Think about how you might be reading this right now. Then think about how you might consume the news later, or how you might interact with friends, or how you might go shopping. There is a fairly large chance you’ll be doing most of it via a screen. And while doing so, a host of impressive, engaging ads will no doubt pop up, scroll by or land in your inbox. What’s the betting you ignore them or close them down at the earliest possibility?
Now think about your business. Is this one of the ways you target your customers? If so, you could be fighting an unwinnable battle. After all, it’s been claimed that up to 90% of banner ads get ignored. You don’t want to be part of that stat!
Multiple companies are chasing the same demographic, making it harder than ever for you to stand out.
Maybe it’s time to switch things up a little. By all means, keep the social media ads, email campaigns and website sponsorships, but now look at how to change the URL into IRL.
The way you do this is with experiential marketing, a marketing method that brings customers closer to a brand than ever before. So close in fact, they can touch it, feel it, taste it, smell it, breathe it.
So, in this blog, we dive into the world of the experience and put digital, not behind us, but alongside us so you get the best of both worlds.
Hang on, what is experiential marketing?
Good question and I’m thinking if you are only just launching, it’s a term you’ve never come across or one that you are still learning about. Well, let’s simplify it so you can make an informed decision as to whether it’s a marketing method for you. We won’t complicate things with jargon and buzzwords!
Experiential marketing is a form of marketing where your brand brings itself to life. Think pop-up shops, think live demos, think live events. Think free samples, think interactive displays, think games, influencers and audience participation.
Experiential marketing is where you create a memorable experience for your customer base to connect with you in a way they couldn’t through other marketing methods.
Rather than simply telling people you exist or showing you sell a product; you allow those customers to engage with the brand and form a positive impression of it. With active participation being encouraged, it becomes easy for a brand to gain mass exposure as those “insta-moments” are readily available throughout the activation. Sorry! Activation is a buzzword, and we said we wouldn’t do that! Read “activation” as “event!”
So, shall I just stop my other marketing efforts and put all focus on experiential?
Woah…. Easy there! No don’t do that! You’ll still have an audience that consumes your other forms of marketing. Perhaps monitor performance on those though if you aren’t already. A failing ad campaign is just like setting fire to your cash.
By all means, keep the ads on social media running but with an experiential campaign being planned, you could refine those social ads to tap into this new experiential efforts.
How? We’ll tell you. Allow experiential and digital to work hand in hand. This form of hybrid marketing allows you to run a live event that people can attend in person, but it also taps into those elsewhere by allowing them to participate by watching online.
Think about it, you’ve got those at your new product launch, witnessing it firsthand, but then you have a potentially unlimited audience who can get similar benefits to those at the event. Scanning an in-event QR code, for example, could help determine what happens next, or signing up to the live stream might give access to discounts or free gifts. Everyone wins, right?
So, with your experiential campaign planned, create social ads or mailshots that invite people to be part of this exclusive event, both in person and online. The sense of exclusivity elevates many of us to feel more important and who doesn’t like to brag about how they were part of something that not everyone else was?
But my online ads work, why would I spend money on something so extravagant?
We get it, a dive into the unknown can seem daunting and it’s a gamble that might or might not pay off. After all, if you put on a huge event that’s eaten into the budget a lot, and nobody attends or you get minimal leads, you’ll have questions to answer from those at the top. Luckily though, data backs up the need for experiential marketing. We can jump back as far as the 1940s to see Edgar Dale’s “Cone of Experience,” where it was suggested that people retain about 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear but up to 90% of what they do or simulate!
More recently, the Event Marketing Institute and Nielsen have cited that experiential marketing campaigns boost recall to around 65-70% for “lived” experiences versus significantly lower numbers for more passive advertising.
These numbers alone shout about how an event can be a game changer. You could be simply accepting second-best if you assume the results from other ad campaigns are the most successful you can expect.
So, in our opinion, you might well be thinking your other marketing efforts are delivering, but are they delivering an ROI that’s justified or are you simply classing one lead or one sale as a win? Think about it!
How can I give this “experiential marketing” a go?
Well, experiential marketing comes in many forms. Simply renting a space for a pop-up shop and selling your wares from there is experiential. For that, you might be able to do 99% of it yourself. If you don’t have the resources or skills to create a buzz though, it could be a failing mission.
Putting on a huge live event though, where there is a wealth of interactive displays, demos, live events and more, you’ll need some guidance for sure. An experiential agency in London or elsewhere would be essential.
With their knowledge of events, marketing methods, content creation and collating vital data, you can give the experts a brief and your expectations and then leave them to curate an experiential event that blows the competition out of the water.
I’m still not sure, give me some evidence of successful experiential marketing
Oh, we can do that! Smyle, a UK-based agency teamed up with Vodafone at Wimbledon during the tennis. With charging stations, a host of games and social media photo booth opportunities, it wasn’t just the on-court action that remained memorable. Fans captured moments with friends and family, showcased their competitive nature and gave their phone a boost all courtesy of Vodafone and Smyle.
Next up, we could look at one that is quite literally out of this world! Jump back to 2012, do you remember when Felix Baumgartner jumped back down to Earth from the edge of space? This event known as Red Bull Stratos didn’t involve the public as such but the 52 million YouTube views for the live stream and the amount of chat across social media networks enhanced the Red Bull philosophy more than ever.
Want something a little closer to sea level? We got you! Do you remember the Ikea Sleepover? Well, one day a Facebook group suggested, albeit in a joking manner, that sleeping in Ikea would be pretty cool. Well, the marketing team at Ikea caught wind of this and thought, “Why not?”
They hosted 100 competition winners for the night, in-store, offering massages, bedtime stories and even breakfast in bed. The press and social media went wild. The attendees raved about how much fun they had, and at the end of the event, Ikea had not only maintained a reputation but had enhanced it.
So, in today’s world of digital media, it remains essential to remember that people thrive off people, emotion and experience. Whilst the internet brings us together in one way, live events do it in another, and it’s that way that maintains your brand relevance.
