Traditional marketing practices such as television, radio, and print advertising are known to be a form of communication that delivers the brand’s message either verbally or visually. Experiential marketing on the other hand helps the brand engage with the consumer by interacting with them through as many senses as possible. Instead of merely receiving information on the brand and its products, experiential marketing aims to create a series of events where consumers are provided with the opportunity, to taste, touch, learn and experience the product prior to making the purchasing decision.
More often than not, experiential marketing was known to be used by brands to supplement traditional marketing campaigns. However, over time brands have started to understand how independent experiential marketing programs can also strongly influence their consumers.
The primary reasons for this can be identified as the following:
- Statistics from Blackjack Promotions state that 89% of consumers want to try a product before they buy it.
- Brands are starting to sense how difficult it is to connect with consumers through traditional marketing methods, as they grow more and more likely to block and ignore ads.
As stated by the CMO of Mastercard, Raja Rajamannar, with the amount of clutter the consumers have to cut through on a daily basis, their attention span has been reduced to 6 seconds. In order to inspire the consumer in that amount of time, it is imperative for a brand to develop customer relationships by allowing them to co-create the brand’s marketing program. This in turn will imbed a memorable and emotional link in the consumer’s mind about the brand.
An article on AdWeek identifies how several brands such as Jaguar, Absolut, Mastercard, and more have started investing in experiential marketing to work on creating a substantial relationship with the consumer in order to induce customer loyalty. This is primarily because through experiential marketing brands can have a conversation with the consumers where there is a dialogue going back & forth hence allowing them to listen and understand their needs, wants, or concerns.
Having said all of the above, in today’s day & age the importance of social media, has slightly altered the KPIs for experiential marketing. Brands have noted that if the experience isn’t being documented and amplified on social platforms the exercise becomes worthless.