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Keeping it real
The relentless advance of digital technology has supported the rapid emergence of communication channels which continue to expand in volume and complexity.
As a direct result, brands have more opportunities than ever before to communicate with their audiences and to do so in new and engaging ways which have genuine impact.
However, the more information we access, the more adept we become at filtering out ambient background noise. We become far more discriminatory, almost subconsciously - a situation that's certainly not the basis of a strong relationship between brand and consumer.
Consumers can now interface with your brand and brand messages not only far more frequently but also across a multiplicity of media platforms. It is what has been described as the Martini model - consumption of your brand message ‘any time, any place, anywhere'.
In such a free form environment, there is no guarantee of the message hitting home, if we turn to consider the negative aspect of this - the potential for communication overload.
The Holy Grail for all brands is a captive, wholly engaged audience. The ideal brand/consumer communication model is an attraction that draws the audience and provides an experience that fulfils (or exceeds) expectations.
This attraction holds the audience captive; it filters out any distracting ambient communication; it provides the platform to make a focussed, meaningful and memorable connection with the audience.
In my view, the live event provides that platform.
When staged and delivered properly, the live event has the potential to become the most intimate point of consumer touch. Of huge value is the ability to control the presentation, to sequence and stage the message, to engage and stimulate the audience in a more individual and immersive manner.
In other words, at the live event, we can engage with all the senses and so speak to the emotions through an experience in a far more compelling manner.
Agreed, consumers appreciate the immediacy provided by digital media, but almost instinctively, they look for value beyond it.
Nowhere can this change be more clearly seen than within the music industry.
Historically live events (ie concerts and tours) were staged as a necessity to support sales of the artist's latest release; it was sales of the album that generated the revenue.
Today, however, with the complexity in distribution and media communication channels, the live event has taken on a more significant role with respect to the artist's revenue stream and, more fundamentally, with regard to that artist's relationship with his or her audience.
Sound reproduction has never been better. Ease of access to high quality audio and visual material on the consumers' terms has never been greater. Artists are now seemingly more accessible than they have ever been - but the live event remains the premier touch point, creating a connection with the target audience through a powerful experience that is deeply engaging at the time and resonates with meaning thereafter.
And that profound connection then helps drive engagement through the plethora of other communication channels, enhancing revenue and building the relationship.
In a sentence, as virtual becomes ever more 'real' - real becomes ever more powerful.
Kenny Holmes
- Insight
- Digital Communications
- Investor Communications
- Marketing Communications
- Retail and Leisure
- Sport and Entertainment
