Today’s consumers are inundated with marketing content on a daily basis through both digital (social media feeds, video ads, email, etc.) and traditional advertising channels (i.e. TV and radio commercials). In an effort to create more meaningful and engaging interactions between brands and customers, companies are turning to experiential marketing to help bridge that gap. But what is experiential marketing?
Experiential marketing is a form of event marketing that
uses brand experiences to engage with customers. More specifically, it is a way
for customers to interact with a brand or product through real-world
experiences, often referred to as brand activations. A brand activation can be
anything from a pop-up event you are hosting to an activity at your company’s
booth at a larger event.
Earlier this month, the annual South by Southwest (SXSW)
festival took place in Austin, Texas and companies
jumped on this opportunity to engage with customers and promote their
brands. Brands like Facebook, HBO, DC Comics, and more offered event attendees
the opportunity to partake in their activations. For example, the mattress
company, BeautyRest, set up beds in a local hall for attendees to take naps in
while attending the festival. Similarly, earlier this year at the Super Bowl, multiple
brands used virtual reality to give fans the chance to partake in the
events of the big game. You will be able to find brand activations at similar
large-scale events where brands are able to take advantage of the increased
foot traffic to interact with consumers, such as sporting events, music
festivals, etc.
It should be noted, that experiential marketing is not
limited to large-scale events and festivals. There are plenty of examples of
brands leveraging experiential marketing outside of these events. For example,
many television shows, like Friends and Gilmore Girls, have set up replica sets
at different locations for fans to have a chance to visit their favorite shows.
Other brands have taken to the streets of major cities to give people the
chance to test their products in an environment they created. Recently, Samsung
used a light display in London to give passerby’s the chance to test out the
camera features on their new phones.
Regardless of the form of your activation, the objective is
for your customers to have a meaningful experience with your brand by testing
your product, displaying content tied to your campaign, or any other activity
intended to leave a lasting impression with your audience about your
brand/product. A key contributor to the success of an experiential marketing
campaign is for the activation to be directly tied to your product, brand, or
company in an authentic way. Just putting on a cool activity to draw an
audience will not have the same impact as if it were linked to the purpose or
use of your product. By leaving a lasting impression with your customers
through these activities, they are more likely to give their business to you in
the future and recommend your products to other people.
Experiential marketing agencies understand the complexities
associated with gaining and keeping the attention of today’s consumers and will
work with your organization to create an impactful activation for your brand.
Contact our Marketing
Sourcing experts to learn more about how we can help to support your
brand’s next activation.
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