Many brands are making a point to include experiential marketing in their strategy for the coming year for various reasons. It’s been shown to generate more ROI than traditional marketing, it fosters meaningful relationships with potential consumers, and it takes these consumers from awareness to affinity fast. That means more revenue in the long run. So how can brands maximize the effectiveness of their in-person marketing efforts?
The Live Marketing roundup is a weekly roundup of the latest insights in live marketing, which includes face-to-face efforts such as experiential, event and other brand marketing.
More dollars doesn’t make for a better campaign. The Forbes Agency Council rings in on their best tactics for brands wanting to take a bigger dive into experiential marketing. Here are our top pieces of advice and why.
Experiential marketing can be an excellent way to connect with your audience, but it isn't always the best strategy for everyone. Before you dive right into it, consider who you're trying to reach, where they will be receiving information and how best to connect with them. There's often a gap between what you think your audience wants and what they actually want.
- Twila Grissom, Acorn Digital Strategy
Why we like it: It’s no secret the consumer experience will reign supreme in 2018. By putting themselves in their consumer’s shoes, experiential marketers can ensure they’re creating events that resonate with the right people at the right time—ultimately helping them achieve their business goals.
Experiential marketing can be creative and amazing but limited in utility with a comparatively small audience. No activation should be greenlit without an extensive digital lead in, far-reaching strategy for owned content generation and user-generated content, and a distribution plan to ensure that millions of people have the opportunity to experience the magic.
- Craig Greiwe, Rogers & Cowan
Why we like it: For marketers to truly understand their success along the consumer journey, they have to measure events before, during and after. Without this kind of data and integrated thinking, they limit themselves to double-down on what’s working—and know where to pull back or shift gears.
There's a lot of moving parts when it comes to experiential marketing. Some of the best campaigns we've seen are the ones that get every drop of juice from the squeeze by creating promotional content before the event and using the event itself as a content factory for post-event distribution. Photos, video and user content are key. The event may only be once, but the content can live on forever.
- Chris Carter, Rep Interactive
Why we like it: The best experiential marketers know stretching the lifecycle of their event does well to generate brand excitement, increase their reach and drive conversions. It’s no wonder why 84% of event attendees say that they have a more positive opinion about the company, brand, product or service being promoted after the event.
Music festivals draw in enthusiastic fans from an immense scope of demographics—and brands are pulling out all the stops to woo them. We’ve selected our top music activations from Event Marketer’s list and broken them down here.
What: Chevy offered lounges to give attendees shade, hair touch-ups and check out their new vehicles. Current Chevy owners could also hang out in a cool, exclusive VIP outdoor space. On top of that, the brand also arranged 20 Equinoxes to transport lucky attendees around town.
Marketers take note: A brand with country roots, Chevy knows how to make individuals feel special. Rather than going for the hard-sell, they led with value, playing the long game into their target audiences’ hearts.
What: Citi’s cardmember lounge is well established at the Global Citizen Festival, but this year the brand switched it up. They arranged pre-festival, advocacy-driven activations around New York City including VIP concert tickets to shows like Mumford & Sons in which the proceeds supported humanitarian non-profits and talks around the subject. During the event, the lounge offered attendees an eco-friendly space to relax, try a beverage made by the on-site mixologist, enjoy appies or engage with influencers.
Marketers take note: The event provided a memorable experience for cardholders that also aligned well with the theme of the activation. By creating hype before the event, Citi also maximized brand engagement and increased reach of the event.
