You’ve seen marketing in the form of social media posts, flyers, commercials, billboards, and ads. No matter how amazingly and creatively those marketing campaigns they’re made, they’re just for the eyes and maybe ears only. You’re just looking and listening, which only goes so far, even if the visuals and copy are unusually touching.
Experiential marketing goes beyond visuals and text. It’s an interactive form of marketing that touches multiple senses, encapsulating attendees in an experience. If done right, your activation should be immersive and memorable. It’ll invite returning and potential customers to connect with your brand directly. They won’t just be reading about your product, but instead, they could be trying it out for themselves, thus getting a sample of how your product could improve their lives.
It’s a lot of planning, but it works: 74% of activation attendees developed a more positive perception of the brand. And if you invite influencers to your activation, they’ll likely use their reach to spread that positive perception.
If social media is vital to your brand’s growth, experiential activations tend to be pretty Instagrammable as well! Design your activation well enough, and you can expect your attendees to show you off — no requests needed.
Whether your event is a photo booth, a series of games, a virtual reality shopping experience, a funhouse, a fashion show, or a cupcake truck, it’s likely to be exciting, fun, and will keep working for you even after the show’s over.
29 Rooms x Pantene
Mattel x The Grove
Photo Credit: Cara Santana
Here are some reasons why experiential marketing is Vital To Your Brand’s Advertising Strategy:
1. TO PROVIDE IN-DEPTH, PERSONALIZED INFORMATION
Your product’s packaging, commercials, and online product descriptions might not tell people everything they want to know. In an experiential activation, employees will be physically present to discuss your products and answer not-so-frequently-asked questions. You probably won’t find the answer to “can my dog use this?” online. You can see other individuals use your product and what they have to say about it at the moment they’re using it. Their physical presence can allow you to observe their perplexed facial expressions, allowing you to swoop in before they walk away.
One-on-one discussion about your brand can definitely help build a deeper personal connection with the consumer. After all, the information they’re getting on the spot can be more personalized than what an online chat bot or social media reply could give. These in-person conversations can show how your products can improve each individual’s unique situation. This is also an opportunity to show attendees how appreciated they’d be as customers, making them feel included in your brand’s image. Ads can’t do this.
Your influencer guests can discuss this information on their page, increasing the amount of widely seen information about you. Their followers will be exposed to your product, their take on it, and their perception of your business.
2. COMPLIMENTARY SAMPLES
One common part of an experiential activation is complimentary samples, which everyone loves. This way, potential consumers get to try before they buy, giving you the opportunity to persuade those initially uninterested. An activation may further engage the folks who only came for free products, only to find that your brand has much more to offer. Thus turning potential leads into customers.
Of course, it’s much easier for an influencer to rave about your product if they’ve actually used it! This will make the representation more authentic.
3. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR CONSUMERS
Activations aren’t just for them to learn about you. You should observe and get to know them as well. Surely you have someone doing some analytics to figure out what demographics are buying from you most. However, analytics platforms are only observing online behavior and purchases, which only tells part of the story. During an experiential activation, you have the opportunity to see how different demographics behave around your product as they’re looking at it, talking about it, or interacting with it.
Perhaps the reason why sales are low with the Gen Z crowd is because they see your brand as too aspirational rather than inclusive. A constant pattern of complaints from 20-year-olds will give you some insights that online reviews and statistics can’t. A pattern of 60-year-olds giving your new releases confused looks may give you insight into future design considerations. To make sure this won’t just be anecdotal, your event can require attendees to punch in plenty of personal info either to attend or receive free product. This way, you’ll have another resource outside your website behavior to analyze consumer data.
4. THEY’RE FUN, ENGAGING, AND STIMULATING -- THUS HELPING YOU STAND OUT
Even if you’re stellar at making video ads, chances are that an activation could be even more fun than a funny ad. After all, you’re engaging and stimulating more senses. Your activation could have attendees taking photos against obnoxiously Instagrammable backdrops, fitting filters included. They could be drawing pictures for a contest, jumping in ball pits, crafting their own margaritas, or sipping on coffee at your popup cafe complete with your logo on their latte. There are plenty of ways to delight your attendees and give them opportunities to be filmed or photographed, ensuring some buzz and publicity.
Most brands don’t engage in experiential marketing, so if you choose to pursue this route, the fun you’ll bring will help your brand stand out among your competitors. So next time they’re looking to buy something and are deciding between your brand and a competitor’s, they’ll remember the challenging but fun obstacle course you set up at a festival last year. Your competitor may have similar prices and ingredients, but you’ve become associated with more coolness.
Google Assistant Gum ball Machine in Berlin
Photocredit: Google Instagram
5. THEY BRING A TON OF PUBLICITY, SHAPING YOUR REPUTATION
As stated before, experiential activations can be fun. Many are visually stimulating, which reads as Instagrammable in today’s world. Even if they forget to tag you, your logo will often be visible so viewers know it’s you who set up that amazing LED light display. If influencers with thousands of followers come, that’ll skyrocket your exposureOutside of visual stimulation, a striking enough activation will draw in the press. For example, Refinery 29’s thought-provoking, visually stunning 29 Rooms activation had quite a few articles lauding praise. You don’t have to go this far, but something dazzling or touching enough can attract a journalist or ten. In the long run, press will undoubtedly affect your reputation.
If no one’s writing about your event, you can! An activation can bring an opportunity for you to write a blog post worth sharing. Even without any blog posts or high-profile articles, you’ll still be shared through word-of-mouth! On average, a brand activation gets mentioned 17 times by someone who attends.
29 Room x Mugler
Photo Credit: Ellen V Lora
If carefully curated and designed, it’s clear how experiential marketing can liven up your brand and create lasting memories and impressions.
Here at Irose, we’ve been working to connect influencers to prestigious brands through experiential activations. Our activations are engaging, fun, and educational, providing influencers with personable and memorable experiences designed to curate compelling content that drives plenty of traffic to our partner brands. We’d love to help you connect to targeted influencers that can elevate your brand, so don’t hesitate to reach out for a consultation!
Be sure to follow us on Instagram @irose.social