PLAY THE LONG GAME
We know… It can feel like a huge missed opportunity to leave out active selling during your promotional marketing campaign. What if people want to buy, there and then, and you don’t have any stock to sell?! Often, we would agree! Combining brand promotion with face-to-face selling is a tried and tested win! However, there are many environments where servicing your consumers with memorable brand experiences purely for their benefit will lead to a more lasting impression and create potential for more significant financial engagement with your brand in the future. Spark their curiosity, leave them wanting more and ensure the pathways are open to the consumers coming back to find you!
OUR CLIENT
This summer we have been working with our wonderful client, WeRoad, to do exactly that! This company provides bespoke organised group global adventures for solo travelers. And they are asking people to part with significant cash in exchange for the trip of a lifetime. It’s essential that they build serious brand trust and recognition so that consumers feel confident that their hard-earned savings are in the right hands.
OUR FESTIVAL SITES
Alongside an extensive OOH campaign WeRoad, new to the UK market, wanted to meet their prospective customers face-to-face. To create memorable brand experiences that would have an equally big impact, we pitched a festival takeover strategy. Festivals are a fantastic way to engage your audience. Confined to a limited area, festival goers are in a positive and open mindset. The site space was secured at day festivals across London, and in total WeRoad had a presence at 4 festivals. Project 6, Wide Awake, Cross the Tracks and City Splash were all at Brockwell Park as part of a series of summer festivals with Brockwell Live. These events proved to be the perfect location for WeRoad’s organic consumer engagement mission, with the target demographic of 18 – 30-year-olds present in their thousands.
SUPPLYING QUALITY
In hand with our fantastic suppliers, the Highjam team curated a genuinely beautiful WeRoad Chill Out Tent. The giant Tipi was filled with Moroccan inspired furnishings, layered rugs, floor cushions and coloured lanterns. Comfy branded seating offered some subtle branding opportunities without being overbearing. Outside a ‘live wall’ set with WeRoad messaging jumped out in neon lights from inside the greenery. A giant hammock created the perfect photo opportunity, where we captured hundreds of consumer snaps with the static camera set up. Games encouraged friends to linger longer and branded merch was given to the winners. To top it off our branded banner drew people from across the whole site to take a well needed breather from the festival madness!
THE WINS
This activity was a success for many reasons:
- Very limited number of brands permitted at the festival sites, meaning no competing messaging from other brands
- Constant stream of relevant and captive audience
- Vibes were high! Everyone was in a feel-good mood
- We were the only designated ‘Chill Out Zone’ across all festivals: sometimes you don’t have to be loud to draw attention!
- Location between the Vodafone Charging station and food vendors. This ensured audience had high dwell time in that area. Not close to stages where the WeRoad team would have to shout over the music!
BECOMING DESIRABLE
There was a team of WeRoad reps, plus Highjam event management support, to ensure that key messages were chatted about with consumers. All conversations prioritised organic consumer engagement, piggy backing off the good-time vibes that the festival had naturally created. The removal of any active selling at this point ensured consumers associated their experience of WeRoad with the relaxed, upbeat feelings they had at the time, rather than being sold to. When they are in the right moment, perhaps after consuming slightly less canned wine!, they would look fondly to WeRoad as their trusted option to provide their next feel-good adventure. Showing restraint and allowing your audience to simply feel the way you want their product to affect them is certainly a bold strategy. But this approach shows belief in your offer and develops trust between yourself and the consumer! Elevate your status against your hard-selling competitors.
SET UP YOUR SUMMER
Instead of monetizing your summer brand activations to make a quick profit, allow room for organic consumer engagement. Build a community of long-term patrons instead of an everchanging flow of occasional impulse purchasers. We love to share our years of knowledge and expertise in memorable brand experiences! Drop us a line at hello@highjam.co.uk with where you would like to position your brand this summer, and we can do the rest!
