Unlocking the Power of Experiential Marketing: Transforming Audiences into Advocates!!

The media explosion has left customers jaded, with a clear sense of déjà vu. They mentally yawn and say to themselves, “Oh yeah, so what? Bring on the next one." Nothing excites or stimulates them. They tend to pass on or ignore most of the promotions. 

Companies face a double whammy. They must think outside the box and invest significantly, as the media landscape is vast and highly fragmented. Creating a buzz around the brand and its promotions is essential.

Experiential marketing is a marketing strategy that creates unique and memorable customer experiences to engage with a brand. 

Handing out freebies and free samples simply doesn’t work any longer. Companies and brands must generate the "oomph factor" to make their brand stand out. Create a buzz that gets the customers talking and engaging with the brand. Create a unique experience that encourages people to share their engagement on social media. The promotional campaign should become the talk of the town, attracting enthusiastic participation in the experiential marketing effort.

Here are some highly innovative experiential promotional campaigns that evoked the "Voila, wow, c’est excellent" (Wow, that was excellent) feeling among the target audience.

Discover the 007 in you - Coca-Cola Zero Campaign!!!

James Bond is the most iconic spy character in the world. "I like my martini Shaken and not Stirred" and "My name is Bond, James Bond" remain etched in our collective memory. For the movie "Skyfall" the producers tied up with Coca-Cola. 

The campaign was titled "Discover the 007 in you". From start to finish the interactive campaign unfolds like a regular James Bond movie. The participants race against time to reach the predetermined spot. The successful participants earn free movie tickets. 

Coca-Cola and the movie makers should be appreciated for such a unique experiential campaign. I am sure that the participants would have enjoyed the contest and would have given it lots of free publicity on their respective social media handles.      

Live Angry Birds 

Smart Ford Electric Car 

Volkswagen

Yoplait - Yoghurt

Lipton Ice Tea Misting Stations 

Span Air - Christmas Gifts 

ASICS  Sports Shoes 

National Geographic - Virtual Reality 

Coca-Cola Hug Machine 

Coca-Cola Small World Machines 

Sprite Shower 

Taking Snaps with Super Models 

Nike Super Dunk 

Fiat Cafe 

Macy Example

ESAF Small Savings Bank's Dabba Savings Account - Inside the Dabba but innovative out-of-the-box thinking!!

Women are the backbone of the rural economy. Rural women manage everything, including the farms, working silently and without complaint. Once they are educated and empowered, the entire economy flourishes.

The population decrease in South India compared to North India is due to higher education among all sections, including women. When a woman is educated and empowered, she will have a smaller family, irrespective of her religious affiliation.

Indian villages lack basic banking facilities, and women, being natural money savers, found a solution close to their hearts and minds - the kitchen!!

Traditionally, women stored the surplus money in the rice container (sacred rice). They would bury it deep in the rice. Many stored cash in the Populla Dabba too. Women store their surplus Cash in a kitchen container or dabba! But the problem was that the other members of the family also knew about the dabba, and they would frequently take the money without consent.

ESAF Microfinance Bank hit upon a bright idea. It came out with an Inside the Dabba idea. Rather, very out-of-the-box thinking!! The scheme was the “Dabba Savings Account.”.

ESAF gifted a stainless-steel rice box to every woman.  

From the outside, the rice container looked like any other rice container.

The lady could store rice in the upper portion.

It had a secret compartment at the bottom. The secret compartment was for keeping excess cash.

Every week, the women go to a designated area in the village and deposit the saved money with ESAF bank officials. They got a passbook, which showed the deposited money. The money thus deposited earned interest.

EASF went a step further. It tied up all the shopkeepers and Kirana shops in those villages and supplied them with payment machines with embedded microchips. This helped the women make seamless purchases without paying cash.

They could pay at these shops with the money that they have in their ESAF bank account. The Aadhaar card was the interface, and the women could pay money through biometrics. All the transactions were visible through SMS on their smart or feature phones.

Brilliant campaign, ESAF! It identified a cultural nuance and came up with the concept of helping rural women. ESAF has expanded its own footprint. It also tied in with the local shops to make the process of using the deposited money as effective as possible.

ESAF understood that rural women save for their families and that the saved money would be used to buy household items. Thus, the entire rural economy would benefit from the catalyst, the ESAF Micro Finance Savings Bank.  

Brilliant Advertisement - Hats off Colgate Visible White - An Absolute Man biting a Dog!!

