Winning a Consumer's Heart (and Wallet)

Thought leaders are investing in brand experience

These days, a brand relationship can be severed in the time it takes a consumer to tap a few characters onto their social feed. And how a brand chooses to respond to that interaction can mean the difference between a short-term split and a permanent breakup.

Never has brand experience been so tenuous, but never has it been so full of possibility. The opportunities to engage a consumer across multiple touch points are nearly endless, and so are the ways to maintain that interaction and create positive associations. The brands that are investing in that knowledge are the ones that are going to come out on top.

In its 2017 Global Brand Experience Study, Freeman, a 90-year-old experience agency based in the U.S., revealed that 27 per cent of North American marketers are planning to allocate at least one-fifth of their budgets into brand experience over the next three to five years. Of all 1,000 respondents surveyed across North America, Europe and Asia, nearly half of CMOs said that brand experience directly affects whether or not they are perceived as thought leaders.

The study also reveals that while marketers rely heavily on website, social media and email marketing to guide that brand experience, they aren’t tapping into their full potential yet:

“When it comes to immersing an audience into a brand, there’s an entire toolbox of game-changing tech out there. For example, only 22 per cent of those surveyed are using some form of interactive touch screen technology and just eight per cent tap into virtual reality to augment the live experience.”

There are myriad opportunities to connect with audiences in new and transformative ways. This year, Canadian marketers explored many of them—see how in the 2017 Advertising Awards (starting on p. A1, after the magazine’s centre tab). When creativity and brand strategy are in harmony, they can lead to innovative new channels that often create a lasting impression (p. 26).

Take Havas Canada’s “#GirlPowered” campaign for the Canadian Women’s Foundation, for instance (p. A5). The crowd-sourced initiative got young girls and women to tweet empowering messages to one another, and then made their words larger than life by broadcasting them on billboards in a public square. The client’s brand took a back seat to keep the focus on consumers.

Then there’s Leo Burnett’s remarkable “Cook This Page” activation for IKEA Canada (p. A12), which simultaneously promoted the furniture retailer’s kitchens, food products and food preparation tools. Using an in-store demonstration and simple, clear, graphic instructions, IKEA created fun for consumers and a new way to cook with just a few sheets of parchment paper and some ingredients.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Cossette’s “VS” (p. A17) for The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), which took home eight Cannes Lions earlier this year. The campaign took the tried-and-true mediums of TV, online and print and turned the classic, maudlin donor message on its head, creating a fierce rallying cry that saw SickKids patients and caregivers as warriors.

While consumers have considerable power, so too do marketers to reach them. And if there’s anyone who knows how to find new ways to crack into consumer consciousness, it’s Patrick Weir, partner and SVP creative and innovation at FUSE Marketing Group. One of his recent projects saw him heading up a heartwarming installation of 12,000 holiday lights in tiny Destruction Bay, Yukon, to create positive associations for Canadian Tire after a number of product recalls. We’re pleased to welcome Patrick as a regular contributor (p. 14) to discuss the intersection of marketing, content, technology and, of course, brand relationships.

Enjoy the 2017 Advertising Awards annual and, as always, please send your feedback to editorial@appliedartsmag.com.

By Kristina Urquhart, Applied Arts, Vol. 32, No. 4, Issue 166, 2017