As the team at Godrej L’Affaire gears up for the fourth edition of the experiential marketing event, Social Samosa explores the journey of how the brand Godrej L’Affaire came about. The various elements at play here include influencer marketing, getting relevant brands onboard, forging meaningful associations and content creation. Godrej Group’s Sujit Patil tells us more.
Firstly, what was the need gap that Godrej looked at fulfilling with L’Affaire?
Our research from three years ago showed that the affinity towards brand Godrej amongst youngsters could be much better. Various research studies also depicted the dwindling trust in advertising and sponsored content, more so among the millennial audiences. As a part of the overall Masterbrand strategy to address this issue, we felt that meaningful experiential engagement of our brands in the lifestyle space with influencers and key opinion leaders (KOLs) was key. This could lead to authentic content creation for social media, build communities of brand advocates and help us reach the appropriate TGs in an effective manner.
How has L’Affaire as an IP benefitted Godrej Group in the last 3 years?
The three pillars of L’Affaire are – content creation, experiential engagement and building a community of advocates for the brand Godrej. Over the last three years, Godrej L’Affaire has consistently delivered on all these parameters for each of the participating brands.
Case in point, season 3 witnessed about 40 Million impressions on social media, about 100 plus videos (testimonials, engagement, endorsement etc.) were created across the participating brands and a community of lifestyle influencers, advocates are getting formed.
L’Affaire has helped multiple businesses within and outside of Godrej engage meaningfully and in an immersive manner with influencers and key opinion leaders like Chefs, designers, lifestyle experts and generate content that is authentic and impactful.
The overall admiration scores for the Masterbrand Godrej have improved (Millward Brown Research 2019) and the connect with younger audiences has become stronger.
Are there any challenges that you face while in the phase for creating a difference and getting bigger and better with each year of L’Affaire?
L’Affaire is a brand agnostic platform and as a strategy, we invite non-competing brands in the lifestyle space to participate in the experiential on-ground engagement. Getting external brands on board, curating meaningful integrations and delivering a 360-degree amplification is a time-consuming process. The challenge is to get good brands to believe in the platform and this new form of experiential engagement with influencers. With every passing year, I believe, it will be easier.
How do you keep the audiences engaged pre, during and post the event?
The engagement is through digital platforms, radio, social media handles of our brands and through planned PR activities. However, the engagement peaks during the period Godrej L’Affaire happens and on the day when it maximises as the integrations come alive on the ground. This year, we are working on a strategy to take Godrej L’Affaire across India, maybe as popups or smaller experiential gigs.
Can you share the objective behind engaging with digital influencers through this platform?
Godrej L’Affaire is all about on-ground experiential engagement and an online manifestation of these experiences. At the end of the day, authentic content can be generated by the influencers when they actually experience the brands. The purpose comes to the fore, the stories are meatier and the engagement is far superior.
It’s no breaking news that influencers (read bloggers, Key Opinion Leaders, subject matter experts, etc.) have started to become contributors to your brand narratives. The power of well-informed influencers/advocates who can connect their followers with your brand is unmatched.
Digital influencers hence form a significant part of the guest list at Godrej L’Affaire and the explosion of authentic content is quite gratifying. Over the past three seasons, we have engaged with over a thousand influencers interacting with multiple participating brands. The online content created during these offline engagements is humongous!
Also Read:Non-live content is very crucial to keep sports lovers engaged: Neville Bastawalla, SPN India
How was the response last year and what is the ROI expected for the upcoming edition?
The response last year was quite satisfying. The number of participating brands was higher, the integrations were meaningful, and the amplification on social media was huge. L’Affaire 2020 is shaping well. The number of participating brands is more than last year and some great integrations have been planned. We measure L’Affaire on ROO – Return On Objectives. We set objectives with each brand in terms of their engagement, reach, impressions, footfalls, awareness etc., and confident that this year it will be a blockbuster!
What do we expect from the fourth season? The theme, initiatives, and strategy in place?
The fourth season will manifest itself on the 22nd of February 2020. Masterclasses, engaging conversations, fashion shows, musical performances and immersive experience with lifestyle brands is what Godrej L’Affaire will deliver in its fourth year. This year, with the theme of ‘Aarambh’ or New Beginnings, we will bring forth India’s unparalleled bequest and affluent culture that will inspire future lifestyle trends.
Experiential zones of Godrej brands as well as external non-competing brands from the lifestyle space will give people a more personalised interaction with lifestyle trends that could be adapted for modern-day living. We are expecting to see a footfall anywhere between 800-1000 people from across Mumbai.
External Brand partnerships and how they benefit?
Lifestyle, as a space, is huge and the Godrej External brands from the lifestyle genre do not complete the picture. Hence we invite non-competing brands to be a part for Godrej L’Affaire. Jeep, Myntra, various beverages brands, travel channels, health brands etc., have been partners. They come on board for integrations which collectively give an overall lifestyle experience. They ensure that the audiences experience the lifestyle in a wholesome manner. For these brands again, the potential to create content, engage with the influencers and create an aura for themselves is immense.
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