EXPERIENTIAL

As clients look for ‘experience-led’ ideas that can be amplified across all touchpoints, experiential agencies find they are pitching against generalists and even creative agencies more often in today’s competitive climate. But specialist skills in an increasingly complicated environment are proving appealing.

You can’t beat the real thing. And marketers who are keen to make an impression on potential customers in the real world – and perhaps get them spreading the word – have embraced the benefits of experiential marketing.

“Clients are looking for much more strategic experiential solutions as it’s no longer a bolt on with whatever budget is left over after the traditional channels are planned out,” reports Meredith Cranmer, founder and managing director of Because ANZ. “Where some clients previously may have outsourced their experiential via their media or PR agency they tell us that this meant double handling and slowed up the process of bringing campaigns to market. Having the experiential specialist at the table in the strategic planning stage also means that clients feel the experiential is better integrated from the outset.”

Mark Pickering, the director and creative strategist of Brand Spanking, which merged with Fluxx in 2016, says the agency frequently pitches against the larger agencies as well as working alongside them on campaigns.

“Predominantly clients choose us over the larger agencies due to the level of senior expertise on offer in this space from our agency, the 400+ trained brand ambassador team already on hand (not outsourced), specific tried and tested processes for experiential and sampling rollouts, the

national coverage of our field management team and storage/production facilities. We recently beat a couple of large PR agencies in winning the Independent Liquor account.”

Anne Hirst, whose agency Phenomenon focuses on in-store sampling, experiential activation and promotions, admits bigger agencies will often have sub-brands to offer a supposed specialty expertise in these areas.

“But our specialist skills, experience, systems and talent base are paramount and essential in this line of work. Clients and nonspecialists regularly come a cropper, especially with in-store sampling. There are a lot of people to keep happy all at the same time – the client’s sales teams, their retailers, the store managers, the retailers’ compliance managers, their consumers – and at the same time you need to keep the talent (promoters) happy and motivated.”

Clients can be lured away by the promise of glamorous, full-service ad agencies, but will often return, as they realise quite early on that the delivery isn’t there.

Events and media are two areas where specialty is practically a requirement for entry.

“New clients consistently come to us looking for certainty in an area where other, more generalist, agencies have lacked experience, or understanding

of specific areas of expertise,” says Uno Loco’s David Lyall. “In the end, whatever the arena, it will tend to be decided by who the client feels understands their challenge the best, whether that’s reflected in the pitch process or the personal relationship.”

Many of Uno Loco’s clients have been with the agency for more than 15 years, some for over 20, and, as Lyall indicates, they are very clear that they value its ability to continually deliver in its specialist area. “From newer clients, the common theme has been appreciation for the extent to which we excel in areas they didn’t even realise were necessary,” he says. “That’s as good an endorsement for specialisation as you can get – when what you take for granted as being mandatory is a new concept to someone outside your field.”

He says Uno Loco is getting more enquiries than ever before. But as the sector grows, clients are also demanding more from the experiential agencies – more strategy, more creativity, more measurable results and more efficiency.

“The awareness of experiential as a tool is growing,” says Hirst, “and the awareness of the need to do it well in order to hit clear objectives has become more of a focus. It is common for a media agency to recommend experiential as part of the package and this is where either they or the client will get in touch.”

“Clients have told us they

find us faster and easier to work with as we have developed our own proprietary systems and processes to make the production and rollout of campaigns so much easier,” adds Pickering. “As experiential campaigns and legislation around health and safety and marketing have become more complex, brands and clients increasingly use specialist agencies, sometimes partnering with media, creative or PR agencies who provide the initial integrated strategy and concept, whilst we manage the production and rollout.”

Sponsorship activation is a key area for brands that aim to bring a property to life on social media through fan interaction. As such, the experiential agency market continues to expand after a significant growth spurt around 10 years ago, where a number of larger networked agencies decided to bring experiential on as an internal department. This has had mixed results over the years, according to the specialists, with many agencies now outsourcing to standalone experiential agencies that have the dedicated skillset to deliver.

“Clients are definitely much more receptive and actively seek out having an experiential specialist at the table early on in the piece,” says Cranmer. “They know from experience that experiential agencies have a unique skillset of being able to think and do, and with their experience, will mean they are much more likely to get it right first time.”