The Value of Building a Digital Brand Offline

How Experiential Marketing Creates Brand Engagement and Moments Connected

As is often the case with software companies, the Genesys brand was born and raised primarily for digital consumption. The majority of our customers interact with us first online, whether through our website, social media or a review site.

Last year, Genesys was rebranded to take the company to the next level of business growth – though we like to think of it more as a rebirth. The new brand gave us the rocket fuel to power our presence not only online, but offline as well by creating the platform to bring our innovation, experiences and messaging to life. That is what experiential marketing is all about.

It’s the idea that a brand can offer more value than simply serving as the visual identity of a company. If done right, it can – and should – stimulate emotional attachment. One way to accomplish this is by delivering experiences that engage people in a way that transcends the senses — and makes them feel connected.

You might think offline marketing such as events and tradeshows have gone the way of the dodo bird in this super-connected online world. But they haven’t. In fact, at our events, we’ve seen healthy growth in demand and engagement levels from attendees. Even better, our customer-focused events have produced tangible sales benefits in the form of pipeline growth and increased speed with which we can close deals.

So to me, experiential marketing is just as important as online. It’s the opportunity to provide emotional, cerebral and physical value to customers. It encompasses what they see. The sounds they hear. The products they touch. The people you put in front of them. It’s the way your brand makes them feel.

A great example of this took place earlier this year at the Genesys Sales Kick Off meeting, which is our annual event that serves to jumpstart our global sales team’s success. More than presentations, our corporate events staff designed a holistic event that bonded our sales team, enthused them with our roadmap and created spectacular feelings of emotional engagement with Genesys.

Our company tagline is ‘Moments Connected’ and that theme was central to what was one of our most successful Kick Off meetings to date. That’s because the event enabled our teams to foster profound connections with their colleagues. To get a taste of this, watch the highlights reel here:

The 2018 Sales Kick Off was so successful, in fact, that it has been recognized as the “Team Building Event of the Year” at the UK-based 2018 Annual Conference and Incentive Travel Awards. Sales Kick-Off is one of many Genesys events masterminded ever year by our global corporate events team, led by Peg Nocera. See the image above with Peg and Matt Culverhouse from our agency partner TEN6 at the glittering awards event in London this weekend.