At a revitalized Boston Seaport that exceeds the square footage of New York City's Shops and Restaurants at Hudson Yards, direct-to-consumer brands are showing up in droves. With over 40,000 visitors per day, this 1.1 million ft2 space has proven to be the perfect landing spot for The Current, a village of pop-up DTC retail locations.
For the second consecutive year, our team had the pleasure of working with Jeep in bringing its Winter X Games sponsorship to life in Aspen, Colorado. The on-site experience at Buttermilk Mountain included an immersive dome experience that put fans in the front seat of a Jeep Wrangler as it embarked on an uphill, off-roading excursion through the extreme terrain of the West. Afterwards, guests were given the opportunity to get behind the wheel of real Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator models, enter sweepstakes to win Rossignol ski packages, and customize leather Jeep keychains with the GPS coordinates of their favorite adventures.
Last week, a number of Inspira team members made the trek into New York City to check out Showfields, the self-dubbed “most interesting store in the world.” While Showfields Co-Founder and CRO, Katie Hunt, made sure to point out that the tagline is partially tongue-in-cheek, there is a different quality to Showfields that separates it from your run-of-the-mill retail store. Located at 11 Bond Street in NoHo, Showfields is a retail concept that is designed to engage consumers’ sense of discovery through a revolving array of in-store brand experiences. Put simply, Showfields is a hub of experiential retail.
Experiential marketing has become an essential part of the marketing mix for brands looking to create one-on-one connections with consumers. After all, there’s no better way to get to know a brand than through a personal experience where consumers are given the opportunity to interact with products and services first-hand. Of course, experiential marketers understand that dwell time in the footprint is an important piece of the puzzle. From an intuitive level, the more time they spend with your brand, the more likely it is that a long-term bond will be forged.
If you've ever walked by a Cinnabon store and felt your mouth water from the scent of a freshly baked cinnamon bun, you've experienced just one example of the power of sensorial marketing. After all, the fact that their ovens are located front and center within the store is no accident.
With consumers increasingly prioritizing experiences over possessions in recent years, experiential marketing has entered the mainstream. From direct-to-consumer pop-up shops to mobile tours, each form of experiential offers brands a chance to create one-on-one connections with their intended audience.
According to CB Insights, the term ‘customer experience,’ as well as other variations of it, was mentioned a record 2,710 times during earnings calls in the third quarter of 2019. While this an abnormal statistic, to say the least, it speaks to the fact that brand executives are fully aware of the importance of experience in 2019. After all, the better experience you provide for the consumer, the more likely it is that you’ll retain their loyalty over the long run.
Today's consumers are beginning to place a greater emphasis on experiences in lieu of possessions. This is due, in part, to their desire to interact with the world and disengage from the devices they hold so dear.
For brands, connecting with younger consumers remains one of the most tried-and-true methods for building a loyal following. However, in today’s increasingly cluttered digital landscape, it’s getting more difficult to reach younger audiences en masse. Whether it’s through ad-blocking while surfing the internet or avoiding commercials by watching streaming services such as Netflix, younger consumers are seeing fewer and fewer traditional advertisements.