Even before Ghostbusters, one can go back to the Pepsi challenge ad campaign and most currently Lush and see experiential marketing. 45 years ago for the Pepsi challenge, there was no technical social media like today but it was still that experiential aspect. Think of car shows that sometimes offer the chance to book a test drive. One can usually book on-line which shows even more how today’s technology and social media has its place in the marketing world. From expandable event trailers, event marketing trailers, experiential event agency, mobile marketing vehicles, brand activation services, and mobile promotional vehicles all lead to the fact that today’s technology paired with any of these can lead to the best marketing and have an impact on consumers who stay with a brand. In short, at the core of experiential marketing is the consumer.

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An Experiential Trailer or Mobile Marketing Trailer engages more of the customer’s senses by creating moments for consumers that provide them experiential surprise. The creativity of these marketers amazes from Mobile movie theaters and extensive Mobile Marketing Tours which allow companies to engage with customers in a fun and interactive way. The National Guard is become known for their national tours in mobile recruitment trailers.

The idea of experiential marketing is not an entirely new concept. The Pepsi challenge, whose campaign has been running over 45 years, is the perfect example of a successful Experiential Marketing Tours. Event Marketing Trailers and Expandable Event Trailer allow a closer connection between customers and brands.

Mobile Promotional Vehicles and Mobile Marketing Vehicles are other top trending experiential marketing forms. Yet, one of the first examples of a mobile marketing vehicle would be the infamous Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, which was first introduced in 1936. A more common example these days are vehicle wraps, which can be found everywhere. They are quite eye-catching and engage customer’s with eye-catching visuals.

A Brand activation agency offers several Brand Activation Services to drive consumer action through experiences. So when brands want to make a statement, they partner with an Experiential Event Agency to bring attention to products and services like never before. Experiential Marketing Services can take your brand to the next level by immersing customers in an experience using Exhibit Trailers to engage more of the senses and telling more of the story of your brand. According to experts, the customer’s experience will be the key to differentiating your brand in 2020.

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This marketing movement is far greater than sharing a social media post. The experience mobile marketing tours brings is exceptional and cannot be compared to any other marketing medium. Consumers use every sense and engage in learning about the brand in ways that heighten brand awareness and brand intimacy. The brand experience becomes a new tangible feeling for consumers. These experiential tours create a great opportunity to showcase a brand with experiential marketing vehicles. Imagine how many instant social media uploads will create a trending post within hours. The power of visual marketing is only a small part of what experiential marketing services can do.

With mobile marketing vehicles and mobile promotional vehicles, the roadway to success is yours. There are a great number of consumers who actively seek branding that catches their eye. Newsletters, media, and websites bring new levels of brand awareness. The visual appeal is a layer of excitement that brings mobile marketing tours to life, an event based on a brand that consumers actively follow and relate to. A mobile theatre trailer brings a fun night out to any small or large town. It can nestle in any city and make a huge impact for any brand.

In the world of marketing, brand connection will always overrule social media. Consumers live a life outside of the computer screen and seek something tangible within their brand of choice everyday. Brand loyalty can easily be converted into a lifestyle with the right tour. Experiential marketing is the leading strategy in the marketing industry, and it is here to stay.

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If you have been paying attention to the latest trends occurring in the advertising industry, then you have almost certainly heard of experiential marketing at some point. Experiential marketing is transforming the way businesses market to their customers by allowing for them to build deeper connections with people that will last longer and thus be more profitable in the long run. By creating memorable experiences using mobile marketing tours, a brand activation agency is capable of presenting the products and services of a company in a highly unique way that will ultimately provide customers with a very memorable experience.

Experiential marketing is achieved in a number of ways, but mobile marketing vehicles have proven to be one of the most effective methods brands use to get their advertisements in front of consumers. Whether you are just using a simple mobile marketing trailer with your company’s logo on it, or an entire mobile movie theater or mobile showroom that is sure to impress, your efforts will almost certainly generate desirable returns. That’s because mobile marketing tours allow companies to put their products and services right in the center of the action so that they may draw plenty of attention from their core target audience. A mobile marketing trailer can be jam-packed with marketing messages about your brand and it can also contain a variety of unique immersive experiences that will bring your products and services to life.

