The ability to fast-forward or completely skip through commercials, use an ad blocking tool on devices, and access ad-free streaming services has made reaching customers more challenging than ever. If you’re a marketer looking for a better approach to engage audiences, it’s time for you to explore experiential marketing.
Experiential marketing, also known as engagement marketing, is a marketing strategy designed to captivate customer attention by providing immersive and interactive elements that shape emotional connections and create lasting memories.
Allowing people to experience your brand firsthand enables you to directly showcase your story, values, products, and mission, thereby creating brand awareness and forging connections.
Experiential marketing involves designing marketing campaigns that are interactive, creative, and enjoyable. Offering these experiences excites target customers and entices them to participate actively, resulting in higher engagement levels.
Satisfied customers are more likely to share their experiences with friends, family, and colleagues, hence increasing word-of-mouth advertising. This type of organic promotion helps spread awareness about the brand, build brand loyalty, and attract new customers.
Furthermore, word-of-mouth promotions are perceived as more credible and trustworthy. In fact, recent data shows that 88% of people had the highest level of trust in a brand recommended by a family member or a friend, while 26% of customers would completely avoid a brand because of bad word-of-mouth.
Experiential marketing, when done properly, encourages customers to share their experiences on social media platforms. Customers can upload photos, videos, stories, and text-based content that can spread across social media channels, which will eventually generate a marketing buzz, quickly reach a wide audience, and lead to increased brand visibility and recognition.
Offering positive experiences prompts customers to provide their contact information and opt-in for further communication. It also allows brands to collect valuable insights about their target audience and adjust their marketing efforts as well as their products accordingly.
Guerilla marketing involves using unconventional methods to promote a brand and its products. For example, the BBC promoted its show “Dracula.” They incorporated red text and some blood patches on a white billboard. While it looked normal and a little confusing during the day, an illustration of a vampire appeared to come to life as the night fell.
Event marketing is another method used by marketers to promote their brand. Events can be conducted online and offline, and brands can participate as hosts, participants, or sponsors. Examples of event marketing campaigns are conferences, festivals, trade shows, webinars, lunch and learns, fairs, and networking events.
Pop-up stores are temporary retail spaces that are hosted in different locations for a short period of time, ranging from a few days to several months. Pop-up stores are commonly established to bring the brand closer to its target market, and since they are unexpected, they create an element of surprise, particularly if hosted in unannounced locations.
Virtual reality and augmented reality are two innovations that empower people to quickly envision possibilities and try them safely within simulated environments.
Although VR and AR are frequently associated with gaming, they are also gaining popularity among experiential marketers. Companies can use these technologies to transport consumers to virtual environments where they can interact with products, explore spaces, or participate in branded activities.
Some big brands that embrace the VR and AR trends include:
Live streaming of events, product launches, Q&A sessions, and behind-the-scenes footage provides an opportunity for brands to have conversations and connect with their audiences in real-time, even without face-to-face interactions. Live broadcasts can also help brands reach a larger audience compared to in-person events, as they are not limited by geographical constraints.
Real customers who share positive perceptions about a brand drive that brand’s authenticity and improve the brand’s image, as others recognise the feedback to be unbiased and reliable. When individuals see others sharing their satisfaction with a product or service, they are more inclined to consider making a purchase themselves, as they believe they can also have a similar positive experience.
Simply put, gamification is the process of turning any campaign into a game. This could involve hashtag challenges, competition, and point accumulation that offers audiences a chance to win something and provides the company with a marketing boost in return.
Examples of gamification in experiential marketing include Nike’s Nike+ Run Club, where users can set goals, compete with friends, and earn rewards for completing challenges and reaching milestones. Another example is the Starbucks Rewards app, which gives users the chance to accumulate stars for every purchase of Starbucks products, which they can redeem for free drinks and food items.
As the saying goes, “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” Your customers may forget the details of your products or the messages you conveyed on your sales pitches, but the emotions they felt towards your brand tend to stay in their memory for a long time.
