Experiential Marketing is one of the many types of marketing strategies that stands out with its emphasis on their consumer experience. It aims to form authentic relationships with their customers. This marketing strategy provides in-person and unique experience and engage them with the brand identity. It has seen that it has 72% success rate comparing to the traditional marketing strategies.
But what is the difference between experiential and traditional marketing?
Traditional marketing highlights the functions, features and resulting benefits of products or services. All of the traditional marketing is heavily based on this concept. Whereas, experiential marketing places its emphasis on creating consumer interest by providing them brand experiences.
For traditional marketing to keep the interest of consumers, brand needs to add new features or increase its benefits. On the other hand, experiential marketing approach seeks for effecting the consumer’s daily life and giving them an emotional sense of belonging.
So, we can say that while product marketing focuses on the rational side of marketing , experiment marketing is more about emotions.
Why should brands choose experiential marketing?
Experiential marketing definitely increases its brand awareness and consequently, its social media engagement. As the core of experiential marketing is creating unique contents and giving memorable experiences to the customers, it gets people talking. They talk about it on social media, and they post stories, photos or videos of their experience with hashtags of the event and tags of the brand account. It ends up being one of the most successfully working word-of-mouth strategies.
As experiential marketing is all about creating authenticity and human interactions, consumers connect to brand, and their perception towards the brand changes in a positive way. Consumers understand the product better with the help of live events. After this type of an engaging event, almost 98% of the experiencers feel the urge to buy the brand’s product.
However, experiential marketing is all fun and games until going into much detail. Although it is an engaging and exciting strategy for individuals, not everyone’s attention can be captured easily. Because the events are held with large number of participants, it can be a challenge to predict their reactions. Some experiencers can not understand exactly the product which is promoted. So, the event should be carried out with a detailed planning and according to the appeal of large number of individuals.
To create and event that can capture the consumer interest, a qualified team is required. Besides, adequate budget gains importance here. To hire a team of professionals on experiential marketing and carry out the event, the brand may need well-established financial resource. Budget restrictions can challenge the campaign a lot.
Most Popular Experiential Marketing Campaigns to Date
There have been many experiential marketing campaigns from various brands. While brands are creating the campaigns, they try to get their target audience with the brand’s core values, and give the consumers a shareable experience. Here are some of the most memorable experiential marketing campaigns.
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Orangina’s Dispenser Machine
In 2017, A citrus juice company Orangina, started an experiential marketing campaign that made people #shakethedispenser . You can watch the video below to see how the campaigns work and see the reactions of consumers.
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Budweiser Beer Garage
In 2016, a Budweiser Beer Garage was created to give people an enjoyable Bud experience. In the Budweiser Beer Garage, participants experienced a full virtual reality experience. It was designed to evoke all the senses. Not only participants saw and heard the brewery but also felt the cold in the refrigerator area, and felt the steam in the boiling room. Seeing and feeling how their drink is brewed helped people make a deeper connection with the brand. Showing the process and the employees also increased the brand’s credibility. See the video on the whole experience!
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Coke Zero : Drinkable Ad Campaign
Coca Cola is one of the companies that is known for creative marketing campaigns. In 2015, Coca Cola started a drinkable ad campaign all over the USA to promote Coke Zero. All the consumers needed to do was to Shazam the ad and fill the glass. The Shazam result came back as a free Coke Zero for the participants. This campaign was not only on the streets but also at the concerts and on televisions at home. You could either listen to the ad or see the ad or tweet the ad. It was a fun way to get engaged with the brands for consumers. Watch the video to see the details of the campaign.
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House of Vans all around the world
One of the most popular shoe retailer Vans created spaces for skateboarding community to come together and hang out. In 2019, the company carried out a campaign on International Women’s Day, and they used these House of Vans to support women in skateboarding. Many people from skateboarding community came together to promote female visibility.
What do you think the most memorable experiential marketing campaign is? Does it really work for you? You can let us know by commenting below! Also, don’t forget to follow us on our socials to be updated on more Influencer Marketing news!