I often tell the students that it is not news when a dog bites a man. It is news when the Man bites the dog. Do something that makes people wake up from their social media-induced slumber and take notice. 

We are swarmed and bombarded by messages resulting in overexposure.  Most of us are jaded and are no longer stimulated adequately by media and promotional messages. 

So how to cut the clutter, especially in Print Media?  Print media is no longer the darling of the masses. The readership is dwindling and many advertisers are questioning its legitimacy and relevance. 

Print media still has a huge charm. Print media is seen as more reliable, and more responsible and it has the advantage of featuring an advertisement that can linger for a longer period and make a long-lasting impression. 

The precise reason why Colgate's visible white campaign chose print media. Check out the advertisement. at first glance, the ad looks innocuous but at a second glance, it looks as if the Colgate Visible ad is occupying the bottom part of the paper ( Like a solus or a single ad). 

But then we scan down and read the caption "Visible White  Saamne Aaye, toh Achhe Achhe Daant Chupayien (Meaning that even famous people hide their teeth when they come face to face with Colgate White or a person brushing their teeth with Colgate Visible white}. 

For a microsecond we are nonplussed. We don't get it and the people featured in the News items catch our attention. The movie watcher, The couple on a Goa trip, the Girl with the VR device, the author at the book launch, and the traveler to a foreign country are all "HIDING THEIR TEETH". 

Then it hits us. THE ENTIRE PAGE WAS AN ADVERTISEMENT. The ad drove us from itself to the so-called "New Items" Presented in the regular newspaper format. 

This is a brilliant concept. Well thought out and superbly executed. The next page also has an ad of Colgate Visible white.   

Copy writing Blunders - PhDs from WhatsApp University - Prakash Ads and Lalitha Jewellery

Common Sense is not common. It says "where culture and chaos coexist". Really why is it that no one found this offensive? The picture shows women celebrating the very iconic Battukamma festival the pride of Telugu pride!!!

BATTUKAMMA is culture or chaos? And who writes this type of copy? Maybe a Ph.D. from WhatsApp University with a Postdoctoral from Chat GPT!!!

Dictionary meaning of chaos "Complete confusion and disorder: a state in which behavior and events are not controlled by anything. For example, The loss of electricity caused chaos throughout the city. When the police arrived, the street was in total/complete/absolute chaos".

Maybe the greenhouse wannabe copywriter was trying to rhyme. Like they say in telugu, " ప్రాస కోసం పాకులాట"

Gundu sir is selling "100% No V.A Chargers". Another gem from PhD copywriters from WhatsApp University!!!

"Beeryani Beer" what next Dettol Chai!!!

Common sense is not common. Booze money is the engine that drives many states, including Telangana. One of the major reasons for Jagan Mohan Reddy’s rout in the Andhra Pradesh state assembly election was the allegation that "quality liquor from well-known companies” was not available during the YSCRCP rule.

Liquor is big business. The Telangana State Excise Department collected Rs 2639 crore without even selling a single bottle of liquor. This money came from 1.32 lakh non-refundable applications sold at Rs 2,00,000 each for the allotment of 2,620 liquor shops in the state.

The Congress government gave licenses to new companies to manufacture and market alcoholic products, including beer, in Telangana. One of the companies came out with the interesting brand name "Beeryani.”.

Yes, you heard it right. Beeryani is the bastardization of the word "biryani." Biryani is the most popular rice-flavoured mutton or chicken preparation in Telangana. And the company brands its beer “Beeryani”!. It is committing hara-kiri. The consumers will feel as if they are consuming spicy liquid biryani. 

A similar stunt was tried by Manikchand. Manikchand was a Gutka brand, and the company launched the wheat flour atta brand “Manikchand atta." 

Did the brand do well? Of course, it didn't. No self-respecting mother would make rotis with a flour named “Manikchand Atta’.

Simple marketing lesson. Don’t extend the brand too much. Nirma, the popular detergent company, launched a bath soap. It was not branded “Nirma bath soap.” It was named “Nima bath soap.”.

Keywords: Telangana liquor sales,  Jagan Mohan Reddy election defeat, Andhra Pradesh liquor availability, Telangana State Excise Department revenue, Liquor shop allotment Telangana, Beeryani beer brand, Biryani, and beer branding, Manikchand Atta marketing failure, Brand extension mistakes, Nirma and Nima bath soap branding, the Alcohol industry in Telangana, Congress government liquor licenses Telangana, Marketing lessons from branding failures, Consumer perception in branding, Liquor license applications Telangana