Page 28 - AdNews Mar-Apr 2021

Investigation
the series, Stranger Things, with the scenes acted out around them. Like the Borat overhaul of Bondi Beach, Netflix found a way to engage its audience as others struggled to find ways to create meaningful experiences in 2020. The experiential marketing indus- try, which had been booming pre- viously, almost come to a grinding halt as the pandemic led to stay- at-home orders and social distanc- ing restrictions. Large scale events such as the Olympic Games were cancelled or postponed and the industry saw mass redundan- cies or people being stood down. Labelled by many as “diaboli- cal”, the pandemic’s effects on the experiential and events industry saw the demise of many businesses. Caleb Bush, managing director Australia and New Zealand, at global experiential agency GPJ, says those that weren’t proactive were
the ones that suffered the most “We’ve survived because we’ve seen what’s coming and acted early,” says Bush. “We’ve been able to be a really strong voice to our clients around what to do next, as opposed to being the agency getting briefed by a client
on what they need us to do. “Agencies that were ‘brief tak- ers’ were more impacted than agencies that value strategic thinking and that strategic side
of engaging with a client.”
Todd Marks, director of WPP AUNZ-owned experiential firm Maverick, says when the pandemic first hit, there was short-term con- fusion and devastation, but it was just a new challenge for stronger
players to overcome.
“It was a bit of a mass extinc-
tion event for some part-time experiential agencies,” he says. “There are now some extra con- siderations required in the strate- gic development of an idea and [now] additional rigor in the exe- cution, but this compliance and flexibility has always been built into the Maverick process.”
With many brands turning to virtual events during 2020, Marks sees these a temporary fix but notes there is nothing like real connection.
“‘Pivoting’ was the bullshit bingo word used by experiential
“Musicians doing their concerts from their bedrooms, or restaurants doing home delivery service with chefs dialing in ... “
Laura Roberts, MD, INVNT
agencies over COVID-19,” he says. “Translated this just meant that expe- riential agencies became part-time digital agencies to stay alive. Moving the experiences online; simple hybrid events and screen based experi- ences temporarily replacing real interaction.
“If you can do it on your phone or in front of a computer, it’s not experiential, that’s everyday life during the past 12 months.”
While 2020 was difficult, it also forced the industry to innovate. Laura Roberts, APAC managing director of experiential agency INVNT, says she has been “blown away” by the innovation she has seen with experiences.
“Musicians doing their concerts from their bedrooms, or restau- rants doing home delivery service with chefs dialing in, it really forced everyone to challenge their day-to-day business practice — which was survival mode — but it’s probably going to really influence how experiential is carried out moving forward now,” she says.
Within its own business, Roberts says INVNT accelerated its own plans to diversify and added three new business units. Joining INVNT is now brand strategy firm FOLK HERO, branded content and digital marketing studio HEVĒ, and culture consultancy MEANING to form [INVNT Group]. Roberts heads up the group which now offers these services to comple- ment the existing experiences it creates for clients, or independently.
“We also really invested in our people by upskilling a huge team in platform configuration and webinar management and so forth,” she says. “All skills that we didn’t particularly think in experiential we would need to have, but they’re certainly skills we’re going to need moving forward.”
Likewise, Zoe Cocker, head of brand and RYOT Studio ANZ at Verizon Media, says the disruption of 2020 caused brands to rethink the way they market and speed up the adoption of new technologies to create different experiences.