Brand experiences are a powerful way for businesses to connect with consumers, and they’ve evolved far beyond generic pop-ups. We asked experiential experts New Moon what it takes for brands to show up IRL
The post-Covid years have seen brands rediscover the possibilities of experiential marketing. The digital world isn’t going anywhere, of course, but it can’t compete with the immediacy of an IRL experience - whether that’s an immersive retail environment, or a brand activation that stops people in their tracks. Having recently introduced creative agency New Moon to Calvin Klein – for a project which saw them build a New York-style newsstand to mark the label’s new Battersea Power Station store – we sat down with Account Director Christopher Garbushian and Associate Partner and Director of Cultural Intelligence Alex Tran to discuss what brilliant experiential work looks like.
- Emma TuckerWhy is it so important for brands to invest in experiential projects?
Alex TranThere’s a quote I use all the time about how 15 years ago the internet was an escape from the real world, but today the real world is an escape from the internet. I live by that. I’m so excited to be in the world of experiential marketing, because you might look at a paid ad or piece of content from a brand’s website for five seconds, or 45 seconds, but you could spend 20 minutes or 45 minutes at a pop-up experience. The ability to cut through the noise and create a meaningful connection, and memories, with your potential audience is unparalleled.
“Yes, our culture is increasingly becoming more digital, and with that trajectory physical experience only becomes that much more of a reprieve and a space for meaningful engagement.”
Alex Tran – Associate Partner and Director of Cultural Intelligence, NEW MOON
ATIt’s really important to have those physical experiences. Think about any experience in your life as an individual, outside of capitalism; the ones that have fundamentally shifted your perspective or opened the aperture of how you see or experience things probably took place in a physical environment – whether that’s a museum exhibition, an intimate dinner with close friends, or a movie theatre. Yes, our culture is increasingly becoming more digital, and with that trajectory physical experience only becomes that much more of a reprieve and a space for meaningful engagement.
- ETPost-Covid has been an interesting time, particularly in terms of conversations around the evolution of brand experiences, in particular retail space. Do you think this turbulent period has encouraged brands to be more adventurous?
Christopher GarbushianI’ve worked in events my entire career, and when Covid happened I thought I was never going to work in events again. But when I came back to it, I realised major cities were exploding with activations and events. Suddenly everyone was so hungry to get out, and have tangible experiences and connections, and it’s a moment for brands to shine. It’s the time to connect with their consumers directly at eye level, and meet them where they are, where they shop, where they walk and where they hang out.
ATTo a certain degree, I think retail environments have become about more than just a product. When I think about the retail experiences I love, and the stores I go back to religiously, they’re not just shops that sell clothes, they might also have a cafe or a lounge area. The Gucci Wooster Street location in New York has an actual bookstore inside as well as a cinema. The new Glossier flagship store has a space that’s almost like a tiny airport lounge you can sit in after you’ve ordered your product, and convene with other Glossier fans.
“For me, the physical experience is more about bringing the tribe together and the interactions that happen not just between brand and consumer, but between consumers.”
Alex Tran – Associate Partner and Director of Cultural Intelligence, NEW MOON
- ETBrands are navigating a fast-moving and demanding digital space, but alongside that people want to find brands in the real world and emotionally connect with them. Are these two things at war with each other, or can they exist in balance?
CGI find that they go hand in hand; they’re almost partners in a relationship with each other. You have the physical experience, but it’s also very necessary to have the digital experience. With some brands, we can see that the online and the physical aren’t in sync – it’s two different teams running two different aspects of a brand that aren’t talking to each other. Often, when it comes to regionalised events, it’s challenging for the regional teams in the brand to get their work shown on the one Instagram channel the brand has, because it’s a global channel and they can’t be seen to be favouring any one market. There are still those challenges to get over, and questions around how you keep things streamlined and don’t spam people with content. But I always appreciate when you look at a brand and can see that the physical matches the digital.
ATI think about digital as more of a space for deeper editorials and storytelling. It’s about an opportunity to invite people into that world, and give them a different perspective. Digital is always about the individual experience between you and a brand. For me, the physical experience is more about bringing the tribe together and the interactions that happen not just between brand and consumer, but between consumers. It’s almost an affirming sense of loving the brand, but also meeting your tribe of people, and that’s a really magical experience.
