If you want your customers to retain a real-world connection with your brand, then you might want to think about giving them an experience they’ll remember forever. We’re talking big. Think more along the lines of letting consumers step into a real-life coffee shop from a Netflix reboot and less of those frustrating cold calls that people now find a bit intrusive.
Image Credit: Marquette Messenger
Turns out this is your lucky day. There are lots of different types of experiential marketing for your brand to play around with. Here are some of our favourites you should try for your next campaign.
- Product Showcase
- White-Glove Experience
- Content Generating Stunts
- Pop-Up Stores
- Immersive Experiences
Product Showcase
If we tried to sell you some football boots from a worn out box, you wouldn't buy them. Even if we say they’re the next big craze and that you’ll be the next Lionel Messi as soon as you put them on. You’ll want to see them, you’ll think of the shoddy packaging, you’ll try them on, visualise yourself as the GOAT for a few seconds before (hopefully) parting with your hard-earned cash.
So if you know you’ve got a fantastic product, then shout about it! Put on a showcase to grab your audience’s attention so consumers can experience what your product does rather than just being told about it. Just make it a big deal. Fancy taking it up a notch? Incorporate some technology like VR to fully immerse buyers into an experience.
Check this example out from BMW. The German car manufacturer utilised augmented reality which enabled customers to explore their ideal BMW i3 or i8 model as a real-size, interactive visualisation. Basically, consumers got to see what their dream car would look like in front of them.
White-Glove Experience
Customers that are loyal to luxury brands want something unique. That doesn’t mean you need to take their coats, hand them a glass of Dom Perignon and give them a shoulder massage all evening. But you can still offer them a high-level service and show that your product or service is superior to your competitors’.
Put on a white-glove experience to show consumers exactly what sets you apart and what they should expect when purchasing from your brand in the future. Here are a few popular examples if you’re looking for a bit of inspiration.
- Drive Sales: Hennessy showcased the history of its cognac to loyal customers, taking them back in time via hosted cocktail making masterclasses.
- Remain Relevant: Hermès popped up in an unlikely location at a laundromat. Fans could buy a Hermès scarf or bring one of their own and after a few spins in the fancy washing machine (well, 48 hours later), they would have their creation.
- Showcase Brand Values: Louis XIII Cognac aligned itself to fight climate change. The cognac brand worked with Pharrell Williams to record a song which will release in 100 years - if we look after the planet. A pretty clever move, especially since it nicely reflects the time it takes to produce this century-long drink.
Content Generating Stunts
Want to get people talking? Then this is your best bet if you can pull it off. The media is always ready to pounce when a celebrity has their latest breakdown, but they also love to be the first that covers a stunt the world is raving about. If you want to do the same, keep your audience in mind and make sure your content is creative and shareable.
You could do something like Heineken’s departure roulette. It involved people changing their flight plans last-minute at the airport by spinning the roulette wheel and flying to whatever it landed on. Or if you want something truly bonkers, you might want to send someone from your team to space as Red Bull did with skydiver Felix Baumgartner.
Yeah, it’s crazy, but it broke records for live streams and the energy drink brand earned tens of millions of dollars in global exposure. If you can think of a stunt that has the potential to go viral for your brand, try it out. Now to find someone willing to freefall from 128,000 feet to take one for the team...
Pop-Up Stores
If someone from the Kardashian clan like Kylie Jenner is all-in on pop-up stores, then it's a sign that it’s something worth looking into. When you have a new product and you want to get people talking to build some hype around the release, why not create your very own mini event?
This turns something really simple and dull into something unique. When Kylie Jenner launched her new Falcon range with Adidas, the campaign literally focused on the fact that they were ‘cool’ by sticking the trainers in drink coolers. They also reworked an old gas station on Hollywood Boulevard into a personal pop-up show space, so that’s one way to go big.
Netflix had a pretty good pop-up store attempt as well. The Gilmore Girls launch in 2016 saw them create a real-life Luke’s Diner in 50 states. It was a massive hit on social media and loyal fans apparently waited for hours in line to get in. You might not be Kylie with billions in the bank, but that shouldn’t stop you from diving in.
Immersive Experience
Considering experiential marketing is all about immersing guests and taking them to a new world, why not let them experience your brand - literally. You can create something genuinely memorable if you mix the real world with the virtual and offer guests something they can’t get anywhere else.
If you love a bit of cosplay (not judging, whatever floats your boat), then you’ll love this. HBO’s Westworld immersive experience took the world by storm. Over 4,000 guests managed to experience this two-acre, real-life version of Sweetwater. They populated it with more than 60 costumed actors and realistic humanoid robots that played a significant role.
How often do you see that? It’s immersive experiences like this which stand out and it’s what consumers want to share on social media. People have a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out) and want to get involved, plus the use of social media means they’ll spread the word for you. The end result? Your experiential marketing campaign is a massive success that has people talking.
Obviously, there’s a lot more you still might need to know about experiential marketing, so we just went and wrote the book on it…
Get Your Experiential Marketing Playbook
To help your next experiential marketing campaign live long in the memory, we’ve created the ultimate experiential marketing playbook. It’s full of all the info you need from the benefits, tips on running your own campaign, some nifty examples to take a bit of inspiration from and more.
To get your hands on this free playbook and leave your competition in the smoke, click on the link below.
