Equity Gold and Experiential Marketing
Brand Recall
Experiential marketing is one of the latest tools being employed by the marketing communications experts to make customers or target publics patronise a product or service in through a one-on-one approach.
This new tool creates more conviction other than mere oration. This tool is commonly employed by brand managers in the brand building business for products in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG).
That a bank says it is using experiential marketing to sell its package says a lot about the tool and the thinking of their managers. Apart from Guaranty Trust Bank Plc that is about now employing the Road Shows side of experiential marketing for its on-going N10 billion public offer , hardly can one see or hear any other one or two banks adopting such strategy.
The recently held post annual general meeting dinner of Equity Bank of Nigeria Plc were a "mere" dinner was turned to an experiential marketing venue deserves mention for its simplicity, timeliness and uniqueness.
Courtesy of Customer Relation Marketing (CRM)Limited, guests at the event left with much to desire of a bank event, going by widespread conservatism of banks.
From observation, the brief was to formally launch Equity Gold to the public through a select audience of core targets; Leveraging the master brand, engender an immediate target buy-in for product; To provide quality and convertible interaction between product and select targets and friends of the bank ; And to create massive and lingering Top Of Mind Awareness (TOMA) for the product.
The strategy utilised the post AGM dinner to re-launch and highlight the key benefits of the product amidst fanfare and razzmatazz. It hosted a memorable launch with convertible interests for product.
The Idea behind the launch was preceded by choreographed dance of the key benefits of the product , after which was a unique Split Curtain Revelation. Here the bank logo muralled backdrop split in the centre to reveal a well lighted gold coin logo of Equity Gold Account. The revelation was executed to a pyrotechnics of smoke, sparks and music.
The Launch Sequence had the Master of Ceremonies draw attention to the launch in the course of the dinner. He introduced the dance ensemble and the choreographed dance which demonstrated the essence of the product as a prelude to its unveiling . The dance climaxed to the unveiling amid pyrotek.
As the revelation unfolded, the special product manager (Mrs. Anire Celey-Okogwu) walks on stage to give voice to the dance performance by telling the audience about the product.
As she rounds off her talk in five minutes, the performers distribute the product information brochures to the guests.
The manager thank everyone present and bows off the stage as the MC walks on stage to introduce the special guest of honour, Chief Rasaq Okoya, a customer of the bank who endorsed the Equity Gold in 5 minutes. The special product manager encourages the guests to participate or introduce potential customers by filling attached intent card. What happened later? Your guess is as good as mine. The close to 200 guests will have confidence in such brand to the extent of at least giving the package a trial. From the number of intent card filled by the guest, coupled with satisfactory looks on the faces of the guests, it is safe to say that at least 20% of the guests would have been converted to the Equity Gold package.
As the selected artist performed , guests were filling the intent cards for future follow up by the bank's marketing team.
Very unique of the entire event was the timing. It started at the 7 PM, designated time on the event programme. The MC had to 'apologise' to the guest for starting early. What an irony!
The programme of event was timed with appropriate minutes for each item on the programme brochure. Non of the item went beyond time stated. By 9.15 the closing remarks had begun as stated on the programme brochure.
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