33 Reading: Events and Experiential Marketing

Experiential Marketing: Thinking Outside the Box

Experiential marketing (also called “guerrilla marketing”) is a relatively new marketing strategy that relies on unconventional, often low-cost tactics to create awareness of and goodwill toward a brand, product, service, or even a company. Experiential promotion strategies often combine elements of wit, humor, and spectacle to capture people’s attention and engage them in the marketing act.

Nike Livestrong at the Tour de France

Although this campaign was a full-blown IMC effort, at its core it was really a memorable experiential marketing stunt: the spectacle of painting the streets of France during the world-famous Tour de France bicycle race. It ran in 2008 when Lance Armstrong was still one of the most revered athletes of his generation. Designed to generate awareness for Nike, the nonprofit Livestrong Foundation, and the cause of fighting cancer, marketers succeeded in sharing inspiring messages of hope with their target audiences: athletes, sports enthusiasts and people affected by cancer, particularly young people.

Telltale Signs of Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing campaigns can be very diverse in their approach and tactics. So what do they have in common? Experiential marketing often has the following characteristics:

• It’s imaginative and surprising, but in a very hip or antiestablishment way
• Doesn’t resemble a traditional marketing initiative, such as a straightforward print or TV advertising campaign
• Uses combinations of different marketing communications tactics, in creative ways
• Is experiential, drawing in the target audience to participate
• Takes risks in what it aspires to accomplish, even if it might ruffle some feathers
• Is not 100 percent approved by the establishment (i.e. the city, the event planners, the powers that be)

When to Use Experiential Marketing

This edgy marketing approach focuses on two goals: 1) get media attention, and 2) make a positive and memorable connection with your target audience. Many noteworthy experiential campaigns, like Nike Livestrong, focus on creating an experience that embodies the spirit of the brand. Often these projects invite people who encounter the campaign to become co-conspirators in achieving the campaign’s vision and reach.

Experiential marketing experts assert that this technique can work for virtually any brand or organization, so long as the organization doesn’t mind taking some risks, and so long as the project is true to who you are and what you represent. The right concept for the experiential marketing effort should capture your organization’s authentic voice and express what is unique about your brand identity. At some point you may be asked to stand up for your actions if you’re called onto the carpet, so you need to believe in what you are doing. Experiential marketing is particularly suited to small, imaginative organizations that may not have much money but have a burning desire to do something memorable—to make an entrance or a splash. Severe budget constraints can encourage creative teams to be very inventive and original.^[1]

Because it is inherently spectacle, experiential marketing tactics work very well for building brands and generating awareness and interest in an organization, product, service, or idea. They aim to put a company on the map–the mind-share map. It’s interesting that experiential marketing often calls on the audience to engage or take action, but turning participants into a paying customers may not be the goal. However, successful experiential marketing can make audiences undergo a kind of “conversion” experience: if the impact is powerful enough, it can move consumers further along the path towards brand loyalty.

Take a look at the following experiential marketing spectacle organized by Belgium’s most popular TV channel, VTM. Notice how the event capitalizes on a unique combination of emotional appeal and surprise:

https://youtu.be/bQLCZOG202k

Experiential Marketing Tactics: The Usual Suspects

As you saw in the example of the lamppost transformed into a McDonald’s coffeepot, all kinds of spaces and urban environments present opportunities for the experiential marketer. In fact, experiential marketing initiatives can be executed offline or online. Some companies feel that an edgy, unexpected online campaign with creative experiential elements is a little safer than executing a project in the bricks-and-mortar world.

Despite the irreverent, antiestablishment spirit of experiential marketing, marketers should use good judgment about seeking permission from building owners, city managers, event planners, or others in a position of authority, to avoid unpleasant or unnecessary complications. Some coordination, or even a heads-up that something is happening, can go far toward earning goodwill and a cooperative spirit in the face of an unexpected spectacle.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing has several notable advantages. It can be inexpensive to execute—it’s often much cheaper than traditional advertising when you consider the number of impressions and amount of attention generated. It encourages creativity and inventiveness, since the goal is to create something novel and original. Experiential marketing is about buzz: it is designed for viral sharing, and it taps into powerful word-of-mouth marketing as people share their memorable experiential-inspired impressions and experiences with friends and acquaintances. An experiential marketing phenomenon can take on a life of its own and live in the memories of the people it affected long after the actual event is over. Finally, when executed effectively, experiential tactics are designed with media and publicity in mind. Media attention can snowball and generate a larger-than-expected “bounce” as local or even national outlets choose to cover these events.

As suggested above, experiential marketing also carries some disadvantages and risks. When an (apparently) spontaneous activity springs up in a public space, property owners, the police, and other authorities may object and try to interfere or stop the event. Unexpected obstacles can arise, which even the best-laid plans may have missed: weather, traffic, current events, timing, etc. Some audiences or bystanders may misinterpret what is happening, or even take offense at provocative actions or messages. When experiential projects are cloaked in secrecy or mystery, people may become uncomfortable or fearful, or the aura of mystery may cause them to interpret the message and goals incorrectly. Similarly, if people feel they have been duped by a experiential marketing activity, they may come away with negative impressions. If some people disapprove of a given experiential marketing activity or campaign, there’s a risk of backlash, anger, and frustration.

The Role of IMC in Experiential Marketing

As noted above, one telltale sign of experiential marketing is the way it blends multiple tactics to create maximum exposure and impact. Most experiential marketing campaigns incorporate multiple marketing communication methods and tools to carry out the the full vision. This makes them more than IMC compatible—they are really IMC dependent. For example, organizers of stunts and feats frequently film their activities and post them online to generate (hopefully) viral videos and other content. Real-world experiential messages and promotional pieces often include information to access company Web sites, where custom-designed landing pages welcome visitors to the online counterpart of the experience.

Social media is a staple of experiential marketing. Organizing, publicizing, and sharing a campaign’s outcomes and impact may all take place through social channels. Social media also helps generate the buzz that drives experiential content to become viral. As experiential activities draw media attention, they intersect with PR and media relations.