Mobile marketing vehicles aren’t the only pieces of equipment used by an experiential event agency to achieve the desired effect though. The primary purpose of mobile marketing tours is to bring greater attention to your brand in a way that will ultimately prove to be memorable to consumers. Thus, powerful marketing materials like event trailers should also be used in combination with your mobile marketing vehicles, and don’t think that mobile promotional vehicles only have to be used on special occasions. In fact, you can use experiential marketing vehicles on all sorts of occasions, even when managing your day-to-day operations.

While a mobile movie theater might be necessary to make a big splash at a major corporate event, a brand activation agency can provide you with numerous additional brand activation services that will put the spotlight on your product offerings. Thus, your mobile marketing should serve to compliment your general marketing materials rather than be your sole advertisement. In fact, it is this synergistic effect produced by modern advertising that has proven to be so important to experiential advertisers.

When a brand attempts to put its products in front of customers in a memorable fashion, they are able to tap into a whole range of marketing channels that would not be otherwise made available. An experiential event agency can help you get more out of your mobile promotional vehicles by helping you tie all of your marketing materials together. The use of a wide range of advertisements that convey a similar message will help to establish a sentiment in the minds of consumers that may be readily associated with your brand. By consistently creating advertisements on social media platforms and all manner of digital media sites, you will ultimately be able to compliment your real world advertisements, like exhibit trailers and mobile promotional vehicles, in a way that will maximize the revenue being generated by every dollar spent on marketing materials.

Now, when a consumer sees your brand on the side of event marketing trailers, they will be able to share their experience with their friends and family online in a way that directly references your brand. Rather than just labeling your brand in an easily forgettable fashion, your customers will now be able to reference your social media accounts while simultaneously posting photos of the experiential advertisements your brand has created. This will naturally lead to much greater exposure for your brand on the whole since your customers will then become an effective marketing team that works on your behalf around the clock.

No longer must you invest all of your marketing dollars into expensive advertising campaigns that rely upon costly graphic designers and highly experienced marketing experts. Today, you simply have to provide your customers with a one-of-a-kind experience that they will want to tell their friends about as soon as possible. In this way, you can now create experiences for your customers while knowing that they will go on to tell the world about how great your brand has become.

This is precisely why brand activation services are now being taken to ever-greater extremes. Every brand is constantly trying to find ways to outdo one another, and they have proven to be quite effective at achieving this end. The more significant is the experience created for the consumer by the advertising agency, the more likely are they to tell their friends about it. Thus, every brand is trying to create a memorable experience for its customers so that they will naturally become one of their best marketing campaigns.

While you may believe that such marketing materials are expensive to produce, they don’t have to be extremely costly in order to be effective. In fact, experiential marketing services can come in as simple a form as basic exhibit trailers. Experiential marketing vehicles come in a variety of forms, but they can easily be created through the simple application of a standard car wrap. While a graphical display of your brand and a message that best represents its mission statement might not provide your customer with a deeply impactful experience, it nonetheless might make a greater impression upon the minds of consumers than a full-page ad in the phone book. Plus, these graphical displays can be customized in all sorts of ways to make them more meaningful in the minds of consumers. It’s really up to each brand to find ways to convey their unique messages so that they may readily stand out from the crowd.

This is why many brands are now investing heavily in experiential marketing services that utilize event trailers. Event trailers make it possible for brands to create experiences for their customers just about anywhere. Event marketing trailers can also be customized in a vast number of ways to suit the unique requirements of each brand. Just about any type of experience can be created in an expandable event trailer. In this way, an experiential trailer can be used to produce a wide range of effects upon the minds of consumers. Whether you want to better educate your customers about an important issue, or are just looking for a great way to entertain your fan base, you will likely soon discover that the unlimited options of an expandable event trailer are absolutely perfect for your business.

That’s because experiential marketing tours are highly effective. The presentation of a professional quality experiential trailer at an important event will establish your brand as a major player within your industry. Not only that, but experiential marketing tours have also proven to provide the general public with an excellent opportunity to freely disseminate information about their favorite brands across social media platforms. The more frequently are you able to get your experiential advertisements in front of consumers, the greater are the chances that they will want to tell others about their experiences. It is this ripple effect, which is produced by experiential marketing that is proving to be one of the most interesting developments in the world of marketing in recent years.

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1. Filters are out.

Gen Z consumers aren’t fans of “living-my-best-life” highlights and macro influencers. Nearly 80 percent of them instead trust a company more if the images they use are not photoshopped. They are looking for consistent and relevant content from companies (82 percent), and they trust a brand more if actual customers are used in its marketing. 

