In marketing, planning is everything. You need to meticulously design a winning plan of action for successful business results. This boils down to understanding trends in consumer behaviour, and engaging them better than your competitors; that is where Experiential Marketing comes in.
Over the past years, Experiential Marketing has been known to be at the forefront of generating real excitement better than any other marketing discipline – that has not changed a bit.
That said, it is important to note that just like any other industry, Experiential Marketing has been disrupted by technological advances. So, before we can delve deeper into planning your experiential campaign, we will examine five key trends that have disrupted Experiential Marketing:
1. Mobile (smartphones and tablets)
One of the first smartphones to hit the market was the iPhone in 2007. The emergence of this smartphone has not only revolutionised the cell phone industry but the marketing industry as well. Today smartphones account for four out of every five cell phones purchased in the world.
With so many smartphone users on an increase on a year to year basis, it is no surprise that spending on mobile advertising campaigns has surpassed that of desktop advertising. According to Reset Strategies, it is estimated that in 2019 alone, over $160 billion will be spent on mobile advertising compared with just over $88 billion for desktop advertising.
2. Social Media
From Snapchat to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, social media has radically changed the way consumers communicate and interact with each other. This has had a huge knock on effect on Experiential Marketing.
3. Social Currency
This is information that is shared by people as they go about their everyday lives. In many ways, it has moved customers from the ‘consider-to-purchase’ phase to purchase phase.
4. Personalisation and customisation
The days of the single item production line are gone. Today consumers expect products to be personalised and customised to suit their needs.
5. The Influencers – Brand ambassadors endorsing brands.
The pioneer of influencer marketing, Nike does a great job in using influencers to market its products. There are many other brands doing the same, we see them using movie stars and soccer stars to market their brands.
The difference between Experiential Marketing and conventional marketing
Although traditional marketing discipline dates as far back as 1900, and gained the people’s trust by focusing on providing values; “Experiential Marketing” as a concept can only be traced back to 1980.
Unlike traditional marketing, Experiential Marketing has always focused more on engaging consumers. The premise being to create a closer bond between the consumer and the brand by immersing them in a fun and memorable experience.
What Experiential Marketing really is, and what it is not.
Experiential Marketing is all about creating a meaningful connection between a brand and its consumers. In addition to that, about building a relationship with consumers to prove to them that you value them. It is more than just promoting a certain product to a passive audience but actively engages with a brand’s identity and its core values.
Here is what Experiential Marketing is not :
- It is not Experience Marketing,
- It is not experimental, but specific and focused,
- It is not another fancy term for “Event Marketing”.
- It is not passive.
What has changed over the last 40 years?
What was clear in the past few years is still clear today: Experiential Marketing is hard to plan, to execute, to run and to integrate into other marketing channels.
The question that remains hard to answer and still a point of discussion 40 years down the line is, “measurement”.
To drive the point home, let’s use radio as an example of measurement. In the 90’s, radio was booming. Experiential Marketing quickly leveraged on radio as a medium.
The concept of using influencers must have originated from that era. Brands realised that radio personalities had strong influence on consumers, so Experiential Marketing as a speciality was best positioned to bring real consumer experience from on air to off air environments.
However, as time went on, copy and paste took on a new meaning. One didn’t have to be a seasoned marketing specialist to develop an experiential event. So, through lack of clear tangible metrics that could demonstrate change in consumer purchasing behavior, something erroneous happened: Experiential Marketing became experimental marketing. Many brands were hurt in the process by: inconsistent consumer experiences, poor data collection, inefficient manual work flows, etc.
The death of terrestrial radio
A study published by Nielson casts a grim outlook on the future of terrestrial radio. The medium seems to be bringing in less revenue than streaming platforms. Younger music listeners have increasingly turned to sites like YouTube, Spotify and Pandora to discover new artists and songs.
The emergence of YouTube in particular has not only killed radio but also created instant celebrities along the way. Anyone can now create a video, post it, and share it with the entire world.
Also, radio no longer has an exclusive hold on what has been its most powerful delivery method, the automobile dashboard. Nielson estimates that by 2020, 75% of new cars are expected to be “connected” to digital services, this will relegate AM/FM as series of audio options behind the wheel.
Today Experiential Marketing is the latest industry facing massive disruption from the digital age. To survive, it must innovate, and take control of its path to maintain its unique position.
The Digital and Mobile era
There will always be something that will disrupt the Experiential Marketing industry. Like what we have seen with the rise of digital. Once smartphones and tablets were accessible to consumers, suddenly; sharing negative and positive messages became much easier to them. But brands couldn’t just sit still, they had to do something about that change. They quickly adopted new marketing strategies that enabled them to have real-time conversations with people.
As a research conducted by Ernst & Young shows, 85% of consumers have access to social media platforms and use social media to follow brands.
In order to leverage the opportunities presented by digital technology, brands came up with new plans which included but not limited to:
- Segmentation: brands identified the part of the population that can receive offers via mobile.
- Customer experience: brands decided to make the in-store shopping experience truly “omni”
- Social media strategy: brands also encouraged reviews and social media postings. Posting a review ensured that customers went back to the retail website and provided an opportunity for the retailer to re-engage.
Some statistics to ponder on
According to a research conducted by Event Marketer Global:
- 90 % of marketers agreed that Experiential Marketing delivers strong interaction and more compelling brand engagement than advertising.
- 80% of consumers said the key purchase decision factor is the ability to sample, or see a product demonstration.
- 98% of consumers said participating in an experience made them more inclined to purchase.
