Live Events V/S Virtual Live Experiences- Short term or long term

• Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts & President-EEMA writes how experiential marketing events will become more and more rarified and niche events will become the norm once we resume normalcy.
• He further pens down how innovation and invention can help define the moment.

In today’s hyper-connected world where every second seems to be a race to the finish, the quantum of messaging pushed out has imploded! It's neither news nor views that make the NEWS, its fake news that finds more eyeballs and creates a lasting impression! Add to that whatsApp, gaming, streaming videos, online series, dating games and pornography and phew! it's worse than the 1100 TV channels that you had at hand to scroll through!

How then will brands stand out and make a true impact? Digital’s biggest disadvantage is its lack of lasting impression because of the lack of the `touchy-feely’ factor which allows our brain cells to format what we know as, 'Memory’! The millions of images that pepper our screen and reflect off our eyeglasses tend not to have 'a sticky factor’ and fail to imprint itself it's our psyche!

Santa Claus, a derivative of Saint Nicklaus adopted by Coca Cola to be its brand ambassador sporting the now-famous red Santa costume, denoted happy family, joyous times, celebration, gifts and more, was the perfect experiential Marketing roll out ever! Shah Rukh Khan’s 'come to Dubai as my guest’ personalized the experience and created a sticky factor – implanted a memory!

Experiential Marketing events will become more and more rarified; A box at centre court or the finals of the T-20 is not nearly enough any longer. Tomorrow’s events will have to go way beyond this. Niche events where you fly 20 – 30 people to the Antarctic ice shelf for a sleepover and to watch a faultlessly choreographed contemporary dance act by a group of performing Penguins who invite you to their home for a meal of albatross and flying fish is what will be the norm. The rest will be streamed out to you which you will watch in fleeting moments between rushed taxi rides and your afternoon sandwich! But given COVID, will Physical Distancing, (I hate the word social distancing as its representative of age-old customs of discrimination on the lines of caste, colour or religion), allow for this. Perhaps not in the short run, but say in 12 months or 18 months once this disaster is in control and economies limp back and folks need that break, need the experience, need to feel alive, we will take steps to revisit our memories or make new ones!

Marry history, culture and built heritage with tradition and the exotic, creating experiences that are both breathtaking, visually satisfying, a gastronomic delight, and offering up the pleasures of retail therapy, or occasions that allow you to bond together, feel the love, find peace, celebrate life itself or perhaps embark on an adventure that you will never forget!

Most companies and event professionals tend not to think out of the box and prefer to copy, adapt or steal ideas rather than experiment, experience and invest in long term brand building experiences.

The need of the moment is education and information – old advertising is long dead…. give way to the new! To do this you need daring corporate marketing managers to take the risk, young professionals to understand their clients and wow them not just with a stupendous set and fanfare music but by being able to embed them into the heart of the event.

The event and experiential industry in is worth $1 trillion, it provides jobs, contributes to local economies, employs millions and yet we remain in the shadows, working under the radar, bringing in the riches in a form that isn’t recognized and cannot be tabulated. We have to nurture the young, celebrate the genius, bring in the design and throw out a faux copy of an outdated act, above all, we should want to be original and create that one occasion that will live on in people’s memories! Online or offline, innovation and invention will be the defining moment!

- Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts & President-EEMA