While brands are finding new and unique ways to integrate live experience throughout the entire marketing mix, mobile tours and experiential build-outs are getting bigger and bolder. Smarter investments and strategy through better planning and design, continue to elevate the vehicle experience and prove that mobile tours are the highest earner for program ROI among other experiential efforts.
Here’s Team Turtle’s top list of mobile marketing trends for 2016 ahead:
AMPLIFICATION – Today’s mobile tours don’t stand a chance without the integration of digital in the live experience. The boldest vehicles have a balance of technology and physical assets as part of their activation footprint. High tech engagements are becoming more nimble, are easy to install in physical structures, and require minimal self-support. If you’re looking to amplify your mobile tours, ask yourself whether your vehicle experience has a balance of physical and digital engagement.
MOBILE EXTENSIONS – Hyper Mobile is here. Activation footprints are slimming down as open spaces are in. Open floor plans are more inviting to people and allow for technology elements and displays to stand-out. Our clients always task us with creating mobile exhibits that can set-up fast, are flexible for various event sets, and display high tech engagements beautifully. Fabricating lighter-weight modular structures also works really well outside your vehicle as extensions to your activation footprint. When space is limited, they can also serve as your entire event when your vehicle cannot make an appearance.
LOUNGES – Themed lounges are bigger than ever. From rustic canopies with marquee lighting, vibrant tension fabrics and branded structures, lounges anchor off a vehicle extremely well and serve as a destination for people to hang out and stay engaged with your brand. With participation rates up, having a lounge as part of your vehicle is a great place to reward customers for their time and turns a one-way communication into a two-way conversion.
STAGES AND WINDOWS – The desire for open spaces has led us to be creative in the fabrication process. We’re engineering new and exciting ways to integrate custom stages and windows as part of the vehicle structure. Flip up windows create opportunity for better dialog with customers and flip down stages serve as an activation location for culinary demonstrations, digital spaces and also position your music / entertainment sponsors in an area front and center. Intimate demonstration and trialing is out. Collaborative viewings and shared conversations are in.
LIGHTING – High-end corporate events are not the only experiences that can story tell using brilliant lighting schemes. New wireless lightings systems that are now sold at the retail level function using sensor technology and mobile app integration, and can create unlimited lighting schemes for your mobile tours. We have integrated wireless lighting systems inside vehicles and built-out exhibits structures with illuminated wall systems. Tune, dim and control lighting from an iPhone or iPad with minimal programming and self-support; to create unlimited colored environments or even a different backdrop for each product you’re promoting.
SHOPPER MARKETING – Retailers are looking to create more emotional connections between shoppers and customers. Shopper marketers are elevating their efforts, thinking outside the shelf, and bringing mobile tours and experiential build-outs to the retailer as a way to intersect shoppers through dynamic experience. Customized vehicle experiences are literally helping to shape shopper behaviors and purchase decisions. Retail activation is growing in the shopper marketing industry and be prepared to see a fleet of custom vehicles hit the marketplace next year to inspire customers to think differently in store.
B-2-B – The new interactive roadshow is diverse and dynamic. It allows you to target specific audiences in places that are most convenient to them. Your brand can host workshops and customer appreciation seminars, and even build-out a mobile design-thinking lab to share ideas and synergies with new business partners. The flexibility and scalability of a roadshow allows you to build opportunity costs in both the short and long term, and serves as a multi-purposed tool in your organization.
How do marketers get more out of their mobile tours in 2016?
Screen wisely and select the right builder for your program. Turtle Transit is focused on evolving our capabilities and product offerings for a new age of mobile marketing programs. Get your builder involved at the earlier stages and let ideation funnel downstream. We pride ourselves for being horizontal partners and value collaboration so that your mobile tour is result-driven, not just crowd-driven. A recent Harvard Business Journal article suggests that – “its hard to wallpaper over structures split by inconsistent goals and cultures that do not value collaboration.” Let your builder be a horizontal integrator and the impossible can be built (and look amazing too!).
