Brands are like people. They have stories, histories, “personalities,” and (customer) relationships. These relationships are based on experiences that a consumer has with a brand. Thus, experts emphasize that companies should make all touchpoints conducive to building a profitable relationship with their target audience. One way to do this is by organizing events. So, it is important to study experiential marketing trends in both B2B and B2C industries.
Also, as we entered the digital age, marketers blended virtual and in-person experiences. The rise of the best event management software has helped them run smoother high-impact events. Thus, we’ve witnessed highly-engaging event promotions and highly-creative stunts in the last decade. Moreover, COVID-19 forced the global population to stay home in front of their mobile devices, thus accelerating the deployment of digital solutions.
In this article, we’ll be discussing how marketers blend art, digital technologies, product placement, and psychology in creating these unique experiences. This way, it is easier for you to develop your own experiential marketing campaigns.
Experiential Marketing Trends Table of Contents
Art Installations
Pop-Ups and Transformation
Live Spectator Events
AR and VR
Virtual Experiential Marketing
Advocacy
Conventions and Seminars
Video Content
Digital Games and Applications
Food Experiences
Challenges
Social Media Contests
Thanks to digital technology, the experiential marketing future is looking bright. However, experiential marketing is not just all bells and whistles. At its very heart, it attempts to endear a brand to its customers, to sear a positive experience into their psyche (including emotions), and to develop a lasting, profitable relationship.
It is through live in-person events that people get to understand products and offerings better. However, with the coronavirus still spreading globally, organizers are forced to tap into their digital arsenal to continue to draw customers and secure returns. As such, immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI) figure heavily in today’s experiential marketing landscape and will further shape new trends in the succeeding years.
This lends credence to the projected 6.1% growth of the experiential marketing industry in 2021 (PQ Media, 2020), after suffering a 15.2% decline in revenues in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Interestingly, despite the global pandemic, 31% of Americans still managed to attend product demos, 20% visited pop-up shops, and 17% dropped by brand installations (YouGov, 2020). There is definitely ample real estate for growth in this industry barring today’s challenges.
All things told, experiential marketing is focused on providing sensory, emotional, cognitive, and rational values to consumers. It creates synergies that improve loyalty (Forbes, 2018). Additionally, it generates audience participation in both offline, online, and mixed settings.
Now, let’s get to the trends driving experiential marketing today.
1. Art Installations
According to a study in 2020, 44% of consumers prefer to attend outdoor events (YouGov, 2020). What better way to entice a crowd than through art installations. Experiential marketers know this as evidenced by the numerous brand installations that managed to generate a buzz.
One highly successful art installation was created by the people behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. If you’ve watched the film (or trailers), you’d remember that a science experiment resulted in the raining of food (or something like that). Thus, people in the cartoons would see all types of food fall from the sky.
What did the experiential marketing campaign do to promote the film? They created big art installations of food sculptures (Simply Creative, 2015) that looked like they fell from the sky. You’d find an ice cream sculpture that seemed like it scoop-first cone-up fell to the sidewalk. Also, there’s an installation of a big burger that they laid down on a flight of stairs.
Another example is lifestyle brand Refinery 29’s particularly intricate play on its name through an installation that featured 29 rooms, each featuring a brand partner and adorned with its own distinct flavor (HubSpot, 2019). From musicians and artists to esteemed brands like Cadillac and Dunkin Donuts, everyone featured received an aesthetic upgrade.
Surely, these grab people’s attention. Of course, there were signs made to let people know what all of it was about and for.
Many people love art installations. They like to take photos, and they share them on social media. Thus, having a well-designed art installation can give you social media mileage. It gets you conversations and engagement. And, many are doing it. This relatively old trend is still going strong.
Art installations that serve as advertising for the movie, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
Key Takeaways
Brand-related art installations can help increase social media traffic and engagement. Make sure that customers can share their experiences with your installations.
You can collaborate with local artists or ad agencies to help you create a visually stunning experiential art installation.
Brands don’t need their installations to be expensive at all. Also, they can range from temporary storefront designs to full-fledged street art installations.
2. Pop-Ups and Transformation
Like art installations, brands have been using pop-ups and transformation. One good example is a Sprite-themed shower on the beach (bmedia, 2016). What’s great about this is that it also serves a need like washing off the seawater after swimming. Thus, it helped customers to associate the brand with the satisfaction of a need that is not even usually satisfied by the brand itself.
