Defining Experiential Marketing

For many months now 'Experiential' has increasingly been THE buzz word in professional marketing circles. With so much net chatter and seemingly everyone being an 'expert' in what is probably the most dynamic and rewarding area of the marketing to present itself for a long time.So, what is Experiential marketing? What is all the fuss about? Does it really have any true value in these tough economic times?

After scouring the net, a multitude of blogs and too many industry forums; I have written my own. The challenge with anything exciting and new, is that words become jargon and misappropriated to describe activity which Experiential Marketing really is not; such as sampling or Brand Theatre - both of which can take place as part of Experiential Marketing activity, but on their own are simply what they are.

Taking a good look across the Marketing service providers and full service agencies, there are actually only a handful of true Experiential Marketing specialists (niche professionals) and only a similar amount of full service agencies with true experiential departments or skilled providers within them.

Definition: 

Experiential Marketing is a directed, engaging, creative interaction between a product or service and consumer. With the purpose of enhancing, driving or directing the perception of the product or service and the objective of increasing sales or adding perceptible value to the product or service.

Maintaining creative edge in the full service agency environment, especially during recession induced budget contractions, becomes key to both the survival and development of market share, not just for the clients but for the agencies themselves. Some, but not all of the key London agencies have responded over the last few years by developing their Experiential divisions, with now the most sought after creative talents, in recruitment terms for full service agencies being Experiential.

Understanding Experiential marketing, and acquiring those skills for the successful agencies of the future will be key success factors in the coming months and years. Our clients have always wanted differential but now they need it more than ever, the absolute need to maintain or develop market share is the key driver today. The direct creative interaction between their product or service and there customer is what will drive their success and in turn, the successful Agencies. They need experiential marketing.

Delivering Experiential marketing activity, balancing the correct skill sets, combining: Creative, Production, Event Management and of course have the ability to pitch and sell experiential to clients is a challenge in itself, but possible for those agencies who look closely and choose wisely.

So when someone is buzzing the word Experiential, look and listen closely to what they are saying, because it will always be the doing that will matter, Experiential after all needs to be felt to be understood.

The ART of measuring Experiential

How do we measure Experiential activity? How do we judge its success in meaningful ways? And what are the metrics we can employ and how best do we interpret them?

When a marketing strategy for a brand is decided, and an Experiential activity is agreed as the solution, in part or whole to a marketing challenge; then a clear objective for the activity must be set. Without one, it is activity for activities sake, and will offer little more than ambient placement, or be simply 'Brand Theatre'.

The objective, or series of goals set out for the activity at the outset will be inform the metrics for measuring success or Return On Investment ( ROI) for the activity.

The Key Step Metrics (KSM) I use for measuring experiential activity are:

ACTIVITY - How did it engage?
RELEVANT - Why did the activity connect with the audience, was it in the way planned?
TARGET - Who were your audience, was it the target audience for the activity?

Experiential is an ART, and the science of it and understanding best how to measure it will come from understanding firstly why you chose to pursue an Experiential activity in the first instance - over more traditional Marketing. What is it you want to achieve?

CASE STUDY:
A leading detergent brand is looking to launch a new format for its leading brand, and the Brand team have decided the best way to demonstrate the brands effectiveness is to engage with their audience through experiential activity.

So, the team would work as follows

ACTIVITY: High street and Major shopping centre, washing machines set up and customers invited to dirty garments and witness these items being cleaned, with data collection and sampling.

RELEVANT: To connect with target groups, for them to experience the brand, and witness the power and effectiveness of the brand in action in the new easy to use format

TARGET: 5000 Young Mums and Single people 18-35 who are short on time and looking for fast wash results.

At the close of the activity - again look at the ART of the activity and from that you will be able to measure the success

I am sure you will agree, Experiential Marketing is an ART.