Written by Kelli Binnings, Brand Expert & Entrepreneur
Kelli Binnings is a multi-disciplined creative who loves talking and writing about brand, psychology, and leadership. She is founder and Chief Brand Strategist at Build Smart Brands, soon-to-be author of, The Breakout Creative, set for release late '25, and currently completing her Master's in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in London.
Our lives are marked by moments. No matter how big or small we attach our experiences to memories that will forever remind us of a time, place, and meaningful moment in our lives. Our experiences connect with us through emotions like joy, surprise, pride, and defining moments that inspire us through learning, connection, and growth.
We are constantly going from one experience to another, in pursuit of finding the extraordinary in our everyday lives. When brands build experiences around their ordinary products or services, they offer an opportunity for us as consumers to do just that, find something unique and attach an emotional response to the experience. However this has become increasingly harder. With attention spans at an all time low and competition for that attention at an all time high, brands struggle to creatively define ways to surprise, impress, and impact their audiences. In this article, I’ll show you four ways your brand can turn ordinary moments into extraordinary and highly memorable experiences for your audience.
What defines an experience
Experiences are multi-faceted. They are a collection of elements that engage a person’s senses, emotions, thoughts, or actions, connecting a particular event with a meaningful response. This moment creates a cause and effect relationship between an instigator (external experience) and a motivator (internal experience) that resonates with us in a memorable way. Experiences are like art, each person's interpretation, emotional response, and cultural context can be different. However, when experiences are connected to the root of a brand's values, signature style, core message, and customer needs, they have the ability to shape extraordinary moments that their audience can bond with at a core level.
Why brands need to create them
As consumers, we have option overload and attention fatigue. Brands are constantly competing for our attention and interest but no longer can compete on product or service alone. Why? Because there are countless companies that make phones, computers, speakers systems and brands of airlines, gyms, and coffee, (I’m literally just naming the things in my immediate eyeline) and the list goes on. When it comes to standing out, brands need an experience to set them apart. If the goal of a business is to create a customer then the goal of a brand is to keep the customer. By engaging their senses, emotions, thoughts, and/or actions, brands can spark curiosity (grab their attention), shape their perceptions (build a memorable interaction), and transform their behavior (create a lasting impression).
So what can brands do to create extraordinary moments for their customers?
4 ways your brand can create the “extraordinary”
About 5-6 years ago I came across this book The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact and absolutely fell in love. The authors Chip and Dan Heath gave such actionable insights for reimaging the typical and evoking emotion through subtle details. As a brand strategist, I frequently refer back to their insights for inspiration and figured why not share the “extraordinary” magic with you.
While there are many avenues to explore when it comes to crafting experiences, there are 4 that rise to the top. These 4 focus on how emotion, meaning, and motivation can be used as drivers for extraordinary experiences.
First up, we have elevation. Experiences that focus on randomizing and surprising audiences have an ability to entertain, inspire, and immerse people in a moment. They trigger emotion through the unexpected by breaking the everyday expectation and routine of a product or service interaction. A wonderfully wholesome example of this is from the pet brand, Chewy. Back in 2022, a woman went viral with her story about a returned bag of dog food after her dog passed. She shared that Chewy not only refunded her money, but asked her to donate the bag to an animal shelter then followed up the next day with flowers and condolences from the person she talked to. That experience broke the expected and turned an ordinary heartbreaking moment into an experience of care, attention to detail, and support that she (and all 682,000 people who liked the post) will remember forever.
Second, is insight. People love stories, especially ones they can relate to or learn from. Whether it’s for sharing cocktail party random facts or solidifying their connection to a product or service with a deeper understanding, insights create an opportunity to show your audience how you think and why you do what you do. Anytime you can offer a behind the scenes making of or share interactive content that encourages them to feel part of the process, you’re in a position to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Things like interactive polls, puzzles, and video can break the visual routine of our audiences’ inbox. Litmus, is a great email service that allows brands to create interactive email content that entertains and engages the viewer. Bulk utilizes this well with their live flavor poll email example, not only educating their audiences of their flavor options but also giving them a chance to participate in the voting. Also Timeline is another amazing example utilizing play in their emails through their Longevity Game series. Again not only educating their audience on terminology but doing it in a fun, unique, and gamified way.
