How Fashion Brands Can Use Experiential Marketing

Digital advertising might be one of the most common forms of advertising, but it’s not always the most effective. In digital marketing, feeds are full, ads blur together, and customers want more reasons to care about a brand and product than a digital ad can provide. Experiential marketing is one way to bring customers into an interactive, hands-on experience with your brand. With hands-on, in-person moments that bring them into your world and let them do something instead of just showing them something makes a huge impact. The fashion industry, in particular, can benefit greatly from this type of marketing because it’s sensory and identity-driven. We’ll dive into how fashion brands can use experiential marketing, what that might look like, and how you can implement it in your marketing strategy. 

Why Experiential Marketing Works for Fashion

Experiential marketing, for fashion in general, is a great way to bring customers in and let them experience the brand firsthand. Newer generations are looking to shop more in person than previous generations, so in-person events are exactly what they want. On top of that, many of us see hundreds of ads a day because of social media and scrolling, so having another option can break the rhythm. For fashion brands specifically, experiential marketing lets customers do something a digital ad never can: touch the product. Potential buyers can see your clothing in person, touch it, feel the quality, see the true color, and understand how it might be styled simply by being there. This can not only build a community with your customers, but it can be a great way to convert lookers into buyers. 

How You Can Use Experiential Marketing in Your Fashion Brand

If you have a fashion brand and want to implement experiential marketing strategies, here are some ways to do it. We’ve compiled some of the top ways you can use experiential marketing for fashion brands: 

Pop-Ups: This is one of the most popular experiential marketing methods, especially for fashion brands. Making your pop-up location specific and centered around a new launch can be a great way to get fresh eyes on your new pieces while letting people see them in person. 

Festivals: Festivals are in-person events that can be a great way for you to set up and get in front of an audience that might already be planning to go to the festival. Festivals are usually fashion-forward, so the audience that might spot your business is likely to convert. 

Co-Creation: To get a little more out of the box, having your customers create something could be a really fun way to get them to engage. Whether that’s personalizing an item, adding charms or bedazzling something, or even painting them. 

Fashion Week: Fashion Week is huge, and building events around it could benefit you; you can use it to your advantage and capitalize on the interest. 

No-Sell Options: These options are more about building community and getting connected with your audience, instead of making a sale. This is brand building, and a great example of this is Coach’s Life Coach pop-up. 

Partnership Activation: Partnering with a business you can build and share audiences with can help you create an impactful event while getting in front of new faces. 

How to Plan an Event That Actually Works

There are a few tips that we can give so you can plan an event that actually works and converts in the way that you desire. 

Focus On One Thing 

Focusing on one thing means choosing one objective or goal for the activation, which helps you plan accordingly, measure properly, and understand the event’s true purpose. Choose something like building brand awareness, getting more email signups, or purchases. 

Go Beyond Just a Purchase

You’ll want to entice your audience to do more than just buy. Hosting an event where customers can see you in person gives you the chance to engage with them, not just sell. People who aren’t looking to purchase might not stop by at all, but someone interested in the experience you’re providing might stop by even if they didn’t plan to buy. 

Design the Experience for Sharing 

Make the experience shareable and entice social media sharing by setting up specific stations for this. Photo moments, customization, and other personalizations can encourage people to take photos and videos and tag your brand on social media.  This helps to get your event and brand in front of more eyes even if those people didn’t show up to the activation in person. 

Capture Data

There are many ways to capture data, and you may need to choose a few options if you want to expand your audience. Things like email sign-ups, social media handles, or email connections can all be options for how you cna capture the data from the audience that shows up to your activation. 

Plan the Follow Up

One of the biggest mistakes we see business owners make is not following up after an activation or event. The small interaction you have during the event is only the beginning of the relationship you want to build with them. Follow-up is where you continue to build that connection and a relationship where they trust you and feel comfortable buying from you. Your follow-up plan could include email threads, text message threads, or even social interaction. Plan your follow-up based on your goals and choose systems that can be implemented easily for your customer base. 

How to Measure Your Success

Events and experiential activations are only as successful as you can measure them with metrics, which is why it’s important to choose the metrics that match your goals. You can track things like foot traffic, sign-ups, sales, email sign-ups, social reach, or retention metrics. You’ll want to choose a metric that aligns with your goals of the event itself. For example, if you want ot make more revenue as a result of your event, then tracking sales and conversions would be ideal. If you’re looking for brand awareness, then email sign-ups or social engagement are metrics you should consider. 

Implementing Experiential Marketing in Your Fashion Brand 

If you are a fashion brand looking to experiment with experiential marketing and see what it could look like for your brand, we can help! Experiential marketing can be an impactful strategy, especially for fashion brands, giving you an edge over competitors in marketing and conversions. If you are looking for a strategic team to help you plan, develop, and execute your experiential marketing activation, contact us today, and we’ll get you set up with a consultation!