Today’s tech companies need to be competitive. With more than 585,000 tech companies in the U.S., competition is fierce, and companies need to stand out in big ways. Experiential marketing helps tech companies showcase innovation and find cutting-edge solutions.

The goal of experiential marketing is to offer an experience that allows consumers or users to connect with your brand in positive, memorable ways. It’s an excellent way to showcase your product or service and build brand awareness. Pop-ups, interactive demos, and immersive events at tradeshows, concerts, and expositions are all possibilities, but they’re not the only options.

What Does Experiential Marketing Encompass?

Experiential marketing covers a lot, including events, guerrilla marketing, installations, mobile tours, pop-ups, PR stunts, sampling, and virtual events. You can pair them with other immersive marketing options like augmented, mixed, or virtual realities, social live streaming, and both live streaming and virtual events. The sky’s the limit when you use technology to your advantage.

People love hands-on experiences, so keep that in mind. AR, VR, and MR are trending options and a great way to bring the user into your brand’s goals and possibilities. Samples may be harder to offer, depending on what your tech company does, but it could involve a free week’s demo of a software product or a month’s access at no cost. People love free items.

At the same time, you need to build a lasting relationship with your target audience. Social media is a good way to do this. Post and share content regularly, and make sure you’re responding quickly to comments, questions, and concerns. Every company gets some negative reviews and feedback, and it’s important to avoid an attack in your response. If you’re immediately on the attack and question the user’s honesty or skill level, you can do a lot of damage. Have a social media marketing professional read comments and respond appropriately.

You do have to think about your brand’s message, however, as any social media posts you make about an upcoming event have to be carefully constructed. You need to dive into who your target audience is. What are their hobbies, what issues do they and don’t they support, and what content matters the most to them?

You’re also a tech company, so you need to make sure you’re using platforms that others use. If you’re a tech company making easy-to-use phones for people with vision impairments. In 2016, almost 7.7 million Americans 16 or older had a visual disability. Of those people, 3.17 million were 65 or older. Older adults are more likely to use YouTube (81%) or Facebook (69%). If you’re trying to connect with them on TikTok, you might not have as much luck. Knowing this is important to effectively market your brand.

Be Ready to Experiment

You’re a tech company and that often means you’re on the edge of the latest and greatest. A cutting-edge company needs a cutting-edge solution to marketing. Embrace the latest marketing strategies to stay competitive.

If you’ve ever explored TikTok, you’ll notice one thing. The number of people with social anxiety or introvertive lifestyles may not have changed, but many are starting to open up and realize they’re not alone.

About 15 million adults suffer from social anxiety disorder, and about 33% of the population are introverts. That’s a lot of people, and they’re less likely to attend a large event. Virtual events picked up steam in the pandemic due to social distancing, and they can still draw a much larger crowd than you might realize.

Anonymity can be a comfort to someone with social anxiety or who is an introvert by nature. You can still have and should have live events, but don’t exclude others with a strong interest in tech. Consider pairing live and virtual events to make your brand welcoming to all.

How Do Tech Companies Use Experiential Marketing Successfully?

How can tech companies embrace experiential marketing in their campaigns? Check out some of our work.

Chainlink: Photo Ops and Encouragement to Ask Questions

At SmartCon 2022, Chainlink needed to find a way to show consumers the value of its tech services. The company specializes in connecting public and private blockchain with systems around the world. It’s not the easiest subject to turn into an experience. Factory 360 helped the company break down the process with photo opportunities along the path. There were demo tables with experts on hand to answer questions, plenty of informative videos to watch, and QR codes to scan for more information.

Jeli: Invitations to Share and Win

Jeli was founded by a former Netflix and Slack senior tech leader. It’s an end-to-end incident management platform that helps businesses and organizations analyze, manage, and respond to any security incidents, and it uses AI to do so.

At the SREcon in both Amsterdam and Sydney, Factory 360 helped Jeli showcase all that they have to do, and it involved an engaging interactive wall with a variety of messages that helped solve a riddle. The first person to figure out the answer to the riddle won a pair of bean-shaped headphones, but all participants received branded swag. Attendees were invited to share the weirdest place they’d had to do incident response and share in order to win earbuds.

Meta:

Factory 360 helped Meta showcase all that Meta does at ADCOLOR. The experience allowed attendees to explore all that Meta is capable of, and it used hands-on workshops, AR, and Meta Quest VR headsets to explore the NOPE Horizon World. More than 1,300 people attended and 8,600 impressions for the AR Instagram filter proved the success. Over 250 guests used the Quest 2 headset to experience the Metaverse.

When done well, an experiential marketing campaign helps tech companies engage with their consumers and potential users, stay relevant in an often-crowded industry, and become memorable. If people remember who you are and what you offer, they’re more likely to tell their friends, and word-of-mouth marketing is extremely important.

Tech companies have a wealth of ways to showcase their products and services using experiential marketing. It just takes vision, and it’s okay if you’re not certain where to go or how to pull off a rewarding marketing campaign. Factory 360 can help.

We’re an award-winning experiential marketing agency specializing in bringing a creative edge to every marketing campaign. Factory 360 embraces all areas of experiential marketing, but we also add technology like AR, MR, or VR and live streaming to build events that get consumers talking. Reach out to us to discuss your goals, visions, and brand identity, and we’ll help you create an amazing experience that best represents your tech company.