Furthermore, big brands have ventured into full-on transformations. For example, Simpsons and 20th Century Fox partnered up with 7-Eleven and transformed real store locations into the famous Kwik-E-Mart. It has real functioning equipment and sells you food from the seminal show. Customers get to experience walking in Apu Nahasapeemapetilon’s place and enjoy Lard Lad Donuts and Buzz Cola.
Another unique example is Pantone, which is known for its hues. To generate more revenue in Monaco, the company put up an Instagram-worthy pop-up cafe that serves quick meals embellished with its signature swatches (HubSpot, 2021). The booth looks like a stylized shoebox adorned in yellow, white, and red.
These types of promotional stunts provide customers with a unique and shareable experience. Thus, this generates conversations, traffic, engagement, and even sales when done right.
These types of transformations are quite expensive. However, there may be ways to do this on lesser scales.
Century Fox partnered up with 7-Eleven to create a real-life Kwik-E-Mart
Key Takeaways
Brands can employ pop-up shops and services that actually satisfy a need. In this way, they can associate their brand with positivity in the minds of target customers.
Companies can partner-up with each other in creating transformations. This helps spread the risk and gets them bigger budgets.
Pop-ups and transformations need not be too expensive. Creativity and resourcefulness can get you a long way. Also, make these experiences unique and shareable as well.
3. Live Spectator Events
Live events are a staple in experiential marketing. This can be done by a single brand. Also, it can range from a simple book signing session to a full-fledge live concert. To wit, one of the best examples of this is the famous Vans Warped Tour by Kevin Lyman, which lasted from 1995 to 2019. In this music festival, brands get their own stages and get to connect with a younger demographic through music. A predominantly punk rock festival, it made big-name bands like Pennywise and NOFX staple for years. They served as the come-ons for fans. Brands ate this up and attached themselves to the tour. Companies like Apple, Samsung, and others have even sponsored the live event. Moreover, many brands have launched at the music festival as well.
Of course, given the risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, live events nowadays should target the digital audience rather than attempting to draw a crowd outdoors. As such, artists and brands have leveraged live streaming to put on a show. Blackpink, for instance, held its first-ever live stream concert on YouTube, which drew more than 280,000 paying viewers (Bandwagon, 2021).
It might be worth exploring these digital alternatives to leverage this type of marketing technique to your advantage. Create a spectacle that is appreciated by your target audience and allow them to associate your company with a positive value. The beauty of these events is that they don’t have to be directly connected with your brand. You can be a tech company and put up a CrossFit challenge. Also, you can share the risk and budget by partnering up with other brands.
23%23%24%24%16%16%15%15%18-2930-4950-6465 and over05101520253065 and over: 15%Live Stream Viewers in the US During the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020(by age group)Designed by
Source: Pew Research Center 2020
Key Takeaways
Live events are a staple in experiential marketing. Marketers can associate their brand in a positive way in customers’ minds by offering unique, shareable, and enjoyable experiences.
Marketers use different types of live events, from simple book signing sessions to music festivals.
The beauty of live events as a marketing tool is that you don’t need your events to be 100% aligned with your brand. The only thing you worry about is putting up something your target audience will find value in. Thus, they can associate your brand with something they value.
4. AR and VR
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies make things pretty immersive. Gamers use them, and even designers now put them under their employment. These technologies make it easier for people to imagine possibilities and try them safely in simulated environments. Companies use them for training as well. Moreover, they are popular with experiential marketers.
These relatively new technologies offer us a new way of experiencing the world. Thus, they are a perfect vehicle for companies to leverage for making unique, shareable, and meaningful experiences. For instance, IKEA took the AR route (The Verge, 2017) by creating an application called IKEA Place. It was named so as the app helps you to place IKEA products in your space virtually. This allows customers to make design and purchase decisions using their phones. Also, it is pretty fun. You can draw inspiration from this and maybe incorporate it into your events and campaigns.
Moreover, you can even connect it to your cloud-based ecommerce platform to easily convert prospects.
