Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing is the art of creating an interaction or experience where the result is an emotional connection to a person, brand, product or idea.

The name experiential marketing is relatively new however the fundamental concept behind it is far from it. Activities such as field marketing, customer service, special events, product promotions, PR stunts and similar have engaged consumers and the public emotionally for years. However brands have recently been awoken to the fact that creating connection through a designed emotive experience can be much more powerful than traditional marketing methods.

If executed correctly, experiential marketing can provide the consumer with their own, personal, and hopefully positive, experience of a brand. It is direct, it is one to one and it allows for a greater emotional connection than many other forms of marketing communication. And herein lies the value. If the experience is targeted to the right consumer, in the right way, it can build a strong personal bond with a brand which can create long term loyalty and advocacy.

Whilst other forms of media may simply encourage people to engage with a brand, encourage people to respond to a brand and / or encourage people to interact with a brand, such as traditional direct marketing, experiential marketing brings that engagement opportunity directly to them. Activated in a relevant environment for both the brand and the consumer you can create a highly targeted experience that will deliver significant cut through.

Experiential marketing is not just about branded staff handing out products. Many factors contribute to a successful experiential campaign above and beyond the basic principles of it being ‘live’. It’s knowing your audience and how best to appeal to them. It’s about choosing the correct location for your audience to minimise wastage. It’s about finding the most suitable brand representatives to engage with your audience. It’s about investing in the correct product training so your staff can engage and educate consumers about your product. It’s knowing the different environments to activate campaigns from super markets to festivals and how to get the best from them. It’s about ensuring the interaction is valuable and extends beyond the initial contact through other channels such as social media. It’s about being reactive and learning from the ongoing results of your campaign to optimise results. And it’s about integrating your activity by working with other channel to increase reach and engagement. By understanding how digital channels can be harnessed to allow consumers to interact with an experiential event in a meaningful way when they’re not even there can massively increase the reach of the activity, and ultimately improve ROI.