We anticipate what the live events landscape will look like post Covid-19 and assess how brands can ensure that they’re best prepared to attract and engage their audiences.

1. GET READY TO RECONNECT:
LIVE EXPERIENCE POST COVID-19

2. INTRODUCTION
GET READY TO RECONNECT : LIVE EXPERIENCE POST COVID-19
There’s no denying that the Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the most impactful events to happen to society within most of our living memories.
During the lockdown period, people have turned to digital services to fill the important gap that social events usually hold in their lives, with
innovative approaches being deployed to connect people and places during the pandemic.
However, digital solutions can only go so far in replicating physical connections; so as we move into a post-lockdown world, we can hopefully start
to look forward to a time when we can come together again face to face.
As we start to emerge from a period of socially-distanced isolation, we believe that the role of experiential marketing has never been more crucial,
as people look to reconnect in the post lockdown world.
As the country starts to open up again, brands need to ensure that they’re primed and ready to create and deliver consumer experiences that drive
real impact. So our report is designed to equip you with the knowledge and tools to reconnect with your audience in the real world!
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GET READY TO RECONNECT!
• Why invest in Experiential when budgets are tight?
• Meeting the needs of the ‘new’ consumer
o Consumer attitudes – emotion and authenticity
o New experiences
o Environmental sensitivity
• Digital integration
• Driving reach and delivering results
• Key take outs
GetReadytoReconnect
Startingquestions
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CONTENTS

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Experiential marketing can require greater investment
than other channels, however it’s important to assess the
value that a live experience can provide for your brand
and consumer beyond the event itself.
Live experiences deliver a great opportunity for brands
to create a human connection and two way dialogue
with their audience.
After months spent indoors (and likely glued to a
screen!), experiential campaigns will provide a chance
for consumers to get offline and get interactive with their
favourite brands once again.
So how can you maximise that opportunity?
WHY INVEST IN
EXPERIENTIAL WHEN
BUDGETS ARE TIGHT?
CONVERSE, RENEW
WRAY & NEPHEW,
WRAY RESIDENCIES
TOMMEE TIPPEE, SLEEPFEST

5. HOW TO MEET THE NEEDS
OF THE ‘NEW’ CONSUMER
Covid-19 has had an impact on the way consumers react to
brand messages.
Studies conducted into the changing public attitudes during
the Covid-19 pandemic show that people are responding
better to messages which appeal to right brain thinking -
expressive, creative, feelings led.
Experiential campaigns provide the opportunity to connect
with consumers on this interactive level and build dialogue
about how your brand can best serve their changing needs.
How can you best harness the power of emotion
driven messaging?
CONVERSE, RENEW
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6. CONSUMER
ATTITUDES
_
In order to get ready to reconnect it is key to
understand how your consumer is thinking and
feeling about the world around them. This allows you
to understand how your consumers may be feeling
about your brand and the types of experiences that
will engage them.
EMOTION
The Coronavirus tracking study by System1 (accessible here) looks at how consumers
react to different marketing messages during the pandemic. The findings demonstrated that
during the lockdown period, brand messages which focused on feelings of connectedness
and community outperformed those which were product focused and included a hard sell.
DESIGN
When designing an event which speaks to the new audience mindset it’s important to
appeal to the right hand ‘feelings’ side of the brain, by creating events that are
imaginative, interactive and immersive.
To do this you could create an event which gives your audience the opportunity to
participate in a workshop which has relevance for your brand, where guests can learn a
new skill or craft. Rather than delivering a showcase of your product (factual, left-brain),
you are connecting your brand with your audience’s passions and interests (emotion, right-
brain).
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7. HARNESSING THE POWER OF EMOTION
THE HOXTON SOUTHWARK
To launch the newest hotel from The Hoxton we needed to engage two
communities.
Firstly, the local community, to encourage them to use the hotel’s
beautiful restaurants and bars as social spaces. And secondly The
Hoxton’s international community, to demonstrate why Southwark was a
vibrant destination to visit.
To do this, we appealed to our audience’s creative side, curating a
month-long program of covetable events which included workshops,
talks, dining experiences and parties across fashion, beauty, music and
sport.
All the events were hosted in the hotel’s spaces and were
delivered by local collaborators.
This allowed us to engage our audience with Southwark as
a destination and position The Hoxton hotel at the heart of
the community. Creating reasons for guests to visit the
hotel without needing to deliver a hard sell.
The
Botanis
t
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AUTHENTICITY
In times of uncertainty, consumers will be looking for transparency and authenticity in the
brands they connect with. So how brands behaved during and how they behave
immediately after the pandemic will influence how consumers feel about them beyond
that.
Consumers are favouring brands that are actively shown to be giving back to the
community, for example lending resources, providing entertainment with free content or
delivering services.
The fashion industry provides one example of how brands used their resources for good
with The Armani Group and Prada, amongst others, producing PPE for health workers
from their disused factories.
Whilst consumers understand that not all brands could provide specific help or resources
during the pandemic, they will be highly aware of and their opinions will be affected by,
brand behaviour post Covid-19.
One example of a brand who gets this right is Wray & Nephew. Wray’s
Residencies are a series of hyper-local gigs. The gigs are hosted in underfunded
community spaces and feature a mix of up and coming and established artists
from Jamaican British Urbanite neighbourhoods.
IMPLICATION FOR EXPERIENTIAL
The trend will be for community led events which engage people on a local level and provide a
benefit for local communities through entertainment, services or resources.
We ensure that everything from the catering to the staffing is sourced locally,
with proceeds from the event being donated to a charity of the headline
artist’s choice, ensuring that the event directly benefits the community it sits in.
AUTHENTICITY IN ACTION
WRAY & NEPHEW

