full article by garrick schmitt
at adage.com
Red Bull: Red Bull basically pioneered the experiential category. Not only did the brand rise to prominence by sponsoring
alternative athletes and lifestyles, it went further by creating its own events, like Red Bull's
Flugtag and even its own sports like Red Bull's
Crashed Ice, which takes over old Quebec with a mix of hockey and motorcross. Even the brand's website has morphed into a
blog, much like today's most popular publishers.
Camper: Most of us in the U.S. think of
Camper as purely a comfortable yet stylish shoe brand. But the Spanish company is much more and pursues a
brand ethos that's both traditional, cultural and fashion forward simultaneously. Proof:
Casa Camper, stylish (but laid back) hotels in Barcelona and Berlin that embodies the brand's essence. Ditto for
Camper Together which taps up and coming artists to create one-of-a-kind boutiques.
Guinness: Guinness may be 250 years old, but it's acting like a much, much younger marketer. The company has embraced experiential branding both literally and figuratively with its "It's Alive Inside" positioning. For its anniversary, Guinness offered up
Remarkable Experiences, including a trip into space. It also released a
pub-finder iPhone application with a social media twist. More impressively, the brand created the
Guinness Storehouse, a seven-story building that functions as both museum and pub, that has now become one of Ireland's top tourist attractions. And, more recently, Guinness even wired up its rugby team with
RFID tags (including balls and players) to capture a whole range of statistics about how fast, powerfully and effectively the game is played.
UNIQLO: Few companies have so used digital like Uniqlo to both build a brand and breakthrough to new consumers -- and on a truly global scale.The Japanese retailer surprises and delights consumers at every turn, whether through innovative
iPhone applications,
calendars,
e-commerce,
stylebooks and
microsites. Uniqlo's experiential efforts not only express the brand, but reach new consumers who may live thousands of miles away from the nearest retail location.
Virgin America: Virgin America has gone further than most, ensuring that the experience is the marketing -- and advertising in many cases. The brand targeted tech-savvy consumers early on with its
Red system entertainment console and in-flight WiFi. It showed off its dramatic interiors in
promotions with Diggnation and YouTube celebrities; became an early adopter of
Twitter for customer service; and reinforced its brand values through its simple booking engine on
VirginAmerica.com. And now, for the holidays, Virgin America is partnering with Google to offer
free WiFi for travelers.
Nike: Nike, of course, has been moving in this experiential direction for a few years. 'We're not in the business of keeping the media companies alive,'' Nike's Trevor Edwards
told the New York Times in 2007. ''We're in the business of connecting with consumers.'' And so they have. The company continually earns kudos for consumer experience breakthroughs like
Nike+, its online running community; the
Human Race, a global running event; and more recently the
Livestrong Chalkbot which enabled users to submit a text message that would be painted (digitally) on the route of the Tour de France.
"The old way of selling was to create safe, ordinary products and combine them with mass marketing. The new way is to create truly innovative products and build the marketing right in. But how does a brand make the transition from old to new? According to advertising gurus Alex Bogusky and John Winsor, it starts with the realization that the message is not the product, the product is the message. In Baked-In, they offer a step-by-step guide on how brands can adapt and thrive in this brave new world. Using these tools, Bogusky and Winsor have successfully marketed some of today’s most important brands, including Google, Nike, Microsoft, Patagonia, Toyota, and Burger King. They reveal how, through tools at hand — product design, brand history, internal collaboration — and the new tools of digital technology — YouTube and the web in general — companies can succeed in the 21st-century marketplace."
