You give your audience the experience of a lifetime, and they will want it repeatedly!
Let’s face it, work obligations have made us join a few of the most boring events. If you are not getting your audience excited about an event, the means do not fulfill the cause. Maybe you are getting a crowd this time, but the same crowd won’t return the next year.
For every event, the audiences are not returning for the concerts, food, speeches, or product you endorse. They are returning for the experience!
The Beauty & Terror Of Immersive Experience
Experiential marketing is one such marketing strategy that creative directors and artists have used for quite some time. Just before the launch of a movie, music album, or sports event, experiential marketing has statistically been able to bring more target audiences than others.
To support the statement, we will give you a well-known example known by marketers everywhere.
When the motion picture sequel of ‘The Ring’ was released, Paramount took the immersive experience a little too literally. What started as a normal day scouting for a new television in a store turned terrifying.
Paramount Pictures brought one such character to life, which many wouldn’t wish in their worst nightmare.
All the television screens turned into the terrifying scene from the movie (spoiler alert!), and Samara, the evil spirit, started climbing out from one of the screens. Not only did it sell more tickets, but the movie now has a cult following after this campaign was streamed all over social media, with youtube itself having more than 200 million views of the video.
Safe to say, there are still horror fans out there who watched the movie solely after viewing this genius experiment.
What Is Experiential Marketing
To explain in simple terms, it is a form of engagement marketing that isn’t limited to the audience just as a viewer; rather, it encourages them to participate. For an inaugural sports event, wouldn’t it be better for the audience to play the sports in a life-size play station rather than hearing the chairman speak for hours?
Even Netflix is on board with hiring professional event production companies to create a rather immersive experience when launching different seasons for their top-charting shows.
Experiential marketing often starts as an experiment, where marketers and PR try to find ways in which the audience is able to experience the product from a first-person perspective rather than just hearing about it.
The audience gets the experience and also the choice to buy merchandise. This also increases the chance of brand loyalty. After all, there is no better way to target a target audience’s memory more than the visual or auditory experience which immersive events have a potential to bring. This creates subconscious reminders to pick your brand over others!
Although experiential marketing has been in the market for quite some time, there are many who are still hearing about it. More than 60% of brands have reported positive growth in sales after an immersive experiential marketing event.
A good way to understand experiential marketing and start brainstorming ideas is this:
Focus less on what you can show to your audience with them sitting down. Rather focus more on how you can get them off those seats and interact with the brand. So, less sitting-down concerts and more life-size arcade games.
How To Carry Forward The Experiential Marketing Plan
So, this is your first time trying the whole immersive event experience. Yes, immersive events do hold a higher budget than normal, but it is a proven formula to increase sales. However, the budget and time could be wasted without proper execution. Certainly, you do not want that.
This is why we are bringing a handy-dandy guide for your very first immersive event to make your experiential marketing campaign even better.
- Brainstorm legendary experiential marketing campaigns whose effects are still causing ripples in the market. Then start looking through companies that are close to your niche. We are not asking you to copy their idea verbatim but make an extensive customer analysis of what kind of events are being liked by the target audience.
- Market research is the key to good experiential marketing. Therefore, before you start brainstorming ideas, try to find what the audience wants. You can do so by creating brand awareness over different social media platforms. The next step would be to start interacting with the audience. Finding out what their interest areas are, getting to know their desires, and how the event can make them true. Try to hold a disguise when interacting with the audience, maybe join a community, and get first-hand opinions.
- Try to categorize your age demography; just because it is immersive doesn’t mean it will be loved by all demography. For example, a disney themed immersive experience is more for the kids (and the kids at heart in some cases), but your primary audience can’t be grown audiences.
- Travel to different events with immersive themes and try to gather first-hand research on how they are being executed.
- Do not try to do it all by yourself. You might have the idea and the master plan, but leave the execution to the professionals of an event production company. Especially someone like Great Gotham Challenge who has the experience of working in several successful immersive events to back them up. They will bring your master plan reality with hassle-free, streamlined execution.
A Long Lasting Connection!
Gone are the days when business was just about bringing customers and selling products. Now it is becoming more into building connections and credibility. Focusing more on corporate culture, CSRs, and targeting the emotional quotient of the target audience rather than just the financial side.
This is why experiential marketing is becoming quite the trend.
- It is great to build connections by literally inviting the audience to participate in the brand.
- There is no barrier since a good immersive event can be hosted over virtual platforms as well.
- A good event can be recorded and live on the internet forever. Making it even easier for marketers to have a long-lasting effect on their audience.