Born in Iran, educated in Canada and currently living in England; no matter where is she is in the world Claire Stokes has always had a passion for live marketing and events. But her career, which now has her running her own experiential business called The Circle Agency, didn’t follow the usual marketing graduate route.

“I’ve been working in the live marketing arena, and particularly experiential, for about 15 years now,” she said. “I first got the bug at university where I helped put on some branded events around campus. However, after graduation, I went into the world of banking!”

Her strong will and passion for all things marketing meant that when one of her banking clients (a media agency) was looking to put on a live promotional campaign, she was in the right place to offer her services.

“It was for the Molson brewery, which has now merged with Coors. It wanted to devise a countrywide promotional tour that involved live events with television and Internet interaction,” Stokes added. “I jumped at the chance and haven’t looked back since.”

Q. How did you set up your own experiential business?
I moved to a large field marketing company in Canada and worked on campaigns like the launch of the Xbox and the Pepsi Taste challenge. The company had links to an even bigger marketing agency in North America, where I ended up in the promotional division, honing my craft.

I decided to come over to the UK in 2003. I became the UK representative of a New York marketing company, but it wasn’t working out. The term experiential wasn’t widely known back then and I wanted to run my own business that focused solely on that route to market. So I set Circle up in the summer of 2004.

Q. What drives you to continue in this line of work?
The experiential world is fast paced and can be stressful, but I love that there is always some kind of tangible end result. It’s incredibly rewarding and, unlike TV or print campaigns, you can see return on investment or two-way conversations taking place between the client and target audience.

Q. How has the advent of digital marketing changed the way you work?
It has changed it so much, and I’ve had to add a digital arm to Circle to incorporate the option into our proposition. Experiential has blossomed and people are starting to get what it does but it isn’t always a cheap way of reaching a huge targeted audience.

Digital is helping to add value and allows us to build upon an experiential event in either real-time or after it finishes. It allows an audience to further its experience to friends and colleagues. A lot of it goes through social media outlets right now and is a good way of obtaining immediate feedback and creating word of mouth.

Q.What does the future hold for the experiential and digital courtship?
I think social networking sites are ‘of the moment’ and we have to be careful not to become complacent when using them. But, make no mistake, trying to replicate what works in a live space on a digital platform and vice versa is difficult.

What we don’t want is for people to be continually bombarded with messages and requests so that they become desensitised. It is also not just placing an advert on a social networking site and hoping people will click on it.

Agencies and marketers will simply have to work harder and smarter in the future. One of Circle’s clients allowed consumers to interact with its exhibit at a product launch this year, receiving t-shirts and entry into competitions if they wrote about the event on their social networking pages.

The digital platforms may change in the future, so it’ll be the content that people offer and not the vehicle that drives it which offers the most interesting food for thought.

Q. What single piece of advice would you offer marketing graduates?
A lot of graduates think they’ll get a job, sit behind a desk and work on fabulous events. But until you really understand the nuts and bolts of the job and get your hands dirty, it’s impossible to run a good campaign.

It’s gut-wrenchingly hard work for the first couple years; you’ll probably be asked to stand in a muddy field with small kids pulling at you for chocolate samples, for example. So, learn the ropes and experience all facets of the job because it will stand you in good stead for when you do get into a position of real power.

Q. What exhibitions have impressed you lateIy?
I enjoyed The Gadget Show Live UK 2011. It’s a great example of how to run a show that is completely interactive. In a way it’s a very experiential exhibition, and event organisers and exhibitors could learn lessons from it.

I know that not all shows have similar hands-on technology or products on display, but all exhibitors should be as interactive as possible to increase the chances of ROI.

You want your stand and staff to be the best, but you also want everyone else’s to at least be good so that the visitor has a great overall experience.
 

Any comments? Email James Barrett: jbarrett@mashmedia.net