Common Mistakes To Avoid When Planning An Experiential Marketing Event
- Cori Burcham
- Sep 16, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 10, 2019
According to a report from Rakuten Marketing, 63% of global consumers believe online advertising needs to improve. Since many consumers are beginning to prefer impactful experiences to traditional advertising, brands are starting to spend more on experiential marketing events. But how can you ensure that your brand’s experiential event will be worth the investment? Some marketers who choose live marketing to bolster their brand make crucial mistakes in the planning stages that could lead to the failure of your live activation. Let’s explore some of the most common mistakes to avoid when planning an experiential marketing event:
Poor Customer Experience
Experiential has been defined in the past as the method of “expressing a brand’s purpose and proposition through a form of real world consumer interaction.” For an event that places so much importance on the consumer’s opinion, even the smallest factors could rub the customer the wrong way and do the opposite of what the event intended, driving away customers and, therefore, sales. It’s these small factors which make the event’s ROI so difficult to determine.
From poor personalization to significant delays, any number of things could have a negative effect on the consumer’s experience, which is why double checking the little details matters.
Watch out for these additional factors, which can negatively impact the consumer experience:
Poorly trained brand ambassadorsNot planning for the worst case scenarioChoose right location for brand’s demographic and personality
Limited View of the Customer
Experiential marketing’s greatest strength can at times be its greatest flaw. Marketing campaigns that focus on giving the consumer a memorable experience may build loyalty and a personal bond with customers, but trust is hard to quantify in terms of value.
According to Sarah Priestman, the president of Sense New York, “Experiential agencies are often obsessed with anecdotal customer feedback, time-lapse films showing the ‘event in action,’ surveys reporting that 99% of attendees said ‘It was great, we loved taking part.’ All these elements can be important to a rounded piece of evaluation, but are really not a clear indication of the attitudinal shift, the change in consumer behavior or the incremental profit generated from the experiential campaign.”
This is where real-time data about the consumer becomes essential in order to determine the event’s ROI. Consumer-driven data will tell brands what customers want out of the experience, whether it be a quote, a call from a sales representative, or if they’re simply browsing. As a result, more actionable data about the customer’s needs can help determine their behavior as a consumer and present a clear ROI.
Not Utilizing Social Media
In an increasingly digital age, social media can be an ally that marketers shouldn’t neglect when planning their experiential marketing event. Serving as an effective form of free advertising, it can be used before, during, and after a live marketing campaign.
Brands can use social media as a platform to announce their event, reach out to influencers, and hold a Q&A with customers beforehand. Not only will this establish a dialogue between the consumers and the brand, but it will also build hype for the upcoming event. When the event is finally launched, attendees should be encouraged to post their own content to share the experience with their online community.
After the event has concluded, social media can also act as a means with which to reach out to your brand’s entire demographic for feedback on a cost-effective and convenient platform. Here are just some of the ways social media can be used to connect your brand with consumers even after the experiential event has ended:
Thank those who attended the event
Share follow-up surveys and polls
Post your brand’s own content from the live activation
Communicate with the attendees about their experience
Viewing Experiential As An Isolated Event
Many marketers approach experiential marketing as an event that stands alone rather than as part of the brand’s omnichannel, and that’s a mistake. Omnichannel is a form of marketing that utilizes multiple channels, whether online, in-store, or through personal outreach by phone or email, to bring customers a collective experience, and experiential events should be viewed as another channel, even though a complex one.
Jon Schulz, the CMO of Viant Technology, says, “I can expose 10 million people to a TV ad, but half of them won’t even see it because they’re looking at their phones. The others won’t really act on it because they’re sitting in their living rooms, or their recall won’t be strong enough. With experiential, maybe only 200 people will interact with my display, but 50 of them will buy a car. So, it just depends on how that interaction ultimately converts and how I can measure that.”
While live marketing events can be difficult to measure, that doesn’t mean they should be left out of your calculations. Including experiential marketing events as part of your band’s omnichannel will allow greater visibility, combining online and offline data to create one unified view of the consumer.
Hosting More Than One Experiential Event A Year
Live marketing events give credence to the saying, “too much of a good thing.” One common mistake amongst marketers is to host more than one experiential marketing event within the span of a year, contradicting the entire reason why experiential events work.
Creating a remarkable and impressive event that sticks in the mind of consumers is the main goal of any experiential event, but an experience of its kind is memorable because it’s rare; and when done right, experiential events inspire a loyalty amongst customers that lasts long-term.
Instead of hosting more than one event a year, marketers could borrow the main factor that makes experiential marketing a success, creating a personalized connection between the brand and the consumers, and employ it in other marketing campaigns.
Sources:
https://www.limelightplatform.com/blog/benefits-experiential-events-marketing https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/3-priorities-that-will-help-experiential-marketers-step-up-their-game-in-2018/
[Originally produced for an event management company associated with Marketing Insider Group in May 2019]
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