Jamie Keddie, head of business development, Carbon Marketing: I have a question for my contemporaries in other experiential marketing agencies. Thinking about near store campaigns, how often do your briefs contain shopper insights? I think the answer will be ‘not often at all’. In the present climate, this could be a real problem.

With depressed consumer demand, it’s a fair bet that experiential agencies will be asked to implement a lot more activity nearer to the point of purchase in places like shopping centres, supermarket car parks or areas of high shopper traffic.

These live marketing campaigns address consumers further down the path to purchase, much closer to the point at which buying decisions are made.

But I believe these shopper-directed campaigns require a new approach to planning and messaging. I wonder whether the industry’s recent history has left it well prepared to maximise the outcomes, because the focus of recent thinking has been brand-led, rather than shopper-driven.

The huge growth in experiential marketing over the past decade came about as marketers recognised the ability of live marketing to bring brand values to life with rich and memorable consumer experiences. Brand teams became excited by the prospect of these live ideas – their brand made ‘real’.

Similarly, agencies were keen to signal their ability to deliver on this promise, many deliberately using new terms such as ‘brand experience marketing’. Meanwhile, industry bodies and the media dished out awards based upon brand-led creativity. We all rejoiced when we won these gongs.

Yet, during the past 10 years, we’ve seen the rise of a new marketing discipline called shopper marketing.

Shopper marketing experts point out that consumers think differently and behave differently to shoppers, even though they may be the same people. While brand marketing remains important to differentiate and achieve brand consideration, when the consumer transfers to ‘shopper mode’, other factors begin to shape decision making.

I’m not sure that experiential planners know enough about how and when along the path to purchase this mental switch kicks in, and whether we’re planning messaging to successfully address these shifting mindsets.

It struck me recently how the briefs we are getting – while often informed by consumer or brand insight – rarely, if ever, include category or shopper insights.

A few years back we were involved in a Diageo campaign that had us thinking ‘shopper’ rather than ‘consumer’.

While vodka consumers are split equally between men and women, women account for over 60% of Smirnoff off-trade purchases. Smirnoff’s proposition at the time was ‘Quality through Purity’ – manifest in drinker-directed messaging emphasising the quality aspects of the brand.

Such messaging was less relevant to shoppers, though, especially those shoppers who were not end users. This led to an in-store campaign with the chance to ‘Win a pure £10,000 diamond’. Appealing to female shopper aspiration, yet still chiming with the brand’s claims to purity, the campaign was hugely successful.

But fast forward to today, and ‘value’ would probably trump ‘aspiration’ for Smirnoff, so a campaign addressing shoppers would need appropriate value messaging.

I am hardly qualified as a shopper expert in the alcohol category; but my guess is that housewife shoppers thinking ‘must buy some alcohol’ will use more familiar items such as beer or wine as reference points. In comparison, a bottle of vodka will seem expensive.

So today, if you are appearing in a controlled environment close to or at the point-of-purchase, this barrier would need to be addressed; and arguably it is far more important than any kind of theatre based upon the consumer brand positioning.

Everyone involved in the commissioning and execution of live marketing close to the point of purchase must take responsibility for getting these decisions right. We should first determine which campaigns we regard as consumer-directed and which are shopper-directed.

Before briefing experiential agencies on shopper-directed campaigns, brand teams should seek shopper insights from their colleagues. Meanwhile, agencies should be asking the right questions and be willing and able to supply the right solutions.

Finally, of course, perhaps we should encourage more briefs to come directly from shopper marketing teams?