Brands recognize the power of experiences to inspire and drive growth. But too often they miss the mark when it comes to 3-D brand experiences—from the retail store to the tradeshow floor. Building A Better Brand Experience: From In-Store to the Tradeshow Floor offers a new model to fix 3-D brand experiences.

1. BUILDING A BETTER
BRAND
EXPERIENCE
FROM IN-STORE TO THE TRADESHOW FLOOR
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2. THE POWER OF EXPERIENCE
BRANDS ARE WISING UP. Many recognize the power of
experiences to inspire people and drive business growth.
They’re investing in unique engagements at touchpoints where
they interact with key audiences. The best of these brands we
call “experience brands”.
Too many brands, however, still miss the mark. And
paradoxically, they fall short at exactly those moments of
three-dimensional interaction between brands and people
where they have the best opportunities to creative immersive,
physical brand experiences. These include:
• Tradeshow booths and exhibits
• Retail stores and kiosks
• Pop-up displays and temporary installations
• Mobile exhibits and vehicles
• Corporate environments and executive briefing centers
Brands miss the mark for two reasons: they don’t realize the
opportunity physical brand experiences present, and/or they
fail to design the experiences to optimize this opportunity.
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3. DEFINING THE OPPORTUNITY
The design challenge is simple: people are barraged by
messaging and media. They feel hunted rather than wooed by
brands. Their time and attention is more precious than ever.
So fundamentally, an effective 3-D brand experience must be
worth people’s time. It should leverage the special ability of
physical brand experiences to be immersive and
multi-sensory, to provide a place for personalized interaction
and conversation. An effective 3-D brand experience must
be more than a backdrop. It needs to be an active space for
conversation and engagement versus passive scenery. And of
course, an effective 3-D brand experience needs to be part of
the larger brand and marketing strategy, with defined metrics
and outcomes.
To achieve all these goals, experience designers should pay
heed to what we call the “three E’s” of 3-D brand experience.
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4. THE 3 E’S:
3 PRINCIPLES OF 3D BRAND EXPERIENCES
Brand experiences should be built around three core principles:
ENTICE, ENGAGE, EXTEND.
ENTICE Draw people in
ENGAGE Broaden the conversation
EXTEND Make them believe
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5. ENTICE
Experience designers must take into account how people Visitors can be drawn to an experience through
enter and encounter the space: physically, emotionally, and online or mobile means. Choose the tactic and
attitudinally. For example, unless someone has been invited the message based on the targets’ behaviors and
quite literally to ‘attend’ an experience, they don’t necessarily your setting. No one says, ‘Hey, I think I’ll go to a
want to engage; they have to be enticed into the ballgame to go buy a new car’. Consumers think in
physical brand experience. terms of what they intend to do for the day. Brand
activations must enhance their plans, not interrupt
them. If you preview an experience worth having and
To drive traffic to an experience, it’s imperative
demonstrate you’ll respect guests’ time, consumers
to understand the audience and, when possible,
will be more likely to head in your direction.
become part of their agenda before the event.
Madelyn Varella
Offer something of value they can only get in
the space. But have a plan to get them there and
elevate your brand. If it’s a simple giveaway, In a physical sense, the ‘entice’ is the ‘shiny object’
prepare your staff to qualify guests to avoid ‘trick that catches a customer’s eyes and makes them want
or treaters’. If you’re providing an educational to stop and find out more. What it is depends on the
opportunity, be clear about when and where, and audience you’re trying to attract and how you want
design the space to accommodate. to engage them once they’re in the space. Movement
is good. It can be whimsical or serious, but it has to
touch the customer’s sense of wonder and curiosity
to find out more.
Marshall Bice
Trish Costello, Strategist
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6. ENGAGE
How does the environment facilitate face-to-face interactions, When they enter a brand space, people expect that
drive action and inspire advocacy? That’s what the ‘engage’ their time will be rewarded. Brands must meet this
stage of 3-D brand experience is about. To realize this, the expectation. That might mean the brand can’t just
brand must connect people to the brand, motivate them to take deliver the message; they must make it fun, add a
actions tied to achieving business results and inspire them to game or other interest point. We see touchscreens
talk about the brand and experience with their friends and iPads everywhere in stores, on the tradeshow
and colleagues. floor, on the street but they often fail to motivate
interaction. Warning: these elements do not make the
The time a customer spends exploring and experiencing message engaging on their own.