Additionally, a brand that had a successful use of VR is Kentucky Fried Chicken. The fast-food chain released a VR game (Adweek, 2017) called “The Hard Way.” It is a virtual escape room created to train users to make their world-famous fried chicken. It celebrates its employee training program and lets customers experience e-learning of KFC’s system. The game is very immersive, and it manages to wow fans. Again, it provides a unique and shareable experience.
Interestingly, with nearly everyone currently on lockdown due to COVID-19, AR has become even more relevant to brands than ever before. It has gone on to define the modern (and pandemic-induced) shopping experience, and not leveraging the technology could be a crucial mistake for brands. After all, 61% of consumers prefer digital stores that afford them AR experiences (BigCommerce, 2020) while 70% admitted that they would be more loyal to brands that offered such (ZDNet, 2021). Furthermore, 40% of consumers would actually pay more for products that can be customized via AR (Threekit, 2020).
Key Takeaways
Companies can leverage AR and VR to create unique shareable experiences.
AR and VR technologies can be used purely online or on-premise (a mixed experience).
Brands may find ways to connect AR and VR to their eCommerce platform. In this way, they can convert experiences into sales.
5. Virtual Experiential Marketing
Virtual experiential marketing (VEM) has five elements (Luo, Chen, Liu, & Ching, 2020): sense, interaction, pleasure, flow, and community relationship. Furthermore, all of these are used cohesively to create unique pleasurable experiences that translate into deeper brand loyalty and evangelism. Virtual experiential marketers use the internet to create visual and auditory tools to mediate between company and customer. These tools range from simple content to AR/VR experiences.
Moreover, they use the proven 7Cs framework of:
Content
Customization
Customer Care
Communication
Community
Convenience
Marketers must create strategies for each of these aspects. Thus, VEM can only be accomplished by using different digital tools to create an emotionally-charged cognitive attachment to brands in customers. Moreover, it is pretty much digital marketing with a UX design deployment framework. Marketers design pleasurable experiences that are unique and shareable enough for customers to promote their products and brands as well.
Furthermore, there is no one recipe for this. Some companies enhance their digital experiences by simply providing readable content. Others augment this with short videos, infographics, e-books, manuals, and other types of media.
Other firms go all-out with a host of tools ranging from CRM suites to web-based live chat platforms. Thus, only you would know what your company truly needs to create better virtual experiences for its customers. Also, don’t forget to connect these experiences with tangible in-person offline experiences as well.
After all, the global pandemic has accelerated the need for VEM (dio USA, 2020) and could very well set the stage for larger returns from the throngs of digital shoppers nowadays.
68%68%15%15%4%4%4%4%3%3%Short VideoText-Based ArticlesInfographicsPresentations andPitchese-Books and Manuals020406080How Do Consumers Want to Learn About a New Product?Designed by
Source: Wyzowl, 2019
Key Takeaways
Virtual experiential marketing (VEM) uses the internet and digital tools to create audio and visual experiences that endear a brand to its prospects and customers.
Marketers engaging in VEM use the 7Cs framework. They create strategies and plans to create unique pleasurable experiences in every aspect of the framework.
VEM is essentially a user-centric digital marketing effort to help induce positive valuations of your brand in customers. Thus, many use human-centric UX design principles to get the job done.
6. Advocacy
In today’s business landscape, brands are expected to have their advocacies and create social good. This is especially true, on average, with Millennials and Gen Zers. Thus, this is likely going to put more pressure on marketers in the future. However, experiential marketing has had its share of advocacy-based events.
Don’t forget, experiential marketing isn’t about putting products or services out there. It is about creating valuable experiences that customers can associate with your brand. Thus, since many prospects and customers value advocacies, you should consider playing up to this preference.
However, you should note that consumers smell fake easily. Therefore, keep whatever you advocate for real. To wit, it should be an actual cause that you care about. For large enterprises out there, they can start with their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.
Remember the Vans Warped Tour? The music festival featured a bunch of advocacies and causes. Thus, the festival itself and the brands that helped put up the events have garnered positive reputation boosts. Also, another great example is Kilroy, a travel service company. To promote their company and their advocacy against global warming, they set up a public installation of a big block of ice (Represent Antarctic, 2016) melting away with a sign that reads “Antarctica.” This, with its dramatic effect, helped raise awareness of the issue. Also, it was made known to the public that Kilroy provides personalized trips to Antarctica. So, people are implored to visit before it was too late.
