Partner with Experts to Make your Clients Fall in Love with You all Over Again
As marketers it is in our nature to seek out and provide our clients with the very best to help them reach their goals. We know our stuff and we use what works. We look at targeting, impressions, reach, and conversions. We analyze anything that can be clearly measured and have even devised ways to encapsulate the less measurable to the best of our abilities. Why? Because we want our efforts to deliver; we want to provide our clients with a path to success.
It takes a lot of work to become an expert within any marketing discipline and it is that expertise that our clients value. Companies are finding great returns by forging a relationship and an emotional connection to their audience through live, interactive experiences, other wise know known as Experiential Marketing. Reports from Forrester to Freeman are citing 2018 as the year of Experiential Marketing. So what do you do when your clients curiosity, interest and marketing budgets are placing favor on Experiential Marketing? Solution: partner with an expert.
Experiential agencies, the one’s who have made it their sole purpose to design, build and execute memorable experiences that engage the senses and emotions of an audience, are available to help you. The best experiential campaigns are designed in partnership with the brand at the core and the brand keepers involved. They begin long before the actual event and extend long after the site is cleaned up through strategic planning and integration into the larger picture of the companies branding and advertising.
One in three CMO’s plan to direct up to 50% of their budgets into experiential advertising according to the 2017 Freeman study. We all know that consumers attention is getting harder and harder to capture with the average time to create an impression down to a record 6 seconds. Consumers are getting more and more demanding for control over who and what they see, hear and talk about. Blame it on the digital age, search, and on demand content, but consumers of all ages want to cut down the clutter in their lives and take back the power to control their own content.
What is it about Experiential that’s so darned alluring to consumers and marketers alike?
First, it doesn’t push itself into consumers lives. It invites participation by serving up a desirable experience; connection, a deeply rooted human need. Consumers get to choose if they want in. The power shift in that is immense in the eyes of the consumer and in that move alone you’ve gained a win.
Second, experiential is, by in large, fun! It’s entertaining. Who says you can’t have meaning and entertainment all in one, certainly not an experiential marketer, we live to craft just those very moments.
Third, let’s face it, we live in an age of stuff. The amount of product available for consumption is ridiculous. Most of us have more stuff than we’ll ever need and the next greatest comes out before the glory of the last greatest can even wear off. At the same time, our lives are being co-opted by screens and our interactions are largely impersonal. Never-the-less humans are social creatures. We need emotional, personal connection. Experiential marketing fulfills a longing, a need that’s deeply rooted. Once that longing is satiated, a new fill in the blank sounds like a great idea.
Experiential marketing boasts some pretty attractive statistics.
- 74% of event attendees say that they have a more positive opinion about the company, brand, product or service being promoted after the event. (EMI & Mosaic)
- 65% of the consumers surveyed said live events helped them have a better understanding of a product or service, vastly surpassing digital efforts and TV advertising as methods of recognizing and learning about a brand. (EventTrack)
- 65% of brands say that their event and experiential programs are directly related to sales. (EMI & Mosaic)
- 70% of users become regular customers after an experiential marketing event. (EventTrack)
- 75% of companies with event budgets between $50-100 million say they expect an ROI of more than 5:1 for live event and experiential programs. (EMI & Mosaic)
- 98% of users feel more inclined to purchase after attending an activation. (EventTrack)
- 76% of marketers say their event and experiential marketing initiatives are integrated with their other marketing campaigns. (EventTrack)
- 79% of US marketers generate sales using event marketing. (Statista)
- About 34% of consumers surveyed said they would make a post about an experience on their social media pages. (EventTrack)
- 33% of consumers from the above survey said they would take photos or videos during an event. (EventTrack)
- 79% of brands say they will execute more event and experiential programs this year compared to last year. (EMI & Mosaic)
If you listen closely and ask the right questions, you’ll see just how much the allure of experiential is beckoning your clients. Our advice, embrace it and bring in a partner to collaborate. You’ll celebrate the outcome.
