Digital natives live for special moments and brands that fail to create these risk becoming irrelevant. However, organisations that deliver a personalised experience have the opportunity to transform people from passive consumers into active participants.
Computers are second nature to digital natives and they spend lots of time online. As a result, they want instant access to everything for free or little money, which poses challenges for brands. Challenges that are worth addressing because this audience can be highly lucrative for organisations that understand their needs.
The importance of experiences to digital natives cannot be overstated. Ken Hughes, a respected thought leader on millennial consumers, said at a recent event that the world is shifting to an ‘experience economy’, where people are now defined by their experiences rather than belongings. This is like the bride who has the big white dress, expensive ring and 10 tier cake to create the ‘perfect day’. Belongings are important but only in their capacity to help create an amazing experience.
Music festivals are a perfect example of this shift in attitude. Digital natives love music but many do not buy records, preferring to stream music for free, or a small subscription. Instead, more digital natives attend music festivals, which over the last 25 years have grown from a handful to more than 200. Digital natives want unique, authentic experiences that they can share with friends. Why listen to records alone at home when you can watch your favourite acts live with friends? Strangely, even the mud and bad toilets become part of the adventure.
The experience economy contradicts the misplaced notion that digital natives are rejecters of marketing. The reality is that most brands are out of touch with this demographic. Glastonbury Festival does not struggle to attract digital natives, nor does Beats. Digital technology has enabled anyone to share their ideas with everyone, and the ‘personal brand’ emerged. But these personal interactions conform to the established boundaries of the digital platform being used. Digital natives do not publish essays on Twitter or photos on Periscope.
This makes experiential marketing ideal for engaging with them. Like social media, it creates a personal engagement within boundaries, which is important to this audience, practical for marketing strategies, and easier for promoting a brand. But brands must go beyond the audio visual limitations of digital technology and create experiences that appeal to all of the senses. Digital natives actually prefer physical experiences. They feel more connected to a friend they hug and kiss than when a message is ended with ‘xoxo’.
With the rise in access to new technology, it’s easy for brands to get swept up in the notion that they should be adopting new strategies to keep up with every new app or piece of software. Using technology for the sake of technology is not the answer. Much like social media, it’s important, but should be used as a tool to capture a great experience.
A great experience will often involve complementary physical and digital aspects. For example, we helped Cornetto target the 16-24 market with a combined 3D-sound cinema and immersive theatre experience called Beyond the Screen. We transformed a prime retail unit at Westfield Stratford into a pop-up art deco theatre to premiere Two Sides, the latest in the brand’s award-winning Cornetto Cupidity series, which explores the trials and adventures of teen love.
The film was shot in several cities around the world, using point-of-view angles and binaural sound technology to make participants feel in the story. This was augmented by the live theatre show, which included an interactive performance, featuring a choreographed song and dance show led by the actors in the films. The work blurred the lines between digital and reality, leaving participants with a unique experience.
Digital natives enjoy the enabling power dynamic that is implicit in experiential marketing. They often dislike the parental tone of content marketing, where an authority tells them what to think. They want to drive, not hear about the car specifications, so brands need to give them some control. This can be scary, but experiential marketing does this in a safe environment with minimal risk to the brand. In return, companies will attract young consumers who actively engage with the brand. They will also promote the brand to friends, along the lines of “I had this great experience and so can you.”
The risk to brands that do not embrace experiential marketing when targeting digital natives is great. The sooner brands focus on personalised experiences the better, because these are the companies that are more likely to be able to adapt and remain relevant to future generations of consumers.
Anna Jones is business development director at iD
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