Scott Cullather shares three future strategies with Forbes.
This year has been one of immense change. Amid COVID-19, the restrictions on in-person contact have meant consumers’ viewing and purchasing habits have undergone a major shift, and digital acceleration has occurred at a more rapid pace than ever before.
Now as you approach a fresh new year, it’s time to reflect on what you’ve learned—uncertainty breeds innovation after all—and prepare your business for 2021 and beyond. Here are three strategies to consider for maximizing success.
Tap into shared experiences to capture Millennials and Gen Zs
With the demographics that are famously known for favoring physical experiences over material products unable to engage in-person, it’s important to facilitate virtual experiences for them to connect and interact.
We’re seeing artists and brands tapping into esports and games like Epic Games’ Fortnite (the Travis Scott gig in April, for example, saw 12.3M participants), and festival experiences where players enjoy top DJs alongside avatars of their friends. There’s immense opportunity for brands to get involved in these experiences, through sponsorship and brand activations within these environments, or by immersing audiences in their own 360° branded worlds. By 2030—when experience economy spending is expected to reach $8 trillion—millennials and Gen Zs will have the biggest spending power by far, so as you prepare your business for what comes next, it pays to engage them in as many ways as possible, right now.
Prepare your business for 2021 with monetized hybrid: the future of audience engagement
From music festivals and brand activations, to internal sales meetings and awards shows, when in-person events are able to return, hybrid experiences will be widely adopted. Not only do they represent a safe return to our ‘new normal,’ they are more sustainable as less travel is required, and they open themselves up to a much wider audience. We could eventually see 2,000 in-person attendees at an event, meanwhile 50 million people tune in virtually, resulting in far greater brand awareness, leads and ultimately, sales.
Brands’ approach to the in-person/hybrid split will, however, vary. Some will treat virtual like the cherry on top of the cake—the nice added extra that they lean on sometimes—while the in-person element will be the cake for others. This will mostly come down to the monetary value the events bring to the company; and there’s an untapped opportunity with virtual to consider here: scalability, share-ability, inclusion to allow for an increase in ticket sales, wider VIP packages, exclusive content offerings to unlock, one-off talent experiences, and more.
Consider a multi-disciplinary, indie agency
In the COVID era where the world around us is in a constant state of flux, preparing your business for 2021 means we often need things fast. It pays to work with an agency partner that offers synergistic, specialist services all in one place, and at the same time, operates independently – we’ve seen a number of brands add indie agencies to their roster of late. Done properly, you get what you need without the unneeded expense and bureaucracy, which means products and services are delivered in smarter, better, more efficient ways. Teams are on the same page, and even though their skillsets may vary, they are all working towards a common goal. It’s one of the reasons we formed [INVNT GROUP] – we offer four disciplines that clients can work with depending on the brief and their overarching objectives, and we curate teams accordingly.
We thought the world passed us by quickly pre-pandemic… Now it’s essential we look forward, plan, re-assess, and adjust our business strategies on the daily. Don’t get left behind; and be sure to innovate – a little risk during times of uncertainty can pay off for your clients and your agency, trust me.
Check out the original story here.
