What is experiential marketing? Well, it is a marketing tactic that goes beyond promoting a brand’s products or services to campaign for the brand’s message. In this form of marketing, the consumer doesn’t sit passively and listen to the marketer’s message like in the case of traditional TV, radio, and newspaper ads. It involves engaging the target customers thoroughly and exciting all their 5 senses.
They see, touch, smell, listen to, and where appropriate, taste the product before making a purchasing decision. That is why this strategy is given other names such as engagement marketing, live marketing, participation marketing, and event marketing and its success depends on the creativity and professionalism of the hired event production agency which organizes the event.
Experiential marketing is relatively new in most economies and has particularly become popular with the growth of social media. The activities that revolve around this strategy are interesting enough for the social media audience.
Also, the strategy is attracting more sales by pushing the right buttons in the modern consumer. It helps marketers to break the resistance that consumers put up against new brands by allowing the consumer to holistically interact with a product. In this post, we will focus on 5 other reasons why experiential marketing is gaining momentum rapidly.
Why Should You Consider Experiential Marketing? How Is It Gaining Momentum?
1. It encourages consumers to share visual content online
When consumers take pictures and videos during experiential marketing events, they help brands to expand their marketing reach. After all, most of that content ends up in social media. Experiential marketing, to some extent, leverages grassroots marketing by appealing to people’s love for visual online content. And because we are living in the era of smartphones and the internet, this form of marketing will only keep gaining more and more momentum.
2. TV and radio ads are irritating
Marketers have overused TV, radio, and print ads for so long that consumers now find them irritating. It is not uncommon these days to find people recording TV or radio programs so that they can watch them later and skip all the ads in between. How many times have you skipped YouTube ads when watching your favorite videos? Clearly, ads are unnecessarily irritating. Experiential marketing, on the other hand, has tailor-made messages that speak to the soul and mind of every consumer. The consumer is an active participant and not a passive observer, so he will rarely get bored or irritated.
3. It helps brands to establish deep connections with their target customers
When people interact with your brand to their satisfaction, positive connotations regarding your brand are developed. And because these experiences are both fun and memorable, people really enjoy being part of experiential marketing. It makes them feel wanted and valued, and that breeds unbeatable brand loyalty.
There are so many ways to create interactions between customers and your brand through unforgettable experiences. It is said that people never forget the delicious food given to them during long and big events, so food trucks come first when thinking about positive emotions. Another thing that will be remembered are freebies, but it does not really matter what you give, what matters the most is the authentic experience.
Giving freebies can be done by a mobile pop-up store, so you get your shop on wheels and promote it in front of your customer in an unusual way. You can easily promote your brand in front of your customers this way, as they are not only buying your products but experiencing the whole process. No matter which way you choose, it is vital to put the emotions first which will help you wrap up the whole experience with creativity.
Also, customers identify with your brand as a whole, not just the products they tasted or touched. Remember that when people become loyal, they are more emotionally attached to the brand than to the quality of its products. “If you can mix this strategy with localization and target a wider global market, that would generate an even more successful marketing strategy,” say experts from New Horizons Global Partners.
4. It generates an authentic brand awareness
Brand awareness is an important aspect of marketing. People need to understand what your brand is all about and which problems your products seek to address in their lives. But brand awareness isn’t an easy agenda to execute partially because customers tend to be hostile and skeptical towards unknown brands and partially because your competitors offer clients endless options to choose from. But with experiential marketing, customers interact with your brand firsthand and know everything they need to know about it. That is the awareness that will enable them to make a genuine positive opinion about your products.
5. It converts participants into unpaid brand ambassadors
Participants in an experiential marketing campaign are initially inspired to become loyal customers and then as time goes by, they start feeling the obligation to become your brand ambassadors. They will share the memorable experiences they had with your brand and encourage their friends and family to try your products. Word-of-mouth recommendations are a very powerful form of marketing according to McKinsey, particularly noting that they drive about 50% to 80% of new leads.
In conclusion
Are you planning an experiential marketing event? Delegate all the heavy lifting to an event production agency. There are tons of event professional companies out there who specialize in providing events solutions to clients like you. This helps you focus solely on the core aspects of the campaign.