How Creative Experiential Events Spark Lasting Customer Loyalty

Recent studies have pointed to the power of experiential events in gaining customer loyalty. There's magic that happens when we curate relevant and memorable connections with purposeful, unique design. How we make the attendee journey experiential and engaging is the key to success.

We approach each and every client event through ideation and unique concepts that could only be inspired by our client’s brand. Our brainstorming meetings are fun and full of inspiration. It’s not about off-the-shelf décor and entertainment. It’s all about on-brand creative design.

Audiences are yearning for immersive experiences, and the lines are blurring between personal and corporate experiences. Events must create an emotional connection.

Read on for two of our most recent experiential events and the creative process in getting to the final experience:

Experiential Marketing Campaigns Elevate Brands

The event strategy for Destination Canada’s activation at FT Weekend Festival in Washington D.C. and London UK was crafted to connect guests to the essence and flavour of Canada and to turn attendees’ travel aspirations to visiting our inspiring country. As the lead sponsor, Destination Canada prioritized creating an impactful lounge as a beacon at the event to engage attendees and focused on achieving strategic results.

In Washington, we brought the unique taste of Atlantic Canada to the festival with interactive activities. Every design element was thoughtful and meant to raise brand awareness by driving conversation and audience engagement. The immersive experience focused on expanding knowledge of Canada, extending a challenge to explore our country.

Playing off the current advertising slogan of ‘Open if You Are’, the bold activation lounge styled after an Atlantic Canada 'kitchen party' comprised of bespoke features, designed to drive engagement and emotional connections including:

• An 'Open (if you are) Bar'
• A 'Penny for your thoughts' experiential fridge for delegates to share what entices them to Canada.
• Conversation starter dice with prompts printed on them.
• A kitchen window area with scrolling, dramatic Canadian landscapes.
• Authentic Canadian entertainment carolled the crowd.
• What's a Canadian kitchen party without Canadian fare? Themed mocktails and cocktails helped conversation flow and delicious Canadian bites were shared.

Create Experiences To Achieve Success!

Destination Canada’s FT Weekend Festival experience was the highest ever attended editors' reception at the festival.

The entire activation space and custom pieces embodied the bold red of the Destination Canada brand. Positioned next to the Big Ideas Main stage you couldn’t miss it, the open door invited attendees in and acted as a selfie spot. Greenery and foliage brought the outdoors in and completed an enticing space to hang out.

As a follow up, Destination Canada went on to create an impact and influence attendees at FT Weekender Festival London, UK. The event activation was a whole new design for the UK event.  

What We Did - Immersive Installations included:

• A custom designed AI photo booth tent drew attendees in to engage with the Destination Canada brand.
• A striking header of ‘Picture Yourself in Canada’ drew attention to the bespoke branded tent that housed two photo booths.
• At the entrance we connected the important, high value audience, by inviting guests to scan a QR code that led them to a travel questionnaire to determine their adventure personality. Their choices led to a suggestion of a Canadian destination to visit i.e. Vancouver and the attendee's photo backdrop was customized to an iconic BC landscape.
• Special attention was paid to the event flow. The experience was efficient, seamless and offered education as to the vast travel opportunities and bold choices available to visitors to Canada.
• Festival goers walked away with a custom printed postcard featuring their photo, travel destination of choice and an appealing message to encourage them to travel to Canada.

Designing Events With Measurable Results

The live marketing activation was designed to generate buzz, receiving much attention on social media and created connections for our client in memorable and impactful ways. The AI nature of the engagement showcased Canada as forward thinking, tech savvy and fun.

In the words of the client: “The FT Weekend Festival is a global celebration of big ideas, offering readers a day of performances, tastings, and debate. Our decision to feature a strong physical presence at both festivals in the US and UK was driven by the goal of elevating Canada’s visibility, particularly among High Value Guests. We created immersive, engaging environments that reflected Canada’s welcoming spirit from coast to coast, with TK Events ensuring every detail of our brand experiences were delivered at the highest standard.”

Carla Felicella, Event Director / Directrice des Événements, Destination Canada

#openifyouare #ftweekender #explorecanada

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Engaging And Connecting Through Experiential Event Activations

CSA Group's appreciation night at an annual conference set out to deliver an experiential opportunity to connect and have fun, creating enduring relationships. We cleverly leveraged the brand and conference theming of ‘Make An Impact’ to make a lasting impression on guests and to create new connections amongst members.

Here’s what factored into our event design:

• Using the iconic venue Commodore Ballroom's rich history as inspiration
• We celebrated the decades of CSA's impact as shared with us in marketing briefs,and tied it to all the great music that has followed through the ages to coincide with the client’s journey.
• As guests entered, they were asked to “join their band,’ complete with a custom pin to showcase which genre they most identified with. From The Standards (Oldies), Making an Impact (Rock), The Client’s Band (Pop), The Testers (Country), to our favourite, Public Safety (Punk) they chose the band that most aligned to their tastes and personality.
• The creative concept was embraced throughout the evening, in edgy and flamboyant lounges and decor, photo ops, rock n roll lighting, vibrant screen content and a dynamite set list from Sideoneband.
• We were told ‘this group don’t dance, but by not delineating a large dancefloor, instead putting fun lounges near the stage and curating the song list to each of the band genres, engaging the crowd where they gathered – suddenly it was serendipity, and they were dancing at song one - with dance groups scattered throughout the room.
• We had fun with traditional job functions and flipped perception from ‘boring’ to celebrated and essential, highlighted in detailing throughout the lounges and as conversation starters.
• We chose to go with non-traditional furniture and custom décor and styling that was inspired by Elton John and old rock legends. Bright colours, fringe and leather detailing, fun centerpieces such as lip phones. This was no standard furniture package event. Every detail was custom and had meaning. Every aspect inspired conversation and connection.
• The menu was equally important, curated with interactive elements such as ‘smash burgers’ and nachos in a bag. A graffitied piano displayed delicious desserts. Every moment was a talking point. Cocktail names also played to the theme.
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• A Testament to achieving Emotional Connection

“Amazing party! Thank you all! You brought the party back to our crowd and they loved it”

“That was the most fun I’ve had on a Tuesday since vacation”

Designing meaningful experiences, the kind that generate emotional responses, are the events that keep us up at night, creative juices and inspiration flowing, until we arrive on-site and get to watch it all unfold as we turn attendees into loyal customers.

Photo credits:

Destination Canada London event: Hannah Taylor

Destination Canada Washington event: Markus Wilborn

Canadian Standards Association event: Kai Jacobson

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