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Having spent months indoors people will be eager to
get out and try new experiences.
Whilst the desire during the isolation period was for
brands to entertain and reassure, in the recovery phase
people will crave innovation and excitement.
Brands should prepare to meet the needs of consumers
who are looking to transition away from the doom and
gloom of time indoors away from loved ones. By
providing fresh, exciting and innovative events which
actively work to connect people.
NEW EXPERIENCES
The trend will be for innovative and immersive events which engage
the senses.
As people have had their world shrunk during their time in isolation it
will be important to bring your brand to life through varied, sensorial
experiences - sights, sounds, tastes and scents should all be
considered.
Showing rather than telling will remain key and we expect to see a
desire to re-engage with physical, rather than digital experiences.
IMPLICATION FOR EXPERIENTIAL
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10. ENGAGING NEW EXPERIENCES
NIKE TRAINING CLUB
Our aim was to encourage a female audience to come together and
exercise, whilst also bringing to life the digital experience of Nike’s
home workout app in the real world.
We wanted to inspire attendees by creating unusual group classes in
truly extraordinary locations across London.
Over the course of week we orchestrated 19 workout events for
women at iconic London spaces, including ‘Spin at the top of the
Gherkin’, ‘Yoga in the Orbit’ and ‘Paddle boarding in the Olympic
pool’.
The incredible settings ensured that the classes engaged all
of the senses. The group classes also encouraged a sense
of community amongst N+TC app users, who typically
completed the workouts alone at home or at a gym.
The unique nature of these experiences drove phenomenal
interest with over 3,500 women applying for the 19
classes! So we created a bonus super-scale N+TC class at
the prestigious One Mayfair for 1,000 attendees which
was a totally new experience!