Additionally, you can promote your causes using different techniques like an art installation, AR, or even live events, among others. And there are platforms that you can use to full effect to bank on today’s bigger digital audience brought about by the pandemic (Duel, 2020).
Key Takeaways
Today’s consumers are very cause-oriented. They demand that companies they do business with produce social good.
What’s great with advocacies is that brands can associate themselves positively with good causes in the minds of their target audience.
There are many ways to promote your brand’s advocacies. You can use live events, installations, pop-ups, and even digital tools such as AR and VR.
Most Popular Event Management Software
Eventbrite. A feature-rich event management software designed to help event planners save time while increasing event sales. Eventbrite provides all the tools that event planners need for event ticketing, fundraising, registration, promotion, and payment.
Cvent. A powerful event management platform designed to help event planners manage costs and increase attendance. Cvent offers a comprehensive set of tools that event planners need to organize events, engage attendees, and improve the overall process efficiency.
WebinarJam. As the name suggests, this is a webinar hosting platform built to help businesses accomplish live casting, webinar broadcasting, and event streaming. WebinarJam allows users to stream directly to their own private network, YouTube Live, or Facebook Live.
Gather. An all-in-one event management platform built to streamline events workflows from planning to implementation. Gather has all the tools that event planners need to view, organize, manage, and monitor events anytime, anywhere, on any device.
Wrike. Wrike is a robust event management software that provides tools to help event planners to plan, execute, and monitor events. Wrike even provides an effective task management module to help planners streamline all events todo list.
7. Conventions and Seminars
When companies put up their very own seminars and events, they position themselves to be thought leaders in their industries. Most of all, they also get to network with high-value prospects, partners, and experts. In these types of events, target audiences are usually already “captured” in some ways. Thus, you’d have more chances of elaborating more about your brand, company, and offerings. Moreover, event marketers will be able to gather important data in such events, even leads.
The nice thing about this type of event is that it offers tremendous value for target audiences. Also, this makes more sense for B2B businesses that offer consultation or SaaS. One awesome example of such events was organized by FacebookIQ. FacebookIQ allowed audiences to learn from experts (Facebook, 2021) and step inside pop-ups and installations to learn about ongoing consumer trends. Basically, it made online resources available at a live experience level. Thus, many marketers were able to learn and get contacts. With most businesses turning their attention to the digital realm due to COVID-19, knowing what online shoppers want and touching base with them give brands an outright advantage.
Additionally, you can even conduct seminars and workshops online. Yes, webinars. One great way for schools to promote themselves is to offer online courses for free. One of the many successful programs that went this route was Stanford’s online courses (Stanford, 2018).
Key Takeaways
Conventions and seminars can help position your company as a thought leader in the industry or your niche. This is perfect for B2B businesses offering consultancy services and SaaS.
This event marketing technique allows marketers to network, generate leads, and foster strategic relationships.
Also, don’t forget to include people that cannot come to the event physically. Thus, you need to make such experiences available digitally through webinars, free classes, and other related media (e.g., speech transcripts, quiz, certification, etc.).
8. Video Content
How can video marketing be experiential marketing? Well, there are many ways. Also, to count as experiential marketing, your video content should allow audiences to participate and/or provide a unique experience. One example of such an experiential video campaign was Gatorade’s Replay campaign (More About Advertising, 2020). The premise is that there were local sports rivalry games that did not get a convincing resolution in the past. Thanks to Gatorade, high school sports teams get the chance to relive and put an end to rivalries in a friendly (and highly publicized) manner. This series spans different sports, from basketball to football and hockey.
The campaign didn’t just stop at making a documentary. The Gatorade team helped thirty-somethings get back into playing shape and held their events with fanfare reminiscent of the past. Communities came alive because these old rivalries were revived. Moreover, they got celebrity coaches. Some are even hall-of-fame-level sports personalities. The games were even televised. As such, this was a very successful series for Gatorade and deserves to be in the experiential marketing hall of fame (if there ever will be one).
Of course, there are many other ways that you can do this. It takes a ton of creativity and new ideas to squeeze out something fresh. One video experience that sets the standard even higher is Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign that showcases the power of the mobile device’s camera and video features (Social Samosa, 2020) and by extension, the user’s perceived skill in taking and editing footages. It took on a life of its own when it encapsulated a Selena Gomez music video. Before long, it drew over 15 million posts on Instagram from participants.
