A little different from the traditional ways of marketing and advertising, experiential marketing, as the name suggests, focuses on making consumers experience a brand first handedly. Also known as engagement marketing, this form of marketing tries to immerse the audience with the brand/product in a moment and engage them to the greatest extent. This gives brands the benefit of customer loyalty and high CLV as it evokes emotions and strong brand recall.

Experiential marketing does not include attractive offers or heavy discounts or sales, neither does it bring into play big PR stunts or consistent social media messages. It’s rather the opposite. Experiential marketing catches you off guard. It makes you stop, notice, register and participate in what’s going on. These are real life experiences

that grab the interest and attention of the audience and hence influences their perception about the brand.

Do you remember the last time when you found an unexpected pouch of a shampoo attached to the newspaper or the time when touching a signboard would make it speak or make sounds. This is exactly what experiential marketing does. What makes a brand successful is its exceptional services and experience at various touchpoints. This type of marketing aims to engage all senses of customers and elicit a response from them.

VEM (Virtual Experiential Marketing) is the internet-based form of engagement marketing driven by virtual reality. Trying on clothes in a store without having to visit it on the other end of the city or getting a personal shopping advisor while you’re picking up your favourite brand of jewellery. With the help of innovation and technology, it will soon be possible to have retail experiences while sitting on your couch. VEM uses the internet and its many facets like blogs, online chat-rooms, multi-player games etc. to produce an enriching experience.

Things to remember while you set an experiential campaign are:

1. Understand what your customer requires and what drives him the best. It is exciting imagery or storytelling, is it getting a sample or giving them a trial of the product. Customer centric marketing campaigns go a long way.
2. Be clear with your goals and outcomes. Decide if you want your marketing effort to generate awareness, engage customers or drive sales.
3. Measure the outcomes effectively in order to see whether your campaign was successful or not.
4. Strategise an exciting and impactful campaign to make the most lasting impression.
5. Do not copy any other campaign.
6. Provide value to people so that they carry a positive association from the experience.