Experiential Marketing Trends in 2020: Prateek N Kumar, CEO & Managing Director, NeoNiche

EE News Desk Jan 07, 2020

This year, we stand on the cusp of momentous changes sweeping across technology and consumer psychology. With conventional methods and systems are challenged and reimagined, it is good time to get a sense on what all will emerge as trend and soon integrate fully in our lives-professional and personal.

Experiential Marketing will get more marketing spends and faith of brands in delivering results and value. Overall, experiential will become sleeker and more fun for attendees and brands. A new generation of consumers will enter and will bring in need for different strategy altogether.

Tech plus more!

Not only 2020 but this decade itself we will witness the dominance of Technology in marketing in an exciting way. Experiential marketing will embrace and leverage technology to ‘wow’, engage, connect and deliver wonderful experiences. Technology like AR, VR, and mixed reality will become vital to provide ‘truly immersive’ and meaningful experiences. Apart from enhancing the overall quality of the event, technology will also become a mainstay throughout the process of designing and executing an event. It will notch up the game.

AR and VR technology will enhance the interactive element of the events, as attendees can ‘feel’ the brand’s offering. Also, both these technologies will let them ‘co-create’ experiences. For events, where venue capacity is a limitation, VR will enable attendees to experience the event ‘virtually’ with full 360-degree views and powerful sounds.

Yet, technology alone will not be a sole crowd puller, it will be how the brand story truly connects with the audience at a deeper individual level. Experiential marketers will find the right balance of technology and raw human emotions.

Memorable Experiences powered by 5 G

5G will enable powerful experiences. Seamless, smoother high technology-powered events will become a reality in this decade. Holograms, real-time data analysis, super quick responses, high definition content streaming, faster personalization, advanced sound, and effects all will be possible thanks to 5G. What more, this will enable marketers to woo audiences across all touchpoints, easier and efficiently. With the tremendous capacity of speed and capacity, 5G will contribute to making events safer and boosts faster transactions. Making events interactive, safer and truly immersive.

Multisensory experiences

Most of the audience will mature from just prefect ‘insta’ moments. They will seek and advocate what connects with them. Moving beyond the gimmicks and photobooth, multisensory experiences will be valued. Experiential marketing will increasingly focus on the senses and heart. The emotional connect that attendees feel with the brand will be imperative.

Mixed reality will make events offer an ‘immersive’ experience that will have the best of both real and virtual experiences. This tech so far remained untapped due to technical constraints. Now, with 5G, it will be possible to have MR powered multi-sensory experiences.

Another sub-trend that may get focus is spatial audio design. Immersive audio design can not only improve the overall experience but can be used smartly to bring in the brand story in a powerful manner.

Eco-friendly ‘low -waste’ events

As global consciousness improves regarding the environment, considering how it has been a constant issue across industries, marketing will also aim to attain sustainability. Becoming a ‘Low-waste’, eco-friendly ones will become imperative in the long run. It will include eco-friendly (even reusable) designs and fabrications, e-ticketing and investing in efforts that minimize carbon footprints. These will get more buy-in from both brands and attendees. This will be a gradual shift that will occur in this decade and will require rethinking certain practices.

Hyper personalization

The last few years saw the shift towards personalization, as consumers shunned the traditional mass messaging. Events were not left out in this. Across markets, consumers are expecting personalization and that too at all touchpoints of the journey. Experiential marketing must become not only personalized but ‘hyper-personalized’. This will be possible with the advent of AI-backed by faster and efficient technology and data connectivity.

More, as generation Z steps in as consumers for many brands there will be a need to talk and connect with them using a new strategy. It is here where technology, data-driven marketing and real-time connect will converge to offer ‘Hyper personalized’ experience and messaging.