What is Experiential Marketing?

Experiential marketing (XM) aims to create memorable and immersive brand experiences that go beyond traditional advertising methods. It often involves live events, interactive campaigns, and direct engagement with the target audience. The goal is to build a stronger emotional connection between the brand and the consumer.

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It's not just about showing them what you offer, but letting them get a taste of it for themselves.  

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But what is experiential marketing? How is it implemented, and, more importantly, how does your brand stand to benefit from it? 

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Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about experience marketing, its benefits, and key strategies to keep in mind when creating these types of campaigns.

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Experiential Marketing Explained

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What is experiential marketing? Can it help promote your brand and increase conversion? Is it more effective in reaching your market and engaging them than traditional marketing?

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While traditional marketing sees consumers as rational and their buying decisions a result of purely logical steps, experiential marketing sees them as both rational and emotional. 

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This type of marketing acknowledges that a buyer doesn’t just use reason to purchase a product or service. Rather, there are a lot of other factors at play that affect consumer behaviour like imagination, spontaneity, fantasies, and deep feelings. 

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As such, experience marketing uses all five senses to make consumers truly understand a product or service and differentiate it from the competition. It uses unique and creative settings to help consumers experience your brand in ways that leave a lasting impact.

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Experiential Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

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A billboard that promotes a product or service is fine, but it’s just seen by consumers. 

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Experiential marketing in the real world goes beyond this by creating unique environments that stimulate the senses to draw consumers closer to you to create a positive, lasting impression. Here are some examples: 

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Positive and unique experiences that engage the consumers’ senses like those in the left column not only reinforce the relationship between your brand and existing customers but also curate the kind of experiences needed to attract new ones, too!

The Benefits of Experiential Marketing

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Experiential marketing brings businesses a multitude of benefits. We’ve laid out some of the reasons why it’s worth investing in.

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It Generates Leads and Increases Sales

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According to statistics, 65% of companies experience a growth in sales as a result of experiential marketing events. This is supported by the data that says 91% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product or service after attending a brand event. Furthermore, 70% of people who engage in experience marketing initiatives become repeat customers.

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It Attracts Media Attention

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A unique and engaging experiential marketing event will successfully attract influencers and media outlets. If your marketing efforts are noticed, these people can help you reach more people! 

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It’s Highly Shareable

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An experiential marketing event that’s compelling—and therefore, worth sharing—will capture the interest of a lot of people, who in turn will take pictures and videos, and then share them on social media. This exposure will help raise brand awareness and is a prime example of how technology boosts the success of XM events.

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Examples of Successful Experiential Marketing Campaigns

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So, what does experiential marketing look like when it works? Here are three examples of campaigns we believe hit it out of the park. 

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Polar Winter Festival was Canada’s first multi-level holiday drive-through experience. Situated in a six-storey parking lot, The Concierge Club transformed this commonplace venue into a magical winter wonderland.

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Each level had its own theme designed to infuse some sense of normalcy and a whole lot of holiday cheer into an otherwise dreary 2020. Visitors to the event were transported through a crystal cave, an LED light tunnel, a visit with Santa, and a whole lot more. 

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The best part about the event was that you could immerse yourself in the experience in person while still staying safe and cozy because you didn’t have to leave your car!  

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5 Key Points in Creating Effective Experiential Campaigns

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Want to create a winning experiential marketing strategy? Take note of these five key considerations when creating your next experience marketing campaign. 

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An easy way to do this is by creating Instagram-worthy photo opportunities. This way, the experience speaks for itself! 

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Your Brand’s Experiential Marketing Campaign Starts Here

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So, what is experiential marketing? It’s an approach that goes beyond standard event marketing to build connections and earn brand loyalty, exciting your target audiences with immersive experiences—it’s also what we do best at The Concierge Club. 

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Our team of experiential marketers has over 10 years of experience curating, executing, and quantifying premium experiential marketing campaigns for some of North America’s most notable brands, including Sephora, Dynamite, GUCCI, Yves Saint Laurent, and more.

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We can’t wait to show you the power of experience marketing. Reach out to our team to find out how we can bring your vision to life in the form of a jaw-dropping experiential campaign. 

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