Companies pushing for deeper consumer engagement in their marketing approach can achieve more value with cost effectiveness by allowing all the media agencies working for them, be it digital, creative, PR or experiential marketing to come together to create and implement single communication message for any project campaign.
The present structure where agencies operate individually, struggle and compete against themselves for client’s marketing budget is waste of time and resources, says Carol Abade, Group CEO of EXP Africa at the 9th African Experiential Marketing Summit held in Lagos recently .
She said that clients are still entrenched in traditional marketing structure of engaging different audiences in different media but said that technically, clients currently have one audience when they consider the way consumers are accessing brands.
“If you want to therefore talk to the consumer on radio, TV or through BTL, the only way to do that is by bringing all the agencies together to create one communication platform and not different messages for different media”
Under this arrangement, Carol said the client must be unmindful whose idea is being implemented but the agencies must justify why either advertising, PR, experiential or digital is leading the campaign. With this understanding, she said that every agency is more secured and covered in the budget instead of creating different ideas and fighting for client’s single budget.
“During pitch, nobody is compensating the agencies and a lot of time and money are spent on the pitch through the process. The client is literally getting the best of the agencies through a process that is not fair but if a client can assemble the agencies and ask for an idea, they can come with one and implement for the client and share the budget.
“This collaborative nature of working together across all the different media is where the direction of marketing needs to go”, Caro said at the summit that its objective is to demystify the notion and raise understanding of what experiential marketing is all about and showcase how experiential marketing can assist in building brands beyond traditional advertising.
Carol also cautioned that marketing which is about sales and revenue that sustain companies should not be seen as money wasting department within organizations. “Marketing as a discipline needs to come back to the table. Marketing needs to start focusing on the core principles of what it is about. When marketing understands that the business objective is not separate from marketing objectives then it is taken seriously from a business perspective”.
In his comment at the summit, Gil Kemani, the CEO of EXP Nigeria, said as companies discuss brand connection with consumers, that experiential marketing is one platform that allows marketers to bring in a live way the consumer and the brand together.
Correcting the misconception that experiential marketing is about event planning, Gil said the next big thing in experiential marketing are the innovations that are happening especially on a technological front.
In his presentation to the top level marketers who attended the conference, Dan Hanover, Editor and Publisher of Event, Marketer Magazine based in New York City, US focused on trend in marketing especially experiential approach which he considered as the next chapter of marketing.
“This is an era companies are moving away from advertising and moving in to the era of engagement. As marketers realize that consumers are no longer watching TVs and may no longer see the outdoor billboards, nor hear radio nor click the banner online and open email, the last frontier therefore that marketers can use to connect with consumers is live events and experiences and face-to- face marketing”, he said.
Cautioning that what brands did in the last 20 years may not work now, Hanover who gave tangible best practices on experiential marketing and involvement of social media in the marketing approach said African brands can leapfrog using experiential marketing to drive their brands.
Hanover further said that “Experiential marketing can be used successfully to build relationships, raise awareness, increase loyalty, establish relevance, encourage interaction and product trial, create memories, stimulate positive word of mouth, change the mind of dissatisfied customers, create product desire, verify the target audience and increase return on marketing investment”.
The celebrated ‘Marketing Magician’ who is the world leading provider of experiential content also said “Africa is gradually accepting the model of social media and experiential marketing. Africa consumers have progressed over the last five years and are becoming digital natives using all the forces put in place to evolve quickly over the next couple of years not only to a population super power but a brand super power.”
The African Experiential Marketing Summit is a brain child of EXP Marketing, an Experiential Marketing Agency with operations in 15 countries across Africa. It is a forum organised to learn, share and discuss experiential marketing trends and strategies in the African market.
Daniel Obi
