Time to dwell - why experiential marketing works so well in airports
I’m often asked “What makes airports ideal for staging live brand experiences?” The answer isn’t something people tend to dwell on. Actually…
Total’s F1-themed promotion in Heathrow Airport T5, boosted brand presenceThe time our minds spend on auto-pilot is called “dwell-time”. Brand managers know this, as do creative specialists within the experiential marketing industry. They know that for the mind to take in key messages, or to associate a good experience with a brand or product, you need enough dwell time to facilitate the cognitive process that lets us take messages in.
Cue the media buyer’s search for places where consumers have naturally long dwell-times.
Whether you like it or not, whether you have your most “grumpy old man moments” in them (and who hasn’t from time to time?), airports have higher average dwell times than every other out of home destination (except for maybe the pub).
Experiential promotions in these environments work from the same school of thought that makes travellers walk through duty free on their way to the departure lounge. The chances are people won’t be in a rush, and more often than not, because of that, it makes perfect sense to peruse perfumes, alcohol and pick up the obligatory Toblerone.
Why? Well, it all hinges on your frame of mind – literally.
Consumers know that when they enter an airport environment, they won’t be going anywhere for a couple of hours, that they have the time to relax.
This helps consumers to relax their minds, which makes it open to all the nice, new shiny things that are put in front of them – especially brand messages. Having a naturally high dwell-time makes airports one of the best environments for immersive, experiential brand promotions – but that’s not the only factor.
Even if you consider yourself to be a more savvy (sic: cynical) traveller - and even if you dont’ like flying - airports are aspirational environments. On a very basic level, international travel appeals to the consumer in all of us.
That’s why airports put us in the perfect frame of mind for capturing messages from the brands that appeal to our aspirational side – they leverage on dwell times very well where experiential promotions are concerned.
Moreover, experiential poromotions in airports work so well for brand salience, getting over complex messages and giving brands the ‘feel-good factor’ in the hearts and minds of the consumers who engage with them.
11 Responses to Why experiential marketing promotions work so well in airports
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Fun games says:
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BlueHost Code says:
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Anitra says:
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Business plan software says:
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Matthew Connaughton says: We’ll look inot the RSS feed issue, but it might be something your end. Try removing us and adding us again.
We’ll be having new experiential content published every week, so you could always bookmark our experiental section.
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Sticky says:
Thanks for sahrnig. What a pleasure to read!
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O Shipton says:
It is true. I’m a frequent flyer and I know travellers let their guard down in airports because they know they’re closed off from the rest of the world. They interact with whatever is put in front of them and if they are interested they will also talk about what they are doing on twitter and foursquare.
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Ethica says:
Appreciating the level of honesty in this. thank you!
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I got what you meant, thanks for sharing.