Top 5 Experiential Marketing Techniques
Experiential marketing is a highly effective form of marketing that enables customers to develop a closer relationship between them and a brand. These typically happen in a fun and interactive scenario. Let’s look at 5 experiential techniques as experiential marketing begins to regain popularity as we leave the pandemic behind.
Retail Installations
Creating Immersive experiences which are inviting and exciting for customers is guaranteed to get people talking and raise awareness for your brand. Create value for the people you want to join in as they are more willing to interact with your brand experience and share it via word-of-mouth and on social media channels.
A good example of retail installation is the pop-up M&M Flavour House in New York. The brand created a ‘Flavour House’ where fans were asked to vote for a new flavour. Each room was decorated and scented to embody one of the flavours in the vote. Consumers were given the chance to leisurely roam from room to room whilst sipping on one of the various M&M theme cocktails. The experience held many photo opportunities and M&M encouraged the consumers to share the experience on social media. Immersive experiences should include things that customers will want to share, whether that be a photo opportunity or competition – post-event.
Experiential marketing is a good time to offer a direct connection to consumers to get honest and valued opinions. When creating a brand experience your brand must be clear on what data they are looking to obtain. Keeping it simple and easy for consumers to provide feedback will allow your brand to collect information more efficiently.
Live Streaming
Live streaming saw a rise in popularity when attending events was no longer possible. Online experiential marketing allows the activation to reach people not able to attend in person.
American rapper Travis Scott live-streamed his 10-minute Astronomical performance on the popular video game platform Fortnite which saw 12.3 million viewers log on. The rapper not only performed to his 12.3 million views but also provided a great brand experience. Partnering up with Fortnite, free Astronomical game add ons were released in the days leading up to the launch and Astronomical challenges were added to the game in the days after. The event was scheduled for 5 different time zones to reach audiences across the globe.
Another way that live streaming can be utilised is to connect people in real-time. Coca-Cola combined Out-of-Home advertising and live streaming to create what they called “small world machines”. High-tech vending machines were carefully situated inside busy shopping centres in two locations: Lahore, Pakistan, and New Delhi, India. The out-of-home vending machines had built-in cameras which provided face-to-face live interactions between the two sites. The objective of the campaign was to encourage the two people in the different countries to work together to complete tasks by mirroring one another.
Event Marketing
Attending live events, exhibitions and tradeshows is another way to reach your audience. Our exhibition agency tends to involve competitions in events due to the demand and reaction to them in comparison to just using banners or other promotional materials. Sampling is also an excellent tool to encourage interaction from consumers at an event. Consumers love to get something for nothing! The idea is to get the attention of new and existing consumers to promote your product whilst collecting reviews and data.
A successful sampling event require excellent brand ambassadors that are informative on the products and brand. Brand ambassadors are the face of your brand and allow you to gain invaluable face-to-face insight from consumers by gathering honest opinions which gives the consumer the chance to feel valued by your brand.
“Event marking puts your brand at the forefront of the consumer’s mind. A good brand experience will boost sales as 70% of users become regular customers after an experiential marketing event”.
Event Track
Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing uses unconventional marketing methods to push the boundaries evoking surprise, wonder, and shock. It can be more cost-effective than traditional marketing, relying on smaller, more localised creative ideas repurposing your audience’s current environment.
The firm ALT TERRAIN outlines the 4 types of guerrilla marketing:
Street Guerrilla Marketing – adds something to an outdoor environment like an art installation to create a unique brand presence.
Indoor Guerrilla Marketing – activations are placed inside accessible locations such as train stations or retail spaces. Activations can range from flash mobs to signage placement like what is seen in street guerrilla marketing.
Ambush Guerrilla Marketing – executes activations at in-progress events like sports games, festivals, and conventions usually without the permission of event organisers.
Experiential Guerrilla Marketing – uses all the above but engages the public in activations such as scavenger hunts.
Whilst guerrilla marketing techniques only reach the people in the area at the time of the activation they are created to be sharable on social media and due to the unconventional methods the campaign often goes viral.
Social Media
Social media allows your customers to share your experiential marketing experiences. Creating buzz-worthy events that are sharable will increase brand awareness. Combining social media marketing and brand experience allows you to begin the activation before it takes place and continues to raise awareness post-event. Social media marketing enables your brand to reach a wider audience and excite those who weren’t there in person. Sharing exciting content on social multiple platforms creates ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out) when your consumers share what an amazing time they had. It is essential to provide photo opportunities. Extending your event via online platforms continues to grow brand awareness and maintains consumer interest.
When planning an experiential campaign brands should consider promoting the experience on social media and include influencer marketing. With their audience already engaged with their content, influencers are a valuable asset to a social media campaign.
How GottaBe! Can Help With Experiential Marketing
GottaBe! specialise in field and experiential marketing services. We have an extremely creative team who can deliver fun and exciting campaigns that get people talking – so why not challenge us? Every campaign is bespoke to our client’s needs, nothing is recycled and we never add preservatives (no outsourcing). We promise to give you 100% pure marketing that is tailored specifically to you and your brand. Get in touch with our team today.
GottaBe! Facts And Figures
- 11,470 samples distributed for Rekorderlig
- GottaBe clocked up a massive 1,690 miles across the UK, supporting Norton on the Dixons Carphone Warehouse Roadshow
- Over 2,000 cups of Dorset Tea sold at community events across the UK