2. Instagram museums are out, too.

Gen Z consumers aren’t falling for static, staged photo opportunities anymore. This generation wants to attend pop-ups and snap pics, too, but the key is to include personalization and allow younger consumers the opportunity to co-create with the brand from their unique perspectives.

3. Art is a passion point.

An interest for Gen Z, according to the report, is modern and urban art. So, strategic collabs and interactive and multi-sensory experiences are likely to attract this generation by appealing to their desire for creative expression. Think artist collabs, sneaker drops and exclusive fashion or merch at events.

4. Retail events are effective.

The majority of Gen Z consumers actually prefer to shop in-person, but they prefer retail environments that are more innovative, tactile, high-tech and interactive. Touching and testing the products is a priority for them, with 75 percent saying shopping in physical stores is better than shopping online. That said, they often take their recommendations from social media—the discovery of a brand is what takes place online.

5. You can bet on gaming.

Video game revenue in the U.S. exceeded $35 billion last year. And since Gen Z is fueling much of the growing popularity of gaming and esports, it behooves brands to embrace gaming culture in events with creative integrations, sponsorships and collabs. The Gen Z generation also enjoys the community aspect of gaming, which allows fans to gather IRL at events, tournaments and meet-and-greets—an area of opportunity for event marketers.

6. Inclusivity is important.

Almost 50 percent of Gen Z consumers identify as a racial or ethnic minority, making them the most diverse generation yet. It follows that brand marketing needs to be representative of that diversity if it’s to be taken seriously by this group. More than 60 percent of Gen Z consumers say they like seeing ads featuring diverse families.

7. Intimate festivals are a draw.

Gen Z consumers are ditching the elevated ticket prices at major music festivals for more affordable events that focus on a specific passion point or genre. Though they still love live music, additional interests include food and beverage, health and wellness, urban/modern art and extreme sports. They’re also receptive to events dedicated to a brand they feel devoted to.

8. TikTok is a preferred platform.

TikTok is huge with Gen Z. In fact, 41 percent of users are between the ages of 16 and 24. So, brands considering targeting this demo should consider building a presence there. The platform has a playful feel and is ideal for lighthearted and comedic content as opposed to the finely curated and filtered content found on other social platforms.

9. Co-creation with brands is in.

The majority of Gen Z consumers, 71 percent, believe that brands should help them achieve their personal goals and aspirations. Many of these folks also want to start their own businesses. To tap into this entrepreneurial spirit, brands can offer classes, workshops and networking events and even enlist them to co-create campaigns and product lines.

10. Shareworthy travel experiences are popular.

Gen Z consumers are willing to spend more for immersive, experiential travel, and they prefer to live like locals—particularly when it comes to food. A whopping 94 percent of Gen Z consumers said they research where to eat before they travel. This group also likes to pay it forward: Almost a third of them planned to give experiential holiday gifts last year.

11. Environmentally conscious-food is appreciated.

Three quarters of Gen Z consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable, “do-good” food. Brands that address issues like food waste, sustainable packaging and cellular agriculture will attract their attention. Consider serving socially-conscious food at pop-ups and events.

12. Lifestyle collabs are hot.

This demographic is more likely to shop brand collaborations—about two thirds compared to half of consumers overall. Luxury and streetwear collabs that produce items at attainable price points appeal to Gen Z consumers’ need for exclusivity. Streetwear collabs are still hot, but lifestyle, home/dorm and travel verticals are gaining in popularity.

13. Personalized product branding is in.

Gen Z consumers purchase products and services that highlight their identity. And 58 percent said they’d pay a premium for such items. Individualized products, experiences and rewards allow the generation to communicate their personal style through branded merchandise. Additionally, 42 percent said they enjoy designing their own products through technology like 3D printers.

14. Customization of personal avatars will continue.

A third of Gen Z consumers said they see no difference between their online and offline selves, and 35 percent say those selves are very similar. It follows that they are comfortable with digital projections of humans, or avatars like Bitmoji, which can be personalized with branded items.

15. AI combined with human interaction is preferred.

The fact that retail spend on AI will reach $7.3 billion by 2022 reflects younger generations’ expectation of personalization in shopping experiences. But customer service with a human touch remains important to Gen Z consumers. Brands employing AI in retail should still incorporate human interaction into an experience.

Illustration: VectorMine

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Marketing will always be marketing, and we will always do it. Experiential marketing can be a fun and ultimately, memorable way of immersing your consumers into your brand’s world. If you’re confident with your product or service, a great experience will bring your audience in. If the service is good enough, they’ll stay.

