When the Event Should Be the Star of Your Ad
When the Event Should Be the Star of Your Ad
For marketers, it is easy to think about customer experience in terms of touchpoints: the campaign, the landing page, the form, the follow-up email, the service script. Each of those moments matters. But customer experience is not built through isolated interactions. It is shaped across the full journey.
That idea is at the center of, “Customer Experience Orientation: Conceptual Model, Propositions, and Research Directions” by Farah Arkadan, Emma K. Macdonald and Hugh N. Wilson, published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
The researchers studied how organizations actually manage customer experience from the inside. Their research looked at nine organizations actively working on customer experience, using interviews with leaders and managers, company materials, observations and site visits. Instead of only asking how customers feel, the study examined what organizations believe, how teams behave and how customer experience becomes part of the way work gets done.
The researchers found that strong customer experience depends on what they call a customer experience orientation: a set of values and behaviors that help the whole organization learn from customers, improve the journey and connect the experience back to purpose.
For marketers, the first takeaway is to stop looking only at isolated interactions.
Customers understand a brand as one connected path, not as separate departments or channels. That path includes the moments the organization controls, such as a website or sales conversation, and the moments it does not, such as reviews, social mentions, peer recommendations and the customer’s own context. Understanding the journey requires more than surveys. It requires listening for what customers are trying to accomplish, how they feel in the moment and where the experience becomes easier or harder than expected.
The second takeaway is that customer experience is never finished. The strongest organizations keep improving individual touchpoints and the full journey over time. For marketers, that means paying attention to the small moments that shape how the brand feels: clearer language, fewer clicks, better follow-up, smoother handoffs, stronger onboarding and more useful support. These improvements may seem tactical, but together they can make the experience feel more connected, helpful and trustworthy.
The third takeaway is that people need the ability to act. Good processes matter, but real customer needs do not always fit neatly into a script. The research highlights the importance of empowering employees to use judgment in service of the customer experience. For marketers, this means the brand promise has to be understood inside the organization. If the message says the brand is responsive, personal or easy to work with, teams need enough clarity and trust to make that promise true in practice.
The fourth takeaway is that customer experience has to be organized across the journey. Customers do not experience marketing, sales, operations and service as separate functions. They experience one brand. That makes the handoffs between teams especially important. Where does the message change? Where does the process slow down? Where does the customer have to repeat themselves? Where does the experience stop feeling connected? Better customer experience requires shared ownership, not just better performance within one department.
The fifth takeaway is to keep learning while improving. The research does not suggest ignoring measurement. It shows that organizations with a strong customer experience orientation are willing to test and make improvements before every financial outcome is fully proven, while still gathering evidence over time. For marketers, this is a useful reminder: measure what you can, but do not let imperfect data stop obvious improvements to the journey.
Finally, the experience has to align with the organization’s purpose. A brand promise is only believable when the journey supports it. Purpose and values should not live only in the campaign, the messaging platform or the About page. They should guide how customers are welcomed, informed, supported and remembered.
Taken together, the research shows that customer experience is bigger than communication. It is an organizational learning system: how well a company listens to customers, shares what it learns, acts on that insight and builds better ways of working around the journey.
For marketers, that creates an important role. Marketing does not have to own every touchpoint, but it can help the organization see the journey more clearly and connect the brand promise to the way customers are actually treated.
The strongest customer experiences are built when the whole organization can see the board: what customers need, where they get stuck and how each team can help move the journey forward.
About the Research
Why advertisers should embrace event typicality and maximize leveraging of major events
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS); Volume 52 (2024)
Authors:
Citation:
Carrillat, F.A., Mazodier, M. & Eckert, C. Why advertisers should embrace event typicality and maximize leveraging of major events. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 52, 1585–1607 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-024-01012-1
From the Authors
What specific relevant marketing challenge(s) does your article address?
The article addresses the conflict between the traditional marketing theory of "consistency" (using product-typical ads to facilitate quick recognition) and the practice of "adaptation" (using event-typical ads linked to major events like the Olympics). The core problem is determining whether adapting ads to events is effective under constrained ad exposure times (e.g., ranging between 100 msec and 5 seconds) in comparison to the "gold standard" of product-typical ads.
What companies/organizations/industries will benefit from your findings?
The following entities would benefit significantly:
Advertisers and Brand Managers: Particularly those investing in campaigns around major sporting events (e.g., Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, Wimbledon).
Sponsors: Official partners of events looking to maximize leveraging efficacy.
Ambush Marketers: Brands attempting to associate with events without official rights.
Event Organizers: Organizations like the IOC or FIFA that manage sponsorship rights.
Advertising and sponsorship agencies: Professionals managing event-related campaigns for which consumer attention spans are minimal.
How can the recommendations from your findings specifically be implemented?
Advertisers can identify the most typical elements of an event through surveys or by analyzing prior ad campaigns featuring the event and its related elements to develop new creatives based on them.
What outcomes would be expected?
Event-typical ads improve ad liking, brand attitude, engagement, and cost-efficiency.
