Last night I was one of 200 people, who were paid $50 to sit through an entertaining yet controversial Australian first hypno-marketing session at the Esplanade Hotel in Melbourne put on by clothing youth brand Golf Punk. Similar to any hypnosis show they made people do stupid things like pretend they were eating ice cream, milk a cow etc., except at the end they hypnotized the members into thinking Golf Punk was the ultimate brand.
Another sign traditional media no longer cuts through. Golf Punk used Experiential marketing as a platform to create awareness; traditionally a job for the TVC and radio spot. I discuss below (Sorry for the long post but I found this a really interesting sign of the times)
One of the latest buzz words floating around marketing blogs is transumerism. The word helps to define the new type of consumer who is no longer after tangible product but more interested in spending their money on having experiences, capturing special moments. Experiential Marketing is businesses response to this trend.
Experiential Marketing started off not as a response for transumerism but as a way for the consumer to experience the product first hand, for example free samples of food at the supermarket, a recent innovative example was letting runners in NY Central Park trial the Apple ipod plus for a week and Ikea furniture being placed at bus stops around NY.
However now experiential marketing has taken a turn toward the way B2B have been using the tool, they are now interested in giving the consumer an experience that may not be directly related to the features of the product but which help to transpire the brands identity and message. B2B have been using this by entertaining clients through corporate boxes at sporting events. An example of consumer experiential marketing event is Coke Live ’06 where they created an event which had all local cutting edge bands this helped to show the brands message off as a brand that was interested in having fun and also associating themselves with the underground music scene.
Last night I think I saw the newest form of experiential marketing; I see this as a changing of the time, traditional media is no longer towing the line. The 30sec TVC used to be seen as the best way to create awareness of a product. Experiential Marketing is usually used to help fulfil the higher order needs such as brand loyalty and trialing. Last night it was used as a tool for awareness.
Now the event is over get ready for the word of mouth campaign to start, this will only be boosted by the web2.0 climate, making communication amongst the internet generation having a larger reach and frequency.
I know in my own case I have told numerous people about the bizarre event. I posted a myspace bulletin to my friends list before the event asking if anyone want to come with me and if golf punk put a video up on youtube.com of the event there is a high chance I will show it to my friends who are interested in that stuff and lastly I have written this blog about the event. So there you go I am doing my bit for Golf Punk, or is that only because I have been hypnotized???
The only criticism would be when I tried to find the Golf Punk website, I got peanuts. This is unfortunate seeing they created such a great campaign to not have a website is a bit of an oversight, as consumers need to be able to go to the next level of the purchase decision model and by not having a frame of reference you are turning away many potential customers. If any video are released on youtube.com or on their website I will make sure to put them up here. Check out their website for more details http://www.hypnomarketing.biz
3 comments:
Ok, now I can understand how Coke Live creates a culture round its brand and makes it a desirable style to be part of. Same with the Ipod and Ikea thing, but all that's nothing new, Nike's been doing it for years. (Though I can't help but criticise what seems to be a useless facade).
But how, exactly, does getting a bunch of people to simulate sex with chairs create a brand that people will throw money at? I mean, when you know it's a sham to attract your attention, why is that sham still attractive?
(Just out of interest, what did the waiver you signed on entry look like?)
The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our duration, the clearer we should get a load of from one end to the other it.
http://californiacenter.org/member/32095/
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