The worldwide trauma of the pandemic taught us many things about humanity, including our deep need to be together and share a common experience.<\/p>\n
Although digital experiences became our social go-to early in the pandemic, as time went on and we were able to safely reengage with in-person events, people\u2019s pent-up desire to get out and be together set the stage for experiential marketing to come back strong.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong. Experiential brand activation has<\/em> come back strong, but it\u2019s changed.<\/p>\n Our recent work for clients as diverse as a sustainable produce company and an emerging ice cream brand has proven experiential marketing is a winning tactic for new-brand and new-product launches. But in today\u2019s marketplace, producing a winning experience means working through event-staff shortages, wage increases, supply chain disruptions and cost increases, even on event basics. Who knew an order for a barrel cooler or embroidered T-shirts could cost so much \u2015 and take so long to produce? There\u2019s extremely low inventory for rental vehicles; refrigerated trucks and warehousing are especially difficult to source for our sampling programs. Shipping event items to venues can still be quite undependable and come with unexpected delays. In the past, we could rely on two-day shipping. Now those promised two days could stretch to two weeks.<\/p>\n The net-net is in this evolved world of experiential marketing, we do whatever we need to do to be good agency stewards for our clients. We\u2019re building accurate activation lead times that are often triple that of pre-COVID activations. We\u2019re creating backup plans to the backup plan to the backup plan and being as scrappy and nimble as possible, while being keenly strategic and focused on client budgets. As our clients feel the squeeze of increased production and labor costs and shrinking marketing budgets, we need to do more with less.<\/p>\n Still, while much has changed, the foundation of \u2014 and need for \u2014 experiential marketing and sampling hasn\u2019t. First, everyone, from Boomers to Gen Z to Gen Alpha, are yearning for brand experiences and like getting free samples and swag. Second, experiential marketing remains an extremely influential force in shopper behavior. Exhibit A: \u201cGen Z Wants Product Samples, With a Few Changes, Please,\u201d based on a July 2022 Advantage Solutions survey of more than 1,000 13-to-25-year-olds, reveals seven in 10 Gen Z shoppers consider food samples \u201coften a deciding factor\u201d in their post-sampling purchases.<\/p>\n Even as the pandemic caused a seismic shift in shopper behavior, the goal of experiential activations has remained the same: Reach more consumers, create some noise and sell more product. But in today\u2019s market, none of this will happen if a brand\u2019s marketing isn\u2019t authentic and engaging, which is where social marketing and digital tactics have become especially crucial to successful in-person experiences. For years, experiential marketers looked to social media results to measure engagement and effectiveness through \u201clikes,\u201d shares and chatter around an event. Now, social media plays a much greater role in experience planning. Consider this: The Advantage Solutions survey found nearly six in 10 Gen Z shoppers are likely to share positive sampling experiences on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms.<\/p>\n Social campaigns can no longer be a bolt-on to an experiential marketing plan. They must be fully integrated with the live engagement strategy \u2014 which means brands need to relinquish some control over storytelling and get behind in-person interactions designed specifically to encourage consumers to create and share brand love and related stories. Every experiential activation must be viewed through a social, shareable filter. Are brand ambassadors trained to cultivate the brand story and inspire people to share their experience online? What\u2019s the backdrop at the event \u2015 how \u201cInsta\u201d is it? Is there an opportunity for people to receive even more free stuff when they share their experience?<\/p>\n At the same time, brands have an opportunity to partner more closely with retailers, who want to bring shoppers back into stores to regain impulse purchases that have been lost to e-commerce. They\u2019re already investing in ways to elevate in-store shopper experiences that will breed return trips and banner loyalty. In this inflationary economy, shoppers especially appreciate and are influenced by a valuable offer, such as high-value coupons offered with free samples. While a brand\u2019s sampling truck moves market to market, why shouldn\u2019t it stop at key retail sites along the way? Why shouldn\u2019t brands look for unique opportunities to partner with retailers for strategic experiences such as cooking classes, mixologist visits or livestream sampling?<\/p>\n So, yes, experiential marketing is back, but it\u2019s been forced to evolve quickly and unexpectedly. In many ways \u2015 the need for innovation, a rethinking of the ways people connect, a renewed focus on measuring impact and opportunities for consumer marketing and trade marketing teams to collaborate \u2015 this new, and I would say, smarter, version of experiential is a good thing for brands, for retailers and for consumers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The worldwide trauma of the pandemic taught us many things about humanity, including our deep need to be together and share a common experience. Although digital experiences became our social go-to early in the pandemic, as time went on and we were able to safely reengage with in-person events, people\u2019s pent-up desire to get out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2721,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"mrktblog-category":[41],"class_list":["post-2694","mrktblog-posts","type-mrktblog-posts","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","mrktblog-category-advantage-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCaring About Sharing<\/h2>\n