Today, consumers can and will easily skip, mute or block TV and digital ads, but attending an event or absorbing an experience is a decision. That decision in many cases can also constitute a purchase, if done in conjunction with a well-thought-out business driving strategy.
Disclaimer: The word “Can” in the title of this article is incorrect and should be replaced by the flashing neon red word “Should”. Three key steps brands SHOULD take to drive business through their experiential marketing efforts.
So how SHOULD brands be integrating business driving mechanisms into experiential marketing programs?
From delivering tangible results for major brands such as Kia and The Home Depot, here are the key ways I have been able to create successful experiential marketing programs.
This step is the single most important part of any event or experiential marketing program. Define success—at the end of this what do you want to accomplish?
Defining success can be challenging, but without it, there’s no way to see what’s working, and what can be improved.
If you are a quick service restaurant (QSR) chain, for example, the marketing department better be talking with the franchise operators and the boots on the ground to first make sure the program is feasible.
There are no other more important folks in the chain of command than your front of house people who deal with your customers. We have all seen Undercover Boss episodes where the CEO is amazed at the revelations they encounter when they work the register.
So, to make sure a program is feasible from the top-down, talk to all stakeholders involved. Especially when it comes to front-end strategy, don’t simply force the idea on the implementers without giving them a sense of ownership.
Measurement remains a grey area, but nothing is more top-of-mind to CMOs and brand decision makers than statistics (especially in certain categories).
Simply listing shares and hashtags or basic attendance totals isn’t going to cut it for a major brand. Bake into your program the tools (surveys, opt-in questions during registration, etc.) that allow you to at the very least define your consumer more directly. By doing this, you’ll glean important demographics and personal data to target your sales efforts even more.
You will see there are certain brand categories such as Auto, QSR, and Retail with their POS systems that are better equipped to implement measurement and results.
That being said, today’s technology such as QR Code scanning, RFID bracelets, beacon technology, AI, and data capture apps smart phones have bridged that gap significantly, making it easier for smaller brands/products to build business driving mechanisms into their experiential programs.
As part of their sponsorship, The Home Depot received a 10k game ticket bank to use how they wanted each season. Each year, they would give a bulk of these tickets out as gifts or simply in general to Metro Atlanta store managers and employees. The stores only ended up using 20% - 25%.
Reward every customer that spends $100 at their area Home Depot during the month of June with two free tickets to the Braves.
By promoting this and implementing the recording mechanism through their POS system, we simultaneously repurposed and effectively used a dormant sponsorship asset to drive purchase and purchase consideration. The result? 1.5+ million dollars in product sales directly attributed to the Braves Ticket program.
When you are working with an auto brand, you should always realize at the end of the day, the goal is to sell more cars.
Your activation can be the greatest, most engaging “cool factor” idea ever, but if it is not providing “hot leads” to those salesman and women in a timely manner it will eventually not matter.
When working with Kia on their LPGA partnership, the agency I worked at pitched a scavenger hunt type vehicle display program at nine key market events on the tour schedule.
The event flow went something like this: Check-in at the main tent, walk the course and swipe your RFID-enabled lanyard at each vehicle display on the course.
As part of that program, you had to register your email and phone number and were asked two simple questions:
When the event ended on Sunday, that evening, the list of local people was scrubbed and sent to the regional Kia dealers. Monday morning, those sales people were calling the interested folks and having them come in for a test drive.
The dilemma that faces every C-Suite at B2C brands that spend in experiential marketing is, how do you make that conversation between the CMO and the CFO a positive one?
All too often, a conversation like this happens.
CFO to CMO: “Well I see that we spent X amount of dollars out of the marketing budget on this program. How much product or service did we sell that can be directly contributed to that spend?”
Your agency partner should be just that—a partner that works with you from strategy development through execution. They should be immersing themselves into your brands’ business goals and then executing flawless campaigns that succeed not only for the CMO but the CFO.
