Experiential Marketing ROI Part 1: A Guide to Proving and Improving
This is the first part of our guide on how to prove and improve ROI/ROO reporting for experiential marketing campaigns.
The New World of Experiential Marketing ROI
In the past, experiential marketing ROI was very much an art comprised mainly of experience, gut feeling and a good serving of luck. The ability to track interactions and append real actionable numbers to campaigns has changed the industry and caused a shift to data-driven campaign analysis. As a result, marketing budgets have become increasingly scrutinized as a growing number of brands choose to measure success against their Return on Investment or Objectives (ROI/ROO). Every marketing channel has to meet corporate goals (e.g. leads, sales, brand awareness), otherwise budget and resources are quickly reallocated. ROI is no longer determined after campaigns are over; it is a real-time creature that will heavily influence strategic and tactical decisions. Brands want to determine ROI using data and analytics as opposed to rough estimates and subjective guesses.
Why is this guide important?
52% of marketers see proving the ROI of marketing activities as their biggest challenge.
This guide will show you why and how to prove and improve ROI/ROO reporting for experiential marketing campaigns.
1.0 Experiential Marketing ROI
Consumers are multi-tasking, time strapped and overwhelmed by content, social media and growing inboxes. Not surprisingly, it has become increasingly difficult to capture their attention. To drive more engagement with consumers, brands are paying more attention to experiential marketing ROI. It allows them to interact digitally or in-person with consumers through trade shows, VIP events, test drives, product samples, demos, interactive displays and more. Experiential marketing lets brands create buzz, excitement, interest and actions such as social media activity, downloads, demo requests, leads and sales. These are some of the most popular experiential marketing ROI activities:
Kiosks, sponsorships, test drives, surveys, events, experiential marketing, samplings, instore experiences and more.
Today, marketers face the battle of quantifying program success metrics for the billions of dollars spent on sponsorships, auto shows, events, samplings and more. The question is which specific experiential marketing ROI channels produce the best results and how do you track their true value to your bottom line?
What’s The Challenge?
Brands are running campaigns but they can’t accurately tell if they are working. For example, it is hard to know if a consumer who signed up for a test drive eventually purchased an automobile, or whether someone who sampled a product took advantage of a promotional offer. The problem? There hasn’t been technology to effectively track live marketing campaigns and a brand’s interactions with consumers. In many cases, the data that defines success is highly subjective or prone to gaps and inaccuracies that result from manual reporting. These data points regularly include the number of attendees (using paper ballots that are manually counted), business cards collected (usually in fishbowls!) or media impressions – the number of people who may have seen a brand’s signage at an event (rough estimates or guesses). With data-driven marketing becoming the norm, within the wider marketing industry, it's time for a change in live marketing reporting. To prove and improve ROI, marketers need the ability to track consumer interaction and access real-time data. They can then determine how campaigns are driving relationships, awareness, leads and sales.
2.0 Proving Your ROI
Live marketing ROI is driven by the ability to track every step of the customer journey. The goal is to bring consumer traffic into the physical world where in-person interactions can capture and track valuable insights. These insights enable a two way conversation, full of actionable insight, across every subsequent engagement.
This conversation is facilitated with digital tools that include native applications, websites, emails, SMS and more. ROI is tracked through "consumer journeys" which are defined by digital interactions during in-person experiences. Consumer journeys are endless and can include aspects such as registration, check-in, contest, survey, sampling, social share and photo opportunities. Data is captured at every interaction from multiple sources so campaigns can be aggregated, analyzed and optimized. After data is captured it must seamlessly integrate across devices and filter into a customer management system or directly to relevant sales teams.
Download the full guide to learn how to improve experiential marketing ROI and get tactical strategies + real KPIs: