A recent survey by industry leader Adobe found that within both suppliers and clients, customer experience was providing the “single most exciting opportunity for 2014.” Amongst consumers, customer experience ranks ahead of mobile which should tell you just how much buyers value experience. What businesses need to do is give these customers ways of framing experiences. And that’s where experiential marketing comes in.
You motivate consumers to experiment with your products
Basically, experiential marketing involves motivating consumers to experiment with your products and to refer the products to others. Word of mouth marketing, one of the most powerful forms of marketing plays a huge role in the concept of experiential marketing.
This type of marketing is more about out-of the-box thinking rather than shelling out loads of cash. So you are not going to rely on your dollars for increased sales but rather a team of highly innovative individuals to provide you with the best ROI possible.
Maybe it would help to use a few examples.
- Jump with Derrick
You probably watched “Jump with Derrick” on YouTube or some other social channel .The advert really attracted some attention.
A new line of sneakers from basketball champion Derrick Rose was being launched and instead of the normal launch events, what Adidas did was to create a brilliant “Jump with Derrick” campaign. Rose is well known for his jumping abilities on the basketball court. As a result Adidas decided to invite average Joes to compete with him to reach a 10-foot tall platform. Contestants who jumped to a height of a shelf placed at standard NBA rim won a pair of the Rose Adidas Sneakers.
Some succeeded, some didn’t. But after Adidas put the video out for the public, it received over 550,000 views! Inexpensive and sure to draw a crowd, so who was the real winner here?
- Missing piece in Milka chocolate bars
Another good example is when chocolate maker Milka intentionally decided to leave a single square of chocolate from a few purchased bars. Interestingly, Milka were only doing this so that they would later mail the missing piece to you or you could choose to send the rest of the bar to someone else and leave a personal note inside.
A small gesture as it may seem but you can imagine how much it improved their visibility. Just don’t mail it to Florida…
Summary
Remember that experiential marketing must still be tied to the business in some way. It can’t just be about entertaining your customers. And it never ends until you listen to and make use of customer feedback.