Think back to 2016, when London’s Waterloo Station was overtaken by a Marshmallow Man, emerging through the concourse floor of the world-famous terminal – much to the amazement of passing by commuters. And what good was that? A big monster smashing through the floor; great for a selfie, but we all had trains to catch.

The stunt coincided with the launch of the new Ghostbusters movie, and it was a piece of brilliant advertising design, meant to be shared. Imagine a parent with a child walking through and taking a selfie with a giant Marshmallow man. What would the next step be? “You wanna see the movie?” Imagine a commuter walking through and sending a selfie to his or her partner… So many avenues opened by such a beautiful piece of experiential marketing. More than that, the piece inspired so much joy and created so many memories. Thousands of people were pleasantly surprised and shared their positive experience, hosted by the Ghostbusters brand.

Unexpected events create more pleasurable responses in the brain, so as marketers, we need to increasingly search for ways to ‘surprise’ and ‘delight’ consumers. And the Ghostbusters campaign certainly did that.

Take a look at Lush, the beauty stores popping up around the country. They, too, are adopting a similar strategy. Where else in the world can I go, as a husband, to buy my wife’s friend a birthday present, and be treated to an exfoliating hand wash that will leave me smelling like tea tree oil and blueberries? It’s attractive, it’s engrossing, it’s fun, and it makes us both want to go back and spend a bit more than we should. With so many average experiences available on the market, why not feel good about splashing out and spending a bit more… and ultimately, enjoy the feeling of being pampered?

Lush kept the essence of the brand in line with the experience they offered, accentuating what using its products feels like. So that users feel closer to their benefits by trying before they buy.

From a marketers’ point of view (or rather, the marketers’ bosses’ point of view), the role of experiential marketing is to capture the consumer and not slip into the abyss of complacency. A modern marketing plan includes a large number of disciplines, from digital efforts to the point of sale. And experience marketing has recently been added to this list.

How new is this, though? Think back to the Pepsi challenge – which is now almost 45 years old. It is fair to say that more than one company has followed this path of experience, aiming to create a similar lasting legacy. They need not be complicated; look again at what Lush do. Ask anybody who has recently visited a car showroom if there was an option to book a driving test. It’s always an experience that leads to a sale. Pepsi, Lush, Ghostbusters; they are all fantastic examples that share the same precept.

Social media, of course, now has its part to play in this. And its effect shouldn’t be ignored. Our obsession with finding something worthy to send to our network is the main reason that the marshmallow man, bursting through the floor, was so good.

Sharing through a swipe or a touch of a button is what marketers want. It means that their own users are doing the door-to-door sales for them, for free. They are digitally knocking on their friends’ doors and opening their suitcase of delights to show off your product. From the other side of the door, imagine that you are the metaphoric homeowner and ask yourself what you would prefer; a needy salesman trying to hit their commission, or your friend trying to show you something cool they just found. It’s a staggeringly good opportunity that can not be missed. 

By encouraging and pandering to your consumer’s desire to share everything instantly, there are more ways to extend this experience to more people. You could attach a voucher to a marketing campaign and add a button directly linked to WhatsApp. That way, users can easily forward it on to friends or family who might also like the deal. The same can be done with a competition or mini-game format. Really, it’s up to marketers to find the outlets for their creativity.

Ironically, one aspect of the social media boom is its effect on elitism. It’s a fact that most people want to feel elite, yet more often than not, once they do feel this way, they’re likely to broadcast their new status online. Therefore, if a marketer were to offer them secret content, an exclusive event or a sneak peek, it’s possible that the ego-boosted recipient will, by virtue of the share button, wave their golden ticket in front of the world. The very fact that their exclusivity is nullified by doing so is seemingly ignored. And so the cycle continues.

Marketing agencies have endeavored to create moments for consumers that provide them with an experiential surprise. The user needs to feel pampered, valued, excited or elite. We must be innovative and unusual when creating shareable experiences.

If you’re ready to see what experiential marketing can do for you, do get in touch or visit our website for advice and help.

Jenny Stanley, Managing director at Appetite Creative.

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1. Employee Advocacy

Now, more than ever, people want to connect with people, not businesses. That’s why you need to establish an authentic voice and presence. This will give your prospects and customers a reason to trust and invest in your product or service.

