How to Build an Experiential Marketing Strategy

Brand messaging has become integrated into the daily lives of today’s consumers. Driving to work and looking at billboards while listening to radio ads. Sitting on the sofa at home, scrolling through an Instagram feed while streaming the best Netflix has to offer. It’s everywhere they are.

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Achieving true brand connections is challenging. However, experiential marketing can make an impact through immersive and memorable experiences. But for this approach to work, you need to develop a successful event marketing strategy. This article provides you with a step-by-step approach to building a strategy that resonates with your audience and drives revenue.  

What is Experiential Marketing?

In our increasingly digital world, hands-on experiences grow less common each day. As a result, consumers appreciate the chance to ask you a question directly or to try a product before they buy. Experiential marketing refers to any in-person opportunity you give a consumer that allows them to experience your brand.

Also known as engagement marketing, this approach also benefits your business as it provides direct customer feedback, brand exposure, and more. We’ll discuss the many benefits of experiential marketing strategy in more detail next.

Why Experiential Marketing?

Successful experiential marketing programs provide brands with great ROI. According to EventTrack, approximately 91% of people are more likely to purchase a product after interacting with it, while 40% feel a greater brand loyalty. Below are the top experiential marketing strategy advantages.

Engage Consumer’s Five Senses

Experiential marketing can take advantage of all five senses. Not only can the user look at the highlighted product, but also they can touch and interact with it. Appealing to sound, your brand ambassadors share messaging and, in some cases, the product or event itself will have an associated soundtrack. Depending on your product, they may also smell and taste the product through an experiential marketing experience. 

Take, for example, a power bar company offering samples of its newest flavor at a BMX race. People who enjoy their product can also come to associate it with the sound of bikes circling and the excitement of being at the track.

Access Customer Feedback

With experiential marketing, you can make consumers feel heard and understood. Soliciting their feedback shows you’re actively listening.

Engaging live with potential and current customers lets you get instant feedback. Your brand ambassadors can ask people what they think of the different samples. Consumers who have just experienced something for free may be more willing to share their initial impressions (either good or bad). 

Even in the worst case, when a consumer doesn’t say anything, you can read their body language and try to understand how they feel about your product or brand. It’s all feedback you can integrate into further marketing initiatives and product development.

Generate Conversions

Experiential marketing is a great way to drive sales and generate conversions for your business. Experiential events can significantly impact how consumers feel about your brand. In fact, 85% are more likely to purchase after participating in events or experiences, per EventTrack. The key here is making sure your experience is memorable and engaging. 

Expand Audience

When creating an experiential marketing strategy, you’ll need to analyze your target audience (more on that below). Then, you’ll select locations where you can reach that audience and connect them with your brand. Along the way, you may contact people who would otherwise not know about your brand. 

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The experience you offer might also help you to network with other like-minded brands, influencers, or businesses. These partnerships can foster new connections and innovative collaborations that boost your business success even further.

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Key Steps in Developing Your Experiential Marketing Strategy

Before creating an experiential event, sit down and talk strategy with your team. This section breaks down the steps to take to organize your experiential marketing campaign from start to finish. 

Step 1: Define Your Objectives

Start with the end in mind. What do you hope to achieve with your experiential marketing campaign? Objectives could range from increasing brand awareness and launching a new product to driving sales or deepening customer loyalty. Setting clear goals and defining your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will help to shape your strategy and guide your planning.

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Ensuring that your campaign aligns with your brand values and messaging is also critical. Consistency is the key to reinforcing your brand identity and building trust with your audience. 

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In one example, Google raised both brand awareness and highlighted its commitment to “significantly improving the lives of as many people as possible” by installing hands-on, interactive digital posters in the Bay Area. This hands-on marketing encouraged people to select what non-profit finalists should be awarded funds from its $5 million charitable donation. 

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Step 2: Know Your Audience

As with all marketing, identifying your target audience is critical to success. When planning your experiential campaign ask yourself questions such as: 

• Who are you trying to reach? 
• What do you know about your audience? 
• Where do they live, work and play?
• What makes your product most appealing to them? 
• What product drawbacks might they encounter?

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Use this analysis to create detailed personas to represent different audience segments. This is crucial to designing an experience that resonates and engages with the right people.

