Why all marketing should be experiential

Issued by Tradeway

2 Sep 2016

While many businesses are including experiential marketing campaigns into their strategies, the brands that wholeheartedly take advantage of experiences as a core aspect of their businesses are benefitting most. With the real focus of any activation being the consumer, in-person events are a natural progression away from interruption-based tactics and towards editorially driven material.

What is experiential marketing?

As the name implies, this type of marketing is all about the experience. The aim of experiential marketing is to turn prospects into lovers of your brand. Not only are these brand lovers, or brand ambassadors, loyal customers; but they carry on your marketing efforts by waxing lyrical about your business to their friends and family.

To germinate a bond with this extended tier of markers, it is essential to elicit a positive emotional response in them. By creating an unexpected and worthwhile experience, you are setting in motion a long-term relationship with your audience. By strategically targeting this experience to reach the right market, and leveraging the ideal time and place; your marketing message will no doubt be shared across social media platforms and by word of mouth. The additional benefit is that by social-proofing your brand, you are increasing its perceived credibility.

How does experiential marketing work?

Foundation: Experiential marketing is not a one-hit wonder. The motivation of any activation is the consumer. Its very success lies in the sincere relationships developed by connecting in an emotional and sensory manner. As with all relationships, making it meaningful takes time.

However, the statistics on how users really see your events prove that it is worth the wait:

98% of users feel more inclined to purchase after attending an activation.
74% of consumers have a better opinion about a brand after an in-person event.
70% of users become regular customers after an experiential marketing event.
71% of consumers share tales about their experience with their peers and family members.
65% of the consumers surveyed said live events helped them have a better understanding of the story behind – and reason for - a brand.

Immersion: An important factor in getting the most out of your experiential marketing is to blend it with your traditional marketing mix. Do not be tempted to segment your marketing labours.

This works in two ways:

Experiential events have the clout to influence a prospective or existing customer’s view of your brand, and sway their purchasing behaviours.
By incorporating more of an experiential feel into your existing marketing, you spark moments where your audience can feel as though they are part of the story of your brand.

How do I do that?

Go back to the basic way that information has been shared through the ages – storytelling. By transforming every marketing opportunity into a character, event, or twist in the ongoing plot of your brand, your audience participates in the story themselves, and are keen to help your brand discover and tell the next chapter of your story.

What better way to make certain that your prospects and customers do not avoid your marketing message? As part of the dynamic story of your brand, they will have no desire to install ad blockers or delete cookies to prevent tracking.

For more information on how Tradeway can help your business achieve brand-customer connections, please contact us today.