So, how do you prepare? It’s simple: employee advocacy. With a formal advocacy program, you can easily empower employees, including your sales, marketing, and customer success to share company content across their personal networks. Employees are often an untapped marketing asset with hundreds of relevant customer and influencer connections. Hence, they can help to drive your company message forward, adding an authentic and trustworthy touch to your brand.

Even better, you can get your CEO and top level executives to be active advocates. Sharing quality content will help them become ‘thought leaders’. As the concept implies, thought leaders are go-to sources and authorities. They are perceived to have insightful information and ideas, which people in the industry want to learn.

2. Customer Experience

Today, customers are more savvy, informed, and picky about the companies they choose. That’s why customer experience is an integral part of B2B marketing.

According to Walker Research, the customer experience will be a key brand differentiator by 2020, more so than price and product. In order to deliver an experience that gets people talking, you must stay in tune with your customers at all times. Using a social listening tool, you can monitor specific phrases in real-time to discover what people are saying about you and your competition. By mastering social listening, you can understand the real needs, values, and challenges of your customers in order to personalize your marketing approach.

3. Marketing Automation

B2B buyers are a no longer passive. They take an active role in researching about your company and finding out how your product or service solves their problems. They are constantly forming opinions about your company through different content they come across. Due to this, you need to do a much better job at delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time.

That’s where marketing automation comes in. Marketing automation platforms like Marketo, Pardot, and Act-On allow you to automate, streamline, and measure certain tasks and workflows, making it easier for you to constantly engage with leads throughout their journeys with personalized content.

Marketing automation is continuing to grow and evolve as time goes on, making it an excellent choice for B2B marketers at any level of maturity. Choosing the right platform can help you nurture, score, and attribute leads in order to drive more revenue for your company.

4. Video and Live Streaming

Video has been growing rapidly in last few years, and it’s certainly not going to slow down. As of today, video content represents 74% of all internet traffic.

On top of video, live streaming is another rising trend in B2B marketing. Twitter’s Pericope, Facebook Live, and Instagram Live Video are making big waves in the marketing industry. Videos not only make it easier for people to absorb information, they are also an authentic and engaging way of representing your product and the people behind it.

This trend is easy to jump on, and you don’t need such a huge marketing budget to do so. Simply get your business set up on YouTube, Canva, and iMovie, and start creating your own GIFs and short videos. This great article provides a step-by-step guide on how every company can create engaging videos in less than 10 minutes!

5. Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing focuses on engaging as many of the five senses as possible. It turns good marketing into great marketing. Going back to the concept of customer experience, you need to find creative ways to create a closer bond between you and your customer.

For example, you can host online events, such as webinars and video conferences to encourage real-time collaboration and communication. Another great way to showcase your product and introduce the team is through trade shows or networking events.

Regardless of how you choose to engage in experiential marketing, remember to incorporate storytelling. This can be as simple as describing how your product solved a customer’s challenge, or using vivid imagery to make the reader feel like they are there.

6. Cross-Strategy Campaigns

A big mistake that many B2B marketers make, is keeping their channels separated. In 2017, you need to rely on cross-platform strategies. For example, using email marketing to promote social media, and content marketing to drive subscribers for newsletters.

Marketers are finding new ways to work smarter, not harder. Take a look at your strategies from a wider lens, and you’ll find more ways to integrate your channels.

Final Thoughts

B2B marketing is constantly evolving, especially in 2017. By focusing on customer experience, investing in the right platforms, and using targeted content across multiple channels, you can stay ahead of the game!

The post Top 6 B2B Marketing Trends to Leverage in 2017 appeared first on Cinetransformer.

Experiential marketers know better than most that the world of experiences has shifted away from happy-go-lucky, gut-driven design to a more predictable, results-driven model. Results are everything. It’s become a high-stakes competition, with every marketing dollar spent on experiences closely evaluated and measured directly against the performance of other channels, from print to TV ads.

As a result, brands often resort to numerous complicated and costly methods of measuring the outcome of an activation or experience campaign in real-time or even after the fact. This unknown element of the experience industry always seemed strange to me: why would a brand risk investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in an experience without a general expectation that it should hit any of their key objectives or performance metrics?  

Experience experts should be leveraging what others do across industries, from tech to automotive;  places where the idea of beta testing and prototyping before a product hits the market has been standard protocol since the very beginning. Experiential is just late to the game. There’s plenty to learn from their approach, allowing more brands to improve predictability and test the outcome of their activations before rolling out a single event or experiential campaign.

