Virtual Events Are Getting Boring
Why This Might be the Best Time to Plan an Offline Brand Experience
In December 2020 my family and an array of friends were slated to descend on the island of Sri Lanka to celebrate my sister’s, let’s call it, mid-size, Indian wedding. A site visit was conducted, wedding planners engaged, deposits made on venues, and hotel rooms were booked. Yet, two weeks ago, Haanee and Braedan were married by a registrar amongst the legal limit of 10 family members at the National Museum in Singapore. The camera crew consisted of an aunt, holding Zoom open on a laptop. My parents dialed in from Dubai. My girlfriend and I, dressed up for the occasion at five in the morning, streaming the occasion from Brooklyn. The array of friends and family observed the nuptials from the comforts of various living rooms, studies, kitchens, and bedrooms everywhere in between. It was a moving and emotional ceremony.
Like every other event I attend, I just can’t help but to think about this through the lens of someone who has built a career in experiences. What was so apparent is how normalized the virtual world has become out of a necessity for safety, but a yearning for connection.
The well intentioned and responsible amongst us might wonder what the world of in-person experiences looks like when everyone is six feet apart. How might we create genuine connections, like a wedding ceremony, while distancing ourselves from a three-strike headline implicating The Hamptons, The Chainsmokers and a bad DJ moonlighting as Goldman Sachs’ CEO?
Experiential is a technique that has persisted through the ages — from snake oil sampling stations in bazaars along the silk route, to the iconic Oscar Meyer Weinermobile of 1936. From McDonald’s ‘The Flip’ to HBO’s SXSWestworld, experiential marketing’s effectiveness, especially amplified by social media, has earned its place in many marketers’ tool boxes.
Arguably, the knee jerk reaction to experiential in a time of pandemic has consisted of a bid to virtualize — taking what we were hoping to execute originally in the physical world and trying to morph it to fit in a digital one. However, we’re coming to the inevitable realization that square pegs were never meant for round holes. What was considered an excellent method of capturing consumer’s attention devoid of taps, scrolls, and ad blockers now finds itself in direct competition with baking sourdough, TikTok, or binging “Indian Matchmaking.” This begs the question of whether the tool has dulled as it’s been called to work during the global pandemic, or if we are just not using it as intended?
The problem lies in how, over time, our general understanding or frame of reference for experiential has become very linear. To put it bluntly, we’ve bastardized the craft in service of quick gains. We think of experiential mostly as made-for-the-gram pop-up shops, in-store events, flowery influencer dinners, or panels. While all these might prove effective, if we think more broadly, critically and strategically about what experiential is, perhaps we can find ways to better apply it in a world of social distancing.
I think of experiential as any confluence of brand and consumer outside the boundaries of traditional channels or with an innovative use of them, but always with the element of surprise, delight, and an inherent value exchange. Today, when so many of us have become completely fatigued by virtual meetings, virtual workout classes — virtual anything for that matter — we have an obligation to engage consumers where they want to be, rather than where we expect them to come.
We know we are in a vastly different place culturally now than we were five months ago; that should certainly affect the messages we are delivering. Though, just as importantly, how those messages are getting to consumers must be reevaluated too.
This is why it’s important to consider experiences that successfully managed to engage consumers outside the box of what we have come to associate experiential marketing with. Here are a couple examples:
Droga5’s Bing: Decode Jay-Z
An example that first sparked my love for brand experience is Droga5’s Bing: Decode Jay-Z. In trying to demonstrate the capabilities of Microsoft’s search engine, Droga tapped into a major cultural moment- the upcoming release of Jay-Z’s memoir, Decoded. On billboards, bus stops, the bottom of the Delano Hotel Pool, burger wrappers, the surface of a pool table, the lining of high-end clothing and more, each page of the book was placed in the location that inspired it across 15 cities from Detroit to Glastonbury. Using Bing’s map and search functions, consumers were able to find each page and piece together Jay-Z’s life story. It demonstrated an incredible use of outdoor media, product use, created value for the consumer and did so with the element of surprise and delight.
BURBERRY x WECHAT: SOCIAL RETAIL
More recently, Burberry unveiled a new store in Shenzhen, China, the brand’s first “social retail” experience. In partnership with WeChat — the preeminent Chinese social platform, and Fortnite, the space will integrate social media, gaming and shopping. Customers can book appointments, reserve fitting rooms, make reservations at the store’s cafe and accrue “social currency” enabling consumers to unlock features the more they share and shop.
FORTNITE HOSTS TRAVIS SCOTT CONCERT
In fact, as countries went into lockdowns in April, Fortnite, the battle royale game with over 250 million players, of which 87.5 million are women, hosted a Travis Scott concert attended by over 12 million people, demonstrating the gaming platform’s efficacy as a ‘venue’ for unique virtual experiences in people’s homes — an innovative alternative to the commonly used IG TV and Zoom formats many have shoe-horned into ‘experiences’.
BUMBLE & BABE ROSE’S MOVING COMPANY
One of my favorite activations during the pandemic was Babe Rosé’s ingenious solution to rough nails — the pandemic-proof free moving manicure truck. Babe dug its heels deeper, partnering with Bumble to launch B&B Movers, a mock moving company that caters to corona’s couple casualties. Beyond moving furniture and removing all traces of an ex from a smartphone, a Bumble profile is custom tailored to help the newly empowered get back on the dating scene and make some first moves. Again, creating an insightful out-of-the-box solution within the boundaries of the ‘new normal’. Who is basic now?
Haanee and Braedan share an enchanting story so unfamiliar to the internet dating generation. They met in real life, as kindergarteners and have already spent so much of their life together. Perhaps when this is all over, they will have a wedding that fits their pretty epic story. But as Haanee unsealed a letter FedExed to the couple from Braedan’s parents in California and began to read aloud, it was clear that this was really all they needed. A real life experience had turned virtual and it conveyed exactly what was intended, beautifully.
As we continue to explore a new territory, it’s important that we don’t allow our pre-corona notions to get in the way of seizing this time to create truly unique experiences. Why rest on our laurels when an opportunity to be unapologetically creative and innovative is knocking at our doors? Consumers are eagerly seeking to be surprised, yearning to be delighted and entertained, especially as the pandemic continues on. Brands that dedicate the resources to finding new ways to deliver experiences will ultimately reap the ensuing windfall of owned conversation, adoration, and transaction.
