The Happiness Machine

So after writing about Ambush Marketing in my last blog, I thought I would concentrate on another one of my favourite types of marketing; Experiential Marketing. This is also known as engagement marketing and this is exactly what it does; it engages people. The idea of it is to create a connection with the consumer (or a stranger, with the hope that they become a consumer of your brand) that they will never forget, hopefully leading them to purchase your product.

A good example of this which has been doing the rounds recently is the Coca-Cola happiness machine. In the example given below, the students approached the vending machine as they would any other. However, this wasn't normal vending machine and there is somebody sitting inside! It starts off by giving free Coca Cola to passers-by, but the ideas and gifts become more interesting and exciting. As you can see, the students love it!

This creates an instant connection with the people who are there to witness it. However, another important component of engagement marketing is viral marketing. The reason I have seen the Coca-Cola happiness machine is for this exact reason; it went viral. As well as interaction with the consumer in real life, everyone who shares the video (as I am doing now) is essentially giving free advertising to Coca-Cola. But lets be honest, it is pretty cool! This sort of thing goes viral on the internet, but I can imagine the students at this college told all their friends who told all their friends who told all their friends etc... (you get the picture!) They also drove a happiness truck round South America, amongst other things.

Another benefit of this type of marketing is that it can be very cost-effective if done in the right way. It doesn't cost too much to set up a vending machine and stick a guy in there I think most students would sit in there just for the free Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola was perhaps too kind to the consumers though. To get something in life, you normally have to earn it. An Adelaide based snack brand, Fantastic Delites, set out to prove this point. Instead of just setting up a machine to give away free samples, they required people to do something to earn it. This started off with somebody having to press a button 100x, rising to 5000x and ending with a small child doing a pretty impressivee robot dance, leading to a well-deserved round of applause from the crowd who gathered to watch!

Both of the videos above are a marketers dream. They are inexpensive, effective and most importantly, get people talking, be it online or offline. For me, there are two aims in marketing. You want people to consume your product or service, but you also want people to talk about it (this is especially the case for non-commercial marketing; e.g government health campaigns). No matter how good a marketing campaign is, the best reccommendations are the ones from your friends. These both capture people's imagination by doing something simple, fun and engaging. What more could a marketer want?

@paulcoffee