EMS 2019 is the Experiential Marketing Summit hosted by Event Marketer which takes place every year in May. Over 1,800 marketers gather to discuss how they are creating innovative, experiential marketing campaigns. Since experiential is a relatively new term that has really taken off in the past 10 years in marketing and advertising, many brands still don’t have a firm grasp of what it means. So, what does experiential marketing really mean?
Meaningful Interactions with a Brand
Creating experiences that celebrate a brand’s voice while encouraging interaction or trial with your target audience is essential to experiential marketing. Activities at events, pop-ups throughout a city, and installations in existing locations are all examples of experiential activations. Essentially, you need five things for a successful experiential campaign:
- A Strategy
- Location(s)
- Target Audience(s)
- A Message
- Brand Experience(s)
Much like any form of advertising, experiential marketing is meant to generate awareness and leave consumers with a positive brand sentiment that leads to a desired action. These five essential pieces need to all work together so that the experience clearly speaks to the benefits of the product or service. In a nutshell: it’s creating a more direct and personal dialogue with the consumer.
Switch has over 39 years of experience in connecting brands with consumers, and how we approach experiential marketing for our clients is what sets us apart.
Appealing to both the Emotional and Rational
Creating experiences that matter. Experiences that get people talking. Experiences that encourage engagement. Experiences that provide brand alignment. Experiences that create brand loyalty. With experiential marketing, you want the experiences your agency creates to be so many things. Yet, at the end of the day, experiential also needs to communicate how a product’s unique features will benefit consumers. Striking a balance between the physical and emotional connections with a brand is key to truly creating experiences that matter.
On Time and On Budget
Even though an experiential marketing campaign provides a huge, blank canvas when it comes to creativity, that doesn’t mean that it gives you a limitless amount of resources to bring your vision to life. Whether it’s the printing of signage or acquiring the proper materials to create the experience, time and time again, agencies go over budget or are late on the deliverables. Switch takes prides in being an agency of record that is known for being on time and on budget. Despite all the variables that come with experiential, an agency with experience in this field will think through all the possible hidden costs or “surprise” expenses that may come up and build that into the proposed budget.
Understanding the Business, Not Just the Ask
Research, data, you name it. Diving deep into our client’s business ensures that we don’t just deliver on the challenge or campaign goal — it means that our work aligns perfectly with the brand. When you fully understand a brand, audiences can connect the dots regardless of the medium. Whether they are online looking at the brand’s digital platforms or at an outdoor event, brand alignment is essential for messaging to resonate with audiences. Because at the end of the day, we aren’t an agency that’s producing work that we think is cool and to win awards — we are producing work that generates results.
Do you have any questions about experiential marketing or just want to chat?
Contact Chris Jobst
314.206.7804 or ChrisJ@switch.us
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