04 May

In many respects, you can argue that every event is an “experience” meant to meet certain objectives. However, events that are specifically designed from an experiential marketing angle are still rather different. So, when you want to take your events to the next level and really make an impression on your target audience, you may want to understand more about this approach and consider some unusual ideas for your next campaign.

What Is Experiential Marketing?

This form of marketing is focused on one objective – to give attendees an unforgettable and very involved experience rather than something that is formulaic or predictable. Many brands use this type of marketing to strengthen customer relationships, and you can leverage this philosophy as you plan your next event.

Remember, people are used to being bombarded with marketing messages from when they wake up in the morning to when they retire. They can often switch off and ignore these messages, but your job as an event planner is to ensure that they do not forget your next experiential event.

One survey by Nielsen found that 71% of consumers are driven by emotion whenever they choose to support a particular brand. With such a high number, you can see why it’s important to drive some positive emotions and to make sure that your event attendees are ready to support your brand.

How Can You Come up with Some Different Experiential Marketing Ideas?

1. Immerse Your Brand

If you’re selling a particular product and would like to create an event to help you, think about something that allows your target market to interact with this product in real time. But don’t settle for a bland approach. Think about how you can relate your product to lifestyle, history, current events or any other subject that could be of particular interest to your target market. In other words, give some colour to your brand activation activity to help your new product stand out from the rest.

2. Use Guerrilla Marketing

Alternatively, you can do something that seeks to shock or surprise (in a good way, of course). This is also known as “guerrilla marketing” and is a great experiential marketing idea. This type of event may require some head-scratching on the part of your activation team, but make sure that you think outside the box. Ideally, you’ll get everyone talking about your concept and make sure that your business, product or service is front of mind.

3. Take it to the People

Take your brand, product or service to the people when you set up in an unusual or unexpected place. In other words, go where the people are and engage your target audience on their own patch. Bring in an influencer or someone typically in the public eye who can help you promote your brand.

4. Take Your Show on the Road

If you happen to be in the automotive sector, you need to show your customers and prospects why they should buy your product (or continue to do so). Allow them to test drive individual cars in a variety of exciting environments. Find some great, scenic backroads and design a car rally that can only help to build camaraderie among your target audience. Don’t just organise a test drive as most manufacturers or dealers do; create an experiential event instead.

5. Use the Latest Technology

Finally, why not take advantage of the latest technology and introduce a world of augmented or virtual reality to your marketing mix? Put your product or service front and centre but allow prospects to experience your brand differently. This type of experiential event is relatively easy to organise as the technology is doing all the heavy lifting for you.

Find the Best Staff

Of course, there are many other ways for you to make your events more successful, like an experiential tradeshow booth. But once you come up with your cutting-edge ideas, you need to make sure that you have the best event staff on your side. Remember, it’s the people who make events, and you need to have the best promotional staff, exhibition staff or brand ambassadors by your side. Use one of the country’s leading event, conference and exhibition staff agencies, Eventeem. Reach out to one of their representatives for more information.