Marketing 2.0 - Experience is the new black

Are you ready to finally experience marketing?
In the past marketing was all about grabbing our attention but all that has changed. Shopping has become less about the selling the product and more about selling the experience that comes along with it.
What has sparked this recent change? The way customers interact with brands has changed and the industry is just starting to take notice. Research shows that experiences make customers happier than owning the product itself. Think back to when you were a kid opening gifts at Christmas, you’re less likely to remember what you got, but you’ll never forget the experience that came along with it. People are seeking out great experiences and choosing brands that offer them more than other brands.

Digital Interaction
Customer service has become more digital based than ever with social media the leading location to vent about a brand -customer can now Live Tweets a bad experience and the entire social media community knows about it. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3753164/Man-just-wants-cancel-contract-live-tweets-FOUR-HOUR-call-Virgin-Media.html) This can be a positive and negative side effect of the digital revolution, brands now have a place to engage openly with their customer bases and offer them a more personalised social media experience. Social media also allows for brands to give exclusive product codes and crack jokes at competitors.

Go Big On Experience Or Go Home
Consumers are now seeking out experiences rather than waiting to stumble upon them. Pop-up shops have risen in popularity offering customers a chance to experience a product for a limited amount of time. We’ve worked with Mercedes Benz to creative innovative pop up content for digital touch screens (https://youtu.be/BGUkydrdhNk). Users are able to engage and customise their perfect Mercedes vehicle and learn a few important details along the way.

Brands now create large-scale displays to engage and educate customers. One example was the extremely popular Ghostbusters Waterloo takeover, to promote the new Ghostbusters movie and pop-up retail shop. Visitors were asked to upload a photo using the hash tag to their social media platforms. Not only did visitors get a chance to see a life-size version of a beloved character, they were able to put themselves in the popular scene. (http://londonist.com/2016/07/ghostbusters-invade-waterloo-station) Not only is the movie business embracing the experience focused marketing strategy, but also boutique fashion stores are finding uses for experience marketing. Multi-brand shopping centers dominate in experience: Selfridges and Burberry are a few embracing a more customer centric experience rather than focusing on sales numbers. Many have been adding coffee shops, free WIFI, seating, photo booths and digital displays to make shopping a much more relaxing overall experience. (http://gdruk.com/retail-spaces-becoming-public/)

Branded Content
Better be branded!
Users engage with digital content every day, from YouTube video, Facebook games and Snapchat filters. Brands have only recently realised the positive boost great branded content can have on their business. Campaigns for branded video content have raised brands to heights they hardly expected when they created the content itself – Old Spice (https://youtu.be/owGykVbfgUE) is a great example of branded content done right. (http://blog.yourfavouritestory.com/6-video-content-creation-tips) Snapchat has become one of the quickest growing social platforms, the addition of filters and geo location technology helps personalise the users Snapchat experience and also allows for brands to target local users.  (http://blog.yourfavouritestory.com/5-ways-to-use-snapchat-marketing-strategy)

Real Life VR Experience
We’ve been talking about virtual reality for what seems like years. It was the hot topic at this years SXSW conference, virtual reality, could be used in almost every area of user marketing.  (http://blog.yourfavouritestory.com/sxsw-2016-day-2-review) From art exhibits, gaming consoles, pop up shops, visual showrooms and even trying on outfits- the uses for VR are endless. Brands have been taking notice with the rise and popularity of virtual reality – Check out how McDonalds has been doing it (http://happygoggles.se/en/), in 2017 you can expect to see VR integrated in more branded content.
Marketing has changed; brands will have to learn to adapt along side it. The new age of marketing is here instead of fighting for our attention in a world of clutter, digital experiences are proving themselves the future of the marketing industry. New generations of consumers are responding positively to a more digital approach when it comes to marketing.

For more ways to use Digital Marketing in your strategy check out our YFS blog. (http://www.yourfavouritestory.com/)