Engagement and Exposure: 3 Reasons Why Experiential Marketing Beats Billboards Every Time
Gone are the days of strictly leveraging traditional advertising for a brand’s overall marketing strategy. While traditional forms of marketing can still be integral to your growth, when it comes to engaging your audiences—IRL events provide a great opportunity for your brand to create lasting impact with the groups and communities who can help push your brand forward.
Educating, Informing, and Empowering Consumers
Unlike traditional media, experiential marketing provides an opportunity for a brand to reach and engage their audience through in-person events. The more information a buyer has, the better they feel about making the right choice. A recent study by Conductor shows the importance of consumer education, highlighting that consumers are 131% more likely to purchase from a brand immediately after they engage with educational-based content. At events or popups, not only can you activate signage and digital content that helps educate potential consumers, but you can also unleash educated brand ambassadors who can demonstrate your products’ core advantages to interested attendees.
Creating Memories and Lasting Connections
Younger generations, like Gen Z, are becoming a more defining force in consumer spending, despite the oldest Gen-Zer being just 27 years old. This emerging consumer group has already showcased their influence, propelling specific retail categories, like skincare, to recent record highs. Considered to be the first generation to be fully integrated into a new landscape of technology and social media, it may be a bit surprising that despite their love for all things digital, more than 90% of polled Gen Z consumers report wanting to both engage with brands in digital and IRL experiences.
In an Archival study, 54% of Gen-Zers agreed that their favorite brands are the ones that make them feel like they’re part of their personal community, furthermore, 84% agreed that in person brand interactions significantly shape and influence their buying decisions.
It’s clear that to garner the attention and loyalty of this emerging generation, brands will need to focus on authentically creating impactful spaces, experiences, and events to best attract their younger audiences.
Leveraging the Power of Storytelling
An old cliche in advertising and branding is that you’re never actually selling a product—and instead you’re selling an idea, story, or convenience. For example, many marketers will say Nike doesn’t sell running shoes, they sell a lifestyle; and, a company like Apple doesn’t just sell products, they sell future trends. In this evolving brand climate where stories and lifestyles are the selling point, the ability to bring your personal brand-story to life via social events, activations and popups is critical for the overall success and health of your company.
But this ability doesn’t just impact your consumers, it also heavily influences the talent you attract and keep. A plethora of data speaks to the importance of art in the workplace, helping alleviate stress, boost creativity, and stimulate critical thinking. The sharpest brands are not only telling their stories through art-forward campaigns for their consumers, but also for their employees.
In Austin, Texas, Nutrabolt took full advantage of this by partnering with us to beautify their new headquarters with the help of artist Jesse de Leon activated new murals across multiple footprints and a full sized basketball court. While the mural may remind you of a late 90s hip-hop and street basketball scene, it also infuses catchphrases and key elements of Nutrabolt’s branding, highlighting to all who experience it that they have next.
