Experiential marketing is literally the act of engaging your consumers in a personal experience with your brand that leaves them feeling more connected to your business.
The experience side is all about bringing your brand to life for people, and elicit a reaction. For that moment your brand becomes a tangible, living and breathing entity for your consumers. They can interact with your business and get to know it through a more personal connection.
This is the art of experiential marketing.
The science of it revolves around the strategy of the engagement. Just like with building any relationship, you don’t plan to walk up to someone, say hi and then disappear into the dark.
You want to engage for a specific reason, and connect with your consumers on that point. You also want to measure how effective you were at achieving this to help you plan for future interactions.
Effective experiential marketing is strategic
When you stage a brand experience, just like any other form of marketing, you have to have objectives and expected outcomes in mind from the start. These become the metrics off which you can judge the success of the experience.
New to the market? You will want your experiential marketing to create a buzz with a wide audience for brand awareness.
Want to increase market share? Ensure that the experience involves the trial or purchase of your product.
No experiential marketing campaign is an island. If it doesn’t spark a connection with your target market, then I’m afraid all you did was host an event or stage a gimmick.
Every interaction with your consumer should be the connecting of another dot between them and your brand. This is how relationships are made and nurtured.
Becoming human
What makes people so interesting and dynamic is the fact that they have both a head and a heart. The beauty of experiential marketing done right is that it allows your brand to become a person.
No longer are you simply a product on a shelf, a bunch of marketing images or a slogan. People are able to get a real feeling for your brand as a living entity, and decide for themselves whether to take you into their lives or not.