Today we’re delving into the world of experiential marketing. It’s a fact that the world is overflowing with new brands and old ones. The competition is fiercer than it ever was before. The presence of multiple channels dilutes the impact of campaigns. During such trying times brands do not need another digital agency or social media platform for promotions.
What they need is a platform that supports real and authentic interactions with the target audience directly. That accurately defines experiential marketing. The demand for this genre of marketing has been increasing in the past couple of years, and it is showing no signs of slowing down. The tremendous success of experiential marketing campaigns of top brands like Nike, NFL, Coca Cola and Ikea has inspired hopes in the lives of brand CMOs across the globe.
According to reports from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2010 and 2020, the event marketing industry will soar by 44%. Around 98% of paying customers have vocalized their preference for experiential campaigns over traditional advertising measures.
Consumers are no longer happy with the touch-and-go marketing campaigns that have been the norm for over a decade. They want something immersive and impressionable. They want to remember the brands via the emotions they evoke through the campaign. Audiences now want businesses to bond with them in the real sense.
Experiential marketing is comparatively new, and it is easy for brands to make an impression on the participants since the competition is lesser than other marketing domains. However, just like any other facet of marketing, experiential activations have their success stories and failures.
Here are the four things every successful experiential marketing campaign got right from the start:
1. Your marketing tactic should integrate sensory immersion
We have already stated that people want to experience emotions while participating in brand events. It should never be about direct promotions or push sales. Brands need to think of new ways to appeal to the senses of their participants. When a brand manages to appeal to a customer’s senses, it fosters interaction and high recall value.
Take a leaf out of Google Allo’s Experiential marketing campaign. They leveraged the power of music to reach out to a massive audience. Or, you can consider the Mezzetta marketing activation where the brand opened their doors to the viewers to get an exclusive taste of their products.
Apart from hearing and taste, you should think about engaging other senses like sight, touch, and smell. Smell works incredibly well for food startups like coffee shops, donut chains, and gelato stores. You need the guidance of a top experiential marketing agency to bring these ideas to fruition.
2. Leave an emotional impression
Experiential marketing is about creating authentic relationships between the brand and the people. Just like any other relationship, the mutually beneficial one you are about to strike up with your audience needs a platform of emotions. Without genuine emotions, it is safe to say that the relationship will be transient at best.
It’s the brand’s responsibility to create an immersive environment that pulls the audience in for a new experience. This should appeal to your target audience’s emotional side. It’s easy to see why different brands with varying target groups have different campaign ideas to appeal to the emotional side of their audience.
Make your event as memorable as possible. You can keep it simple or add elements of AR and VR to craft something unique. Adding a personal touch will help the audience keep the event and your brand in mind long after the event is over.
3. The event should foster interaction
What is the difference between a movie and an interactive theater? In the first case, people enjoy their experience, but they rarely have a role to play during the process. Interactive theater and music festivals encourage audience participation. The active participation inspires genuine bonding between a brand and its potential customers.
Experiential marketing aims at driving one-on-one engagement between the brand and its audience. Research shows that there is no better way to foster consumer-brand relations than to provide them with multiple points of interaction throughout an event.
4. The experience should be relatable for your target audience
What is the geographic location of your audience? What is the demographics? Will they relate to the experience you are providing? Offering Baby Boomers a chance to play AI tennis might not be as effective as doing the same for a millennial crowd.
Creating experiences your target crowd can relate to is critical for the success of any experiential marketing campaign. It should be organic and easy-to-understand. Your crowd should not feel ignorant or uncomfortable during the activation events. It is imperative to integrate brand ambassadors, who speak the same language as your target demographic.
Experiential marketing increases the relatability and accessibility of a brand. It makes the brands more tangible than print or TVCs can. People are tired of loud and colorful print messages; they want something that genuinely interests them and captures their attention. Experiential marketing can help you deliver such an experience through which you can strengthen the consumer-company bond.
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