What A Feeling
HOW GOOD BRANDS CREATE EMOTIONAL MEMORIES THAT HAVE LASTING EFFECTS ON THE BOTTOM LINE
TOP TAKEAWAYS:
Brands that live in the moment, capture those moments, and spread them to wider audiences are the brands that have a leg up on their competitors.
Emotional connections drive business results.
Utilizing content from your events to extend your reach past the live activation can have a direct impact on your bottom line.
Smiles all around at the Facebook for Creators event in Miami - shot for Opus Agency
Quick Recap
Last month, we told you the true story of how one little piglet missed its shot at stardom (and why iPhone photos are NOT good enough for respected brands). This month, we tackle how emotional narratives can lead to financial success.
The Moment...You Own It
When rapper Eminem came on stage at Oscars 2020 to perform his 23-year-old song ‘Lose Yourself’, an entire auditorium of Hollywood celebrities were not only shocked by the surprise performance, but many started rapping along; reciting the song word for word. These famous individuals were instantly transported back two decades earlier to a less chaotic time in their lives.
Dare I say...they lost themselves in the music...the moment...they never wanted to let it go.
The jolt of excitement not only created a memorable occasion for Oscars 2020, but it increased Eminem’s bottom line with on-demand streams of the song surging 217% in the U.S. according to initial reports to Nielsen Music/MRC Data days after the broadcast.
Professional coverage of the moment bolstered Eminem’s sales and created a social media frenzy (we’ve seen Martin Scorsese semi-fall asleep in about 20 different tweets and now it’s a GIF).
THE REACTIONS TO EMINEM ARE PRICELESS #Oscars pic.twitter.com/KPpNrMRROJ
— Aniq ⎊ (@RaniqDesigns) February 10, 2020
Do you remember the words to Eminem's "Lose Yourself"? The #Oscars crowd definitely does: https://t.co/8kz7m5vtnF pic.twitter.com/hkDE5MfIul
— ABC News (@ABC) February 10, 2020
Although some seemed confused, others bored, and most loving it, whatever your opinion on the performance, there’s no doubt that it was a win for Marshall Mathers and the Oscars.
Oscars 2020 achieved what every experiential marketing company hopes to get from their events:
MEMORABLE LIVE EXPERIENCE CAPTURED FOR POSTERITY BY AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHERS AND VIDEOGRAPHERS
POST EVENT SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER FEATURING SHAREABLE IMAGES AND VIDEOS
MEASURABLE REVENUE GROWTH DIRECTLY RELATED BACK TO THE LIVE EVENT EXPERIENCE
We get it, you can’t always hire Eminem to headline your marketing activation (although many ‘All-Star’ bands from the ’90s are available at great prices!) but that doesn’t mean your event can’t still have its own unique moment that helps cement yourself as a brand that people love.
What Oscars 2020 got right, was getting people to emotionally connect to something; in this case, something from their youth. The lesson from this shindig is clear: brands that live in the moment, capture those moments, and spread them to wider audiences are the brands that have a leg up on their competitors.
The Psychology of Emotions and Business Decisions
Newly released research by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by FocusVision, found that how a customer thinks and feels about the brand are both statistically significant drivers of how they act (purchase, loyalty, and advocacy). Further, how a customer feels about the brand -their emotional connection with the brand - has a 1.5x greater impact on driving positive business outcomes than what they think. In short, emotions drive business results. This is directly proven out by the jump in demand for Marshall Mather’s music the day after the Oscars.
It’s clear that simple advertising is no longer the way to capture audiences. People have too much available content at their fingertips. Simply seeing something before your eyes, or hearing it a couple of times is no longer enough to be the leader in your industry.
Experiential marketing activations are a surefire way to acquire new customers and get emotionally acquainted with them to casually pair a long-term business relationship.
In a December 2019 study conducted by The Drum, the research found that “Experiences account for a reported 70% of regular customer acquisition.”
One very pointed conclusion from the report entitled, The State of the Experience Industry: The Changing Face of Events is that, “Although social media, paid digital advertising and physical marketing nurtures, leads and builds brand awareness, live events provide a valuable opportunity for forming in-person connections.”
Connections made and brand love fostered at the Mike's Hard Summer Pop-up Series - captured for BeCore
Content fuels your ROI
When a consumer has a positive brand experience at a live event, they want to share that experience with their social circle. “Social continues to be increasingly important because it allows experiences to live beyond the confines of the event,” said Suzanne Ford-Duffus, Senior Manager Of Events And Engagement, Taco Bell.
This applies not only to the user-generated content (UGC) from attendees spread across social channels, but also to the social content shared by the brand directly. The two coalesce, amplifying the brand's reach and spreading awareness.
Engaged consumers and smiling faces are an indicator of a high-performing event and an increase in brand love/loyalty. This turns into advocates for your brand. The greatest representatives you can have for your company are the people that do not have a stake in the companies’ success because those reactions are genuine. Genuine reactions can lead to genuine business results.
“Without question, positive word of mouth is a KPI that’s universal among all experiential marketing campaigns,” states event marketer The Pineapple Agency
Industry experts agree with this growing trend to get consumers to feel, smell, touch and taste rather than just see and hear.
“With the rapidly rising cost and saturation of customer acquisition via digital channels, we're increasingly turning to partnerships and events to reach new audiences, generate awareness, and brand loyalty,” said Sarah Sitz, Senior Director of Marketing, Foxtrot.
81% of organizations use live events as their Content Marketing strategy and as a result, those organizations state that their events have a 75% effectiveness rating. Which means that the live event or experiential activation is created, in part, to DRIVE content. That is a huge percentage of brands creating live experiences and then a direct correlation to the effectiveness of those events.
The event drives content and the content creates impact...that is if you have content to show from it.
Measuring The Bottom Line
It’s hugely important to hire the right Experiential Photography and Videography Agency to capture those immediate event reactions and use them correctly in follow-up campaigns. Spending all your budget solely on the event with nothing to show afterward, can be a waste.
Experiential marketing gets “82% of participants talking about a brand with others, moves 62% to research a brand online, changes the way 65% view a brand and — perhaps most importantly — inspires 53% to go out and buy a brand at retail,” according to Momentum Worldwide.
Of the 600 Event Industry Professionals surveyed in The State of Experiential Research Study by Agency EA: 91% of those surveyed agreed that in an increasingly digital world, brands need to create human-to-human experiences at events while 70% agree that brands should leverage content generated from an event long after it has been executed.
O Hello Media is here to help good brands leverage the emotional memories that have lasting effects on the bottom line. We showcase the hard work your brand has put into connecting with your patrons. Whether you created a long-lasting connection at someone else’s event, or you are making experiential experiences of your own, shoot us a message so we can better understand your needs!
“Seldom can a marketer track a specific sale to an experiential campaign,” said Jeff Meade, an advisor to marketing agencies. “Yet, tracking sales patterns in relation to campaigns may help you identify peaks in product sales related to particular experiential pushes.”
We know Eminem wasn’t talking directly to us at the beginning of Lose Yourself, but we’re going to go ahead and answer his question anyways:
If you had one shot
Or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted
In one moment
Would you capture it
Or just let it slip?
At O Hello Media, we would capture it. We would not let it slip. We would capture that moment, and many many more. And share it with the world.
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo!
Seizing the moment at Hyundai Backstage during the Midtown Music Festival - captured for Advantage
Seizing the moment at Hyundai Backstage during the Midtown Music Festival - captured for Advantage