A few decades ago, experiential marketing was better known as event marketing. To start a career or even your own agency, all you needed was a truck and a ladder. At least that is how experiential marketing guru Steve Randazzo remembers his first few years in the industry. In those days, no one asked about a return on investment (ROI). Event impressions and consumer interactions were all that counted.
Today, the industry is all grown up, and no serious experiential marketer would suggest a campaign without considering how to gather data and measure impact. One thing that hasn’t changed is the variety that the industry provides for those working in it and the excitement that comes with organizing something memorable for consumers.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Cutting Through the Clutter
Experiential marketing may have changed in that data now governs it. However, another thing that remains true about successful experiential marketing is how these campaigns manage to cut through the clutter. What do we mean by clutter? All the information we are surrounded by in our daily lives, including social media channels and other sources.
Managing to cut through that clutter remains the goal of every single experiential marketing campaign. When it comes to helping a brand stand out, experiential activities simply beat others. Take TV advertising, for example. In 2022, except for big sports events, very few Americans still watch live TV. Instead, most of us DVR our favorite shows and don’t need to sit through commercials.
(You can listen to the full episode of the podcast below.)
Social Media Impact
This is one of the reasons why brands are looking to social media, especially TikTok. What’s setting TikTok apart from Facebook, Instagram, and others? The platform is relatively new and user engagement is sky-high. TikTok content cuts through the clutter. But experiential marketing experts believe that it is only a question of time until TikTok becomes as noisy as Instagram, for example.
What’s more, marketing experts are starting to believe that social media marketing has become a standard channel for brands. As such, it may no longer do enough to help brands stand out as much and deliver the conversions they are looking for.
Delivering ROI in a Noisy Environment
If fewer marketing channels manage to cut through the noise and stand out to consumers, then how can brands attract attention to their products and services? Here is the secret: start with the end in mind.
To develop a successful campaign that delivers for your brand, start by defining what constitutes excellent ROI for you. In other words, what are you trying to achieve? Here are two examples:
- Driving a certain number of people back into your stores to deliver a certain amount of sales
- Convincing a set number of consumers to try a product because you have research that says X percent of people convert into customers
B2B and B2C have some similar ROI metrics, but experiential marketing can make a difference for both. In Part Two of our discussion with Steve Randazzo, we examine a B2B example of a successful event for an unlikely product. It’s more than successful – it’s inspirational.
Steve Randazzo is the president of Pro Motion Experiential Marketing and the best-selling author of ‘Brand Experiences: Building Connections in a Digitally Cluttered World’. For more information, visit his Linkedin page or his website steve-randazzo.com.
Additional Resources
FOR EXPERIENTIAL MARKETERS
- Experiential Measurement Blueprint
- Event Impression Calculator
- Experiential ROI Benchmarking Reports
- Event Measurement Video Tutorials