A sin most marketing directors are guilty of
Essentially, marketing directors are guilty of organising marketing communication along hierarchies that only make sense to them. They often set up one message for print advertising, another for TV commercials, brand activation, another for website communication, another for digital campaigns, another for mobile and so on.
It might make sense from an internal control standpoint but when consumers are exposed to multiple, often confusing messages, this might have a detrimental effect on a brand.
Good news! Consumers still yearn for experience
The good news is, most customers yearn for an experience that feels like it enhances life as opposed to interrupting it. In other words, a balance between the offline and online activities – something that is likely to boost brand loyalty.
One way of striking that balance is by avoiding this blunder: rushing through preparation and not gathering enough data. An Experiential Marketing event on its own is a treasure trove of consumer data. Brands and Experiential Marketing firms should encourage attendees to give product feedback, provide contact information for continued engagement, convey their purchasing preferences, and more.
But there is something else: what you do after the event is equally important as the event itself. So, in order to measure your success and find areas of improvement, you need to track your event. Social media makes this easy for you to track every Tweet, Facebook posts, and hashtag used during your event.
Interestingly, Wari (a Global and African Fintech with 152 partners) has recently launched a solution that allows consumers to send and receive funds from their WhatsApp. In addition to that, consumers can also earn money for each and every contact they refer to Wari. Think of that as Experiential Marketing gone mobile.
Why Is Experiential Marketing Still Effective today?
Google’s Curiosity Rooms is a case in point. It was a five-week London-based activation that drew attention to the launch of Google’s new smartphones. This event proved how Experiential Marketing can draw consumers and give them a chance to get to know brands personally by involving them.
Granted, Experiential Marketing has a variety of digital mediums to compete with, but in terms of consumer satisfaction, engagement and brand loyalty, none can beat it, and here is why:
- It is the only way for brands to stand out
In this digital era, where some brands rely only on Facebook to shout different messages, it is easy to leave consumers confused as they won’t differentiate the wood from the trees. Experiential Marketing can make things clearer by bringing in a physical connection with brands. Companies should also focus on creating an experience that embodies their values
- The best way to demonstrate products
Demonstrating your products on TV is also becoming a thing of the past. Most consumers can no longer afford to spend 20 minutes of their time watching companies demonstrating products. So how are you going to demonstrate to them? The answer is Experiential Marketing – a chance to create a one-to-one connection.
- It is the best way to achieve compelling engagement.
Attending an experiential event on its own is a decision. And by making that decision, consumers are dedicating their time to engage with your brand.
- The best way to amplify social media engagement
Social media plays an essential role in communicating with consumers, but recently live streaming of events seems to be getting more engagement.
Social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter are the best place to start. With those tools we are likely to see the popularity of Experiential Marketing skyrocketing.
- It is customer-centric
The best way to nurture a relationship with customers is by allowing them to form an emotional connection with your brand. There’s no discipline that can achieve that better than Experiential Marketing.
What’s more?
- Leadership has to buy-in Experiential Marketing as an important part of the marketing mix.
- KPI’s must be aligned to deliver the best consumer experience and measure Lifetime value.
- Brands need to plan multi year sustained investment in the Experiential Marketing programmes with a single focus on consumer experiences, both offline and online.
- Brands must have a fully integrated marketing solution, or true multi agency platforms that will drive a single view of the consumer journey.
– Brands should synchronise experiential activities, i.e one activity should cascade into the other.
– Agencies should manage costs effectively, and avoid all “plus-10% agency fee” methods when they make pitches. They should invest in building real-strategic insights on consumer and real-time experiences.
– Leaders should remember that Experiential Marketing remains the speciality that uses all five senses to immerse consumers in brands. Also, the only one that can form lasting bonds.
Planning your Experiential Marketing
As mentioned earlier, planning is everything in marketing. So, before you can implement your Experiential Marketing campaign successfully certain things need to be in order.
Define Your Product or Service Offering
You need to know your product or service very well. Understanding who your brand is and where you rank within your industry, can better position you against your competitors. You need to help your clients in ways your competitors can’t.
Know Your Target Market
You need to know and understand your target market. This helps you to better serve them. You need to understand their likes or dislikes so you can tailor-make your product or service offering to better suit their needs. Customer satisfaction should be at the centre of marketing strategy. After all, it is the customers whom the entire marketing strategy will be directed at.
Spy your Competitors
The world of business is characterised by competition. Even if there are no direct competitors for your product or service, there is always competition of some kind. You need to understand why a potential customer should spend money on you instead of your competitors. What is your competitive advantage or unique selling proposition?
Ultimately, it’s about shared values. Your clients will choose you over competitors because of your track record with customer experience, transparency, quality etc. These are factors that make your company distinct. Shared values breed competitive advantage.
Conclusion
Experiential Marketing has come a long way, and, as a discipline, it is not going anywhere. Agencies that recognise technology as a tool to enhance consumer experience, and integrate off and online experiences accordingly; will win big. The same is true about marketers who are willing to improve and embrace those changes. As such, that will lend them much needed credibility in this evolving industry.
Trends may come and go but this won’t change: Experiential Marketing will always open up avenues that are off-limits to digital platforms. The only discipline by far that can bring memorable moments and drive high-quality engagement.
List of reference
- https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/08/31/radio-dead-musonomics-study/
- https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2018/audio-today-a-focus-on-network-radio.html
For over the years, EXP has been a trusted Experiential Marketing agency across Africa. To this day, during these tough times of digital and mobile transformation,
Human contact remains the heart of our experiential marketing experience.
If you would like to learn more about our solutions, please contact us by emailing info@exp.co.za
By Dumisani Hlatswayo
