Just What Is “Experiential Marketing” Anyway?
Friday, July 17th, 2009Experiential marketing – “the art of creating an experience where the result is an emotional connection to a person, brand, product or idea” — Wikipedia
So awhile ago my girlfriend was interning at an agency doing “experiential marketing”. Through frequent updates on how work’s going it seemed to me that creating this “experience” through which to market a product to a consumer, largely manifested itself in the way of holding costly, one-off events with some snazzy technology or maybe some alcohol.
During one particular talk I asked: When was the last time such an “event” really created a connection and motivated either of us to check out or purchase the product? We both drew a blank.
Then three nights ago a few of my friends were at my place having a drink and out of nowhere, one of them asked “remember that time we almost drank 8 litres of beer?”
Erdinger
Short story: In 2007 two of my friends won a contest with Erdinger Beer and four of us got invited to dinner with free flow of said beer.
While talking three nights ago, what did we remember?
- How much we drank
- The brand manager who kept coming by to talk to us, making sure we felt great the whole night (and that our glasses were filled all the time)
- The alternative (read: proper) way to clink glasses together after a toast (which is a ritual we now share)
- Other embarrassing things I shall not reveal in public
After that night in 2007, what happened?
- When Erdinger was available, more often than not it was purchased
- One of my friends tells everyone he knows how that beer is his favourite (I’ve witnessed this countless times)
- We still clink our glasses together that same way
- We’re still on the Erdinger “Honour Roll”
It’s now 2009, two years later. Clearly the experience has stuck.
So my question is: Will your projector/laser/holographic screen do the same? Would your branded liquor party be any distinguishable from the ten other parties the partygoers got sloshed at? Or will these “experiences” merely be over-expensive events that are one time only?
As Joseph Jaffe says: Marketing is a committment, not a campaign. Let’s try to remember that.
Tags: alcohol, brand manager, campaign, emotional connection, erdinger beer, erdinger honour roll, Events, experience, experience has stuck, experiential marketing, holographic screen, honor roll, laser screen, liquor party, marketing is a committment, projector screen, snazzy technology