11. IMPLICATION FOR EXPERIENTIAL
Initially we expect brand events will be hosted on a small scale. In-store and
pop-up experiences enable brands to respond to consumer demand for events,
but allow them to interact with their audience in a controlled environment.
Social distancing best practice should continue to be implemented and brands
should actively integrate additional
safety measures, to ensure guest safety and to rebuild consumer confidence in
attending events.
ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITY
When designing a live experience post Covid-19 it is important to consider
how your audience will respond to groups and spaces. Learnt behaviours
about social distancing will not immediately subside and events will need to be
mindful of this in their design.
Bright, open spaces should be integrated to reduce nervousness around group
settings. Set design should focus on clean lines and simple layouts which
construct a feeling of cleanliness and order.
Whilst we expect to see the desire for shared experiences reignited there will
be a desire for resources to be kept individual, with the hygiene practices
implemented during the pandemic maintained.
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DIGITAL INTEGRATION
Whilst we have seen a rise in digital events, a digital solution cannot
replicate the emotional feeling you get from interacting at a live event.
Post Covid-19 it will be key for brands to consider how technology is
complementary to the physical experience and how it can be used to
extend the impact of small scale events.
One way of integrating technology could be to maximise the reach of a
live experience, by using the event as a platform to create engaging brand
content. Consider using content from the event as part of a live stream or
podcast and create opportunities for people to engage in micro-events,
such as Q&A’s or digital workshops across brand channels.
IMPLICATION FOR EXPERIENTIAL
During lockdown consumer interaction with digital platforms has changed. Digital
interaction has become the norm, with adoption rates for services such as Zoom now
being five years ahead of forecast with a massive 1900% increase in users between
December ‘19 and March ’20, as people are finding new ways to work and socialise
online.
When integrating tech into a live event it is important to reconsider which digital
platforms your audience are now using and what they are using them for.
The trend for increased consumer interaction with digital platforms is expected to
continue. For brands it will be important to consider these changing attitudes to
technology and look for ways to further integrate digital within live experiences.
Consider the uptake in digital as an opportunity, rather than a challenge, by embracing
the digital technologies that your audience are new familiar with and look at ways this
can help interact with people beyond the event space.
TEAMLAB, JAPAN
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13. HOW TO DRIVE REACH
AND DELIVER RESULTS
In times of economic downturn it has been shown that the
brands who maintain or increase their marketing activity
see more positive results after the recession ends.
Post Covid-19 the most successful brands are anticipated
to be those who continue a dialogue with their audience,
are seen to be agile and who plan to meet changing
consumer needs once the recovery period commences.
So how do you best drive the reach of an
experiential campaign and what measurement
tools can you use to demonstrate the
positive impact of a live event?
PINTEREST, AWARDS
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14. DRIVE REACH & DELIVER RESULTS As each experience is different there are no set metrics to measure
the success of a live event. Due to this, tracking the impact that a live
event has on brand perception and sales can often be overlooked.
Whilst we know that getting hands on with audiences is key, having
connected data to prove this internally can help secure a budget for
future (bigger and better!) activations.
NO.1
PROVE VALUE TO INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS
As a medium, experiential is unrivalled in its ability to create a personal
connection between the brand and consumer. However live activations do
require greater investment than other channels and therefore it is crucial to
ensure that your live event proves its value.
There are a number of tools which can be implemented to prove the success
of a live event, and also to ensure that the reach of the campaign stretches
beyond the live experience. The tools used for each event should be
personalised to the campaign objectives, but can deliver the following
outcomes.
NO.2
SOCIAL LISTENING
Live events provide an opportunity for a two way conversation
between brand and consumer, creating the chance for brands to
obtain feedback from their audience. Social listening can happen live
at the event or can be captured across social media channels by
monitoring the conversation around event content.
NO.3
CALCULATE REACH
Whilst the live experience can directly touch a set number of people,
an event provides an opportunity for rich content capture, which can
be widely shared across other channels. It is important to monitor the
reach of the campaign across PR and social channels to determine the
additional value that the experience delivered.
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15. MAXIMISING REACH & RESULTS
TOMMEE TIPPEE SLEEPFEST
Tommee Tippee’s SleepFest, was a day festival for parents which offered useful hints
and tips about how to improve their child’s (and their own!) sleep. Hosted over one
day in East London the event was accessible for a limited number of parents, but
generated content which would help lots of parents nationwide!
In order to amplify the reach of the event and maximise impact and ROI, we worked
with our sister agencies Stir (PR) and Connects (influencer) to deliver a truly
integrated event, which was accessible for Tommee Tippee’s wider audience.
A pre-launch PR campaign built a story around Tommee Tippee as sleep
experts with a supporting influencer campaign generating interest for the event
across parent social networks.
Integration with press and social channels allowed us to prove the value of
the event by capturing information on reach and share of voice in press, as
well as impressions and engagements across social media.
This integrated approach meant that we over delivered by +102% on KPI for
content generated about the event.
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16. KEY TAKE OUTS
BE EMOTIVE BE AUTHENTIC BE INNOVATIVE BE INTEGRATED
Appeal to right brain thinking
which speaks to your
audiences’ emotional and
creative side
Deliver experiences which
benefit your audience and their
community
Audiences will be craving new
experiences, seize this
opportunity and get innovative!
Consider how you can
incorporate digital to increase
the reach and impact of your
event
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LIVE EXPERIENCE PRINCIPLES
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At SEEN we specialise in creating environments and experiences that become the living and
breathing embodiment of your brand, and are designed to make a person feel something specific;
whether that be trust, excitement or curiosity, the feeling that an experience creates is central to a
brand’s ability to connect with its audience.
Identifyingthe emotional response,we want to create and using our EmotionalResponse
Methodology to determine how we can deliver that response within our live experiences,
enhances the quality of our thinking, our creativity, our execution – and most importantly our
results.
Here are 4 principles we use to develop our event concepts,
1. STORYTELLING
2. EMBODIMENT
3. THE 5 SENSES
4. THE POWER OF THE SQUARE
LIVE EXPERIENCE PRINCIPLES
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INTERESTED IN WORKING TOGETHER?
Thanks for reading our report. We would love to find out more about you and the challenges your brand is currently
facing.
As well as demonstrate how experiential marketing and SEEN’s emotional response methodology can help you to create
meaningful connections with consumers, driving advocacy and sales.
Contact Harriet Jones on:
harriet.jones@seenpresents.com
T: 07965502286
www.seenpresents.com
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