Keeping it real - Kenny Holmes Imagination

Keeping it real

Some thoughts from Kenny Holmes, Head of Brand Communications at Imagination

Let’s start with the positives. The relentless advance of digital technology has supported the rapid emergence of communication channels which continue to expand in volume and complexity.

As a direct result, brands have more opportunities than ever before to communicate with their audiences and to do so in new and engaging ways which have genuine impact.

However, there is no guarantee of the message hitting home, if we turn to consider the negative aspect of this - the potential for communication overload.

Consumers can now interface with your brand and brand messages not only far more frequently but also across a multiplicity of media platforms. It is what has been described as the Martini  model - consumption of your brand message ‘any time, any place, anywhere’.

However, it does not follow that exposure to a greater volume of messaging makes people better informed or more receptive to communication. Quite the opposite.

Arguably, the more information we access, the more adept we become at filtering out ambient background noise.

In fact, so much communication today is unsolicited and largely unwanted. People do not choose to interface with it - it seeks to force its way in and interface with the target audience. In response, we become far more discriminatory, almost subconsciously.

This makes the communication challenge all the tougher for brands. At the very least, it will induce the dilution of meaningful messaging.

More to the point, the situation does not sound particularly like the basis of a strong relationship between a brand and its chosen audience, does it?

The Holy Grail for all brands is a captive, wholly engaged audience. The ideal brand/consumer communication model is to create an attraction that draws the audience and thereafter an experience that fulfils expectations.

This attraction holds the audience captive; it filters out any distracting ambient communication; it provides the platform to make a focussed, meaningful and memorable connection with the audience.

In my view, the live event provides the ideal platform to deliver against this admittedly idealised communication model.

Let’s consider why. The potential for a brand message to be assimilated at a live event is vast, as the audience has made a conscious decision to attend. By definition, it is in a  receptive state of mind; one can infer an implied consent to dialogue, which is a far more favourable context than forcing messages on people. When staged and delivered properly, the live event has the potential to become the most intimate point of consumer touch. Of huge value is the ability to control the presentation, to sequence and stage the message, to engage and stimulate the audience in a more individual and immersive manner.

In other words, at the live event, we can play to all the senses and so speak to the emotions through an experience far more compelling than any in the digital realm. The desire for truth and reality in communication is enduring; digital technology facilitates access to knowledge and information but its currency is novelty.

Consumers appreciate immediacy, but almost instinctively, they look for value beyond it. Nowhere can this change be more clearly seen than within the music industry. Historically live events (ie concerts and tours) were staged as a necessity to support sales of the artist’s latest release; it was sales of the album that generated the revenue. Today, however, with the complexity in distribution and media communication channels, the live event has taken on a more significant role.

This is two-fold: it is with respect to the artist’s revenue stream and, more fundamentally, it is with regard to that artist’s relationship with his or her audience.

Sound reproduction has never been better. Ease of access to high quality audio and visual material on the consumers’ terms has never been greater. Artists are now seemingly more accessible than they have ever been - but the live event remains the premier touch point.

Just look at Live8, The Rolling Stones on another world tour or Robbie Williams at Knebworth!

Whilst most communication agencies seem happy to plagiarise the aesthetic of the music industry’s leading edge style statements, to date few have followed the music industry model.

That model is harnessing the live event to create a real point of connection with the target audience through a powerful experience that is deeply engaging at the time and resonates with meaning thereafter.

And that profound connection then helps drive engagement through the plethora of other communication channels, enhancing revenue and building the relationship.

In a sentence, as virtual becomes ever more 'real' - real becomes ever more powerful.