Spotted in the Hotcow blog ….Earlier this year, Hotcow wrote a piece for Marketing week , where we explored a novel idea.

We imagined a world where brands invested their marketing budgets in consumer brand experience and Experiential became the dominant form of marketing communication.

This weeks Grocer magazine discusses why FMCG brands are spending more on Digital marketing, replacing some of the spend previously enjoyed by TV advertising (down 5.46% to £1.47bn in 2012)

Changes in television technologies allow us far more control over what we watch and when. Programmes can be downloaded and watched when it suits us. We can fast forward Live TV and avoid watching advertisements altogether.

For those without the above capabilities, we always have our trusty mobile phones and tablets devices on hand, for a quick browse while the TV adverts play.

With many millions of pounds still being invested in the traditional ATL channels, it is a very real and understandable concern, knowing that consumers can choose to simply switch off.

The point is, most of us do not enjoy watching adverts and will actively embrace anything that helps us to avoid this.

Moving advertising spend from television and instead, placing it online, doesn’t really address the problem. Brands are still spending vast sums of money trying to communicate with people who would rather they didn’t.

Digital platforms may offer us incredibly detailed, targeted strategies. Vast libraries of mined consumer information enable us to target very specific, consumer segments. If you want to target men called John, based in Newcastle, aged 25 – 37 who enjoy fishing and motorsport – you can probably do so. But does this encourage brands to concentrate on quantity over quality?

But with the vast majority of digital advertising consisting of static adverts, sponsored adverts, promoted tweets etc – are these not simply an evolution of banner advertisements? Yes they may be constantly on the periphery of our online focus, but have we not all learnt to filter out the unwanted, online marketing noise?

Long-term, repeat buying, brand advocates

What brands really want is for consumers to fall in love with them. To talk positively about their product with everybody they know and become fully engaged, long-term, repeat buying, brand advocates.

The problem, is that none of these mediums engage with consumers in the same manner as Experiential. None of these channels can offer a personal, immersive interaction which allows consumers to learn about with your brand and experience your product with each of their five senses.

When brands give consumers a memorable experience, they instinctively want to shout about it and share that moment with their friends. When they do this, the experience bypasses much of the cynicism aimed at corporate marketing and instead becomes that of  genuine human interest. Because this information comes from people that we know and trust, we take notice.

Whilst the cost for reaching an audience through digital no doubt appears attractive, there is still incredibly limited engagement. Communication is remains predominately one-way and it is impossible to truly convey the superior taste, texture or power of your product online.

Experiential can demonstrate all of these values first hand.

The top 50 FMCG advertisers spent just under £400m on advertising last year. We would guess that less than 5% was actually spent engaging with consumers face to face.

Falling in love doesn’t happen online. We might spend time on a dating site and see plenty of people we like the look or sound of. But it isn’t until we meet with people in the real world that the magic happens and we begin to feel true affection.

At Hotcow we show clients how to be different and stand out from the crowd. We teach brands how to harness the power of experiential and execute highly effective Experiential marketing strategies.

If the key purpose of advertising, digital or other, is to persuade people to take notice and try your product. Does it not make sense to give consumers an incredible offline experience, and make an impact they will never forget?

Hotcow is a multi-award winning Experiential Marketing agency. We get brands in front of consumers in ways that persuade them to buy. We fully implement our ideas; nothing needs to be farmed out.

For more information or free consultation,contact us