Experiential Marketing Vs. Traditional Campaigns: Best Practices

It’s 2020 and people are sick of traditional advertisements and pop-ups. They don’t want to be bombarded with ads on their laptops or mobile devices. They don’t trust everything they see. 

The marketing landscape of this day and age has had to evolve to keep up with the changes in society. And the advancements in technology and its capabilities have given rise to a whole new world of marketing strategies. 

People want an experience. They want to become an advocate for a brand because they believe in it. It has become more and more important in recent years to develop an experiential marketing campaign in order to make an impact and connect with potential customers.

What Is Experiential Marketing? 

The idea behind experiential marketing is to create an experience that allows customers to engage with your brand in a fun, exciting, and memorable way. It prompts a connection and emotional bond between the customer and the company. 

Experiential marketing is an innovative strategy that companies can get creative with in order to stand out. And as technology advances, brands compete against each other to make the biggest impact and offer the most spectacular presentations. 

Experiential activations mostly take place at events. For that reason, some marketers call it event marketing. However, experiential campaigns are not dedicated to any specific event. They are designed to focus on the interaction between the customer and the brand.

Experiential Vs. Traditional 

Traditional marketing strategies are what most people typically envision when they think about marketing. This can include flyers, billboards, television commercials, and magazine ads. While these practices are still useful methods of raising awareness about your brand, they’ve become less persuasive in recent times.

Experiential marketing allows brands to develop a compelling narrative around their products that customers can connect with and remember for years to come. And with the influence of social media today, customers are able to share their experience with your brand with the push of a button. Free publicity equals a major awareness boost. 

Let’s explore the reasons why businesses are focusing more on their experiential marketing campaigns and leaning less on the more traditional strategies. 

1. It Helps Your Brand Stand Out And Stay Ahead Of The Trends

The possibilities are endless with experiential marketing. Depending on your budget, you can really create nearly anything you want to make some noise and attract customers. 

By doing so, you can stand out amongst your competitors and be seen as a leader in your industry by staying ahead of the trends. Some experiential marketing options are extreme and leave potential customers viewing your brand as innovative, exciting, and avant-garde. 

2. It Boosts Brand Awareness, Engagement, And Delight

Experiential marketing is a surefire way to attract customers. With an incredibly designed experience that involves customer participation, you are bound to generate a buzz around your brand and boost engagement. 

It also generates user-created content. And as mentioned above, when customers enjoy an experience, they’re quick to post about it on their social media with their friends, family, and followers. Experiential marketing spreads word-of-mouth, which is one of the best marketing tools. 

3. It Increases Brand Interest And Loyalty

By creating a special experience with experiential marketing in mind, customers build a bond with your company. They connect their feelings of joy and excitement with your brand and are more likely to purchase your products or services. It also boosts loyalty. 

Best Practices For Experiential Marketing 

Now that you understand how impactful experiential marketing can be when implemented into your marketing campaign, let’s explore the best practices to keep in mind when deciding how to approach your strategy. 

While digital marketing strategies offer some ways to connect with a customer, it’s still from a distance. Experiential marketing is an up-close-and-personal interaction with potential buyers. There’s not a lot of room for error, so it’s important to approach your strategy with the right messaging, intentions, and goals in place. 

The following is a list of tips and strategies that will help you develop a strong experiential marketing campaign:

1. Utilize Mobile Marketing Trailers And Vehicles 

With experiential marketing being event-centric, one of the most popular ways to curate an engaging and entertaining experience is designing an experiential marketing trailer. These mobile marketing vehicles allow you to design a custom presentation and take it on the road.

There are so many amazing options to choose from when designing your brand’s own custom event trailer. They can include advanced technology that really allows you to be creative with your activations. 

• Interactive art installations and games
• Virtual reality experiences
• Product demonstrations
• Television screens 
• Air conditioning and Wi-Fi (excellent for summer events)
• Beautiful displays for social media sharing

Experiential marketing trailers offer several ways to blow customers’ minds and leave them feeling excited about your brand. 

2. Be Authentic

A key element in marketing is telling an organic and authentic story that customers believe in, can relate to, and makes them want to support you. An experiential marketing activation will invite customers to be the center of that story, so be sure that it’s cohesive with your messaging and that it feels real and relatable. It should be a story they want to be a part of.

3. Build The Right Team To Represent Your Brand

Person-to-person interaction is incredibly impactful. There truly isn’t anything that beats human connection. Customers like matching a person or personality to a brand. Experiential activations create a space for them to do so. Make sure to show the real people behind the brand, or build a team that represents your brand in the right way. 

Conversations can provide direct feedback, pain points, and desires from customers. In-person activations allow you to listen and learn more about who they are and what they want, while simultaneously giving a hands-on demonstration of your product or service. 

In Conclusion

This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to why experiential marketing is an essential strategy and how you can utilize it to improve your overall marketing campaign. To recap, experiential marketing is a powerful tool to interact with and engage customers by creating memorable experiences.