Choosing an experiential marketing agency can be daunting so we’ve put together a list to help.

Are you interested in hiring an experiential marketing agency? Are you ready to make this move immediately? If you answered yes to both these questions, you need to find the right company without delay.

While it is easy to believe that most experiential marketing agencies offer the same basic services, knowledge, and experience, nothing could be further from the truth.

As you look for an experiential marketing agency, you need to focus on these seven details:

1. Experience: How many years of experience does the agency have? How many years have they been serving clients in the local area? Generally speaking, the cheapest agencies are typically those with the least amount of experience.

Tip: you can verify experience by requesting a portfolio of past events.

2. Staffing: It is essential to learn as much as you can about how the agency recruits its talent. Remember, these are the people who are going to be representing your brand. You want to make sure you are comfortable with how the staffing process will unwind.

Here are a few of questions to ask:

* Can you supply staff in my city without any delay?
* Do you hire and manage your own staff or do you subcontract from another agency? (this is VERY important)
* How do you guarantee that the staff is qualified and trained to effectively communicate my brand’s message?

3. Planning Ability: Regardless of the event, your experiential marketing agency must have the experience and knowledge to plan with great success.

Has the agency planned similar events in the past?
Do they have strong relationships with vendors and venues?
Are they creatively capable to innovate something that has never been done before?

If you focus on answering these questions, you will eventually determine if they have the necessary planning skills.

4. Execution Ability: It is one thing to plan an experiential marketing event. It is another thing entirely to execute from beginning to end.

The ability to coordinate the finer details of the event, from installation and safety to disaster management, this is something you cannot afford to overlook. The most experienced experiential marketing agencies know what to expect, so they are prepared for anything. They have a plan A as well as a plan B and C – just in case things don’t go as expected.

5. Metrics: How are you going to know if your event was a success? Don’t ever consider a experiential marketing agency that will not supply you with metrics that allow you to track campaign performance.

Not only will this help you determine how much success you had, but it will go a long way from a financial perspective as well. With the right metrics, you can answer this one very important question: what was your return on investment?

6. Head Office Management: When comparing experiential marketing agencies, start at the top. Take a closer look at how long the head office management has been with the company. Along with this, inquire about the background of their people. How much experience do they have in the field? What other projects have they managed? Do they have recommendations from other clients you can speak to?

7. Testimonials: An experiential marketing agency that is unable to provide you with testimonials is one that you should avoid at all costs. If past clients are willing to put their name on a testimonial they must be happy with the final results.

Now that you know what to look for in a experiential marketing agency, let the search begin!