As our access to knowledge and information grows, consumers increasingly demand more and more from brands. They want information, purpose, ethics, process and quality. They want transparency and authenticity. And, of course, they want more for less.

And if one brand doesn’t deliver on all of the above, there will be at least ten others ready and waiting to take up the mantle.

In order to stand out today, brands must be memorable. As a result, Brand Activation is at the top of the agenda.

Nowadays, only through interaction and experience, are brands really managing to grab consumers’ attention. It isn’t enough for us just to see something anymore, we have to feel it.

And Ted Baker clearly got the memo. They’ve installed a five-week interactive brand experience in Old-Street Station, born out of a desire to advertise their collection in a more memorable and engaging way.  Yet this also gives the fashion retailer the opportunity to collaborate with the consumer – gaining knowledge and insight into what they think in order to progress the collection, according to their consumer wants and needs.

By creating a sensory, material and informative space, they are asking their consumers to understand their brand, by allowing them to feel it; both physically and viscerally, “creating deeper connection through experience”.

As an events agency, we’re very much in tune with this, understanding the purpose of brand activation; the very essence of which was inspired by the experiential nature of events in the first place. There is no better arena for consumers to really get to grips with a brand than during a dedicated event.

This is something we keep at the forefront of our minds when producing our conferences and events, be they B2C or B2B. Always conscious of the fact that audiences, whether consumers or delegates, need to feel something in order to believe in a brand or a business.

Albert Einstein said it straight; “the only source of knowledge is experience”. Never has this been truer!

Consumers now want to know everything about everything so knowledge is the most valuable commodity [debatedly]. But in a world that’s saturated with it, we must increasingly communicate our raison d’etre in a way that stands out.

And just like Ted Baker, we at Meet & Potato do that by “creating connection through experience”.

M&P. X