Most marketers of a certain vintage are lucky to be exposed to Fortnite, Tik Tok and Twitch if they have Gen Z kids otherwise they have to take a big leap of faith and download the app or the game themselves and be the awkward watcher in the corner who is trying to understand what is happening. After they get comfortable just watching they make the mistake of getting involved. Inevitably they join in on the latest dance trend. It doesn’t always work out as planned though. Stick to banging in the goals Mr. Lewandowski.

It got me thinking that this happens all the time. We all get old and so do our interests. I was at a karaoke bar and when someone typed in Satisfaction I was fairly confused to see the following pop up on screen.

Push me
And then just touch me
Till I can get my satisfaction
Satisfaction, satisfaction,
satisfaction, satisfaction

It was late on a Saturday night but still I don’t remember Mick Jagger prowling around the stage singing those lyrics. Ah… the Rolling Stones must have gathered moss because the only satisfaction being heard tonight was by Benny Benassi. You might remember the video.

It’s about relevance. For some it’s Mick for others it’s Benny. It’s still satisfaction. There is no doubt that brands need a cogent strategy to stay relevant and reach younger audiences through new channels. How do marketers keep their brands relevant when they don’t know what’s culturally relevant right now. We can’t have 18 year olds running every marketing department but we can involve them much more. My advice is build a relationship with creators in this space and develop your shared content in an authentic way that will resonate with your audience. Nothing new here but why are so many not doing it then?

That plan works well when we are online but what about in real life? We know mass live experiences are on hold for now and will be altered as they return. We don’t know to what extent but we do know that for a while anyway we will be creating “hands-off” experiences and events. What will this mean for the overall experience?

It will be “hands off” and more likely become “devices on” as brands look to further integrate the live, virtual and digital experience. We are all well used to tapping our phones to pay or to get on public transport. RFID technology allows us to simply and quickly interact and still feel like we are maintaining control. We have started to see display windows where you can shop the item in the windows simply by tapping a display on the window or scanning a QR code.

The technology is there for us. It’s now about how we can substitute touch and maintain feel. Jaguar created an experience with Wimbledon where you could virtually play tennis using your device. It’s still just as fun and there are the run on benefits in terms of data and amplification.

We use voice to control our lives more and more through services like Alexa and Siri. We will start to see this become more prevalent at live experiences where you can instruct the environment to behave in a certain way that is custom to yourself.

The Amazon Echo experience was the world’s first voice-activated escape room. Teams navigated through a series of five rooms, solving intricate puzzles along the way. They had to conquer a laser maze without tripping up and put mind over matter in an interrogation room. But each team had one very superior advantage: Alexa was a member of the team.

As well as utilising our personal devices, gesture-recognition technology, motion-capture technology and pressurised flooring could also hold the key to an engaging experience.

JD