As marketers have found more channels and means to communicate their message, the number of branded messages that consumers are exposed to on a given day has ballooned to nearly 5,000. The residual effect has left consumers largely immune to marketing messages, allowing only 100 or so to permeate through their attention wall.
As such, marketers have one of two options 1) increase spending and hope the message breaks through or 2) meet the consumer where they are — literally.
Enter the mobile tour.
Mobile tours allow marketers to bring their brand experience right to where their target consumers work, play and shop. This, in turn, increases the odds of consumers retaining their message and, ultimately, driving a behavioral change.
Knowing the benefits that mobile tours offer, here are five tips to help you plan your next tour to perfection:
1. The Messenger is the Message
From a consumer perspective, the event staff is where “the rubber meets the road” and impressions are formed. A poorly-selected brand ambassador has the potential to not only undermine the engagement, but also sever the consumer’s relationship with the brand. The right candidate should not only align closely with the values and persona of the brand, but should also mirror the target consumer. In other words, if you’re marketing products to moms, the ideal brand ambassador should be a mother in order to have that authentic, relatable engagement with consumers. After all, they’ll be the ones representing your brand on the road from start to finish and carrying the momentum along the way.
2. “Stops” Should Align With Brand Objectives
Oftentimes, people think that mobile tours should make stops at highly-populated areas — that’s not always true. It’s contingent upon brand needs and objectives. If you need to reach a specific demographic, then stops should follow suit. With mobile tours, it’s not always about reaching critical mass, but rather delivering targeted efforts. And, given that mobile tours are mobile, you can always shift locations if needed.
3. Plan to Pivot
Sometimes, no matter how well you plan, you’ll find that certain venues, locations or event types aren’t performing as well as you anticipated. When that happens, there should be a contingency plan in place. The best way to know when to pivot is to continuously monitor the activation against pre-defined KPIs. If, for example, you’re surpassing your KPI goals at sporting events and not at another event type, then the team should shift accordingly.
4. Define KPIs from the Onset
Marketers should make every point to identify KPIs from the onset of the program. Not only will it help in understanding when (or if) to pivot, but it’ll also help qualify program success. KPIs shouldn’t be generic. Number of engagements and consumers sampled are great, but were they qualified engagements against the target consumer? Effective KPIs relate back to business objectives. With an automotive client, for example, one can measure leads generated or the number of test-drives. But, measurement notwithstanding, determining KPIs at the inception of the brief allows the creative team to come back with ideas that will more effectively achieve those objectives.
5. Capitalize On the Opportunity to Create an Experience
There is no doubt that sampling is a beneficial tactic as part of a brand’s growth strategy. However, sampling alone is not a memorable experience. In stores, you’re certainly limited in terms of delivering an experience; however, with a mobile tour, you have a bit more freedom — so why not capitalize on the opportunity? If you have a moment to really make an impression, make a lasting one that ladders back to your brand narrative and its point of difference. A mobile tour is an opportunity to communicate why your brand matters, and simply handing out samples undermines all the hard work that went into developing your brand. Plus, with so many brands sampling, it’s easy to forget what it was you even tried — unless it was wrapped in a memorable experience.