Interactive Marketing: 5 Key Takeaways from Leading Brands
Mar 15 2018 | 07:50 PM | 5 Mins Read | Level - Intermediate | Read ModeVandita Grover Contributor, Ziff Davis B2B
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Vandita is a passionate writer and IT enthusiast. She is a Computer Lecturer by profession at the University of Delhi. She has previously worked as a Software Engineer with Aricent Technologies. Vandita writes for MarTech Advisor as a freelance contributor.
When marketing initiatives are propelled by customers’ actions, we talk about Interactive or Event-Driven Marketing.
Interactive Marketing reacts to customer’s actions and strives to meet their expectations.
Today, viral quizzes and interactive calculators are gradually taking over e-books, blogs, and white-paper as a result.
CONTENT THAT CONNECTS: WHY INFLUENCER MARKETING IS THE FUTURE OF GEN Z ENGAGEMENT
Gen Z is a business opportunity you can’t afford to miss. As 40% of the population commanding upwards of $40 billion in spending power, modern marketers need to build compelling strategies to engage with Gen Z.
DownloadOne of Content Marketing Institute’s latest research shows that around 46% of total marketers surveyed are using interactive content and it is predicted that around 79% of marketers will be using interactive marketing in time to come.
In this article, we delve upon 5 key takeaways for marketers from popular interactive campaigns:
1. Personalization
If you can tailor your marketing message that matches your prospects’ personal traits, it will help you strike a chord with them.
Tag Livros, a book signing club did just that. Their target audience was bibliophiles, so they created an interactive quiz which would tell people the bestseller from the year they were born. This quiz was interactive, engaged users and provided instant gratification. The quiz generated about 72K visits, 23K leads and 5K engagements and was a huge success.
Lowes Home Improvement focused on addressing the pain point of customers – DIY home makeover. Everyone doesn’t have a budget for a home makeover. Lowes helped homeowners with a virtual skills training set, educated them on home improvement and engaged with them using a real-time augmented and virtual reality home makeover experience.
Both these campaigns managed to tap into what customers really wanted instead of blatantly selling their products.
2. Story Telling:
Humans love stories. We have been taught to be story hungry since we were toddlers.
Narrating riveting stories to your audience can inspire them and help you connect with them on a personal level.
Remember, storytelling adds more value than a pushy advertisement!
Tully Luxury Travels has invested in an interactive microsite that takes readers on a journey through different vacation spots across the world and narrates the unique traits of these destinations. Readers are told stories from multiple points-of-views and they can explore the microsite by place or by an agent. They can even choose their own narrative and can control and interact with the story as it plays.
3. Compel to take Action:
Popular chips brand Lay’s invited customers to visit websites and suggest a new flavor of chips and view those that were already-proposed. Two flavors were then pitted against each other and visitors voted for the one they’d prefer most. After all the submissions, Lay’s brand ambassadors took four final flavors to the streets and asked passers-by to sample them and vote for them on the company’s official website, by text or using social media hashtags.
Makeup brand Sephora encourages concert-goers to look their best at music festivals. They set up a tent at Coachella, where visitors could touch-up their hair and makeup, relax and test products. Individuals were then asked to post selfies and other pictures of their Sephora experience using a custom hashtag.
At NYC Panorama festival, visitors could use interactive touchscreens to describe their festival experience. This input would return with product recommendations that they could share directly on social media.
Both brands knew that participants would enjoy this kind of involvement and help toward an increased RoE(Return on Engagement).
When users take action, they feel more connected to the campaign and relate more to the brand, which increases their brand loyalty. They then even tend to recommend products within their own social circle.
4. The center of the story:
What better way to engage a user than to put her in the center of the story? Bringing in technologies like interactive video content, augmented reality(AR) and virtual reality(VR) can make the user feel like she is part of the action.
Estée Lauder in collaboration with ModiFace created an AR powered lipstick-chatbot on FB Messenger. A user can find the right shade of lipstick, upload a selfie and try an assortment of shades before making the final purchase.
To capitalize on the fandom of popular Netflix drama - Stranger Things, Snapchat introduced a Stranger Things world lens experience where users could explore Joyce Byer’s living room, tap on various elements to find Easter Eggs or hit fairy lights. Google Pixel had also launched AR stickers, where one could play with characters from Stranger Things.
5. Reshaping brand perceptions:
No matter how popular you are amongst your consumers, there is still a constant need to reach out to those who are not yet your paying customers.
Adidas recognized the gap in their approach to young consumers and launched its NEO line to connect better with them.
“Forever Curious”, its slogan, resonated well with Gen Z as NEO focused on fashionable yet affordable footwear. The #myneolabel initiative encouraged the younger target group to design their own apparels and shoes, doodle on models and submit them using Snapchat. Adidas saw a 400% increase in its followers. Winners were awarded with a trip to Adidas’ Germany Headquarters to see their designs come to life.
This success story reiterates that you are never too big a brand to reshape and reach out to your existing or potential followers!
The list of success stories from these giants can go on but here’s the main lesson - Investing in interactive experiences for your audience can drive meaningful results!