Confined within the walls, humanity has ushered in one of the largest digital revolutions in the history of mankind. But with the ascension of all things digital has only meant that the human social currency has gotten scarce and it is more in demand than ever before. Adoption of technology amidst the pandemic has been fast-tracked by several years, but many of these changes have been assimilated into the physical realm of the human experience, this is the beginning of a new chapter in human evolution and an unprecedented business opportunity for brands.
The Ever-Evolving Relevance & Power Of Experiential Marketing
“Experiential Marketing” is traditionally one of the highest engaging forms of marketing, where brands share space in an ongoing human experience. The Human Experience can be defined as a thorough involvement of the 5 senses and the pursuit to push its boundaries has led to some of the most influential technological innovations of the 21st century, such as TV, Radio, and The Moving Picture. But just like traditional forms of marketing, “Experiential Marketing’s strength is also its weakness.
For example, if you an ad film or a radio jingle, you are visually appealing and narratively engaging but due to lack of time and being in a cluttered space of countless messages you are lost in a symphony of dissonance, noise, moreover, a screen stands between and your target audience – it’s a clear game of hit or miss. If you are radio, you stir up imagination and emotion, only to be forgotten amongst all the other competition and constant advertisement, also what you cannot see and cannot touch sometimes falls short. The only most personal of all these mediums is the live or experiential medium. If you are an experiential sports event, a concert, or a theme park, you engage the 5 human senses and take it on a wild roller coaster ride, but unfortunately, you are too distracting, overwhelming, thus inadvertently overshadowing any other associated/co-branded messaging, ending up lost in translation.
Therefore, the internet did something disruptive that color TV did not for many boomers in the past, the integration of the computer into a communication device powered by the internet – “The Smartphone” gave birth to the next evolution in “Experiential Marketing” – Social Media. Social media brought the power of audio, video and clubbed it into a community platform and made it intensely “Personal”. Social media created a space where individuals could be whatever they want to be, create communities and could collectively connect, share and express their opinions, providing ready social groups and influencers that lets brands encash on the social currency by making their communication more social-centric than just product-centric – giving rise to today’s creator economy. This proved to be a boon for many of us, especially brands who could now validate engagements with likes and views. The narrative that is created by an influencer, a meme, and a reel are tokens of the new fishbowl economy- which is forcing brands to be more creatively social, talk more about human experiences rather than just the product. Thanks to social media social beliefs, political values and so much more are changing in the ever-dynamic social landscape. But Fastrack to 2021 onwards, many could say that now social media is outgrowing itself, getting cluttered, less credible, predictable, and noisy, and the experiential marketing curse comes to haunt us again – who will deliver us. Have no fear “Phygital” is here.
Adapting To ‘Phygital’ – During the Third Wave of the Pandemic and Beyond
There is a growing indifference to the novelty of the gram and its kin. This sentiment is all too well known (though not many of us talk about it) and all things digital is a part of it. But when one is forcibly asked to spend a year of their human lives mandatorily home, suddenly office is nirvana and hangouts are paradises. Though for many the opposite is true, that is not the topic of this article. With phenomenons such as revenge shopping& revenge travel, increasing covid norms being flouted almost everywhere stands to say one thing that is on everyone’s mind – let us out!
Meeting your clip for Diwali and hanging out at Carter’s are as appealing and obviously cheaper to go to the Maldives and yet equally exciting. Thus, amongst the pandemica new powerful need has emerged. The need for physical human experiences alongside digital experiences has given way to their convergence leading to the creation and evolution of “Phygital” (physical + digital).
Phygital is an innovation in “Experiential Marketing” – smart brands have found the gap and are rising to the occasion to fulfill it. Introducing Tonalan innovation of 2022– a revolution in the workout at home fitness space. Tonal is a personal trainer to the likes of Lebron James and Maria Sharapova amongst a few. A revolutionary yet simple innovation in filling the need of a personal trainer in a world that is now mostly working from home. Amongst covid fears and social distancing norms, Tonal is a powerful unification of a LED screen and a workout machine that not only uses the power of bioelectrical signal reading to tell you your vitals, but you have the exact equipment that your trainer uses. It also fulfills the role of a personalized video screen with exciting dance, yoga, and other engaging fitness options. No need for additional gym equipment. – A truly Phygital experience.
This new-age phygital experience intends to draw the best from both the worlds it has its roots in—physical as well as digital—with a goal of offering consumers highly-personalized bespoke experiences that have a lasting impact. Again, for instance, DHL is a logistics company and its core is primarily very B2B but yet it connects with its audiences through unrelated experiences that don’t necessarily resonate with their core business model but definitely resonates with their audiences e.g. Soccer, Formula 1, IPL and even unique experiential platforms like KidZania, where audiences come to have their slice of dopamine rush and make social memories, DHL is effectively buying real estate into those memories – which translates into not just brand visibility, but credible, global & premium brand imagery through meaningful associations. Even the big spenders of advertising, the FMCG brands have long understood the power of Experiential Marketing, beginning with something as basic as product sampling, to live sports associations, to innovative partnerships with powerful experiential platforms to bring their brand story & products closer to the consumer. Brands such as Parle have introduced the experience of creating high quality biscuits, confectioneries through a Parle GBiscuit Factory, Candy Factory as part of flagship KidZania experiences, that allow the brand to not just get families and kids (future consumers) to taste their products but to reinforce the quality and credibility of their products in a fun edutaining (entertainment + education) manner, keeping the taste of Parle G biscuits alive for generations to come. Further digital brands such as Pepperfry which primarily began as an e-commerce business, eventually have found themselves venturing into retail space that helps translate the online product experience into a form of a tangible retail experience, where consumers can feel the product and if necessary, buy them online too. Lenskart.com, a revolutionary in the space of optical enhancement and accessories has become the ultimate name even in the retail space giving it a sense of omnipresence, an existence in two realms. This is how the “Phygital” approach makes your brand omnipresent – it allows you to have the best of both worlds. These unique experiences create memories as assets that build for strong brand salience and loyalty.
Businesses and brands must soon realize that adapting to this new “phygital” universe is of paramount importance. In fact, by incorporating the best of content, virality, and physical engagement beyond traditional ATL and BTL frameworks, phygital has also managed to redefine ‘experiential marketing’ and manages to strike a healthy balance between imagination and reality. The combination of experiential marketing and utilizing online channels to share and amplify these real-world experiences socially can also help deliver experiences across multiple touchpoints, even during an unforeseen pandemic.
The case for phygital is clear—while people are becoming increasingly reliant on digital technology, they simultaneously crave physical experiences. Phygital enriches the consumer journey and experience, providing a way for brands to seamlessly integrate their physical and digital marketing efforts and get more opportunities to be emotionally present in the consumer’s life when the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic strikes as well as in a future that seems technologically rich.
Authored article by Prerna Uppal, Chief Partnership Officer at KidZania India.
