To stand out, you need to capture your target audience’s attention. You want them to want to return to you. When you’re competing with so many other companies and brands, how do you draw and maintain their engagement? Our ten-step process for staying innovative and fresh helps your experiential marketing campaign succeed.

#1 – Be Budget-Minded

Any experiential marketing plan has to be within your budget. If you can’t afford it, there’s no sense in risking financial strain. Scale down your vision to the point you can afford. As your revenues increase, you can work on an extension of your original idea in a part-two phase of your marketing campaign. You don’t have to tell a story or provide a comprehensive experience all at once.

#2 – Be Daring

Take risks and push your brand to new heights. Don’t toe the line thinking that the same is safe and can be trusted. The same-old, same-old may be safe, but it can also be so very boring. Dare to be different and show people that you aren’t afraid to try new things and push the boundaries. Just make sure that those boundaries are still within your brand’s beliefs.

#3 – Be Emotional

People will connect to an experiential marketing campaign that evokes emotions. If you think about some of the best marketing campaigns in history, you’ll find that they all connect in some way to a person’s emotions. 

Happiness is the most commonly used emotion in marketing campaigns. You can have a happy family reunion where people who haven’t seen each other in ages reunite. During that reunion, they find that despite years of being distant, the love they have for each other hasn’t changed.

You could have the joy of seeing a baby take his first steps or a young girl learn how to ride her bike without help for the very first time. There’s the happiness you experience when your child is born or you fall in love. 

While happiness is popular, it doesn’t have to be the only emotion you focus on. Jump scares prey upon fear, and done well, it can create a viral moment that takes your brand far. Even anger can be used well, especially if it’s to show what is happening, why it is so very wrong, and that your brand doesn’t stand for situations like that. 

#4 – Be Fearless

Don’t be afraid to try new things. Push your brand to the limits and get out of your comfort zone. You’ve never embraced technology before and you worry about it being too challenging to try. Don’t let fear keep you from trying new approaches like gamification or AR. It’s going to resonate with consumers, even if it’s new territory for your marketing team.

One thing to remember is that some ideas may not be embraced by all. You have to stand your ground. If it’s a belief that’s very important to your company, don’t back down and cave to a handful of consumers with different opinions from yours.

#5 – Be Imaginative

Use your imagination when you’re brainstorming marketing campaigns. Imaginative marketing ideas can be some of the most impressive. Think outside the box and do something that your competition hasn’t thought of. Your plan will be fresh, imaginative, and unforgettable when it’s unique.

How do you tap into imaginative marketing ideas? Come up with a list of things you want your brand associated with. Are you selling shoes that you want to be thought of as the most comfortable shoes on the market? Experiences that align with comfort might include walking on clouds, having pillows of air under your feet, or feet that always feel ready for the next challenge. Create visuals like this to spark imaginative campaigns.

#6 – Be Memorable

How can you create a marketing campaign that people won’t forget in a few weeks? Tell a story that they relate to. If your brand tells a story that resonates with them, you become memorable. 

While you come up with that story, make sure that they’re focusing on a few things all consumers can relate to, such as:

• Problems that the consumers have faced and want solutions to.
• Past experiences that bring them back to their childhood or favorite moments.
• Images and stories that evoke positive emotions.
• Stories that are full of humor that they’ll want to share with others.

#7 – Be Relevant

If you don’t understand your audience, you cannot be relevant. Take time to research what consumers want from a brand like yours. Dig into your competition’s websites and social media pages and see what people are saying. Are there things they love that you could expand upon? What do people not like that you might be doing better?

As you get to know what your target audience wants, start building an experiential marketing campaign that touches on those points. Go over the materials, visuals, and copy you’ve drawn up and ask people to look it over. Are there points that confuse them or make them less impressed than you were hoping? A/B testing can help you figure out what works and what doesn’t.

#8 – Be Social

You have to be social if you’re going to be engaging. While you do this, double-check that you’re not alienating anyone. Some people are sending social messages by quitting certain social media platforms. Make sure you’re not relying solely on one platform and ignoring others. You could be making it impossible for others to interact with your brand.

When you are posting on social media and asking consumers to share their experiences, do not forget to or fail to respond. Good or bad, do not negate their feelings and experiences. If they’re negative, ask questions to learn what you could have done better. If they were positive, thank people for their kind words and praise.

#9 – Be Sustainable

Do you want to engage with consumers? Eight out of ten consumers say that they will avoid brands or companies that do not establish environmentally friendly practices. More than half of consumers admit they will pay more to support eco-friendly products and brands. 

Are you using sustainable practices? It’s a great way to show how innovative your brand is. Come up with ways to help people experience your brand while also focusing on sustainability. Focus on what you do that’s sustainable and use that to your advantage. 

If you’re an apparel brand, showcase how you use fibers from fast-growing bamboo plants. Or, provide a free sample of the material you make from plastic water bottles collected from the nation’s waterways.

#10 – Be Timely

It’s so important to be timely. If you’re offering new content on a topic that others have worn out, you’re going to lose engagement. It’s also important that you’re not sharing an experience at the wrong time. 

With fall coming up, autumn-themed marketing campaigns would be timely. An experiential marketing campaign focusing on summer fun isn’t going to work. In the middle of winter, an ad campaign about cooling off in a pool is mistimed. Make sure it’s timely.

Creating an experiential marketing campaign isn’t for everyone. Whether you have a small marketing department without a lot of experience in social engagement or have an older team who are struggling to be fresh and modern, we can help.

Factory 360 is an award-winning comprehensive experiential marketing agency with a wealth of experience. Our team of marketing experts has experience in everything from social media marketing campaigns to AR/VR/MR technologies. Talk to us about your goals and let us show you how you can turn that into an engaging, memorable marketing plan.