As I've mentioned elsewhere on this blog, I'm not an advocate of the UK's so called experiential marketing industry.
The industry attempts to convince clients that "brand ambassadors" are engaging target consumers in a positive "brand experience" whilst communicating brand and product benefits.
Absolute rubbish .. this is akin to calling a window cleaner a "vision technician".
What really happens is that a few out of pocket students are rounded up, asked to remove their earrings & cover their tattoos with a cheap uniform and instructed to hand out leaflets/samples to anybody they can find.
That's after brand ambassadors/students and event managers have "taxed" the brand of any valuable product.... anything remaining is either thrown away or dumped in a warehouse.
All of this is overcharged, ROI is rarely measured or calculated and clients would do far better putting their budgets into digital, direct or traditional advertising.
Unless the client can pull this off......
This Easter weekend, Lindt hosted the "Gold Bunny World" at The Westfield Shopping Centre and it was absolutely brilliant - one of the best brand experiences, in a shopping centre, that I've ever witnessed.
Situated in the atrium, outside the Nike and Apple stores, it featured a maze created from real hedgerow, stilt walkers, a pop up shop selling gold wrapped chocolate rabbits (with £1 from every sale going to GOSH), and colouring in activities and other events for children - not to mention the giant gold bunny.
If the agency that pulled this off want to give me a wave and drop me an email, then I'm more than happy to credit them for what is an excellent piece of work.
[Photo Credit: Henry Bloomfield @Flickr]
