Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Top 5 Tips to Turn Your Marketing Techniques from Yawn to Yay!

“98% of users feel more inclined to purchase after experiencing experiential marketing campaigns” – (Medium)

After reading that statistic you may be thinking, “Well, why isn’t every brand carrying out experiential marketing?”. Personally, I can understand that creating, developing, and selecting the perfect experiential marketing campaigns for your brand or product are probably the hardest part of any marketing plan.

To start, there are a few simple questions you should ask yourself before developing experiential marketing campaigns:

• What is our budget?
• Who are we targeting?
• What is our mission? 
• Where do we start?

All very basic questions, but questions that need answers none the less! If you’ve answered most of those questions and are struggling with developing a campaign or idea, I’ve got you covered. Below are my top 5 experiential marketing techniques that will take your current methods from “yawn to yay!”.

1) Pop Up Shop/Experience

What better way than to surprise and delight your target market by creating a pop-up shop in a nearby town or city! Pop-up shops are booming within the experiential marketing industry because not only can they be used for giving away product, they can also be used to create a more elaborate interactive experience. Most pop-up shops are a blank slate for your brand to get as creative as they want within the space.

For example, you want to get consumers to sample your coffee. However, you don’t just want people to come in, try the sample, and leave. So, create an atmosphere, put branding on the walls, pull in some couches, tables, chairs, maybe some games or a photo op, and voila! Not only are consumers trying your coffee, you created an environment where they can stay in your branded lounge, chat with friends, post to social – you name it!

Pop-up shops are great and a ton a fun, and they also create a sense of urgency for consumers to visit. By letting your audience know your shop will “only be open for the weekend” or “only open for two weeks”, it enforces consumers to go out of their way to make time for you and your brand. You’d be surprised how many people will find time in their day in order to experience or visit something that may not come back again.

2) Influencers

I know using the word “influencers” sounds very millennial, however the power of the internet is strong and has a worldwide reach. When people think of influencers, they always think big name celebrities such as “Kendall Jenner” or “David Beckham”, however you’d be shocked what your return of investment could be just by reaching out to local influencers in your area. Using influencers doesn’t mean you need to spend 10s of thousands of dollars! Reach out to PR agencies, or even invite some influencers to your next corporate event or product launch via social media.

The key to this is research – make sure that the influencers you select to attend your events or post about your product, really encompass your brand and their following matches your target market.

3) Branded Mobile Vehicle or Food Truck

When people think branded vehicles, they think mobile advertising. But how cool would it be if you made that branded vehicle into its own marketing activation?! There are a few reasons why a branded vehicle could be the right direction for your company or brand. For example, a branded food truck is a unique and eye-catching way to grab your target market. Even if your brand isn’t “food” related, there could be a few other reasons why this may be the perfect opportunity for your brand. Food trucks are mobile. Do your research on where your target market is, what they like to do after work, what their hobbies are etc., and target those areas and turn them into sampling locations for your brand! This guarantees you hit multiple locations, while maximizing your audience – All. Day. Long!

Branded food trucks are also a great way to create a more personalized experience on a budget. We all know a product or service heavily relies on touch, feelings, or experiences, and what better way to do that than creating a one-on-one opportunity with you consumers. Just because it’s a food truck doesn’t mean you have to distribute food from it. The options are endless; you could distribute branded sunglasses near a beach, or distribute branded treats near a park or transit stop. Just pick an item, or even a few, and run with it! Mobile food trucks are all about having fun; surprise and delight.

Finally, social media. Social media and technology touch the lives of everyone. Since experience plays a huge factor in experiential marketing, make sure your food truck design or experience within the footprint outside of the truck are photo worthy or “Instagrammable”, as the kids say.

4) Guerilla Sampling

Guerilla style marketing campaigns are typically low in budget but maximize a brands impact on its consumers. Normally, people would think that guerilla sampling is a tactic for small businesses, however that is no longer the case in the marketing world! You’ll notice brands like RedBull, Coca Cola, Kraft and many more, carrying out unique and memorable guerilla style marketing campaigns. Reason for this? Every company, big or small, loves a good way to keep budgets low while also increasing their target demographic. If there is a bigger budget in play and you love guerrilla style marketing, add some quirky uniforms, branded bikes, or larger branded assets to really make your campaign unstoppable.

5) Gamification

Gamification can be a simple add on into any existing experiential marketing or sampling campaign to adjust consumer’s mindsets and encourage them to be more open to buying your product. While picking a game for your event sounds easy, it is important to consider the relevance of your product or service to the game. You want to ensure that you’re creating a unique and memorable brand experience for every consumer that participates in your game.

When people think games, they think branded bean bog toss, or spin wheels etc., however, experiential marketing will give you the tools to go above and beyond the ordinary games. Think of a life size adult ball pit, or a huge colourful spin wheel, or putting your brand’s creative spin on a variety of carnival games. If your budget allows, you could even go as far as incorporating technology-based games or virtual reality!

Not sure how to go about building experiential marketing campaigns? That’s what we’re here for! Tigris Events has extensive experience within the experiential marketing world. Contact us today for a free quote.