. This fun activity provides allowed the consumers to participate in showing how much they identify with the product. It also used format digital billboards all across the UK. The outdoor activity at the Westfield was just a part of the interaction. The huge crowds are an indication of success for the campaign. The greatest impact of the campaign was the increased brand awareness through the outdoor activity participants and the billboards across the country. It also allowed the company to participate in good corporate responsibility by using this campaign to raise children’s charity money for the disadvantages.

Pepsi Max: The Pepsi Max is a product by PepsiCo. PepsiCo Inc. is also a multinational corporation that is headquartered in the US. The YouTube video in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go9rf9GmYpM shows live the events conducted during the launching of the Unbelievable Bus Stop' campaign in the New Oxford Street in The UK. Since the posting; the video has attracted over about 7, 700,000 viewers. This statistic alone can be used to measure the extent to which this experiential marketing activity supported through YouTube platforms has helped increase the brand’s awareness. The campaign used augmented technology to give bus commuters reality experiences. The unbelievable scenarios created on the screens set at the bus station unfold to surprised passers. These experiences which are scaring and entertaining are unforgettable and unique. By using technology, Pepsi incorporated the people and provided then an extraordinary positive disruption of their day. The augmented reality technology is used to create a live indirect or direct view of a real-world phenomenon but augmenting the elements using computer-generated sensory and input. Some of these sensory inputs include graphics, video, sound, and data. The image generated is a sought of a mediated reality; it enhances the viewer's perception of reality. This can be seen at the Oxford Street bus station. The people are scared of some of the reality pictures they see such as a bus crash, a lion approaching the road and monster. The technology makes the real world surroundings interactive and then manipulates it to create reality objects that are better than the physical ones or completely different. The amusement of this campaign explains a large number of viewers which is even expected to grow further. Vodafone: Vodafone is a communication product by the Vodafone Telecommunication Company. This is a multinational company that is headquartered in London, Britain is a mobile operator. In the YouTube video in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZI6eKi0FxE, shows the launching of the 1984G Street by the company during the celebration of its 30th birthday. The launch is a pop-up high street in the Covent Garden. Also launching this street, the company remarkably remembers the store and street where the first phone call using a Vodafone mobile phone was made. This video has attracted about 14, 425 subscriptions. While the number is not as high, it is adequate to elaborate that the consumers are still interested in the continued growth of the company. The video domineered by a product developer is used to show the tremendous growth that the company has made since then in the line of mobile phone services. The Vodafone81, as explained by the developer is the first mobile microphone by the company and was used in 1984 and is still usable. The second phone was a mobile Motorola8000X. This was the first Vodafone mobile phone. The next one is the ground breaking VodafoneVM1 and was the first phone the company sold in 1994. The company's network was launched in 1985 allowing the first sold phone to be used. This network was 1G which was followed by the 2G network launched in the 1990s. The phones sold had colored screens, and the strength of the system facilitated their usage; they did not have an aerial. In the 200s, the company progressed to the 3G network and produced smartphones. The strength of this network allowed the mobile users to download materials on their cell phone. When celebrating the 30th birthday in 2015, the company is now offering the 4G network which is super-fast.

This campaign which targeted both the business users and the consumer uses provided the audience a three day’s celebration where the shop launched in the 1984 G Street was open for the customers. They were allowed to visit the shop to see the growth from its past. On the last day, a concert was conducted on the Run-DCM. To accommodate the customers who could not physically attend, the company provided them with a Vodafone technology that would be used to for online streaming through mobile devices. This technology was the "Power To" Vodafone app on iOS or Android. Also, the launching of the 4g network provided the customers with the benefits of augmented reality experiences that come with the strength of the network. During the concert, consumers were guided through using a 3D printed structure that was using the augmented reality technology. It also targeted the company’s workforce. This campaign helped increase brand awareness by providing new customer experiences. British Airways: Services by this UK airline are well known by the travelers into the country and out of UK. It is the largest based on the fleet size and the second largest based on the number of passengers. The YouTube video in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmNauh1SE4g shows an experiential marketing event at the Victoria Station that is situated in the UK. This event allowed the travelers to play games that were flight simulators and as such were used to win tickets to a selected destination. This video, although it was a day’s activity has since then attracted 3, 204 viewers. As displayed by the video, the company has installations that allowed the game player to win flight tickets after every 15 minutes. This event attracted large queues of people who were determined to acquire these free tickets. Being one of the largest airlines in the UK, holding such a campaign is critical to building its name. The event was a sought of giving back to the customers. The digital display of the station was wholly liked to this installation so that from the entrance, the scores of the players could be presented while on the inside is where the game was played. The digital media display throughout the station facilitated the marketing function. The player was notified about the destination of the ticket won before starting to play. The huge anticipation and excitement of the participants and the effort to upload it on the YouTube platform give the company a critical opportunity to interact with its customers. This occasional and unique experience for the customers is also increasing awareness about the type of airline services they offer. With clients identifying the company with such unique experiences, there is potential for increased future number of travelers.

Conclusion

This research study aimed to answer the questions; How does technology drive consumer and businesses engagement in experiential marketing?. The data collected was supposed to identify the various kinds of technology that the companies included in the research have used in particular experiential marketing campaigns to increase consumer and businesses customers’ engagement with their brand awareness and creation. The study used four companies as the research samples. These are the Colgate-Palmolive Manufacturing Company, Vodafone, PepsiCo and the British airline. All the experiential marketing campaigns for these enterprises was conducted in the UK even though only Vodafone and British Airlines are headquartered in the UK. Notably, however, all the companies are multinational and have corporate offices in the United Kingdom, and therefore they qualify to be used in this study which is primarily focused on this country. The data was gathered from YouTube videos, and, this made the YouTube platform to be the first technology and the only one that has been used by all the companies. Also, the primary objective of the experiential campaigns was to increase of creating brand awareness. For the sake of the analysis, the paper used the number of participants during the campaigns and the number of YouTube viewers to measure the extent to which the objectives were achieved. Other technologies used during these campaigns included the augmented reality technology, Facebook, digital display boards and digital billboards. The positive response to the target audience and participation indicates that these technology tools and platforms have a significant role in informing large population concerning organizational marketing events. Notably, the current digital generation, identified as Generation X is more inclined to using digital devices to access information. As such, technology is the key factor to facilitating consumer engagement to experiential marketing (Huang, 2006). The findings were, therefore, efficient to meeting the research objective which was to determine the role of technology in driving customer engagement to experiential marketing. Technology is the primary tool for sharing information.

References

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