Third, is pride, which may seem like an interesting one but it’s all about spotlighting your audience making them feel empowered and appreciated. Rewards and loyalty programs are an excellent way to surprise and delight your audience. Randomizing your appreciation through gifts, shoutouts, giveaways, and exclusive access helps them feel seen and appreciated. It also inspires them to engage more, share more through user-generated content and feedback, and refer others to your brand through potential giveaways. Pride builds confidence in both your audience and their feels towards your product or service. When you can offer a little something extra (or lagniappe if you’re a Southerner like me) you have the power to make others feel special, and that’s worth its weight in gold. A personal example worth sharing is from Moo.com. A few years back when I first signed my business up with Moo, I had a wonderful chat with my account rep, Rachel. Not only did she show me the ropes (insights) but she also followed up the next day with some moo branded cake jars in a fun package with a personalized note from her saying how much she enjoyed our conversation (pride). I not only felt special but it further solidified my confidence in their ability to focus on the details and make great impressions; great for the line of work they do. Another excellent example worth sharing is from a 2020 experiential campaign from Misereor called the Social Swipe. They used kiosks in heavily populated areas with an interactive swipe to donate feature that made passersby intrigued to try, thus donating a minimal amount to the cause. The experience was entertaining, interactive, and gave them a sense of pride for contributing to a good cause. Brilliant campaign.
Lastly, and one every brand should be focusing on is, connection. Much like my Rachel story, deepening bonds between your audience and your brand comes from your team’s ability to personalize experiences and build relationships with customers. Being human in your approach to business is more relevant than ever because our audiences expect transparency, honesty, and accountability. Brands that own their failures and mistakes in an authentic way create connection and alignment through truth rather than PR-style messaging. People don’t like to feel swayed or manipulated into buying from brands, they want choice and a reason to buy from you over another. Connection that encourages open communication outside of the ordinary day-to-day strengthens bonds with customers, making brands more human-like and real. Using a funny and highly clever example from 2019 when KFC ran out of chicken in the UK! They took a hilarious and bold approach to calling themselves out with a cheeky campaign “FCK, we’re sorry” that made the mistake an extraordinary moment rather than a failure. The campaign earned them viral status and a pretty sweet Adweek award that year all from simply owning a hard truth that could’ve ended in disaster instead of making their customers laugh.
Test like a scientist, listen like a psychologist
Not every experience will be a homerun. It takes time to creatively explore all the ways your customers can interact with your brand. The important thing is to test and listen to your audience. There’s a reason why experiential companies are popping up everywhere these days, because people crave experiences. They want to be entertained, engaged, and delighted at every turn but the stakes keep getting higher while budgets keep getting tighter. Don’t focus on being the biggest or best but rather the one that best fits your brand values, style, core message, and customer. Test a few ideas out, focus on your leading touchpoints rather than all of them, build connection through relationship skills and simply see how others respond. You can learn A LOT from testing, listening, and observing your audience. Use the above 4 ways to inspire your next brainstorming session and just see where it takes you. You might surprise yourself and that’s already a win in the right direction.
Find what works best for your brand
When it comes to creating extraordinary experiences, best practices don’t really work. Remember experiences are like art, they are interpreted through each individual’s lens, cultural context, and emotional connection; there are no “best practices” for that. Every brand has to consider their personality, the personalities and influences of their team, and their opportunity to differentiate themselves within their market. Some practices or “rules” are simply meant to be broken. When you break them in a way that authentically aligns with your brand values and style, your brand becomes memorable, impressive, and extraordinary.
Related article: How to Build a Brand and Stand Out in 2024
What’s next?
Creating brand experiences is not an easy task, nor is it a solo endeavor. Whether it’s an event-based brand experience or customer service related through developing retail environments or email nurturing sequences, I’d love to help you brainstorm your next big idea. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about how to shape audience perception through brand building strategies, check out my ebook, Transforming Brand Perception: 7 Actions to Change the Way People See Your Brand. In this ebook, I discuss 7 behavior-focused efforts that can improve your brand value and audience perception, a great place to start as you entertain the idea of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. Download it here and find out how you can start implementing some of these strategies.
Connect with Kelli on LinkedIn, Instagram or visit Build Smart Brands to read more from her thoughts and learn about her unique brand-building process.
Read more from Kelli Binnings
Kelli Binnings, Brand Expert & Entrepreneur
Kelli Binnings is a fearless thinking, multi-disciplined creative, who loves talking and writing about brand, psychology, work culture and leadership. As a life-long learner and "design your life" believer, she thrives on bringing ideas to life and joy to others through her work. Outside of her brand business and love of writing, she’s a published music photographer, wellness athlete, soon-to-be author of her first book, titled The Breakout Creative, set for late '25, and currently completing her Master's from Goldsmiths University in London in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour. Her mission: To reframe the way people think and apply positive psychology to their professional lives.
Comments