Learning from the best

Most industries take advantage of some form of testing. The tech industry, for example, is known to exist in a constant state of beta. Developers use the beta phase to eliminate software bugs and crashes while improving the overall technical performance and usability prior to launch while also gathering initial reviews and testimonials. 

By comparison, the automobile sector has an incredible arsenal of next generation prototyping toys to help them test their ideas – from computerized milling robots and large-scale 3D printers to virtual reality setups and specialized design software. Some also still use clay, preferring car body modifications that can easily be adjusted, added or subtracted in real time and scale while preserving human collaboration and artistry that machines and CAD programs simply can’t replicate.

All of these tactile and digital approaches contain lessons that can be applied to testing experiences. You can use physical experiences as a test and fundamental collaboration tool that fires up beautiful human intuition in a real-world context. Combine these with advanced digital tools to add rigor and precision and you have a template for how to prototype any brand experience.

A new experiential testing framework

But how do you unite and activate the testing methods from the tech and automobile category toward creating a framework for brand experiences? The answer is Experience in Beta (EIB), not to be confused with ROE (Return On Experience) which measures brand effectiveness during and after physical brand experiences. In its most simplistic form, EIB proactively measures and forecasts in a controlled environment the potential positive or negative impacts various brand experiences can have on a brand before launch. This means making an investment: building an experience and testing it on a smaller scale first using a pop-up or similar activation to gauge the response and reaction with a real audience in a real setting, but via a limited scope. While this seems to sacrifice time and money, the resulting data can actually mean the difference between experiential success or failure.

To prove the value of this thinking, Set Creative launched our own Experience in Beta study. Called The Sevillian Experiment, we created a fictional brand and then crafted a brand experience to show what a small, low-budget pop-up can do for a brand in the testing phase. Over the course of the study, we learned from across 1000+ participants that providing a hands-on experience drove three times higher brand recall, share out, and recommendation, as well as double the likelihood to purchase than the same experience in video, print or audio. Overall, participants felt more engaged and expressed more enjoyment when completing tasks themselves as a part of the experience. Based on our objectives, the testing environment provided crucial evidence for using physical experiences as part of a launch – insights that will guide our approach to experiences for years to come.

Don’t leave it to chance

Instead of relying on chance and luck, Experience in Beta can mitigate the risk of overspending and lead to better guidance in reaching brands’ desired objectives. While it may seem unusual, a finite investment at the beginning of the journey will grant early access to rich data that in return can inform a brand’s decision-making based on real-life experiences and compatible population samples.

Just imagine the possibilities. Brands can take advantage of an experiential testing environment and measure physical experiences against a multitude of business, marketing, and consumer objectives. From our Sevillian experiment, for example, we learned so much about our audience’s emotions. how they approached and interacted with our space, how they reacted to the scents and sounds, and how much they enjoyed interacting with our staff ambassadors.

Why should tech, automotive and countless other industries be the only ones banking on more than just a hunch? It’s time to stop pretending that crossing your fingers is a marketing strategy. Brands should motivate their internal teams and agency partners to take the time and initial investment to implement Experience in Beta as part of the planning phase for experiences. Experience in Beta can become a category-wide standard and, in conjunction with ROE, showcase the power of physical experiences.

Stefan Tauber is an experience strategist at Set Creative.

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A recent study found that more than 3 in 4 millennials (78%) would choose to spend money on experience or event rather than on buying something desirable, and 55% of millennials say they’re spending more on events and live experiences than ever before (Harris Group).
Although the statistic sounds like bad news for retail brands (primarily focused on selling products vs. experiences), it’s actually opened up an innovative new way of marketing products through community events, pop-up shops, and in-person classes.

What is Experiential Marketing?

Experiential marketing is a type of marketing that directly engages or immerses a target audience in a live event. Also referred to as “live marketing,” “participation marketing,” or sometimes “brand activation,” experiential marketing gets your customers involved in your brand or product and lets them experience it in real time.

Here’s a good example of how experiential marketing works:

At SXSW a few years back, the A&E show Bates Motel put on an experiential marketing event in a real-life Austin-area hotel.

They rebranded the entire hotel: festival-goers could “check in,” talk to staff and even stay the night. The rooms featured elements from the TV show, and posters of missing characters covered the walls. The experience allowed people to truly feel what Bates Motel was all about. In the end, the event brought thousands of press mentions and even more exposure to the show, which was just heading into its third season.

