We are in the middle of the Salone del Mobile and consequently Fuorisalone, which has become over the years, in some ways, more attractive, more interesting and cooler than the main event. Because the Salone involves the whole the city of Milan, which, in its various Design Districts, welcomes thousands of tourists, students, curious and insiders from all over the world.

As we know, not everyone is only passionate about furniture and design, or about cocktails and the latest parties. For a week, Milan becomes the centre of an extended creative world that has expanded to many related sectors such as technology, art, food.

But if I had to trace a common element, I would say that this stream of visitors is looking for experiences.

Consequently, a question arises. How to make an experience truly relevant?

It is about understanding what the audience is looking for. What emotional needs do they bring to the event? What memories do they want to take home? Why are they there?

The first step for brands to take is to stimulate an emotional connection and the creation of a personal memory that will influence participants long after the event is over.

GMR, the US partner of TRO, the Omnicom Group's international experience agency, carried out an interesting Global research on the consumer psyche. It revealed a whole new framework for understanding human emotions within the experiential space and a deeper, better way for brands to create connections that last. 

We live in the age of Post Truth: people nowadays are sceptical of institutions, companies, media and, of course, marketing. Only 19% of consumers believe what we marketers tell them about products. They prefer to ignore our messages and experiment for themselves or rely on recommendations from friends, family and influencers. Not always in this order.

In this scenario, the power of creating a physical experience with brands is increasingly relevant. The target audience data we have are helpful; they tell us about the behaviour of consumers, what they do, but they do not tell us why. We know their age, income, education, but we know little about the reason why people attend live events.

The result of the research conducted by interviewing 2,000 event participants is that live experiences are about human moments. More specifically, four emotional needs that drive us to attend an event were listed: belonging, identity, enrichment, liberation.

Belonging is about security, reinforcing a connection to the past or to a network of people sharing a common interest. It refers to people's need to be part of something larger than themselves.

Identity, although connected to inner needs, cannot exist in isolation, it depends on the recognition of others.

Enrichment is about growth: people look for new things that add new dimensions to their lives and help them evolve towards a future condition.

Liberation is an internal need. Getting rid of stress and engaging in simple enjoyment rebalances our response systems. It is an important and very common state of emotional need.

As a consequence, one suggestion we can take from this is to humanise the behaviour of brands. The aim is to get to the heart of the people we are trying to reach. We have to look at them more and more as human beings and not just as consumers.

These emotional needs take shape in passions. Music, sports, travel, cooking, art, etc. are expressions of these. And from a marketing point of view, passions are the meeting ground between audience and brand.

However, there is another increasingly important element to consider: the value of memories.

Each one of us is naturally inclined to collect memories. Memories are who we are. Therefore, when people attend an event, they are not just trying to satisfy some needs. They are building memories. The emotion may even last for many years, sometimes for a lifetime! And since it is important for 72 % of participants at an event to see, hear, touch and personally experience, it is natural to think that these experiences capture attention and enhance the memory process. It is therefore easy to understand why brands are moving in this direction in order to create brand experiences that are sustainable over time.

The brands that at the Fuorisalone are proving to be able to understand their audience's emotional needs, feed their passions and - consequently - build lasting memories, are those that are laying the foundations for a truly authentic and sustainable brand relationship.