6 Mistakes to Avoid in Experiential Marketing

Experiential is a power house medium for engaging your audience.  However, not all experiences are successful. In this post, we will highlight 6 mistakes you should avoid while creating an experiential marketing campaign. By simply adhering to these points, you will have already taken one step to ensure a successful experiential campaign.

Here are 6 things to avoid when you are developing your experiential marketing campaign.

1: No strategy: when, where and why.

When approaching your brand activation, it is important to look at the big picture and determine the goals and objectives of the campaign. The when, where and why of the experience needs to be in sync with the rest of your marketing efforts. In addition, choosing the place, time and environment must be relevant to your target audience. Carefully plan and research before you design your activation.

2: Making the Message Too Complex.

There should be purpose to your activation. One simple message to convey to the consumer. Implementing experiential into your marketing efforts should be as strategic as the rest of your business decisions. Just because it is a cool idea doesn’t mean that it will help you get your brand message to your audience. You want to make sure that whatever you are planning is clearly tied in to your brand story so that it is easy to make the connection. Your audience should be able to experience your brand. The whole idea of planning an experiential campaign is so that your audience will start talking about your brand in a positive way. Make sure you create a story they can understand and want to share.

3: Engagement with the audience is lacking.

What is experiential in two words? Audience engagement. Okay, five words, audience engagement with your brand. You should be able to engage with your target audience in a meaningful way through the experience.  Whether it’s a visual that they can share, a physically interactive activity, a chance to win something, or a chance to share and interact with the brand digitally, plan your campaign so that people have to and want to get involved.

4: Logistical gaps

We cannot reiterate enough the importance of logistical planning. If you haven’t planned everything down to the most minute detail, then you will undoubtedly have unexpected things come up that will pull your focus from the task at hand. There will always be unknown factors during an event, but if you plan and anticipate each moving piece you can find a way to overcome the hurdles of the inevitable. Plan out each step of your experiential activity, and have a consistent process for execution.

5: Zero follow up

Now your event has been completed. You have reached and engaged with your intended audience, as planned. You are done with your experiential campaign. Wrongo! Unfortunately, one big mistake often made by companies is to have the event’s back end processes stop right there without continuing the conversation with your audience. There are huge gains in extending your strategy past the event itself. Be sure to think through how you’ll leverage the live event as a kick off for ongoing buzz and conversation with your audience. Don’t miss out on the power of tracking here!

6: Not implementing effective tracking/measurement tools

One of the biggest mistakes is being unable to gauge the impact and ROI the campaign has created. You want to be able to capture numbers, information, and most importantly the audience’s view of the masterpiece. After the campaign has been executed, how will you know if it’s successful? You have to set measurable, and trackable goals while you are in the planning phase. Strategize about objectives and get clear about what you want achieve. Set your goals accordingly and then take advantage of tools to track and measure so you know whether you have been successful in your attempt.

The most successful campaigns aren’t just clever concepts, they are the brand’s image come to life to build connections with target customers. Experiential marketing offers an opportunity to merge a cohesive branded message in a wholly immersive way. If an experiential event isn’t in your marketing mix for 2018, it may be time to review your road map.