The Benefits Of Using Experiential Marketing for Events

What Is Experiential Marketing?

Experiential marketing is a marketing strategy that invites an audience to interact with a business in a real-world or virtual interactive experience. Using participatory, hands-on, and tangible branding material, the business can show its customers not just what the company offers, but what it stands for.

Experiential marketing, also known as engagement marketing, live marketing, or participation marketing, might sound a bit like event marketing, which makes sense — experiential campaigns do tend to be event-centric. But, if you know about experiential marketing, we’ve got something for you still. We’ve got an experiential marketing playbook that event planners and organisers can use to bring hype and buzz to their event. In fact, we’ve got a few different ideas that you can steal, or use as inspo for your event… Completely free of charge.

So, click the link below if you want to steal our playbook and bring marketing buzz and buy-in to your event.

When an experiential marketing campaign is event-centric, it’s dedicated less to the type of event — like a concert, festival, conference, etc. — and more to interactions between the brand and the customer.

Why Is Experiential Marketing Important?

Experiential marketing has become increasingly important because it allows businesses to connect deeper with customers. The key difference between experiential marketing and other types of marketing is that an experience takes place in “real” life.

The main advantages of experiential marketing include the following:

• You can easily create brand awareness by providing a memorable and immersive experience that leaves a lasting impression on the audience.
• Experiences create an emotional connection by appealing to the senses and feelings of the audience, building trust and loyalty with the brand.
• They build engagement by transforming the audience from passive observers to active participants, increasing their interest and involvement with the brand.
• It creates differentiation by offering a unique and innovative experience that stands out from the competition, increasing brand recognition and preference.
• And, experiential marketing brings a personal touch to your marketing efforts by using data and insights to tailor the experience to the needs and expectations of the audience, increasing their satisfaction and retention.

How Does Experiential Marketing Work?

Experiential marketing works by creating an experience that engages the audience with the brand in a meaningful and memorable way. The experience can be offline, such as a live event, a trade show, a demo day, etc., or online, such as a webinar, a virtual reality, or a metaverse.

The experience can also be a combination of both, such as a hybrid event, a live stream, or an augmented reality. The experience can be designed to achieve various goals, such as raising awareness, generating leads, driving sales, or creating loyalty.

The experience can also be measured and evaluated, using various metrics, such as attendance, engagement, spending, satisfaction, or loyalty. The data and feedback collected from the experience can be used to improve future experiential marketing campaigns, as well as other marketing strategies.

What are some examples of experiential marketing?

There are many examples of experiential marketing campaigns from different industries and topics, such as movies, sports, beauty, and more.

Here are some of the most creative and successful ones:

Netflix Stranger Things:

To promote the third season of the popular sci-fi series, Netflix created an immersive experience that transported fans to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s. The experience included a replica of the Starcourt Mall, where fans could shop, eat, and play arcade games, as well as a secret underground lab, where fans could encounter the show’s monsters and mysteries.

Nike House of Go:

To launch its new React running shoe, Nike created a pop-up store that invited customers to test the shoe in a fun and interactive way. The store featured a treadmill surrounded by LED screens, sensors, and speakers, that simulated different terrains, such as grass, sand, and gravel, as well as different sounds, such as birds, waves, and traffic.

L’Oréal Makeup Genius:

Red Bull Stratos:

Red Bull is arguably the king of experiential marketing. There’s countless examples of Red Bull putting their brand in and around ground-breaking extreme sports, music and e-sports experiences.

IKEA Sleepover:

To celebrate its 25th anniversary in the UK, IKEA invited 100 lucky customers to spend a night at one of its stores.

How to create a successful experiential marketing campaign?

Creating a successful experiential marketing campaign requires careful planning and execution, as well as a clear understanding of your goals, audience, and budget. Here are some tips to help you create a successful experiential marketing campaign:

Define your goals:

What do you want to achieve with your experiential marketing campaign? Do you want to raise awareness, generate leads, drive sales, or create loyalty? How will you measure your success? What metrics will you use to evaluate your performance?

Know your audience:

Who are you targeting with your experiential marketing campaign? What are their needs, preferences, and expectations? How can you reach them and engage them? What channels and platforms will you use to communicate with them?”

Design your experience:

What type of experience do you want to create for your audience? What elements and features will you include in your experience? How will you make your experience immersive, interactive, and memorable? How will you align your experience with your brand identity and values?

Execute your experience:

How will you implement your experiential marketing campaign? What resources and tools will you need? What partners and vendors will you work with? How will you manage and coordinate your team and activities? How will you handle any challenges or risks?

Evaluate your experience:

How will you collect and analyze data and feedback from your experiential marketing campaign? What insights and learnings will you gain from your experience? How will you use them to improve your future experiential marketing campaigns, as well as other marketing strategies?

Example of an experiential marketing campaign for a music festival:

If you are planning a music festival and want to create some buzz and excitement around it, you could use an experiential marketing campaign that involves a QR code game that reveals clues for the acts that are performing at the festival. This would be a fun and interactive way to engage your potential attendees and influencers, as well as to generate leads and conversions for your tickets and merchandise.

To implement this campaign, you would need to create a landing page that hosts the game and the clues, design the game and the clues in a way that is relevant and challenging for your audience, set up a system that tracks and rewards the players, and distribute the QR codes on your flyers, wristbands, or posters.

You could also send the QR codes to selected influencers, who could share them with their followers and invite them to join the game.

By creating this experiential marketing campaign, you would be able to create a memorable and engaging experience for your audience, as well as increase your brand awareness, create an emotional connection, create engagement, create differentiation, and create personalization. With these benefits in mind, you would be able to create a successful music festival that attendees would be talking about for years to come.

Conclusion

Experiential marketing is a powerful tool that can help businesses create a memorable and engaging experience for their customers. By creating an immersive experience that engages all the senses and leaves a lasting impression on attendees, businesses can increase brand awareness, create an emotional connection, create engagement, create differentiation, and create personalization. With these benefits in mind, you can create a memorable event that attendees will be talking about for years to come.

And as always, AAC is the one-stop shop for your event. If you need, ID, wristbands, tickets, tokens, signage, print or promo promo products for your event, we’ve got you covered!