There are statistics floating around about how incredibly short the human attention span is. But these numbers, whether it’s two seconds or ten seconds, don’t matter if you’ve managed to effectively capture their attention. Engage customers instantly, and you’ve won their attention long enough to deliver an experience. Experiential marketing with videos is one of the most effective ways to accomplish this. 

The use of video in experiential marketing is a must-have for today’s consumer. Long gone are the days of achieving maximum reach and engagement through emails and newsletters. Video appeals to the way modern audiences want to consume content. For brands, it’s a way to drive engagement, foster loyalty, and elevate the overall customer experience in a way that feels natural and effortless to them. 

5 Reasons Why: The Benefits of Videos in Experiential Marketing 

Video has a unique allure in experiential marketing. When you think about the various ways to reach your audience through experiential marketing, video has the ability to transcend the limitations of traditional text-based marketing. Video is the next best thing to meeting your audience in person, and it offers a versatility that enables brands to really connect with their audience. 

If you’re not yet sold on video for your experiential marketing campaign, let us tell you a bit more about the benefits. 

Engagement 

Capturing attention quickly is one of the things that video does best. This makes it exponentially easier to immerse the audience in your brand experience. With video, there’s the potential to visually engage viewers almost instantly. They can be effortlessly transported into the experience and, with the right video marketing approach, feel as though they are an active participant. 

Through engaging interaction, the audience begins to personally invest themself in the brand messaging. It’s hard to say no to engaging video content, especially when it’s designed to captivate. 

Connection 

Video offers the opportunity to connect with your audience on a personal level. Whether you’re taking them along for an experience, sharing information with them “face to face”, or getting them engaged in your brand community, video fosters connections like none other. 

Videos make you “real” in the eyes of your customers. Through this, they build trust, develop a relationship with your brand, and form a deeper connection. Partner this with experiential marketing strategies, and you’re practically guaranteed to make a lasting connection. 

Reach 

The overwhelming majority of businesses that have invested in video marketing have said it’s a strategy that has helped them expand their reach. There are a few reasons why this happens. 

First, video is easily digestible, and shareable. Yes, all types of digital media can be shareable, but it’s the easily digestible part that makes video different. Video is enjoyable. It can be consumed in a relatively short amount of time, and people don’t mind watching it. Chances are a video shared by a friend, family, or colleague is going to contain something you’re interested in. 

This can’t be said for many other types of marketing. 

Each time video content is shared, there’s growth potential for your experiential marketing campaign. With an expertly crafted experiential strategy, the audience automatically takes on some of the heavy lifting involved in extending brand reach. 

Measurable Analytics 

This is one of those benefits that seems so basic, yet, it’s an underrated component of video. Of all the ways you can reach out to your audience, video provides some of the best analytical insights into how they’re engaging with your brand. This is important for any marketing campaign, but especially so with experiential marketing. 

You can learn what types of content and experiences resonate with your audience. And, you have access to hyper-detailed analytics that tell you exactly when and where you’re either gaining engagement or watching them fall away. These types of analytics empower brands to create experiential campaigns that really hit the target. 

Versatility 

Finally, we have versatility. There is so much that can be accomplished with video, and so many ways to do it. To highlight the versatility of video for experiential marketing, let’s take a look at six strategies for using it to boost engagement in your next experiential marketing campaign. 

6 Engaging Strategies for Experiential Marketing with Videos

Live Stream Events: Live stream events have become one of the most powerful tools for experiential marketing. Audiences are able to connect with brands in real-time, allowing them to participate as if they were there, even when they can’t be. 

There are about a million different possibilities with live stream events. Consider the possibilities of product demonstrations, behind-the-scenes videos, educational opportunities, Q&A sessions, or live streaming from a specific location or event. Live streaming also allows the audience to provide immediate feedback in real-time, which makes the experience more personal and relatable for everyone. 

User Generated Content: UGC encourages consumers to both create and share their own brand-related content. There’s a unique power to UGC. On the surface, this is a way of engaging customers and nurturing their relationship with your brand. When we go a little deeper, we see that user-generated content provides brands with validity and trustworthiness. 

With UGC, a brand’s audience and consumers become natural brand advocates. An example of UGC for experiential marketing can be found in the iconic “Share a Coke” campaign from Coca-Cola. It has been more than a decade since the marketing campaign launched, yet it still remains memorable today. 

Brand Storytelling: Video offers the opportunity for audiences to become better acquainted with brands. Consumers love to feel as though they’re personally invested in brands before aligning themselves with them. 

Brand storytelling invites the audience in, and tells a story in an engaging, compelling way. There are multiple routes to take with this. Cinematic narratives are creative and fun, while behind-the-scenes videos, interviews, and testimonials (especially those involving real customers) work wonderfully to build strong emotional connections. 

Contests and Challenges: Who doesn’t love a contest or challenge? In today’s social landscape, there’s a constant stream of viral challenges and contests. These types of experiential marketing strategies haven’t reached this level of popularity because audiences are uninterested. What’s great about this type of video content is that it’s easy to keep it fresh and energized to keep audiences engaged. 

Virtual and Augmented Reality: VR and AR technology has been on the scene for a while now, but there’s a significant portion of content consumers who are just now exploring the dynamic and immersive experiences these technologies provide. 

Interaction Through Video: This is one of the more subtle ways of using video in experiential marketing, but it’s a tried and true that remains effective. Brands can get audiences engaged and more interactive by utilizing interactive video elements. 

This might be something as simple as a clickable link that takes them to a quiz, but you and your audience can have fun with it. For example, creating a type of choose-your-own-adventure experience through clickable video interactions. 

Enhancing Your Experiential Marketing Campaign with Engaging Video Content 

Video has been, and remains, at the top of the list of effective ways to engage audiences. We’ve reached a point where customers want more than just passively watching a video. They want to engage, get involved, and feel connected. Video in experiential marketing allows them to do this. 

Whether your audience craves a high-energy, interactive brand video, or more subtle storytelling that tugs at the heartstrings in a meaningful way, our team at Factory360 can help you cultivate engagement and memorable experiences with exceptional experiential video content. Reach out to us today to learn more.