Hiring Red Carpet Crowds and Fans – an Envisage Case Study

Experiential marketing is bucking a trend. With so many marketing avenues open to brands, small and large, established and new, online and offline budgets have remained largely static. But there is one strand bucking the trend: experiential marketing.

Leading marketing website Econsultancy published an article which highlights how spending on experiential marketing has been steadily growing year on year. Every sector is falling in love with experiential marketing and no wonder. It’s a promotional vehicle that reaches and connects with people in a fun yet meaningful way. Google, the famed search engine, is not immune as it too has hosted hundreds of events across the globe to connect with its hardcore followers and entice new ones.

But experiential marketing doesn’t have to be about selling a product or service. It can work to showcase your brand in the best possible light too.

Hiring crowds and fans for a PR stunt, Leicester Square, London

The client: a well-known, high street retailer.

The brief: to create a “red carpet” experience as a PR stunt in Leicester Square, the centre of London’s ‘cinema land’. The client was holding an awards ceremony for its staff and wanted to create a truly magnificent welcome for all employees attending, many of whom were nominated for awards. Using limousines and other chauffeur driven cars, the client wanted an experience that would enthral, one that would be talked about for some time to come.

The event: rising to the challenge, our hired crowd delivered a spectacle that attracted a lot of attention.

• Hired crowd – 100 ‘fans’ lined the red carpet, ready to whoop and cheer as staff arrived for the awards ceremony. As well as selfies, they hunted for autographs.
• Hired ‘paparazzi’ – six hired photographers acted as paparazzi.

Challenges

• Time – the red carpet meet and greet was scheduled to last an hour. The solutions were two-fold: the hired crowd arrived ahead of schedule and were clearly briefed as the evening’s event.

Opportunities

The event was an opportunity to showcase not only the talent we have on board but also our exceptional customer service.

• Local – we used 100 local staff who were able to make their way to Leicester Square for the briefing session with the event coordinator.
• The personal touch – we supplied an event coordinator to ensure that everyone was in position and that the red carpet meet and greet ran smoothly. One point of contact prevents too much disturbance on an event as the client knows who to approach should anything need changing.

Hiring a crowd – The results

Crowds attract more people and so what started as 100 promotional staff waving and cheering swelled to three times to size with interested onlookers, wanting to know more.

The buzz it created was exactly what the client has wished for – in fact, it exceeded their expectations. People lingered on the red carpet as they arrived for the awards ceremony, with many award nominees clearly enjoying the red carpet experience.

The venue was branded with the client logo and colours increasing brand exposure as the 200 to 300 members of the public gathered to see what was happening. They received a clear impression of the brand and the value it places on its staff members and their achievements.