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Step 3: Design the Experience

Creativity is at the heart of experiential marketing. Brainstorm unique and innovative ideas to capture your audience’s attention and leave a lasting impression. Think beyond traditional events and consider immersive installations, interactive pop-ups, and virtual or augmented reality experiences. Activities encouraging active participation like product trials, interactive games, and live demonstrations allow attendees to engage directly with your brand.

Take advantage of the fact that experiential programs can captivate multiple senses to create an immersive brand experience. In 2023, Cheez-it took over a 1940s gas station in Joshua Tree to support its “Want-it, Need-it, Cheez-it” campaign. Visitors could buy brand merchandise, stock up on a range of flavors, and even fill up a bag with crackers served up via the Cheez-It pump. There were cacti with crackers blooming on them throughout the store and the bathroom even featured cheese-themed graffiti. 

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Step 4: Plan and Execute

Experiential programs contain many moving parts, from logistics, staffing, marketing, follow-up and more. Involve brand stakeholders in discussions of the “what” and “how” of each experiential event to ensure you do all you can to create a unique strategy that still aligns with your business goals. 

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When it comes to the “what,” consider your strategic objectives to decide specifically what you want to advertise. For example, a shoe company looking to build brand awareness might design an experience that lets potential customers try on all the different styles in their latest season lineup. On the other hand, a pretzel brand expanding into pita chips may want to focus an event exclusively on the new flavors.   

As for the how, you’ll need to decide also on the type of experiential marketing that works for you. Common options include:

• Sponsored events—Brands sponsor larger events related to their specific niche in exchange for exposure (e.g., Wells Fargo sponsoring a PGA event).
• Guerilla marketing—Uses surprise and other unconventional tactics to help people become engaged in a brand’s messaging (e.g., a sculpture of Yasso products on the beach)

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• Product sampling— Brands distribute free (or heavily discounted) samples of their products (e.g. handing out free sunscreen tubes at a street fair)
• Augmented reality (AR)—Encourages brand activations using technology to engage consumer in the product in real-time (e.g. Sephora installing a smart mirror that lets customers virtually “try on” products with AR technology).
• Trade shows and conventions—Brands participate at events typically related to a specific theme and representing a specific niche (e.g. Wrigley’s creating a branded event for the annual Candy Show).

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Step 5: Leverage Digital Channels

Although we’ve positioned experiential marketing as a welcome break from the online environment, it still helps to align your event or experience with digital marketing. You might:

• Enlist an influencer to build credibility and help brand growth 
• Live stream your event via digital platforms to connect with consumers unable to attend in-person 
• Establish a unique hashtag and encourage attendees to share their experiences online 
• Leverage user-generated content to create additional buzz
• Continue consumer engagement post-event through follow-up emails, surveys, and exclusive offers

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Step 6: Measure and Analyze

Set up procedures to measure the KPIs you established in step 1 to gauge the success of your campaign. For example, you wouldn’t go sit in the middle of a big city with a customized game or trivia questions about your brand and deem it successful because 1,000 people participated. High attendance can be a good thing, but subsequent social media engagement, lead generation, and increased sales are even better. 

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Additionally, collecting qualitative feedback from consumers and other stakeholders will allow you to learn what worked and what didn't. You can use this invaluable information to refine future campaigns and improve audience engagement.  

Experiential Marketing Challenges

Before you embark on an experiential marketing strategy, be sure to anticipate and plan for challenges businesses face when trying to create marketing experience or set of events. Common experiential marketing pitfalls include:

• Knowing what KPIs you want to track 
• Accurately collecting data to measure success
• Budgeting for event costs 
• Ensuring you reach your target audience 
• Aligning your brand’s core values with your experiential campaign
• Collecting and using consumer data (with consent) 
• Seasonal or environmental conditions (e.g., keeping popsicles cold at outdoor summer events)
• Government restrictions (e.g., ensuring your wine and spirits don’t end up served to minors) 

Customize Your Experiential Marketing Strategy

Crafting an impactful experiential marketing strategy demands a unique blend of creativity, strategic planning and execution excellence, but it doesn't have to be daunting. At A Little Bird, we've helped clients exceed their goals through our distinctive approach to experiential marketing. We combine data-driven techniques with creative innovation to help our clients connect with their audiences through fully optimized campaigns.

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Ready to revolutionize your marketing? Contact us today to start planning your next strategy.