When sponsorship becomes small events and pure impact

# tags: Brand Activation , Festivals , Events , Experiences

Stop sponsorship, welcome extraperience. It sounds logical: those who sponsor an event, festival, trade show, or congress are best suited to add an extra experience instead of waving with their flags and logos.

That extraperience is what sticks with visitors and event guests. But what exactly does it entail? With the answer to that question, sponsorship managers of major brands and festival and event organizers in the Netherlands collectively proclaim: stop sponsoring, welcome the unprecedented impact of extraperience!

The flags at the entrance of the festival or event. The sign at the keynote speaker’s podium or the slide-deck at the congress. The logo on the entrance ticket. It’s all not wrong, of course, but you don’t stand out, you broadcast, and you don’t connect with anyone. If you really want to make an impact with sponsorship, it’s better to go for extraperience: as a sponsor, alongside your visibility, provide the visitor and event guest with an extra experience. Only then will you enter the minds and heas of your guests and visitors.

What is Extraperience exactly? A definition: Extraperience(s): Combination of extra and experience.

Since the end of the second decade of the 2000s, the standard for sponsors of events, festivals,

and congresses. Extraperience refers to the fulfilment of sponsorship: this has nothing to do with displaying logos, waving flags, or offering a product. Extraperiences are sponsorship actions/events/activations that contribute to the experience of the visitor(s). Extraperience

is often stipulated as a requirement by the festival organization.

“In the Netherlands, you see a two-step process when it comes to extraperience: the event and festival organizer demands an extra experience for their visitors from a sponsor, and the brand, event, and sponsorship managers of the brands no know that visibility has little impact and brand experience has much more,” says Sjoerd Weikamp of the NEXTLIVE.nl platform. Let’s have a look at two perfect examples of extraperience:

Extraperience: Wagner Moto Cross Pizza Delivery
Brand: Wagner
Sponsor of: Zwae Cross
Extraperience: In addition to the pizza distribution points at the festival, Wagner used cross bikes to deliver pizza to the campers at the festival, easily ordered via the festival app.
Effect: 40,000 half pizzas sold at the festival and: ‘From an online survey conducted by Wagner together with the Zwae Cross among approximately 900 festival-goers after the event, it was found that 75% of the participants indicated that Wagner Big Pizza fits very well with the festival. The Big Pizza couriers at the campsite were described by 90% of the visitors as ‘nice’ and ‘awesome’. Also, the brandimage of Wagner among Zwae Cross visitors has improved significantly,’ says marketing manager Henrik Jäger of Wagner.

Extraperience: Mielepower Wash
Brand: Miele
Sponsor of: Lowlands Festival
Extraperience: They could have put up a few flags at the entrance of Lowlands. But Miele opted for the Powerwash: a huge washing machine, with the festival’s most popular pay. Visitors could go into the gigantic Miele washing machine in their swimwear. Before entering, their festival clothes were taken, washed, dried, and folded. After the foam pay in the gigantic washing machine, the visitor emerged fresh and lively, and they received their own clothes back completely clean from the Miele team.
Effect: Tracking research shows that after this brilliant extraperience, Miele scores better on both brand performance, brand preference, and brand closeness. As an extra bonus: half a million euros woh of media value.

Sjoerd Weikamp Partner | nextlive.nl