Experiential Marketing?
First Impressions of Experiential Marketing
Yes, experiential marketing has become a buzz word in the marketing world, but we’ll get into all of that a bit later. First, I want you to think about marketing like dating. Every brand/business wants you to fall in love with them and the way they have gone about it lately has been a little overwhelming. They flood your emails and social media. They irritate you by popping into your face unexpectedly. They are constantly you asking to join this or sign up for that, only rewarding you after you do something for them. It feels like they chase you to follow them, or worse, force you into a relationship. Sometimes it feels like they stalk you by getting your personal information. Even worse, they can’t be trusted as they give out your information to others. The reality is that most of the time, they ask us to trust them without really earning your trust before. If this was someone you met, you would get a little annoyed or maybe even creeped out. You definitely wouldn’t go on a second date with them.
So like with dating, how can we get customers to fall in love with our brand? What can we do for them to come back and to want to spend more time with us? The answer is simple — if you want the customer to come back for a second “date”, then the first one must be a memorable experience. Like with any date, you need to give the person you are trying to impress a great experience. When you give someone an experience that is memorable, unique, surprising, genuine and worth their time to notice, they are more likely to want a second date because the experiences creates a great story, a sense of trust and understanding that they would want to share with their friends. It honestly gives you a chance to leave a great first impression. And that is how marketing should be approached:
Great Experience → Trust/Stories → Loyalty
So you see where we are going with this. Experiential Marketing is all about investing in engaging experiences for your customers to be apart of, which then leads to them sharing, posting and gets them to come back. Its makes a great first date!
What is it exactly?
“Experiential Marketing brings your brand to life so it can engage with consumer face to face and create meaningful connections. Experiential Marketing events should wow people and create shareable moments that resonate with them and allow them to feel what a brand stands for” — Top Experiential Marketing Agency, Factory 360
IKEA Sleepover
- Ikea had a massive sleepover. They brought this experience to over 100 fans. They were provided with massages, salons, and were able to select the mattress, sheets and pillows to fully give them a tailored experience to satisfy their needs. A sleep expert was on hand with tips for getting a good night’s rest, including how to find the perfect mattress for your sleeping style. — The Store Front
- It was great way for customers to understand the brand, their values, their products, and trust what they are buying. In addition they got a great story of getting to sleep over in IKEA, something we have all thought of.
It comes in all shapes and sizes and we will cover each!
With experiential marketing, you get such a wide range of experiences that you can put on for your customers, whether you are a large business or a small. We are going to show you how to adapt, personalize and implement experiences such as social good events and campaigns, pop-ups, sampling, stunts, VR/AR, competitions, and immersions. We are going to cover all of it and keep you up to date in our hub.
Why is it so important?
Here are the facts:
- The 2017 Freeman Global Brand Experience Study found that more than one in three CMOs expects to set aside 21 to 50 percent of their budgets for brand experiences, including “events, trade shows, sponsorships, exhibits, permanent installations, virtual or augmented reality experiences and/or pop-ups.”
- From a Forbes article, more than three in four millennials (78%) would choose to spend money on an experience or event over buying something desirable (Harris study).
- Experiences help shape identity & create lifelong memories: Nearly 8 in 10 (77%) millennials say some of their best memories are from an event or live experience they attended or participated in. 69% believe attending live events and experiences make them more connected to other people, the community, and the world. — Eventbrite
- Experiential marketing is the most powerful form of word-of-mouth, driving activity for 50 to 80% in any given product category. Thus, one of the best ways to gain a competitive edge is to steer marketing efforts toward building strong connections with customers via experiential marketing. — Molly Galetto, NG Data
Back to Dating and Marketing
Let me give it to you straight. With everything going on with current marketing, we are in a time of data breaches of personal information, loyalty points that take forever to add up, social media ads where you can’t even read an article without having to close 5 pop-ups, and crazy promotions to drive you in but only because it’s 50%. All of these forms of marketing do have a their perks getting you to like a certain business/brand but does it really get you love it? It skips the whole “Great Experience” part and expects you to jump into trusting a brand and being loyal.
??? → Trust/Stories → Loyalty
As with dating, you can’t expect people to just fall in love with your business or brand without establishing the relationship. Investing in experiences is a great way to really get customers to understand what the brand values or what they are selling. It gives them stories or an emotional connection that drives them to say “I’m A Red Bull type of person” or “My go to coffee is PSL.” It is the best way to leave a first and lasting impression. What we are trying to do here with Valery Hub is to help businesses and consumers explore the different possibilities of experiential marketing and show you what is out there that you can do! Are you ready for the next level?
