Sarah Trumble, general manager Gyro Live, muses on stronger customer connections through event marketing.

In the beginning there was mass marketing, remote from the consumer, with very clever creatives persuading buyers with their great copy and their inspirational imagery of a better life with brand X. It works, but with more savvy buyers and greater competition, there has become a need for something more.

Now there is event and experiential marketing, where brands and buyers get to meet and spend time with the product they are expected to fall in love with. And were not talking about the lure of a free sample. Suddenly, brands are making much more of an effort for their potential customers, demonstrating their understanding of everything from what makes someone buy a computer to a companys service.

Ten years ago, an engaging brand experience was a rare treat. Today everyone is talking about it. Brand owners increasingly want to master it and big, integrated agencies are adding event and experiential marketing to their list of services.

The reason for this? Events are a great way to engage with your target audience and used as part of an integrated campaign will help challenge brand perceptions and change purchasing behaviours.

In the last few years, everything from make-up to motorcycles has become an experience, and brands as diverse as Sony, Toyota and Initial Integrated Services have implemented successful experiential event programmes to reach their target audience in different and captivating ways.

In an increasingly virtual world, people want to get closer to brands (and the people behind them) before they buy. Events and experiential will continue to grow in strength as consumers seek a more tangible experience to identify the subtle differences between competing products and evaluate their suitability. A recent white paper showed that 82% of people believe that participating in an event experience is more engaging than any other form of communication.

GyroHSR realised how important face to face communication has become and almost 8 years ago launched its ownspecialist B-to-B event team. Our team has developed events on behalf of all our clients across the network. More recently, as this area of our business has grown we have invested and re-launched the brand as Gyro Live.

One team + One integrated approach = Greater client ROI.

The advantage of having your own experiential/event team is that you can better integrate the live communication with the overall marketing strategy. This gives the client and agency greater control in choosing the best communication channel and managing campaign costs; whether its external supplier costs or internal management time.

An example of this is the campaign we ran for Initial Integrated Services where they wanted an extensive new marketing campaign to promote a range of integrated facilities services. The objectives were twofold; to produce a fully integrated demand generation campaign, but also to raise awareness of the different approach that Initial took to facilities services.

The budget was spilt three ways awareness and perception activity, lead generation activity, and lead conversion activity. This included direct response press and online advertising, targeted direct mail and email, a campaign microsite, sales collateral and an event. The creative approach, which seamlessly integrated all the campaign elements, was built around The Art of Integration - a creative idea that leverages the visual impact of contemporary art to illustrate the sheer breadth of Initials services. Real works of art were created these became the centrepieces, not only of the campaign off and online, but also as live exhibits in an exclusive gallery event. The campaign proved hugely successful in repositioning Initial Integrated Services as a highly innovative provider, whilst several large corporate leads were followed up, with a pipeline value of over 10 million.

As well as hitting the target in terms of audience reach, experiential events can also provide a perfect platform for gathering of useful sales and marketing data, client entertainment, competitor research and even recruitment!

Invensys Rail always uses events as part of its integrated campaigns. Working with the team at GyroHSR we use events to drive sales leads and generate face to face communication with its key customers.

One recent example of this is the exhibition held at Innotrans, Europes largest rail exhibition,. Invensys asked us to develop a stand that would raise its profile. The stand would create a platform to promote the products and solutions offered by companies within their group to the thousands of visitors that attend the show.

Part of a fully integrated campaign, using a variety of channels including outdoor media, DM and digital, the key message of unlocking the potential of your railway focused on automation, increasing capacity and integrated control systems.

The distinctive branded stand featured solution simulations, video demonstrations, product brochures, information sheets and credentials. Invensys engineers and representatives were on hand to discuss visitors needs, provide further details on the combined capabilities of the Invensys Rail group and ultimately capture visitor information for future communications. The event generated sales leads for Invensys with a potential value in excess of 700m.

As the IXMA (International Experiential Marketing Association) says in its recent manifesto, Businesses will live or die not by the attributes they promise, but by the experiences they offer customers at every touch point in the store, at the website, with their product and through events and advertising.

The best marketing campaigns seek to create more engaging customer connections and there is nothing like event /experiential marketing to deepen new customer relationships.