3 Takeaways from Advertising Week Europe 2024

We headed over to London’s 180 studios to join the discussion at Advertising Week Europe, and understand what some of this year's trends and topics could mean for experiential marketing.

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#1 - Brands Should Go Beyond Simply Selling Products

In a fireside chat, EE’s Christian Thrane sat down with Saatchi & Saatchi’s Richard Huntington to discuss the marketing-led rebuild of EE. Tackling ‘transactional’ audience perceptions, EE’s refreshed identity marks an active shift away from being ‘Just a mobile company’, and focuses on how their products fit within the bigger picture of their audience's daily lives.

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The experiential takeaway? Show, don’t tell. Experiences can hold the key to shifting audience perceptions about how a brand can have a more positive personal impact on their lives by bringing the brand to life in practical, engaging ways.

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Take a music festival as an example, a telecom brand might offer something as simple as free phone charging as part of an activation, not only keeping people connected but also enhancing their event experience. By creating positive, memorable experiences, Brands can make a more significant impact compared with relying solely on traditional marketing methods.

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#2 - The Devil’s in the Data

Uber’s Paul Wright, Havas’ Jackie Lyons, and OMG’s Steve Mader highlighted just how much first-party data we now have, and how targeted and granular it can make marketing and measurement alike. In the case of Uber, it allows them to map the mindset of the consumer when making specific travel or grocery decisions and use this information to target and adapt marketing between its travel and Eats platforms.

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The experiential takeaway: Much like digital advertising, data and tech now open the door to more insight into the ROI of events and experiential marketing strategies. With rising access to powerful new experiential measurement tools like Deeplocal’s Gumband, brands are in a better position than ever to plan and measure events and experiences in a similar way to how they measure their digital campaigns, and leverage combined insights for a more integrated and holistic approach across marketing channels.

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#3 - Dwelling on Audience Engagement

As brands continue to navigate the digitally dominated arena for audience attention, Propeller Group's Izzy Ashton led a panel event exploring gaming's effectiveness at reaching next generation audiences, bringing to light just how engaged gamers actually are. I had never realised just how long dwell time was in branded spaces on gaming platforms such as Roblox. The discussion was eye-opening in that gamers actually provide the most active form of content engagement possible and therefore can be your best audience, as long as you approach them with authenticity and reframe your brand in a way that is native to them.

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The experiential takeaway - Much like gaming, brand experiences can lean into the collective power of fandom and niche audience subcultures in a community context. By aligning with specific audience interests that have a genuine connection with a brand, events and experiences can bring these communities together in the physical world and add another dimension of engagement.  

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Learn more about experiential marketing in 2024.

AWEurope delegates can watch the session recordings here.

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_{Want to know more about how to elevate your experiences and events this year? Get in touch with us hello@setcreative.com}

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