Another example is The Wolf by HP (HP, 2017). The series is shot in a very movie-like manner as the lead, Christian Slater, takes audiences into ways systems can be hacked. It promotes HP security products and services in a not sales-y way. It “ran” for three seasons.
Key Takeaways
For video content to be considered as experiential marketing, it needs to have audience participation or simply offer a unique shareable experience.
It is also best if your video content is tied-up with other techniques such as in-person events.
There are different ways to concoct a video-type experience. However, it is sometimes hard to generate new ideas. Thus, you should consider partnering up with agencies.
9. Digital Games and Applications
Most people would agree that having useful interactive digital touchpoints can enhance user experience. Also, these can be purely digital touchpoints or mixed ones. Immersive VEM tools for marketers are games and applications. Games are very immersive for various reasons (University of Silicon Valley, 2020). In our neurobiology, adrenaline is secreted when we are met with challenges (Neuromarketing, 2014). Also, dopamine gets secreted when we anticipate rewards. Moreover, these reactions set a precedent or basis for why we get stimulated when we play games. We are there to get our favorite doses of chemicals when we engage with well-designed games.
Marketers can take advantage of pure VEM digital experience like using mini-games on browsers. For instance, the progressive rock band The Mars Volta commissioned a video game (NME, 2007) that was created in anticipation of the release of their then-new album, The Bedlam in Goliath. It was an escape game based on a true story that’s available on your browser. Gimmick on not, it made loyal fans more loyal. Thanks to the immersive experience, it has become a marketing masterclass.
Also, marketers have been using educational apps that are gamified to a degree. Consider the case of the United Nations Mine Action Service or UNMAS. They created Sweeper, an app that you can use in one of their pop-up exhibits to promote their work. People walk around with their phones and with headphones on. And, when they get close to a beacon, they’d hear an explosion simulating that they sent off an IED or a landmine. Then, useful information about the mines and advocacy will pop up on their phones. It’s a totally immersive experience that consumer brands or even B2B brands can try and replicate.
An ideal place to start is the mobile gaming realm. Earning $63.6 billion in revenues in 2020, mobile games dominate those from other platforms in terms of earnings (Newzoo, 2021). Clearly, there are great benefits to using event apps.
Key takeaways:
Video games provide us with positive stimulation because of a mix of chemicals they induce our bodies to produce. These doses of chemicals work as reward signals when we get challenged, or we start to anticipate rewards.
Mini-browser games can enhance the user experience with brands. This is an excellent venue to elaborate more on offerings, your history, or your new campaign. Moreover, you can even partner up with a game developer to create a game for your company.
Special applications can be made to augment in-person experience in live events.
10. Food Experiences
For food and beverage brands, this is a no-brainer. However, for other brands (even a tourism board), this is a twist. It is not that far off though to have some cook, baker, or culinary artist to translate your brand personality into food. Also, you can just enhance any pop-up, transformation, seminar, or whatnot with food.
Food, they say, has the power to bring people together. This is maybe most true when food is free. One creative way that companies approach this is by customizing centerpieces like cakes. Remember Cake Boss, the television show? Companies small and large flock to Carlo’s Bake Shop to commission branded cakes for their events. These beautiful cakes (and tasty ones) get wows from event participants. They help create a unique shareable experience for everyone.
Also, take into account how Google promoted its Google Home mini smart home speakers. The company toured cities with a pop-up food shop with donuts and smart speakers (Orlando Sentinel, 2017). Sure, smart speakers are not highly associable with donuts. However, food attracts consumers to them. Then, customers can play with speakers, get donuts, and even take home said smart speakers.
Going back to a previous example, Pantone and food was an unlikely association, but the color company married the two ideas when it created a pop-up cafe in Monaco that served coffee, pastries, and lunch items (HubSpot, 2021).
So, the next time you put up an event, consider having food experiences to enhance participants’ experiences. Many companies employ this tactic, and it pays off.
Google launched pop-up donut shops to promote their voice-activated speakers. Photo source: AdWeek
Key Takeaways
Food experiences enhance your events like pop-ups, product activation, seminars, and others.
You can go big with the brand-related food centerpiece route to create a unique shareable experience. Also, you can go with just free food as a come-on.
