CHICAGO – Most U.S.-based marketing brand managers intend to increase their budgets in 2012, and they are planning to develop even more innovative marketing and operating plans to capitalize on the optimistic environment for real growth and ROI. According to UNDER THE RADAR, an experiential marketing agency, brand marketing managers are quite optimistic about the first half of 2012 and increasingly even more optimistic about the second half of the year.
The insights into 2012 are based on meetings with marketing thought leaders and emerging trends among both current clients and prospective ones. According to Dennis Boyle, Executive Vice President, UNDER THE RADAR, “Social media as well as event-driven influencer marketing will become far more important aspects of the marketing strategy next year.”
Boyle expects to see more marketing dollars spent to maximize the ROI while brand image spending will take a back seat to moving product. The winners in 2012 will be those brands that can capitalize on innovative experiential marketing opportunities and treat each prospect as a unique customer.
“We are convinced that brands that are able to create programs that effectively engage consumers and then utilize social media to amplify their impact will have a distinct edge on their competition,” Boyle reported. “We are seeing brand managers demanding us to move them to the forefront of today’s event-driven digital social media environment. And these same brand managers are continuing to demand that their marketing partners to do even more than before,” he added.
Since 2008, brand managers have been forced to operate with minimal internal staff resources. Experiential marketing firms are becoming a key strategic resource and partner in high demand by brand managers. Even as the economy improves they don’t anticipate staff growth but instead see their marketing partners take on an even greater role to pick up the slack.
UNDER THE RADAR is recognized for creating brand experiences that “fly beneath” today’s conventional marketing clutter. UNDER THE RADAR believes brand managers are seeking ways to effectively combine social media with event driven consumer experiences. As a result, the firm is developing programs for brands that range from street theater to dramatic musical and theatrical events all with a social media interaction.
“When creating an experience we try everything, we optimize everything today. Our clients demand that brand events entertain, communicate, motivate and exceed their result goals,” Boyle added.
Boyle joined UNDER THE RADAR earlier this year and is responsible for leading marketing strategy, client service and business development. Boyle has 30 years of consumer brand building experience and has held leadership positions.
About UNDER THE RADAR
UNDER THE RADAR is a Chicago-based experiential marketing agency dedicated to designing and executing marketing campaigns that connect consumers digitally and with real world live experiences to brands. As a result, UNDER THE RADAR creates authentic and relevant experiences that “fly beneath” conventional marketing clutter and engage consumers where they live, work, shop and play. The UNDER THE RADAR teams also work on projects in both the corporate and product event arenas. Their approach to projects keeps them sharp and ensures that leading-edge, highly pollinated creative styles enhance every client engagement. By today’s pop culture definition, if something is under the radar, it isn’t detected or noticed but yet it can be special and have a very significant impact. For more information about UNDER THE RADAR, visit: www.utrexp.com.
