Experiential marketing is the new standard of customer engagement for brands globally. Giants like Coca Cola, Pepsico, Nike have led the experiential space in terms of creativity and the ability to connect with consumers. They have put great emphasis on reaching out to their target consumers by providing experiences and engagement than the usual methods of simply printing traditional print ads, TVCs and OOH displays.
In the digital world, social media has taken the precedence where the world is interconnected like never before. Information about an experience with a product or brand can spread faster than the fastest locomotive on earth. So, it has become really vital for brands to connect with consumers and shape their views on how they see the brand.
In the earlier days, word of mouth was a way to get more customers buying, but that was slow and took time. Today, internet media can stir a conversation in a matter of minutes globally. This is why brands constantly come up with experiential activities around festivals and different occasions to create a positive feeling among consumers, who then share their experiences further through social media; a modern word of mouth form, by people who experience the activity in the first place.
As much social media can act as a catalyst to make successful products, activities or brand message go viral, it can equally destroy a brand and its connect instantly if things go otherwise. So it is vital for brands to know few important things before they tread the experiential space.
1. Knowing the Audience
A lot of experiential activities may not have got the desired result because they did an activity based on its popularity, without thinking how that would connect their brand with the audience. For an experiential activity, the marketer must think through what experience that activity will give to consumers and how that would relate to the brand. A little fun and quirky can make a campaign interesting but if gone too far, it may even as obnoxious to consumers. Knowing the sentiments of local population is important. What may be seen as cool in the west may be seen as intrusive in Asia. An activity must be sensitized as per the region it intents to target. Most important, it is the anticipation of what type of customers would interact with, how they would interact with and what connect they will get with the brand or a product must be taken into consideration.
2. Picking the Right Venue
As much as it is important to know the audience, it is important to choose the right venue. A luxury car maker’s experiential activity may have zero impact in a festival like ‘Kumbh’ in India that is usually visited by the lower strata of income group. An activity that involves something to do with open theatre performance with high-power speakers may not achieve its intended goals on a rainy day. So, it is important to know what kind of audience will arrive at an event, where would they be spending most of their time at, what would be the likely environment at an event. In short, first, select the type of people you want to target for your brand or product, know the venue that receives most of your target group, know the time when a certain festival or an occasion brings targeted group under one roof and know the environment at the venue on a given date.
3. Give definitive Identity to your Brand
With all the melee of choosing the venue, preparing for the campaign, budget etc., one may lose the core objective of the brand and the message that the brand wants to convey. One should always keep the message and engagement goal on top of the priority so customers feel connect instantly with the brand than just have an experience that they forget next morning.
4. Expand your Reach
Experiential marketing outdoor is always limited to a small demographic but it is social media and various others forms of media that takes it beyond to many. An outdoor campaign supported by social media is always a good way of getting maximum reach out of a campaign. It also allows a brand to create an ongoing conversation that stretches before an activity to beyond it. Eventually, it is the conversation that creates most impact for any brand.
5. Stretch the Conversation
An experiential campaign isn’t just about a phase or a cycle of activity. Like mentioned before, it should be an ongoing engagement and conversation. A brand can integrate aspects like instant consumer feedback so it gives a sense to people that it listens to them individually. It also nurtures accountability. A positive conversation works wonders for word-of-mouth marketing. It provides engagement that people would take it with them to their friends and family. Brands can also personalize their message and make it more human, which again will make consumers want to converse with the brand. Being social animals that we are, brands should make their experiential activity long term than a 7 day sale.