For example Aesop does something for Pride every year, where they remove all their counters and transform their stores into queer libraries, where people can go and get a free book and a skincare sample. I remember going last year and everyone was talking about books and authors they loved, and it was great that the brand wasn’t talking to the consumer, it was creating an opportunity for them to talk to each other and have a shared experience.
Digital and physical do have to speak to each other though, and visually relate. It’s always interesting when you go to a Glossier store and it almost feels like you’re visiting the website – you recognise a lot of different codes, language and terminology. Years ago I went there and one of the employees working there was also in their billboard ads and on the website, so it was like the whole universe and ecosystem is connected.
“What makes a good piece is something that people walk away from and remember, and inspires them to see the brand in a different light – even if you weren’t there to see it in person."
Christopher Garbushian – Account Director, NEW MOON
- ETIn your opinion, what does it take to make a great brand experience?
ATWe work closely with the clients to understand why we’re doing it, and discover what I call the unifying purpose – which is the heartbeat of every experience. We ask what we can do with a collective of people that we can’t do on our own, and that’s deeper than any kind of marketing message you might have. But it needs to be rooted in your brand DNA and your essence. So for example for Calvin Klein, on the surface level we were doing that to bring awareness of their Battersea Power Station store launch, but the deeper reason was around featuring the next generation of creatives through a zine that was given out for free via a New York-inspired newsstand. Every project has to start with that deeper critical thinking, and once you understand your why, that enables you to inform every single creative choice, and how that brand expresses itself.
CGIt’s now very different to when I started working in experiential marketing – which was in 2005. Everything has shifted to social media and reach, whereas back in the day when I was working on road shows across America for brands like Intel and Dell, it was the very early days of experiential marketing and it was more about measuring how many cities we went to. Now, a successful event is judged on how many photos it generates, and how much content, and how many influencers show up and what they post. But for me, what makes a good piece is something that people walk away from and remember, and inspires them to see the brand in a different light – even if you weren’t there to see it in person. Now we have the luxury of social media, even if we’re not in Paris we can see Jacquemus rolling its giant handbags down the street. Even if we can’t go to London to see the Calvin Klein kiosk, we might see it online or on Instagram and share it with our friends.
- ETIn some ways social media is a double-edged sword, because your brand activation or event can go around the world to be experienced secondhand, digitally. But is that the ultimate metric of success?
CGIt’s very hard to predict. Even experts in the field can’t know what is going to end up getting all the hits or generating the most content. But that gives you the responsibility to make sure that every single portion of the event is carefully thought about and planned out exactly. We just did a big event for Tag Heuer, and designed a giant 60 logo that was lit up in LED lights, and raised into the ceiling and spinning. People were getting all this content out of it which ended up being all over Instagram – and I had assumed they’d be more interested in Ryan Gosling being there.
“We have to find that balance between creating an experience that has opportunities for people to share, and letting people put their phones away and be completely present in the experience.”
Alex Tran
- ETWhat’s the balance between achieving social media success, and creating something that’s equally compelling in real life?
ATIf you have someone who’s really deeply engaged on a genuine level, they forget they have a phone. You’re present, you’re there in the experience, and it’s interesting as marketers because we call it engagement, but we measure it by social reach and those things can be at odds with each other. I photograph my breakfast and document my life, but that doesn’t mean it all connects on a deep level. We have to find that balance between creating an experience that has opportunities for people to share, and letting people put their phones away and be completely present in the experience.
We did a pop-up for Coach in 2018 that was inspired by mysticism. It was a multi-room experience and we hired psychics and tarot readers. There were parts that were super photogenic, and then there were moments you were just meant to be present. I remember for one of the days we had a sound bath, and seeing a room with 80 people all sitting down with their legs crossed and eyes closed for a good 30 minutes. When it finished everyone picked up their phones again and talked about the experience and went about their day. We were creating emotional presence and engagement, and each of these individuals walked away with a new memory that will last way longer than an Instagram post. We measure reach, likes, comments and shares – and these are good indicators of success – but I also like to collect stories like this, and have those as part of how we review a project.
- ETAnd those emotional connections really endear brands to people.
ATI think in today’s culture, people really look at brands almost as mirrors to reflect themselves, but also as places where they can feel and affirm their identity and have that sense of belonging. That’s the role brands can play, and in our work it’s about how we build that emotional connection and represent these unique, alternate worlds and universes of inspiration. People need to feel like a brand speaks to them and embodies their values.
