INTERVIEW SAMAR SINGH SHEIKHAWAT
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Add an experience and consumers will remember your brand forever H Is the thin line between experiential marketing and brand activation fading? Experiential marketing is a newly coined term. Both happen when
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eineken’s journey in India, like in other parts of the world has been marked by innovative ways to provide a rich brand experience to the customers. In a freewheeling conversation with Samar Singh Sheikhawat, Senior Vice President, Marketing, UB Group, Gunjan Verma of Pitch delves into different aspects of the experience the brand offers.
brands want to engage consumers. Experiential marketing is about communicating to the consumer what your brand stands for. It is a grander version of brand activation. Brand activation is a way to reach your consumer through technology, either through an iPad, smartphone, internet, or outdoor activation etc. and experiential marketing is about how a consumer experiences your brand in a big way. The contests running on TV shows using Twitter, Facebook or other social media communication are good examples. Also, what we did for Heineken ‘Voice
in their head’ campaign where directional speakers were used for the purpose, which emitted a high frequency beam of sound at the subjects – becoming a voice in their head, a voice that no one else could hear is also a fine example. It’s like taking your brand a step ahead by adding an experience to it for the consumer to remember forever. With clever use of merchandising aid, technology and media, one can create a grand experience for consumer engagement. With all these concepts, marketing has gone beyond just activation and has become more sophisticated and subtle.
The consumer here is high on awareness and the approach of the brand has to be different. It has to be high on in-showroom experience Do you think while delivering an experience, there is a chance of sounding ‘pushy’? It all depends on the communication. It also depends on the product category, which means that if the product category like, flooring tiles wants to make use of experiential marketing, the target audience might not be interested because the category does not relate much to delivering an experience.On the other hand,, a smartphone company can use experiential marketing because it belongs to a category that delivers an experience. It all depends on what
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| November | October 2013 Pitch Pitch