If there’s one word among many that you are likely to have heard a fair bit about in recent years in the context of brand promotional events, it is “phygital”. It’s a term that we have already referenced previously here on the BrandWarriors website, and it refers to the phenomenon whereby blended experiences closely incorporate physical and the digital as part of the same customer journey.
After years in which many customers have become accustomed to the notion of the sheer immediacy and convenience of online retail, versus the relative “slow-lane” appeal of the traditional brick-and-mortar outlet, the notion of “phygital” is helping to make these two worlds a seamless whole.
But have you tried the below ways to help integrate the “phygital” into the experiences you deliver for customers, including at your promotional events?
Not all of these measures will necessarily be the right moves for your brand – but then again, they might well be.
1. Creating a brand mobile app
You might have so far resisted the notion of developing a branded mobile app, on the grounds that “surely, our customers can’t fit yet another app on their phones…” However, as of 2023, it might be well worth reconsidering – not least because there is so much a brand mobile app could enable you to do in a “phygital” world.
Your brand’s mobile app could encompass mobile checkout functionality, and/or personalised loyalty offers. But in the context of your promotional events specifically, your brand’s app could also allow visitors to scan your on-display products, which could fire up a video showing more information about the scanned item, and ways in which the customer could use the product.
1. Utilising smart beacons at your events
In a short space of time, beacon technology has come a seriously long way in demonstrating its real-world usefulness for brands. We’re referring here to what are also often called “Bluetooth beacons”, or even just “beacons”. They are small, wireless Bluetooth devices, capable of transmitting a signal that can be picked up by other Bluetooth devices, such as smartphones.
This technology, then, can be brilliant for sending messages to the smartphones of promotional event attendees, in order to customise their experience. You might use beacons at your own next event, for example, as a means of presenting relevant offers and discounts to event attendees, depending on where they are in the event space at the given time.
1. Giving customers the option to ‘click to call’
Even when you do everything possible to hire skilled promo staff who will also present a friendly face to attendees at your event, it’s very possible that some guests will be shy to walk up to and talk to a member of your promo staff. Or, of course, your brand ambassadors or other promo staffers might be busy with someone else at the time an attendee wishes to talk to them.
So, why not incorporate “click-to-call” into your brand’s website or app? As the term suggests, this feature allows for someone to connect with a company representative by phone, having requested this via the given brand’s app or website. It can therefore give event attendees another way to speak to a human being, rather than your promo staff taking all of that particular strain.
The above are just three of the many forms that “phygital” can take when it comes to the “real-world” impact this concept has on brand promotional events.
Our BrandWarriors are great proponents of the power that the best “phygital” solutions can have when it comes to blending the best things about “face-to-face” and “digital” customer interfaces. And when you turn to us to hire skilled promo staff, we can even source the technical staff who can help ensure your tech always delivers the optimal results, from the start to finish of your next event.