What is experiential marketing, and how to use it?

Summary/Overview

Experiential marketing is all about creating stand-out brand experiences that customers find memorable and immersive. It steps away from traditional marketing strategies and focuses on building more meaningful relationships with your audience, through proactive and interactive campaign tactics.

In this guide, we’ll explore some experiential marketing examples, as well as some useful strategies, so you can learn how to adapt the technique to your brand.

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What is experiential marketing?

Experiential marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on creating a memorable experience for the customer. It doesn’t necessarily follow traditional marketing methods; rather, it looks to create an engaging and unique experience to help strengthen the business-to-consumer (B2C) relationship.

Besides experiential marketing, the technique is sometimes referred to as engagement marketing or ground marketing. Either way, it does what the name suggests. Often, experiential campaigns create experiences that encourage people to personally interact with a brand, activity or event – whether that be in-person or virtually.

For example, many PR campaigns can be considered experiential – from street-side pop-ups to interactive booths and shows. Launch events are also a great example, as these can combine different engagement tactics, for example, hosting interactive presentations and providing merchandise.

What are the benefits of experiential marketing?

Experiential marketing can be highly effective when tailored to the right audience. The technique offers some unique benefits in comparison to traditional marketing, including:

• Driving engagement. Experiential marketing is direct and interactive, naturally encouraging engagement and personal connection.
• Building brand loyalty. Personal, positive brand experiences can help build brand loyalty and healthy B2C relationships, fostering trust between your brand and your customers.
• Boosting awareness. Encouraging direct engagement and interaction helps spread positive word-of-mouth, putting your brand in front of more people.
• Creating a community. More personal connections, tailored campaigns and direct interactions help you build a strong community of customers.
• Going viral. This isn’t always a given, but more creative and engaging experiential marketing ideas encourage organic social media sharing.

When done well, experiential marketing goes beyond engagement to deliver business results. Stronger loyalty, wider reach, and organic advocacy can translate into lasting revenue growth and a stronger competitive edge.

Free experiential marketing template ideas.

Experiential marketing examples to inspire your own strategies.

Before you get stuck into ideating your experiential marketing campaigns, it’s a good idea to workshop a few different strategies. You may also want to take a look at what competitors are doing to see what works—and what doesn’t.

Below, we take a look at a few of the more popular experiential marketing examples to help you get started.

In-person events.

Live experiences capture visitor attention in multiple ways—from creating memorable, tangible experiences to engaging their physical senses. It provides an opportunity to allow potential customers to experience your brand in the ‘real world’ rather than just seeing or hearing about it online.

Guerilla marketing tactics.

Guerilla marketing uses the idea of surprise to catch people off guard and create a memorable brand impression. This experiential marketing technique focuses on creating high impact with low cost—often well-executed ‘stunts’ that aim to generate wider buzz. For example, an installation in a busy public space or a striking sidewalk mural can surprise passersby, spark curiosity, and quickly spread on social media

Pop-ups.

Pop-ups by nature are temporary, which drives urgency and exclusivity. People don’t want to miss out, and the more creative a pop-up idea, the more brand intrigue you’ll build. This tactic is often tied to PR campaigns, which means they’re often made with the intention of becoming newsworthy and viral.

Brand activations.

Brand activations are interactive experiences that focus on turning potential customers into active ones. They engage with people directly, helping them to experience a brand in a tangible, memorable way. Examples include product sampling, experience testing and interactive installations.

AR and VR experiences.

AR and VR experiences allow you to fully immerse your audience in your brand’s world. Rather than being told about something or hearing about it, they can live your story through a virtual environment. You can use this technology to help people visualise products, try on clothes or even test out certain experiences before they buy.

Product demonstrations.

Product demonstrations are a hands-on experiential marketing example. Letting customers try products before they buy builds trust, removes uncertainty, and often shortens the decision-making process—while keeping your brand top of mind long after the event. Demonstrations can range from trying a new skincare line at a pop-up event to taking a new car for a test drive.

Editable experiential marketing design examples.

Tips for creating your own experiential marketing campaign.

So, you’ve got your experiential marketing idea down and you’re nearly ready to go. Before you start putting plans into place, however, there are a few final things to keep in mind:

• Tailor the experience. You’ll never appeal to absolutely everyone, so ensure you’re targeting the right people at the right time.
• Set realistic goals. Be specific with what you want to achieve, and make sure there’s a way to measure the effectiveness of your experiential marketing campaign.
• Choose the right venue. The location you choose should be the perfect fit for your concept. Think about the general ambience and whether you can rely on enough foot traffic.
• Plan your budget. Experiential marketing relies on you being creative and thinking out of the box, but don’t get carried away. Try to deliver a high-impact experience within budget.
• Focus on unique brand USPs. Your experience needs to be memorable and create a lasting impact, so lean on what makes your brand unique in the space.

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Useful things to know.

What are the 5 Cs of experiential marketing?

The 5 Cs of experiential marketing are considered to be:

• Connection. Building personal and meaningful connections.
• Content. Creating effective and valuable content that speaks to your audience.
• Context. Choosing the right environment to ensure the overall message and experience is relevant and immersive.
• Community. Fostering connection among your customers using relevant data and insights.
• Commerce. Ensuring the journey to purchasing is as natural and streamlined as possible.

Is experiential marketing only for big brands?

No, experiential marketing ideas can be used no matter the size of your business. The strategy itself focuses on the quality of the experience provided and creativity rather than expensive campaigns and mass production. Whatever the size of your brand, experiential marketing can help you drive awareness and build strong relationships between you and your customers.

Who is the father of experiential marketing?

Bernd H. Schmitt is generally considered the ‘father’ of experiential marketing. He was a professor at Columbia Business School who first coined the term in his book ‘Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to Sense, Feel, Think, Act, and Relate to Your Company and Brands’. His focus was on creating an immersive, holistic experience for consumers that engaged with them on a personal and emotional level.

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