a product is the single-most important driver of purchase Madelyn Varella
decision. To increase success, the experience should
engage all senses, with the focus directed by the type of
In unifying the look of a space, key messages
goods being sold. For consumer products, placing the
or areas of the footprint can become muddied.
item in the customer’s hands has a significant impact on
Customers get confused about where to go or what’s
its perceived value. And the manner of the interaction
being offered. Intuitive design helps brands avoid
whether it’s an active conversation with a rep or a more
this. Similarly, clear messaging hierarchy and tiered
self-directed touchscreen demo has to be completely
branding help distinguish what information is most
thought out with respect to the different
important and directs the correct amount of detail to
customer psychologies.
audiences with low, medium and high
engagement levels.
Trish Costello
Marshall Bice,
SVP Creative Practice Leader
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7. EXTEND
While face-to-face interaction within the 3-D environment is A brilliant ‘engage’ has the power to extend results
extremely valuable, building long-term relationships is ultimately exponentially. The catalyst is providing an experience
more profitable. Extending the on-site experience by giving and content worth capturing. Sharing is the action
people a reason to interact with the brand outside the physical that spreads and amplifies impact. Brands can enable
space reinforces and solidifies that relationship, and provides sharing by providing ways to capture the experience,
mechanisms for measuring success. like photo ops and video confessionals, and uploading
or emailing content for guests to spread. They can
Extension of an experience is where the rubber meets also leverage social media to continue and track
the road in terms of measurable return on investment. conversations and distribute content from on-site
Digital tools are key, as they offer immediate options after the event.
for data capture. They can monitor trends such as Trish Costello
customer product preferences based on requested/
viewed digital content and individual customer issues. In addition to extending an experience through digital
They can capture and track specific leads. Digital interactions (capturing contact information, Facebook
tools map how a customer chooses to experience the ‘likes,’ et cetera) brands can extend by sharing content
brand and give clear direction on how to take the online in real-time or stream outside sources into
next step to strengthen the relationship with the space. Connecting live on-site with an audience
those customers. via the web or remote broadcasting helps to bridge
communication and experience gaps between those
physically present and those who are not. Through these
techniques, content can be instantaneously shared.
Opportunities to engage and communicate diverse
perspectives increase. The event’s reach is broadened,
which amortizes the cost of executing the live event and
immediately improves return.
Marshall Bice
Madelyn Varella, VP Digital Director
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8. ENGAGEMENT FUELS ACTION
TARGETED EXPERIENCE DRIVES CONVERSION + ADVOCACY
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9. MORE THAN A PHYSICAL RELATIONSHIP
In today’s desensitized and time-starved world, capturing
people’s attention and affection is difficult and rare, especially
if you’re a brand. Physical brand experiences when properly
executed can achieve both, and can result in the kind of
long-term brand loyalty and advocacy that deliver business
results, sustain growth, and breed brand-loving relationships.
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10. LEARN MORE
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Best Experience Brands Read now >>
What is an Experience Brand? Read now >>
Experience Brands and the New Engagement Model (research) Read now >>
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11. ABOUT JACK MORTON JACK MORTON WORLDWIDE IS A
GLOBAL BRAND EXPERIENCE AGENCY WITH OFFICES ON
FIVE CONTINENTS. OUR AGENCY CULTURE PROMOTES
BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS ABOUT HOW EXPERIENCES CONNECT
BRANDS AND PEOPLE—IN PERSON, ONLINE, AT RETAIL AND
THROUGH THE POWER OF DIGITAL AND WORD OF MOUTH
INFLUENCE. WE WORK WITH BOTH BtoC AND BtoB CLIENTS TO
CREATE POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE EXPERIENCES THAT ENGAGE
CUSTOMERS AND CONSUMERS, LAUNCH PRODUCTS, ALIGN
EMPLOYEES AND BUILD STRONG EXPERIENCE BRANDS.
RANKED AT THE TOP OF OUR FIELD, WE EARNED OVER 50
AWARDS LAST YEAR.
JACK MORTON EXHIBITS IS THE AGENCY’S SPECIALIZED
DIVISION THAT DESIGNS, BUILDS AND DELIVERS BRAND
ENVIRONMENTS INCLUDING TRADESHOW EXHIBITS, MOBILE
VEHICLES, POP-UP, AND RETAIL AND CORPORATE SPACES.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT LIZ BIGHAM AT
liz_bigham@jackmorton.com
© Jack Morton Worldwide 2012
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