If you see an image of a child swinging with his face lit up by the sunshine, how do you feel? Now, you’re looking at one of Picasso’s “The Old Guitarist” painting, do you feel sad? It’s not surprising. Art has the power to make people feel emotions, and that’s the value of art and creativity in an experiential marketing campaign.

Experiential marketing is designed to capture consumer’s attention and interest by providing an experience. You’re not just throwing words or jingles at them and hoping it keeps them coming back. You’re finding ways to interact, whether it’s through a game, an app, a newsletter, events, or social media. At the heart of any quality experiential marketing campaign is art and creativity.

How Art Can Inspire Consumers

Do you want a positive, memorable way to draw consumers to your brand? Embrace the use of art. It’s a powerful tool for getting attention and evoking emotion. Add social media and people often talk about how it makes them feel. If the art pairs to a social issue, it gets people talking, but you do need to make sure someone is monitoring conversations and keeping them civil.

Art captures your mood, too. Suppose your new product is a reef-friendly sunscreen. Beachy art scenes come to mind, or time around a pool on a bright, sunny day. If you use art to set the stage for your brand or products, Rechargeable heated gloves are going to have people thinking about snow and wintry scenes.

At the same time, not all art is cheerful. It can be just as effective in an experiential marketing campaign. Go back to that Picasso painting. It shows an elderly guitarist who appears to be malnourished, exhausted, and impoverished. It tugs at your heartstrings, and some might even feel angry that an old man is facing that level of hardship. It raises a good social message about helping others. A gardening supply site could use it to encourage consumers to purchase extra and donate the additional produce to a local food shelf.

Art also helps trigger memories, and that helps brands show they identify with the things their consumers feel and experience. Most adults remember tracing their hands to turn them into Thanksgiving turkeys during elementary school classes. It’s a simple piece of art that brings people back to family meals around the table or time in the classroom with friends. Get consumers to engage with you by evoking their memories.

When you add art to a marketing campaign, try to foster local connections. Find local artists and see if they’ll team up with your ad campaign. It’s good exposure for them, and it helps you. A coffee company could ask a local artist to do the packaging for free samples. Or, you could work on a giveaway where all purchases put customers in a drawing to win a signed, original print.

Color Inspires Emotion

Did you know that colors impact how people feel? Color psychology is a study that looks at the impact of color on human behaviors and emotions. Some of it comes down to a person’s likes and dislikes of colors, but some colors also impact your feelings.

According to HubSpot, as much as 90% of first impressions come from color schemes, and 93% of consumers make purchases when the colors and visuals appeal to them. Colors increase a consumer’s awareness of a brand by as much as 80%.

• Blue – Blue is cool and calming and inspires respect and loyalty. It’s at the top of the list when it comes to favorite colors.
• Black – Some people look at black as being dreary, but it’s a color that shows power and elegance.
• Green – Like blue, green is a soothing color. It’s one of hope and makes people think of nature and being outside.
• Orange – This warm color is seen as a bold, fun color. It’s a color that denotes confidence and self-assurance.
• Purple – The color of royalty and is seen as quality and superiority.
• Red – Red is a vivid color that’s tied to passion and energy. It can also be considered an angry color and one designed to make you stop.
• White – Innocence and purity are both words that come to mind if you think of the color white.
• Yellow – Yellow is a warm, happy color that’s often thought of as cheery and invigorating.

The Use of Creativity to Foster Relationships

How do marketing and creativity work? Creativity involves using imaginative ideas, images, text/stories, and video or photos to market your brand. It’s going to help you stand out.

If you think about some of the experiential marketing campaigns out there today, free samples are one of the most popular options for food and cosmetic companies. So many do them that it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. Creativity is the key to standing out as you form relationships with consumers.

Any experiential marketing campaign needs to stand out and be memorable. At the same time, you need to drive sales or other goals like ticket sales, program enrollments, and newsletter sign-ups. With a creative marketing campaign, you get to connect with consumers in ways that catch their attention, surprise them, and keep them involved in the weeks and months to come.

Marketing Trends Using Art and Creativity

One trending use of art is augmented reality. Take a real-life setting and install artistic figures or items into that setting. Games like Pokémon Go use AR. You have a real-life setting like your yard, and you walk around with the camera on. However, a digital art creation, such as the Pokémon characters, enters that setting for you to interact with.

At events, stations set up with VR headsets can use art in a virtual reality setting for attendees to interact with. It brings consumers into your world for a unique, memorable experience that people will talk about.

Use social media to reach out, and come up with creative ways to connect, but don’t forget that not everyone is on social media. X and Meta have upset some people with their comments and attitudes. Those people moved on to Reddit or TikTok, so be inclusive and remember that Instagram, Facebook, and X are not the only platforms where people gather.

Draw Consumers to Your Brand Through Creative, Artistic Campaigns

Help consumers explore and get to know your brand using creativity and artistry, and admit when it’s too much for you. If you can’t think of a clever, artistic experiential marketing campaign, talk to Factory 360.

An experiential marketing campaign that’s imaginative and does what no one expects will stand out. Whether you’re giving away items, launching a special sale, or creating a game everyone can play online together, you want to be unique and unforgettable.

Our team is diverse with a wealth of experience in different areas. We have VR/MR/AR experts, expert content creators, UI professionals, and more to ensure that every marketing campaign goes above and beyond what customers could dream of achieving. Talk to Factory 360’s marketing team to share what you need and we’ll make sure it does everything you want and more.