The value of experiential campaigns for brands

Brands and organisations everywhere are desperate to engage with their audiences… why? To sell more! This is nothing new and although this has been common practice for most of human history, the way we do it has changed.

Traditional marketing campaigns revolve around digital such as social media, blogs (& other content), advertising and events too. Every channel has its value, of course it’s dependent on the target audience but one channel stands out when it comes to authentic engagement… experiential!

Undecided or unsure? No problem, check out our reasons as to why brands MUST consider experiential if they want to engage…

Creating memorable experiences ⭐

In the age of Instagram and TikTok, it’s become super clear that people young and old want to share their memorable experiences - in short, people want a story to tell.

Experiential campaigns deliver the material for sharable stories like no other channel. Pop-up activations, interactive exhibitions and even VR-based campaigns provide a sense of excitement and novelty, along with a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out), which means people will actively seek it out - the ideal outcome for any advert!

Giving people a true, almost tangible experience is crucial and if done right, will generate huge amounts of free publicity as smitten fans share their experiences across the digital frontier.

Fostering emotional connections 😍

Memorable experiences are important, yes. Unequivocally yes.

That said, so is fostering and nurturing emotional connections with brands. Competition for products and services is rife across B2C and B2B, often the difference between purchasing a product from brand A or brand B comes down to the emotional attachment the buyer has with the brand.

The idea of brand loyalty is radically different these days too, customers want to feel positive about their purchase(s) but this feeling can change in an instant. By fostering an emotional connection with audiences through experiential, this can help create a much stronger relationship between brand and customer.

It’s important to understand that this is a journey and not a destination, but fostering emotional connections through experiential can really help deliver on the goal of lifetime brand advocacy.

Enhancing brand perception 🥳

Another key benefit that comes with experiential is enhancing brand perception, especially to those unfamiliar.

One metric organisations use to understand their brand is ‘if my brand was a person, what type of person would they be?’ This is a great way to look at it BUT like people, brands need to communicate traits, behaviours and a personality. There’s no better platform to showcase these than through experiential.

If you’re a technology company that’s always cutting-edge, weave technology throughout your activation in an engaging way. Sustainable brand? Demonstrate an activation that encourages sustainability. Whatever the messages, people will understand them much better by experiencing that compared with say, reading about them.

Breathe new life into a venue or space 🎆

Today’s world is vastly different when compared with a decade ago, especially when it comes to things like town centres, high streets and even enormous department stores.

Experiential activations offer an engaging and effective way to breather new life into a venue or space. Pop-up shops are a great example, able to convert a disused premises into a fully functioning retail unit for a set duration, ideal for campaigns with a strict time window.

Another core benefit includes synonymising yourself with an area or population, such as a local brand engaging with its local customers.

Since COVID, there are loads of venues that lie empty, perhaps an experiential activation is a great way to make use and breathe new life into them…

Driving sales and ROI 💰

Lastly and most importantly for businesses or any size… the impact that experiential can have on driving sales and ROI.

Memorable campaigns stay with people and this, in turn, benefits the bottom line. All the reasons we’ve detailed above drive positive interactions between brand and audience.

Unsurprisingly, people are far, far more likely to give their hard earned money to brands they actually like and feel a strong connection with - in that regard, experiential campaigns are a must.

Our final thoughts… 🤔

Businesses and brands say they want to engage with their audiences, fans, customers and everyone similar but doing it well… that’s a challenge.

Experiential marketing campaigns are unique, they’re real and they’re great fun. They offer a way to engage unlike any other channel and if that’s a priority for your brand, you should start thinking.

As we’ve said, customer engagement is a journey, not a destination and if you’d like a little support, you know where we are!