A Brand is the promise of an experience.- Alexander Isley
Communication has trodden an interesting path. What started out as signs & symbols etched on rocky cave-man dwellings, propagated to cryptic hieroglyphs with hidden meanings! Post-that era, until the 11th century, authors inked their liners on endless rolls of papyrus…!!
Then the real journey began. From the scribbled cellulose-built papers, the human race slowly but steadily moved to consumption of organized, strategized written pieces printed out on dailies and loud billboards.
This mass communication boom was a ramification of the invention of the printing press. In progression, the personalization waves hit the random content shores in the 1800s and radio ads, TV commercials and telemarketing found their home!!
Today, marketing communication, that began as a few liner SMS on 2G-held devices in the 1990s; has branched out to disruptive Videos & Reels, Search-based Optimization Algorithms, AI-targeted Ad Shows, Augmented Reality Apps, Metaverse Meets, Gaming Experiences and Omni-channel Social Media Dialogues. But are we full stopping there?
Rather than arcane push sales, today the contemporary marketers are more interested in developing 24x7x365 engagement pathways with their customers and consumers, both. And B2B and B2C Events are proving to be a great facilitator of this buyer community building. In fact, according to a Bizzabo Survey the Organizational CMOs are setting out 24% of their annual marketing budgets to live events, tradeshows and conferences and the Drum has reported that a live brand experience paves the way for 85% purchase intent and leads to a 4:1 ratio ROI.
The Rise and Rise of Brand Experience……and off course Content!
Organizations and brands got into the ‘brand experience’ and ‘experiential marketing’ race in a bid to outdo each other! They went far up to the levels of game-planning every customer interaction, even the branded content that went out! Every touchpoint and communication channel was formulated based on customer experience (CX) mapping, NPS scoring and deep-diving into market research. The ‘audience perception’ angle egged global brands to further reach out to their audiences via large-scale Business-to-Business (B2B) Events, Industry Conferences, Tradeshows, Summits and Product Launch Stages. Along followed the Content! Live Content. Digital Content. Viral Interactive Experiences. Storytelling Content. Thought Leadership Content. Content was no longer the noise, it become the niche.