Brands look for ways to make personal and lasting connections with consumers

Throw up a tent with a few displays inside, give away hats and pass out new soda flavors in Dixie cups.

That was experiential marketing at its most simplistic level, and it worked for years to give brands face time and create some basic one-on-one interaction with sports-loving consumers at ballparks, racetracks, arenas and courts.

But those pared-down days are over. It’s no longer enough to have banners and logos alongside a few activities, even if the “how fast is your serve” machine at professional tennis tournaments still draws a crowd to a sponsor booth.

Basic event marketing has given way to a new tactic, dubbed experiential or engagement marketing, as brands try to embed themselves in consumers’ consciousness through the sports they love.

A-list marketers are diverting money from traditional media like TV and print and spending millions to put on their own shows at NASCAR races, college football games, pro golf tournaments and action sports festivals.

Experiential marketing has become one of the fastest-growing and most sophisticated pieces of the media mix, encompassing everything from elaborate recreations of Hawaiian beaches in the dead of a Detroit winter to breakfast with a Super Bowl quarterback and 18 holes with Tiger Woods.

The goal is to break through ad clutter and become a message that consumers, who are more in control of their media than ever, embrace instead of reject.

“The question is, ‘How can my brand help turn a good day at the park into a great day?’” said Erik Hauser, founder of the International Experience Marketing Association and the San Francisco-based marketing firm Swivel Media. “How can I make a connection that’s meaningful and relevant?”

Cases in point: Heavyweight marketers, such as financial services companies and wireless carriers, have been at the forefront of experiential marketing with a sports backbone. An American Express program sent cardholders to the U.S. Open last year and sat them beside former pro champions such as Ivan Lendl to watch the matches.

Events and experiences give a brand an advantage over mass advertising, which is a one-way communication, said Bernd Schmitt, director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School. “You can tell your friends that you were part of it,” Schmitt said. “It makes you feel special.”

It also has an impact on the bottom line. A 2006 study by marketing agency Jack Morton Worldwide found experiential marketing ranked higher than word of mouth, TV or the Internet in influencing consumer purchases. That finding held true across age, gender and ethnicity of those surveyed.

Eight out of 10 people said they told others about participating in a brand experience, and seven in 10 said the experience would make them more open to the brand’s advertising, according to a separate study.

Sponsor booths haven’t disappeared from major sporting events, but they’ve morphed into more expensive and extensive high-touch experiences. Marketers are focused on giving people something to do, rather than just something to see. Brands are paying big bucks for the rights, starting at tens of thousands of dollars just for the space, before building the experience and staffing it. Multimillion-dollar experiential programs are often the norm.

Having a large footprint doesn’t necessarily turn fans’ heads. More important is entertainment value, authentic relationship with the sport and unexpected touches, say those in the industry.

“It’s so easy to not listen to a 30-second spot,” said Lonny Sweet, managing director, sports and entertainment at MSL, whose clients include Goodyear. “But whenever you have that chance to put your product in a consumer’s hand and tell your story, there’s no question it’s more memorable.”

AT&T’s College Football Experience Tour, emphasizing its “Game Day. Delivered” ad tag line, will relaunch in the fall with a 53-foot experience that features plasma screens, broadband access and e-mail and online games. The marketer spends several days around the football games on campus, extending the life of the experience and nudging fans to create video mashups and e-photos, visit its entertainment-based Blue Room and sample its latest gadgets.

It’s an area that shows no signs of slowing, with most marketers saying they will continue to spend aggressively on the outreach.
“It’s hot, but it’s not fully understood,” said Ryan Kurek, founder and chief creative director of Leverage Sports. “It’s not even close to mature yet.”

By T.J. STANLEY
Correspondent
Published July 23, 2007