EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the experience you provide.

Experiential marketing, also known as engagement marketing, is a valuable strategy that uses live experiences to forge authentic bonds between your brand and consumers.

Marketing can sometimes appear to be a cat and mouse game: brands, for example, try to attract customers by providing premium content and advertising, but customers instead install ad blockers and unsubscribe from newsletters. This means that experiential marketing is becoming more popular as marketers seek new ways to connect and engage with customers. Companies that incorporate experiential marketing into their brand positioning strategy are more likely to entice their target audience’s interest and build loyalty.

There is a lot of buzz about how business marketing and traditional advertising models want to be more effective. Experiential marketing provides advertisers with a completely new way to attract customers and capture their attention. Instead of telling them about your brand, you invite them to participate in it. This strategy is excellent for maintaining audience interest and interaction. If used correctly, it has the potential to play a significant role in your brand positioning strategy and set you apart from the competition.

“The most exceptional brands are electric and authentic. Genuine devotion to your brand’s beliefs generates trust, thus authenticity is important. Electric, because unless you can maintain consumer passion, that trust will be wasted.”, says Fadia Dwomoh, Director of Experiential Marketing at Idea Hive.

Coca-Cola is an excellent example of a global brand that has created memorable brand experiences through experiential marketing. Consider the following Coca-Cola campaign from December 2017: Because the handshake has been identified as an important gesture of self-expression for teenagers, Coca-Cola wanted to find a genuine way to participate in a shared moment between friends. While Coca-Cola had Shakes, the digital king of handshakes, the company needed to figure out a way to get teens to voluntarily shake hands Coke-style in experiential marketing.

They created a vending machine that demonstrated how to shake hands Coca-Cola style, which was supported by Coke ambassadors who would also teach young people the Coke handshake. See the link below for more information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYU-GlerphQ

Experiential marketing is made to make it easier for one to exhibit both of these qualities. After all, allowing customers inside is the best approach to demonstrate the genuineness of your brand promise.  

With that being said, what better approach to spark a flame than to create a chance for genuine connection? Experiential marketing, when done well, demonstrates that your clients are more important than the potential revenue they can generate.

Therefore, no matter what kind of business you run, or what your goals for marketing might be, make sure you give your customers an experience that they’re never going to forget.

For media enquiries contact:

Refiloe Mothibe

Refiloe.mothibe@ideahive.co.za

011 367 0672

074 718 5716

www.ideahive.co.za