Hi. I’m Sarah, Founder of Brand Experience Agency, Woof London.

I like tea. And biscuits, to dunk in my tea. If we met, I’d make you (probably) the best tea you’ve ever had. I’m confident about that. You’d enjoy the tea and we’d have a lovely chat.

The truth is, you just can’t beat the personal touch. Especially when it comes to your branding or marketing agency.

In an age when it’s getting harder and harder to make people feel anything at all, the personal touch still has the power to make anyone feel a little bit special.

That’s the thing I’ve always been interested in. It’s why I run a Brand Experience Agency that tries to do exactly that for our clients.

A great experiential marketing campaign is a dialogue that is hard to ignore because it has the ability to engage on a personal level. This has never been more relevant than in today’s high-speed world, where it’s so easy for consumers to switch off, block out or fast forward through anything that looks, even vaguely, uninteresting. It’s not that brand experiences can be personal; they need to be personal.

As a Brand Experience Agency, you have to be smart

In order to engage with today’s media savvy audience you need to entertain and delight. You also have to be relevant, desirable, informative, fun and (above all) honest. People want to clearly understand your reasons for reaching out to them.

A good experience generates a deeper level of emotional engagement and trust. It’s also very good for business.

A nice example is a campaign IKEA recently ran to promote their outdoor range. They wanted to get people making the most of their gardens, so they sent out 900,000 personalised mailings with location specific weather forecasts. Nice. It’s clever. It’s sweet. It works.

Getting personal doesn’t need to be complicated

I remember hearing a story about someone staying at the Charlotte Street Hotel and a hand written, personalised welcome card was placed on their pillow. Or another time, when a family staying at a hotel arrived to find their two children’s names spelt out in small sponges in the bathroom. These stories make me smile, make me feel good about those hotels and it certainly makes me re-tell the story.

When we at Woof helped run an event for Häagen-Dazs (alongside Saatchi & Saatchi & Hothouse), we were tasked with event managing and personalising the experience. To promote their Mini Cups range, the Ultimate Girls Night In was an event aimed at groups of friends who entered a Facebook competition. Once winners were selected we found out details about each group, such as names, musical tastes and food likes and dislikes, including Mini Cup preferences. Each event was then tailored to each group and had a personally selected activity as part of the experience.

By communicating in this way, Häagen-Dazs were able to engage on an emotional level with their audience, building loyalty, trust and ultimately advocacy.

There's no cheat for good work

At the end of the day, there’s no easy route to creating genuine, engaging and successful brand experiences. It requires thought from a marketing agency. It demands going the extra mile. But when you get it right it’s definitely worth the effort.

When a Brand (or Brand Experience Agency) reaches out and touches people on a personal level, they can stir up all sorts of positive feelings and emotions. Which is something other marketing methods simply can’t compete with. It’s an essential part of the mix.