Why is Experiential Marketing Successful?

What is it about experiential marketing that makes it so successful? Obviously, events like the Bates Motel campaign require vast amounts of resources. Why would showrunners be willing to invest so much in a short-lived marketing event? There are a few factors that make experiential marketing stand out from other strategies:

Experiential Marketing draws in media, bloggers, and all those who want to share the best content with their followers. This exposure translates to more awareness for the brand.

Nike Launches Exclusive Air Max 270 Pop-Up Stores in Paris Suburbs: (www.highsnobiety.com)
This particular Nike pop-up in Paris (featured above) was hosted by an affiliate of the French rap group, PNL, and actor, Lucas, in March 2018 for one afternoon to promote Nike’s new line of Air Max 270 colorways.

These events can turn participants into veritable word-of-mouth marketers for the brand. When participants post photos on Instagram or Facebook, when they text a friend to stop by and see it for themselves, or when they talk about the experience over the water cooler the next day, they’re passing that brand name on to others and further adding exposure.

Experiential marketing is not just a marketing message shouted from the rooftops, but instead a two-way conversation – something the consumer can see, hear, touch and feel. It allows the consumer to really understand a brand inside and out and even become a part of that brand.

Image: Aloha Beach Club

Examples of Top Brands Using Experiential Marketing:

There are tons of great experiential marketing companies out there. The best events are not just one-time events that come and go, they’re campaigns that keep on giving.

A good example is the Outpost – an experiential marketing pop-up put on by The Participation Agency. Located in El Paso, Texas, the Outpost is a rest stop designed for touring bands that come through the area. It’s stocked with curated brands and products designed just for musicians and their on-the-road needs. For band members who have to use bare-bones gas stations and rest stops for months on end, the Outpost is a welcome sight – and one they’ll share heavily on social media.

Every year, Target hosts their overwhelmingly popular private shopping event “Back to College” for incoming college freshmen. Throughout the months of August and September, the company will bus in 155,000 students from 66 different universities and colleges to their local Target store. Inside the event, there are DJs playing while students browse hundreds of top beauty products, late night snacks, designer threads, and school supplies during the off-campus excursions. Target also raffles off coupons and prizes including a year’s supply of pizza, a Sony 32” television, and Target Gift Cards.

Also known as “The Millennials’ Estee Lauder”, Glossier teamed up with the famous Rhea’s Cafe in the Mission District for one month to host their first pop-up makeup store in San Francisco.The entire cafe was remodeled to welcome the beauty line with a fresh coat of light pink paint and chic new furniture to appeal to Glossier’s youthful audience.

Another great example is JetBlue’s “Icebreaker” challenge in New York a few years ago. To celebrate its new direct flight from NYC to Palm Springs, Florida, the airline froze summer accessories in large ice blocks. Passersby could stop, chip away at the ice with whatever tools they had on them, and claim any prize they could get out of the ice. There were even free plane tickets in there!

Disney’s Doc McStuffin check-up campaign is also a good example. This event allowed kids to play doctor on various stuffed animals. While waiting for their turn, they played with Doc McStuffin themed toys and books, and even received a free Doc gift. When all was said and done, the event exposed the Doc McStuffin TV show to nearly 8,000 more children (and their parents).

Harry’s

In 2016, the company opened a temporary store in SoHo called Harry’s Bartershop, allowing consumers to “barter” their razor blades (including competing brands like Gillette), in exchange for Harry’s new razors and shaving products.

Dirty Lemon

Last summer, Dirty Lemon (famous for being one of the first brands to sell their products exclusively via text message) opened up “The Drug Store”, an alcohol-free bar in Nolita, NYC.
Modeled after a 1920s soda shop, the bar scheme helped to drive new customers, build brand awareness, and educate thirsty shoppers on the health benefits of their famous low-calorie beverage.

Athleisure brand Lululemon regularly hosts free yoga and fitness classes in many of its stores across the globe.

Backpacker Magazine

Each year, Backpacker Magazine hosts “Get Out More”, an event featuring more than 45 outdoor equipment retailers and speakers, who share their latest outdoor experiences and expert gear tips.

You get the gist: the key to great experiential marketing is finding something to both entertain and involve consumers, so that they share your brand and remember their experience.
Your goal is to create brand advocates: people excited to do business with you and share it with the world.

Are you ready to elevate your brand through the power of experiential marketing? Wizard Studios can make it happen!

