Experiential Marketing? Who Cares...
While driving in the car listening to NPR, something caught my attention. Jeffery Seller was speaking to his past Broadway blockbusters and what is on the horizon for the theatre community.
What I found intriguing was Jeffery's take on today's consumers. In essence, he stated that people are sitting down looking at their digital devices for hours a day, watching digital media on all of those different devices. What they are really craving to do is go out, look up and have live interaction. The theatre can provide that when nothing else can. You can listen to the whole interview here.
Think about your own customer base. How are you standing out against your competition? Are you driving meaningful customer engagement? Have you been lulled to sleep by your own programmatic content calendar? Chances are if you have, so has your audience. While the theatre is able to provide an experience as their end product, with some creative execution you too can generate a meaningful experience by leveraging experiential marketing.
Break away from your rituals and implement what I refer to as the experiential marketing trifecta:
+ Tell a story that your audience cares about
Nothing ground breaking here. As with any campaign you are launching, it better be something that your audience cares about or it will fall flat.
+ Use interactive installations that give opportunities for social sharing
Give your audience a chance to earn participation points. Absurdly big or micro experiences will get people talking. Capitalize on their network and give them reasons to share what they are experiencing, both in real time and after they visit.
+ Go beyond the brand
Support and promote non-profit or socially responsible organizations. Be careful here... before your organization brands a "culture of good", it must be a core value of those within. You can quickly turn off your audience (and even your co-workers) with disingenuous support and be labeled as a "me too" trying to capitalize on this shift in marketing. You can still give your audience a great experience without executing on this leg of the trifecta.
How will you "look up" in 2018? Your audience is waiting...
Check out these experiential marketing marvels to wet your creative appetite:
1. Tim Hortons takes over a residential home
2. Jet Blue and the Ultimate Ice Breaker