Also, you can take the food truck route like Google. However, this tactic seems to work well for B2C products. Maybe, there are ways to make it work for B2B offerings like having a food truck at some seminar or convention complete with promo gimmicks.
11. Challenges
Challenges are the rage these days. You got the bottle-flipping challenge, cinnamon challenge, and other mundane or crazier things out there. You may not care much about it yourself, but consumers do. That’s what matters. Also, challenges are ubiquitous in many event marketing efforts. These and other kinds of gimmicks get participants engaged. Also, the best part is, the challenges can be done from the comfort of your market’s homes, keeping everyone safe from COVID-19.
Workshops and conventions have gimmicks sometimes. Organizers give out prizes for the most random things like “wearing a suspender.” However, many experiential marketers prefer challenges over giveaways. Participants work for their prizes. Thus, rewards feel better when they are harder to get. Also, many times, challenges promote advocacies as well.
Challenges create a unique shareable experience for the people involved.
Creating a challenge is where you get creative. Spicy food challenges seem to be a hit. Weight-loss challenges can be fun. There are just many ideas that you can play around with including a hack-a-thon. Also, challenges are not too expensive to put up. They can be set up just on social media as well. Thus, expect more consumer-facing companies to employ this tactic for their experiential marketing efforts.
Key Takeaways
Challenges are the rage these days. There are scary ones on the internet. However, you can find tamer and even constructive ones to leverage for your brand.
Rewards gained from challenges can feel better over giveaways. Moreover, challenges are shareable. Thus, you can get more user-generated mileage.
Internet challenges or offline promotional ones can be inexpensive. Creativity and resourcefulness are key.
12. Social Media Contests
Like challenges, social media contests have been trending for a while (Wishpond, 2020). They have been alive since brands entered social networks. Also, they are not going anywhere soon. So, you should take advantage of this trend. All you have to do is get creative with your contests. Take, for example, branded Facebook contests (Wishpond, 2020). There are also these two examples that you can draw from.
Eggo’s social media contest was called The Great Eggo Waffle Off! They asked fans to create and submit Eggo recipes. Then, they ask other fans to vote for their favorite to find the winner. They put up a cash prize of $5000 for the grand winner, $2,500 for the two-runners up, and a year’s supply of Eggo waffles for weekly winners. What’s beautiful about this setup is that Eggo doesn’t put up much. For fans to make, submit, and try recipes, they have to purchase Eggo products. Thus, the campaign makes sales as they go.
Dove’s social media contest took advantage of the same thing: user-generated content. The highly-successful campaign asked users to share why a friend represents “real beauty.” They fill in their friend’s name and two things that make them beautiful. Winners got to be the next faces of Dove. The campaign veered away from the usual doctored pictures and ideals of unattainable beauty. They pushed for the advocacy to change social perceptions of what should be deemed beautiful. The Real Beauty Should Be Shared campaign was a home run. Now, it is part of Dove’s brand personality.
Key Takeaways
Social media challenges have been trending for a long time. They are likely to stay for a while as well.
Brands can take advantage of user-generated content. They don’t need to put up materials or equipment as initial investments to run these campaigns.
Done right, these campaigns don’t just increase traffic and engagement. They can also increase sales during the campaign period.
The Shape of Experiential Marketing to Come
Technology has changed the way we experience things. Thus, experiential marketers have to keep track of technologies to do their jobs. In the future, we can expect blended event environments having AR and VR in the mix. Also, we can expect marketers to adopt back-end technologies that help them increase productivity and make organizing experiential campaigns easier.
Also, experts expect businesses to demand more analytics and business intelligence features in their back-end tools. Maybe, these will be parts of their technology stacks that would include project management platforms, among others.
However, offline live events are never going to go out of style. Digital tech will only augment these in ways to make them more unique and shareable. Thus, when you create your events, you should keep in mind that you should mix both offline and online interactions to expand your reach and touchpoints. Also, many marketers are adopting a human-centric approach to designing brand experiences.
In regard to COVID-19, experiential marketing has a lot of room to flourish since more people are stuck at home and spending a lot of time on their computers and mobile devices. Immersive technologies like AR, VR, and AI are being leveraged by brands to redefine the retail experience. This has paved the way for a new normal in purchasing goods and services, so adapting to this trend is the key to obtaining larger returns.
