‘Why experiential marketing thrives on brand activation’

MANY organisations are dampened by challenges, thereby limiting their creativity and ability to meet clients’ expectations. But for the Oracle Experience Limited, the challenges the marketing industry is grappling with, especially in the field of experiential marketing, have become impetus for the company’s breakthrough.

This, the Chief Executive Officer of Oracle Experience Limited, Mr. Felix Eiremiokhae, disclosed recently in a chat, stating it is one of the reasons his organization was able to cart home MarketingEdge Most Outstanding Experiential Marketing Agency in 2014.

According to him, his company’s haul of awards at the MarketingEdge outing is a reflection of its relentlessness in the face of challenges.

Eiremiokhae disclosed that budget, manpower and third party suppliers are huge challenges agencies face in delivering innovative ideas.

Hear him, “Life itself is a huge challenge and what separates you from others and make you outstanding is how you are able to manage these challenges when they come your way. I keep telling people you need to take risk for you to be able to stand out.

“We keep doing things that had never been done in the industry and that is a huge challenge for us because you are required by clients to surpass your previous feats. So, it is already difficult for people to understand the direction we want to go.

“Trying to reinterpret those ideas sometimes could be really challenging, but the good thing is that clients are always patient with us and give us the opportunity to express our inner thoughts and that make it easy for us.”

Commenting on some of its outstanding activations last year, he listed them to include efforts such as STAR Bottle Tree, the Gulder re-launched, Gulder Yacht and Heineken Green Light Experience.

For him, they were groundbreaking activations that left a good taste in the mouth of Nigerians, consumers and brand owners, which of course have gone global in terms of clienteles.

Asked to pick the most outstanding activations in 2014 his company executed, he felt it would be difficult because the vibe and originality that go into each are unique in their own sense.

“But again, I could say the STAR Bottle Tree, because we broke the world record and built a Christmas tree with bottles to the level of 36feets. For us, that was quite amazing and it got some international recognitions, one of which is creating a new record in the Guinness Book of Record as the tallest Christmas bottle tree in the continent. It was broadcast all over the world too.”

For a company that is just nine years, what is the source of the creativity and inspiration to go the extra mile? He maintained that it is the grace of God, which then provides the enablement to achieve and surpass set goals.

“However, we try as a business to see ourselves as people who are driving the creativity process for the industry. We take a lot of learning from how things are done globally, we try to expose ourselves through training and retraining and that has cost us so much and most time we try to think outside the box because that is the only thing that can keep you a step ahead of the industry’s competition.

“Also, this is possible because we enjoy the story we tell. So for every opportunity we have been given, we just want to tell those stories that can really make a brand feel that this is who we are and what we represent.”

He however commended Nigerian Breweries for being a good risk taker especially in the area of wanting to create innovative activations.  

“They have the belief that they have all it takes to embark on the journey with us. So as a global company, NB is not just playing at the local market, they are also playing at the international stage because Heineken is a global brand. Therefore, whatever you are creating locally, of course you need to also showcase it internationally.

“Hence, it is easy for them to set the pace as a leader in the industry. And somehow they find in us a very comfortable partner in making all these amazing magical activations.”

The Oracle boss stated that organisations must learn from Nigerian Breweries because brand activation is the future.

“We have moved away from dancing on the streets to seeing ourselves as storytellers, on how you can touch the people’s sixth sense, that is the emotive sense. So that is the direction.

“That is why you discover that most agencies that are not into ideation would struggle as we progress in the industry because every brand wants to tell a story.  Story that people can walk away and remember over a very long period of time but how many agencies can tell a story through activation that is another story for another day.”