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Forecasting breakthrough for experiential marketing in 2015

By Gbenga Salau
18 January 2015   |   11:00 pm
MANY organisations before now do not take experiential marketing as an essential aspect of their marketing communication strategy. But with the change in communication process away from one-way communication to two-way communication and brands wanting immediate feedbacks for communication efforts, experiential marketing has now become a critical component of marketing efforts.     And brands do…

Club-ultimate-kkMANY organisations before now do not take experiential marketing as an essential aspect of their marketing communication strategy. But with the change in communication process away from one-way communication to two-way communication and brands wanting immediate feedbacks for communication efforts, experiential marketing has now become a critical component of marketing efforts. 

   And brands do not just want the market and consumers to see their products; they want them to feel it. This is why they often deployed the best of creativity in any outing. Besides taking the game to meet the people in their domain, the content not only appeals to the specific audience, it is usually carried out in a fun-filled, memorable encounter.

    A player in the experiential marketing sector that is often thrilling the industry with innovative package is Oracle Experience Limited. Last year, some of the best efforts in terms of experiential marketing could be traced to the company. 

    The activations credited to the company last year included Star Xmas tree, Gulder Club Ultimate, Club experience, Heineken Green Light, Gulder Ultimate search crate innovation and Amstel Malta showtime.  

  Amstel Malta Showtime The Rush 

   The grand finale was held at the Gymnastic hall of the sport complex at University of Lagos, all the artistes who came on stage ensured the night was a memorable one for the students and guests who were in the hall. The screaming and occasional jumping off the seat lent credence to it being a worthy time spent for many.

  The climax of the night was when Phyno came on stage, and the hall literally caught fire, with the guests becoming restless and rowdy. They did not just want to see him rap, they wanted to take his pictures at very close range, dance with him on stage, and take pictures with him. Phyno initially asked the bouncers not to stop the initially few who wanted this, but immediately others surged forward and the whole platform become crowded, the security guys had to intervene with Phyno pleading that his fans should go down from the podium.

  So, the first of its kind concert and drama tagged The Rush was a magnificent expression of a young man’s journey to success with artistic displays by ballerinas, singers, actors, dancers, rappers, fire eaters, jugglers, instrumentalists, comedians etc, put together and delivered in an outstanding theatrical performance.

The drama piece featured renowned Nigerian entertainers: Sound Sultan, Phyno, Gordons, Art director, Ice Nweke, celebrated dancer, Ukalina, lead actor, Bobby and a host of others and also five young talents selected via auditions: singing duo (male and female); instrumentalist duo (a violinist and a guitarist), a dance team of four, a comedian and a rapper.

Star Xmas Tree

The Star bottle Christmas tree was no doubt a breathtaking effort that is a product of high creativity. Christmas tree was not new to many especially during December, but to create a Christmas tree that many yearned and crave to see with their phones and camera competing for space to take the picture shows a great effort went into creating the idea. And that something fragile like bottles, 8000 in all, was used to create a very tall and unique tree is exceptional. 

  The brain behind the project did not stop at that because a typical Christmas tree is triangular in shape, in creating this tree, it broke the norm, as the Christmas bottle tree was shaped like a step-like pyramid, with four steps that are progressively narrowed from the base. 

  Its base is large and rounded while the top is sharp-pointed. Placed on the top is the brand’s logo. The bottle tree is about 32 ft high and 24 metres wide. Its area is about 400 metres, which is almost the same size of a racetrack.

  Speaking on the idea, the Marketing Director, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Walter Drenth said the company is humbled by the overwhelming attraction to the Star Bottle Tree by consumers and those who appreciate creativity since it was erected few weeks ago. 

   “We are overwhelmed how our people generally have reacted to this humble idea of a giant Star bottle Christmas tree. It goes on to show that people appreciate creativity and our efforts at adding excitement and joy, for which we are grateful.” 

   He further confirmed that the company embarked on the project to reaffirm its commitment to winning with Nigeria, according to him, “this feat we have achieved is one that hasn’t been done before and we pride ourselves in the attempt to bring joy and perhaps even break a world record. With this, we have put Nigeria on the world map and made Lagos, a tourist site that it truly is. We hope that Nigerians and Star Lager consumers appreciate it and see reasons to be proud of being citizens of Nigeria.”

Heineken Green Light Show

After the first show at Club Escape, the celebrities came out to party through the same platform at Spice Route, a club on Victoria Island, Lagos, where the likes of Chris Brown’s official DJ, Babey Drew literarily shut down the show. It was a memorable event for fans of top artists like 2Face Idibia and his wife, Annie; Sound Sultan; DJ Xclusive; DJ Spinall; DJ Humility; and Kaylah of Cool FM. Others were Wale Ojo, Sasha P, DJ Caise, Kessiana Edewor and Shade Ladipo.

  The last show at Quilox was filled with several memorable gigs and performances, but the climax of them all was a surprise performance by the Kroyman robot. The 8 ft 11 inches robot, that stormed the dance hall for a short while performing electrifying dance moves to the amazement of clubbers.

  No doubt, with all these ground breaking efforts, the industry and the consumers would want more and hope to see spectacular creativity in any experiential marketing efforts for 2015. The challenge before the brand owners and the agency packaging the ideas would be not to fail the yearning of the market for innovative efforts.

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