How Do You Do Experiential Marketing Campaigns?

How do you create an experience that lasts long in your consumers’ minds? Experiential marketing campaigns are, without doubt, a new way to boost event return of investment.  Your tactic must be engineered towards creating memorable experiences that also make a positive impact on your business.

What is experiential marketing?

Experiential marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on giving prospects and customers the real experience of your products or services. This type of marketing is highly engaging and does not occur online by any means. The strategy will help at building positive experiences between a business and it’s audience or consumers.

This type of marketing is not restricted to some brands; it can simply be conducted by businesses of any size. Customers love engaging with your brand. They remember interactions more than any campaigns that they might have seen on media platforms. Any brand should provide consumers with a value they will want to never forget.

We have discussed types of experiential marketing to help you better understand how it works.

Types of experiential marketing campaigns

There are four main types of experiential marketing today:

Event marketing

One thing you have to understand is that event marketing and experiential marketing are inseparable. Events bring new experiences with face to face interactions. An event needs a specific set of time, tickets and a venue. Visitors plan and organize to attend them earlier. Reminders via email, text messages may be sent out to the attendees. A team of organizers is then set out to promote the event to as many people as possible.

One sure thing is that engagement requires little or no promotion because it usually has a huge element of surprise. In most cases, you can be tempted to advertise your events on social media, television and radio. Again, you will not have to send an email to your loyal subscribers to attend your event! We can simply conclude that all events are experiential by nature but not all experiential marketing is an event- based.

2. Brand Activation

Brand activation occurs when a  business launches new services or products into the market.   This period is usually very crucial for any business and a good time for experiential marketing. Most companies will get media coverage during product launches to let their audience know about their new and available products. This act leads to an increase in demand from consumers significantly.

Product sampling is the best way that any business can conduct experiential marketing during brand activation. You simply create a small event using your samples so as to let the customers have the real picture of your products or services.

3. Guerrilla marketing

Guerilla marketing involves creating an unexpected experience. The surprise is usually being aimed at inciting conversations around a certain engaging campaign. Therefore, Guerrilla marketing is better known as ambush marketing. Firstly, it does not take the older road of media advertisements, instead, its executes it plans without getting permission from the authorities. And secondly, this type of marketing leaves a big impact on the customers when carried out properly.

For this type of marketing to be experimental,  there needs to be an experience and some positive interactions. One of the best examples of guerrilla marketing that was successful is the stationing of 36 women by Bavaria(a beer company in the Netherlands) in orange dresses who then went ahead to chat with inspectors around the stadium in 2100 FIFA world. Some illegal issues arose, but later on, FIFA and Budweiser( who had spent million sponsoring world cup), dropped the threats and just like that Bavaria left a big impression out there.

4. Retail Installation

There are several retail shops that let their customers have experiences. In other words, you increase the chances of your customers purchasing when you attract them into your store and keep them there as much as possible. This type of experiential marketing gets hold of the people who are shopping by making them active in different activities available in the retail stores.

A good example of this is the Top Shop. Most customers will hate the experience of shopping in the top shop but feel good when an opportunity to experience virtual water slide arises. Engaging with online shopping must be more prominent these days.  Experiential marketing is the only hope for retail stores to create engaging customer experiences.

We can all agree that there is more element of customer engagement that retails stores in the cities have that online stores lack!. And with most buyers loving the experience of being fully engaged before they decide on buying.

How do you do experimental marketing campaigns?

Lets us discuss factors to consider for a successful experiential marketing strategy:

1. Visual appeal

You need to create images that are easy on the eyes but long- lasting on your consumers’ mind. Your visual approach can and should be built around:

• What your brand values and stands for
• Integrating an event with a symbol that represents your brand
• Identifying an event with your target audience
• Bringing value and delivering a strong message of your company to the event visitors.

2. Proper marketing

You will need to market your event to attract as many prospects as possible. Here is how to do proper marketing:

• Take advantage of holidays, most customers are in relaxed mode
• Include posters and flyers
• Invite a successful local brand to help you get a word out there about your business. You may consider partnering with them.
• Send custom emails to your customers
• Build your email list by getting contact info from your  prospects
• Follow up is important, make the journey personal by sending gratitude messages via email, social media or texts.

3. Be engaging

Engaging with your clients is the aim. There is no doubt about that. Here is how you can be engaging:

• Stop by public places and bring your products to the target audience
• Let the consumers have a taste of your offers
• Have your whole team showcase your business as a brand
• Have games and competitions to optimize consumer engagement
• Sell a product at every opportunity that presents itself.

4. Make  technology your best friend

You will best understand customer experience when you bring your camera along and take lots of engaging photos. Importantly, here is the information you can get out of video footage for instance:

• How many people you engaged
• Reactions of your target audience
• A video will also give you amazing clips to share on your social media platforms
• You will also be able to make comparisons between the number of people engaged and the number of sells made.

Experiential marketing campaign examples

Here are 3 excellent examples of experiential marketing campaigns:

1. Coca cola’s 2018 World Cup AR experience

The start of  2018 FIFA world cup was celebrated by coca cola outside Zurich train station.  With various participants showing off their skills on a big screen whilst having their photos taken. Some entered into a competition to win the official match ball of the FIFA world cup.

Coca-cola used AR on a grand scale to engage football fans and gave them great memories, all tied to the world’s biggest sporting event courtesy of coca cola.

2. Samsung Studios-2012 Olympics

Samsung created various brand experiences in its several destinations across London in 2012. This was part of its Olympic sponsorship. The event went on from mid-July to early September with Samsung mainly focused on demonstrating the greatness of Samsung galaxy note and S3.

Most visitors had a good time playing with the Samsung’ Olympic Games app. Inevitably their photos were then taken on the Galaxy S3 which was an intensely personal experience for each of them.

Therefore, Samsung also used this opportunity to fully engage their consumers on various aspects of its products.

3. Adidas and Derrick Rose’s jump store

Derrick Rose jump store in 2013 curtsey of Adidas was one of a kind. Derrick Rose was in attendance challenging fans to win a pair of Adidas sneakers by taking them from a shelve that was 10  foot tall.

Several costumes took part and each had a personal exciting experience. This was a pop- up store concept with a new twist.

Conclusion

Customers love to be and should be actively involved. In conclusion, they also love being out there creating memories, helping your clients build unforgettable experiences is one way to connect with them emotionally. Moreover, adding in some flavor to your experiential marketing campaigns and increase your brand awareness significantly.