Experiential Marketing is the art of creating an experience where the hoped-for result is an emotional connection to a person, brand, product or idea. It is a form of marketing or advertising based on the principle of marketing a product or brand through an experience rather than the placement of advertisements. Experiential marketing often involves events, contests, interactive campaigns to promote, however holistic experiential marketing considers the experience delivered to the customer through the purchase or use of the product or service.
While the name experiential marketing is relatively new, the fundamental concepts behind it are not. For decades activity such as field marketing, customer service, special events, product give-aways (free-sampling) and PR stunts have engaged consumers and the public emotionally. However, in recent years the concept of creating an experience for customers to help them form an emotional connection to a brand has become more specialized.
Since 2000 most major advertising agencies have been creating internal experiential divisions or making alliances with experiential providers. The rise of Experiential marketing can be attributed to 3 main drivers:
- Perception. Experiential marketing is seen as the ‘new thing’, the smart new way to connect with customers. Agencies need to be seen being able to deliver what the client or market demands
- Standard media is losing its traditional ability to connect with the public. Companies need new ways to connect with their target market.
- Creating an emotional connection through an experience has worked for brands in the past.
Unlike the TV advertising industry, as yet, there is not much evidence of independent, effective measurement and evaluation. Around the globe, a lot of discussion within the industry has been about the need for such measurement if it’s going to be taken seriously as a strategic marketing platform and compete against traditional forms of marketing. It is said that the industry and brand owners need to address this and take part in driving measurement and analytics forward.
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