Live Interactive Marketing Ideas and Interactive Products

The whole concept of experiential marketing fascinates me. To think that a brand can now be associated with sounds, smells, sights, touch, taste – and yet it might be a brand of sports footwear – is truly amazing. When I was a boy I had a pair of pumps – and that was it. I think that we used to get them from Walco which was a cheap shop on Bank Street in Rawtenstall. The only thing that was ever made my pumps into anything other than “playing-out shoes” was in summer when they became holiday shoes when my mum used to clean them with Blanco to make them look nice and white. No “go faster” stripes, no walking on air, no leaving the laces undone and shoving them down the sides and certainly no way that they cost £70 – £100 for an ordinary pair!

When I got older, I discovered Dunlop Green Flash; seriously posh pumps with a definite smell of their own – very rubbery. This was one of several steps towards understanding branding and brand loyalty. An earlier one came with Levis, Wranglers and Lee Cooper jeans which were the only brands that were acceptable if you wanted to be in with the mods of Burnley and Accrington. Besides, cheaper jeans showed up like Blackpool illuminations in the fluorescent lights of Accy disco.  

I digress. The point that I am trying to make is that marketing has come a long way in the last 50 years since my junior school days and I find it all very interesting.

Experiential marketing and live interactive marketing experiences probably take marketing further than any other form of marketing and the genre has spawned some terrific ideas. However, I feel that the live experiences could always go at least one step further. I am talking about product literature. I know that “scratch’n’sniff” has been used but the experience is not always about smell. What about the product personality. How do you translate this through to the product info? Well, let’s take a look at sports footwear as a product. Young, lively, healthy, active – how about our Jumpinjax? Perfect for a spring-heeled shoe that walks on air. How about if the strap line was “Keeps on Running”? That could open the door to our Interloop Mailer which just keeps turning and turning forever. An experienced marketer will see the obvious possiblities. Check out PopupMailers to see more ideas and products.

And just as a bit of fun – make a note of 21st April – it’s Sharon Beardsworth’s 40th birthday. You could send he an email. She’s on our “contacts” page.