Have O2 delivered the ultimate brand experience?

This must have been a fabulous brand experience for this very lucky O2 customer.

Imagine it.

Katie hobbs (random O2 customer) gets a ticket to an exclusive Tinie Tempah concert.

The big night arrives.

Tinie appears on stage.

Shortly after the gig kicks off the floor clears and Katie has her your own one-on-one performance from Tinie.

Wow. As she says, she will never forget it.

I love his idea from those clever people at O2.

They delivered a brand experience that absolutely delighted a customer. That in its own right would not deliver a great return on effort and investment, however, the interest in the story and the number of You Tube hits definitely do a good job presenting O2 as a brand that really knows how to delight it’s customers.

Nice one.

T-Mobile - Trafalgar Square event - Part 2

I went to the T-Mobile's Trafalgar Square event and watched 13,500 doing karaoke.

It achieved great PR and the TV ad [see film] has enjoyed a lot of positive editorial [Read: my friend Faris – 'Bring people together and see what they do' and Futurelab– ‘T-Mobile gets it’].

I like the ad and think it nicely captures the ‘Life’s for Sharing’ idea in a warm and engaging way.

Good work T-Mobile.

The challenge for them now is to build on the positive goodwill and buzz created through the current activity by ensuring they deliver brand experiences to existing users that live-up to the Life’s For Sharing promise.

My advice to T-Mobile is to:

  a)  Ensure they deliver customer service excellence.

  b)  Find ways to delight customers by adding some magic to the relationship.

I believe to win brands need to ensure they deliver positive brand experience at every touchpoint - from the brand promise (advertising) to brand delivery (usage experience) to delighting consumers. If they can do that it is very likely they will move consumers down the Path to Advocacy – a proven success strategy.

This is something O2 seems to do very well. [see case study]

O2 success demonstrates why brands should focus on delivering brand experiences that delight customers

There is an excellent case study (IPA Effectiveness award) about how O2 changed the game in the UK mobile category by shifting their business focus from acquisition to retention.

At the time all nine UK brands concentrated their marketing budgets and efforts on trying to sign-up more and more customers - through heavy weight media advertising deals, deals, deals...

This was creating customer dissatisfaction, high levels of churn and an erosion of customer loyalty.

O2 decided it was time for change.

They started to put the customer at the centre of everything they did by delivering brand experiences that would delight customers. This included:

•  Offering deals to existing customers only
  
• Rewarding existing customers
  
• Hiring extra staff to ensure their customer service improved
  
• Changing their communications to highlight their new commitment to existing customers.
  

At the time this was a bold step but the results were impressive. New customers increased, churn declined and satisfaction ratings improved. The other key metric - average revenue per customer - also held steady.

Today O2 goes from strength to strength as they continue to find ways to delight customers with better and better brand experiences. I think their recent sponsorship of the O2 dome, and the Blueroom and priority tickets for shows is brilliant.

Other categories could learn from this.

I recommend getting key stakeholders in the brand organisation together to collaborate and find ways to genuinely deliver brand experiences that delight customers. If you get it right – like O2 – customers will become fans, and hopefully advocates.

It is a straightforward formula. More brands should try it. 

HMVs purchase of 11 music venues is a game changing move

HMV - a leading record store in UK - has very cleverly transformed its business model and potential fortunes overnight.

The world knows that the record business is in long term terminal decline given that digital, file sharing, etc, has changed people’s music buying behaviours forever.

HMV have moved into the live music business through the purchase of 11 live music venues.

This is a perfect business fit for them, as summed up by their CEO when he said:

‘The deal was far more than a rebranding exercise of some of the venues. Music is very much part of our DNA, and by extending the HMV brand into the growing live music and entertainment market our customers will, as never before, be able to access and experience music in all of its forms via HMV"

Put yourself in the mind of the consumer and compare these two different types of experiences.

In a store you are wandering around, looking at stuff, maybe thinking about the pleasure you'll get when you play what you buy for the first time. There may be some pain at the check out [cost, time, rude staff, whatever] but basically it's an okay brand experience.





In a gig you are with yor mates, the band is great, the music is loud, you're having a fantastic night out. What a great brand experience.





By moving into live music business HMV has, at the stroke of a pen, opened-up massive and extremely relevant brand exprience opportunity that should transform how consumers' feel about them. Not to mention the interesting merchandising, cross promotion, loyalty initiatives (tickets to gigs), etc, opportunities.

All this should help drive HMV music buyers through the path to advocacy to become fans and advocates.

Like the O2’s success with the Docklands Dome, I think this link is inspired.