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Experiential marketing and event marketing are often used interchangeably by people inside and outside of the industry, but are they the same? The short answer? No, not quite. They may sound similar, but experiential and event marketing are two separate tactics that brands can use as part of a larger marketing plan. What exactly is the difference between the two? It has to do with engagement, experience, goals, and time.

Engagement

One of the most prominent differences between experiential and event marketing is how each of these tactics engages the audience. Event marketing uses one-way communication where the brand is speaking directly to the consumer, but the consumer does not have the opportunity to respond. Have you ever attended an event where you passed by multiple booths and were handed marketing brochures about a company? This is a form of one-way communication that is often used at events. The brand is passing along information to the attendee in the form of a promotional pamphlet, but the consumer is not an active participant in the conversation.

On the other hand, experiential marketing uses two-way communication. This allows a brand to interact with a customer to teach them more about the brand’s products and services, and then listen to what the customer has to say in response. Experiential marketers aim to create opportunities where the customer and the brand can come together to engage in conversation and form a strong relationship. For example, Sensodyne hosted an experiential marketing event that invited people with sensitive teeth to try new products, play games, and meet privately with a dentist. Each section of the event was staffed with knowledgeable professionals who were there to interact with guests on a personal level. Although Sensodyne did host an event, this is definitely an example of experiential marketing and not event marketing.

Experience

Guests also experience both event marketing and experiential marketing in different ways. Think of the last time you went to a concert. You and the thousands of other music fans that filled the arena simultaneously watched the same show and left after having the same experience. This is the typical experience people have when it comes to event marketing—all at once, all the same.

However, every guest at an experiential marketing event will walk away with a unique memory of the individual experience they had. To understand this concept, consider Delta’s experiential marketing event known as “Stillness in Motion.” To highlight how Delta promotes rest and relaxation for its travelers, Delta created a spa-like room where guests could come in and try to find stillness on their own. The room was equipped with various sensors that picked up the guest’s heartbeat and changed the surroundings based on its pace. As the heartbeat picked up, the room would flash different colors and create various noises, and as users finally found their stillness, the colors would begin to fade and gentle music would seep into the room. In this example, each user had a unique experience that was powered by his or her heartbeat. This is part of the magic of the experiential marketing.

Goals

Event marketing and experiential marketing are used to achieve different goals, which is one of the reasons why it’s so important to understand the difference between the two. Marketers turn to event marketing when they want to announce a new product, sell products, or get press coverage for the brand. It’s best to think of event marketing as a way to generate buzz around something happening with the brand.

Of course, experiential marketing can also be used to launch new products, sell merchandise, and get in the press, but those aren’t typically the goals of these events. Instead, marketers use experiential marketing to create positive brand associations and grow relationships with their audience. An increase in sales and awareness of a new product can certainly occur as a result of a experiential marketing event, but the focus during the planning process is usually on how to connect with consumers. Going back to the Sensodyne example, inviting guests to meet privately with a dentist will not necessarily lead to an increase in sales. After all, the dentist was not secretly a sales representative who was pitching Sensodyne products. But, when guests left the event, they probably had a more favorable impression of Sensodyne for creating such a memorable experience for them. As a result of this positive association and the knowledge about sensitive teeth that the dentist provided, more customers probably did purchase Sensodyne toothpaste.

Time

Event marketing typically has a start and end time so guests know when to arrive and when the event is over. Once the end time has passed, the event is officially done. Press may cover the event while it is happening or immediately after it is over, but besides this, the buzz tends to die down when the event comes to an end.

Experiential marketing tends to live on much longer than event marketing. Because each guest has a unique experience at an experiential marketing event, guests often feel compelled to share their stories on social media and blogs. The buzz around an experiential marketing can continue to grow as more guests swap stories and discuss the details of the event. Do you remember Coca Cola’s famous “Share A Coke” campaign? Part of the marketing plan for this campaign was hosting experiential marketing events and inviting guests to attend so they could create their own custom bottle of Coca Cola. After making their own bottles, many guests shared pictures of them online, which drew more attention to the campaign and the brand as a whole. If you want to keep the focus on your brand and really make your efforts pay off, choose experiential marketing.

Now that you understand the difference between the two—and the many benefits of experiential marketing—contact us if you’re ready to plan your first event. We can help you target, engage, and build a relationship with your ideal audience using proven experiential marketing tactics. Contact us today

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