The Six-Step Process for Effective Experiential Branding Strategy
The tools of the trade may change. However, how to create an effective branding strategy and positive experiences still retain the same principles. Thus, it’s good to keep these in mind. To wit, here is a guide for creating effective experiential branding strategies (The Economist, 2003) that you can keep handy.
Customer Experience Audit – Measure the current experience of the brand. Ask yourself (1) if your proposition is clear, (2) if the people behave in ways that deliver the brand’s promise, (3) if the processes create value, (4) if the products are differentiated and valuable to target customers.
Creating Brand Platforms – Have your brand portfolio work together to portray brand personality visually and verbally. Many of your touchpoints already count. However, you must improve them to get them to deliver your brand’s promise.
Customer Experience Design – Create clarity around brand positioning and values. Thus, you can design experiences that are consistently aligned with your target customers’ values as well.
Communicating the Brand Internally – Communicate your designed experience to your internal people. In this way, your organization will have a shared vision.
Communicating the Brand Externally – In this step, you have to communicate your brand externally by not just visual and auditory cues. You have to let your customers have unique and shareable experiences.
Continuing Management, Audits, and Redefinition – Lastly, you have to make sure management efforts are coordinated with those in the field. Also, there should be regular audits and measurements to keep you abreast of your customer experience and how you can improve them.
Additionally, to further assess which trends will continue, be sure to take a look at our compilation of experiential marketing facts and data.
References:
Becker, B. (2019). 15 Examples of Experiential Marketing Campaigns That’ll Give You Serious Event Envy. Retrieved from HubSpot
bmedia (2016). A Giant Soda Machine Showe. Retrieved from bmedia
Bodegon, K. (2021). Blackpink deeliver a savage first online concert with The Show – gig report. Retrieved from Bandwagon
Bruce, G. (2020). Experiential marketing in the COVID-19 era. Retrieved from YouGov
Claesm Z. (2014). 3 Neuromarketing Lessons from Video Games. Retrieved from Neuromarketing
Cook, K. (2021). 15 Creative Examples of Branded Pop-Up Shops. Retrieved from
dio USA (2020). Exploring Virtual Experiential Marketing (VEM). Retrieved from dio USA
Facebook (2021). Discover powerful, actionable insights on consumer behaviour, marketing and measurement.. Retrieved from Facebook
Houston, B. (2020). How Augmented Reality Can Propel Ecommerce Growth. Retrieved from BigCommerce
Luo, M.M.,Chen, J.S., Ching, R.K.H., & Liu, C.C. (2011). An examination of the effects of virtual experiential marketing on online customer intentions and loyalty. Retrieved from ResearchGate
Martin, J. (2020). How to Make Immersive Game Design. Retrieved from University of Silicon Valley
More About Advertising (2020). Matt Williams of MSQ Partners: my MAA blast from the past – Gatorade ‘Replay’. Retrieved from More About Advertising
Newzoo (2021). Video game market revenue worldwide in 2020, by segment. Retrieved from Statista
NME (2007). The Mars Volta set to release online game. Retrieved from NME
PQ Media (2020). Consumer Experiential Marketing’s 10-Year Growth Streak to End in 2020, as Event Marketing & Sponsorship Revenues to Plunge 15.2%; But Long-Term Trends Favor B2C Events. Retrieved from PQ Media
Represent Antarctic (2016). Touching Ice: “Go Before It’s Too Late”. Retrieved from Represent Antarctic
Social Samosa (2020). Shot On iPhone: A Campaign that turned into a phenomenon. Retrieved from Social Samosa
Solis, B. (2021). 2021 is the year AR commerce becomes an Actual Reality. Retrieved from ZDNet
Shashkevich, A. (2018). Stanford’s free online classes expand education opportunities worldwide and on campus. Retrieved from Stanford
Swant, M. (2017). KFC Created a Wacky, Creepy Virtual-Reality Escape Game to Train New Cooks. Retrieved from Adweek
ThreeKit (2020). 20 Augmented Reality Statistics You Should Know in 2020. Retrieved from ThreeKit
Wishpond (2020). 30 Amazing Examples of Branded Facebook Contests Done Right. Retrieved from Wishpond
Yang, S. (2015). Creative Movie Ads. Retrieved from Simply Creative