TJ Vasquez
A lot has changed over the past three years, including marketing trends. As such, experimental marketing appears to be making a comeback. If you’re not familiar with this marketing method, keep reading. This article will cover experiential marketing, how other companies use it, and how you can implement it into your strategy.
What is Experiential Marketing?
Experiential marketing, also called engagement marketing, is a strategy that engages consumers directly and provides them with ways to interact with the brand. The goal for marketers who use this strategy is to create memorable experiences among customers. This way, they’ll likely form deeper connections with the business involved.
Unlike other marketing tactics that place consumers into a more passive role when it comes to receiving content, experiential marketing aims to directly involve consumers with the current campaign. This means experiential marketing methods provide consumers with innovative ways to experience the product or service offered.
How Does It Work?
Most forms of marketing focus on getting to know their audiences on a general level. Marketers will research the brand’s consumer base and create customer profiles based on their findings. These profiles work to cater advertisements so that they reach target audiences more effectively.
However, experiential marketing expands upon traditional market research to discover the unique histories and personalities of their customer segments. After creating in-depth customer profiles, the brand uses the personality traits to develop more meaningful relationships through interactive experiences.
Experiential marketing doesn’t necessarily follow a specific route. Like many other marketing types, this strategy allows marketing teams to get creative with the approach they take. In this article, we’ll cover several experiential marketing practices, current trends, and real-world examples that companies are already using.
Current Experiential Marketing Trends
Experiential marketing has once again gained popularity following the COVID-19 pandemic. With more people returning to in-person interactions and attending live events, experiential marketing efforts are coming back as well. One study states that 75% of brands focus on driving experiential marketing events now that consumers are out and about again.
A second survey noted that 83% of marketing professionals are planning to either maintain or increase experiential marketing budgets in the coming years.
It’s worth mentioning, though, that most marketing teams aren’t planning to throw out traditional marketing efforts to focus on experiential marketing. Instead, they’re looking for ways to embrace both marketing types and create a hybrid advertising approach. Just over 70% of B2B marketers and 63% of B2C marketers chose to combine experiential and digital marketing work.
It’s a smart move, as consumers (98%) who participate in experiential marketing also create or interact with digital content frequently.
Real-World Examples
Experiential marketing isn’t just a distant memory for customer-focused businesses. Plenty of companies have created campaigns intended to draw the attention of consumers and get them to interact with the brand.
Take a look at five real-world examples of experiential marketing campaigns.
Lean Cuisine: #WeighThis
This marketing campaign took advertising to a more interactive level at New York’s Grand Central Station. Lean Cuisine installed a selection of various weight scales and invited passersby to “weigh in,” but instead of standing on the scale and recording their body weight, each scale included a small writing board. Lean Cuisine invited users to list ways they’d rather be weighed in lieu of the numbers on a scale. They wrote down their accomplishments and other characteristics more worthwhile than physical weight.
M&M: Flavor Rooms
The marketing team at M&M created “flavor rooms” to encourage customer involvement in choosing the next candy flavor. They decorated each room and scented the space to match a specific flavor. Consumers were free to visit different rooms within the pop-up and enjoy snacks and drinks that corresponded to the flavor of the room.
Misereor: Charity Donation Billboard
Misereor installed digital posters in several airports, which displayed depictions of the challenges this company aims to combat. One of the hunger-related posters displayed a loaf of bread, which consumers could “cut” using a credit or debit card. Because the posters included card readers, users could pay 2€ to “cut” a slice of bread from the loaf. The money spent would be donated to the cause illustrated on the poster. Users would receive a thank you note from Misereor, as well as a link to follow if they wanted to make monthly donations.
Häagen-Dazs: Strawberries & Cream with Wimbledon
Upon releasing its limited-edition ice cream flavor, Strawberries & Cream, Häagen-Dazs partnered with Wonderland to develop a GIF photo booth at Wimbledon. This photo booth invited attendees (including professional tennis players) to take pictures they could then post on social media. The idea was to provide people with something fun to try on top of marketing the new flavor.
Vans: House of Vans
This shoe company created the House of Vans pop-ups in New York City and Chicago, which offered skateboarding enthusiasts a location to connect, listen to music, and ride around on their boards. The pop-up campaign used the reach it garnered to launch the shoe design Vans created to honor the late David Bowie.
Taking Advantage of Experiential Marketing Opportunities
If you want to increase your brand awareness and stand out among competitors in your industry, reading through this article probably has you interested in experiential marketing. If you want to implement these strategies into your marketing plans, here are a few opportunities to try.
Conferences/Workshops
Conferences and workshops can be excellent ways to inform audiences and increase brand awareness for businesses that host successful events. Let’s say a company that creates diabetes management equipment wants to spread the word about its newest glucose meter. Brand representatives might effectively do so by inviting diabetes patients and their loved ones to a workshop that showcases how to use the meter. To enhance the experience, medical providers might give speeches and provide information that’s relevant to managing diabetes.
Event Marketing
Event marketing aims to create awareness surrounding the event that marketing teams announce. To utilize this strategy, you’ll want to plan an event and make sure as many people as possible know about it. Announce when it’ll take place, where attendees can go, who will enjoy the event, and what sort of activities visitors can expect to participate in.
Guerilla Marketing
This marketing approach involves installing interactive ads in various locations people frequent. By getting attention and improving brand awareness in unconventional ways, marketers can appeal to natural human curiosity. To try this tactic, come up with a fun, interactive ad that will surprise consumers when it shows up in unexpected locations.
For example, you can create content that interacts with the environment around it, develop a challenge or contest for participants, or position your advertisements so that they’re most visible to child audiences.
Product Sampling
Bulk grocery stores like Costco have perfected the art of providing product sampling as an experiential marketing method. After all, what better way to get customers interested in a product than to let them try it before they buy it? Plenty of representatives for various food brands prepare and offer bite-sized portions of the product they’re selling. This way, shoppers can try the product and if they enjoy it, they’re more likely to make a purchase.
Pop-Up Shops
Pop-up shops and events have become quite popular due to their convenience. Businesses have successfully implemented pop-up restaurants, stores, and even interactive galleries to draw a crowd. Pop-ups are designed to be a temporary convenience for consumers.
Plus, the “here today, gone tomorrow” element associated with pop-ups creates a sense of exclusivity in customers. This means they’re more likely to make a purchase when they’re aware that the store won’t be in the same place days later.
Some marketing endeavors ebb and flow in terms of popularity, so if you’re hoping to use marketing methods that are relevant in today’s market, give experiential marketing a try. While you’re at it, stay tuned for more of the latest in marketing trends.
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