Experiential Marketing is when your brand interacts with your consumer, quite literally. This type of marketing is most often live and in-person. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade is the best example of experiential marketing, in my humble opinion, as the viewer is invited to experience floats and entertainment tied to specific brands (and Macy’s itself).
On the flipside, experiential marketing can also be digital if it provokes a one-on-one interaction. At my time at Noir Gallery, we made it an initiative to develop experiential moments for our customers. An example was our Exhibit Your Story campaign that coincided with our VOGUE product features (Pretty chic right?). The campaign engaged our Instagram followers to show us places that held special significance in their life. Sharing pictures, typing out personal stories, you name it. As a brand, we believed that brilliant landscapes existed wherever home was for someone. This sentiment was evident as our wall decor collections encompassed imagery from all around the world, and not just the shots you see in your local IKEA. I’m talking about scenic neighborhood shots that you would only know if you were a local yourself. With dozens of #exhibityourstory entries made during the campaign, we felt as if our brand became more relevant. Over time, we saw a direct measure of this. Over 50% of our customer base across all sales channels during my time at Noir bought a selection from the gallery that was originally captured within 50 miles of their shipping address. This percentage dramatically went up when you would consider a 100-mile radius. The proof was in the pudding.
An entry from Noir Gallery’s #exhibityourstory campaign.
The point: We asked our followers to participate and engage with us. The co-creation of this participant marketing plan allowed us to 1. Build better customer relationships with our brand and 2. We saw direct ROI from it.
My final word to all my social media managers and marketers out there: Create experiences for your client’s customers. Increasing engagement, social media impressions and the number of users who follow are three important benchmarks to help you measure your experiential marketing efforts. If you have the opportunity to develop physical and interactive experiences, they have to be compelling and able to touch the customer’s senses and capture his/her loyalty.
Interested in learning more about Experiential Marketing? Hit me up!
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