This is an interview with Jordan Waid, Creative Director of Live whose clients consist of Vodafone and London 2012 among many others. I talked to him to try and get to the bottom of what experiential marketing and brand experience is all about.
If you are interested in brand building through relationships with consumers, read on.
How you would define brand experience?
First, the term “Brand Experience” has been slightly compromised. The latest definition according to THE BRAND GLOSSARY by Interbrand states:
The means by which a brand is created in the mind of a stakeholder. Some experiences are controlled, such as retail environments, advertising, products/services, websites, and so on. Some are controlled, like journalistic comment and word of mouth. Strong brands arise from consistent customer interactions that combine to form a clear, differentiated, holistic experience.
I believe the real question should be what is experiential communication?
Brand Experience or Experiential Communication is:
the chance for the consumer to “actively engage” with the brand on a personal level through an intimate experience – as opposed to “passively participate” through traditional above-the-line brand messaging
Furthermore I see the brand experience as a Spectacle in the same manor the situationalist and philosopher Guy Debord defines a spectacle:
“The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.”
“The spectacle is not a collection of experiences, but a social relation among people, mediated by the experiences.”
This relationship allows people to understand the personality of the brand.
What does it actually mean?
In layman’s terms it is usually an event or production that attracts an audience and immerses them in a brand environment with which they interact. Much like the LIVE strapline: people. experience. brands.
What challenges have arisen in recent times that have affected the way 'brand experience' has developed?
The biggest challenge is generating the next big idea – creating that experience which triggers recognition, response, and allegiance to the brand.
Successful experiences bond people with the brand. So many “experiential marketing” agencies focus solely on the spectacle and lose sight of the people.
However the greatest challenge of all is investment. So many clients are willing to spend millions of pounds on above the line advertising that delivers a passive experience. If those same clients invested the same kind of money into brand experiences they would see immediate return and satisfaction with “real people” developing relationships with their brand.
Why do you find it interesting?
I am interested in culture change, in watching societal reactions to social experiments – to me a true brand experience involves an idea, a hypothesis, a laboratory, the experiment, and the result.
What is it about your work that particularly excites you?
- Developing relationships with clients is fantastic.
- Delivering a successful experience that “creates memories”
- Generating the creative concept which excites and engages.
What developments are you noticing that will shape the offering of LIVE and other brand experience agencies?
Technology and the internet is always changing the face of experience as well as “how” we experience.
How do you see the future for brand experience in a world which is increasingly online?
They are interdependent. One influences the other. For example FRANK (drugs advisory service) has gone through several interactions and has seen itself constantly cross-over. Most recently the FRANK BUS (brand experience) has appeared in HABBO, as well as HABBO on the FRANK BUS.
It is called convergence - Frank have a great website and have done some excellent integrated work - Brainwarehouse is a great online execution of the TV ads that have been running:
What is the best piece of communications you have seen recently?
Unfortunately it is above the line, but it crates a very emotive response - every time I see a new Channel 4 add with the camera view gently floating as the environment shifts to reveal the number 4 – each time I see one of those commercials I notice another nuance.
Outside of the world of brand experience, what developments or changes in the world particularly interest you?
The new paradigm shift in social networking and the digital environment; it reminds me of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash.
What sort of story in a paper or a magazine would you miss your stop on the tube for? (i.e. you are so engrossed in the story, you completely miss your stop).
Any new idea or acquisition that is mind-boggling. Milliondollarhomepage comes to mind, as well as the recent purchase of YouTube by google.
What qualities do you admire in others?
Timing.
What websites do you find interesting? What do you read online?
I only use the web for instant information, research, etc.
Google is my dictionary, image search engine, quote finder, citymap, encyclopedia, almanac, database, etc.
I find ebay interesting because it is such an ugly poor designed website that generates so much money, the same with youtube and myspace. They are very uninspiring visually but their timing was perfect.
I like www.disinformation.com and www.jacksonpollock.org is fun.
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