Consumers have made it clear that advertisements donât do it for them anymore. They can fast-forward through TV channels, avoid them altogether on streaming platforms, and use blockers to keep them from popping up on their devices. So, how does a brand connect with its target audience now?
With everything becoming increasingly digital-focused, sped up by the enforced need for homeworking over the last two years, focusing on in-person experiences, at first glance, appears to go against the trend. However, as more and more business is conducted online, experiential marketing is only becoming more important â because people want to feel something.
It turns out the best way to reach the press and consumers emotionally and to maximise engagement is to create experiences they actually want to be a part of. This is particularly important when trying to work with journalists and influencers as it is these contacts that will become independent advocates for your brand and will broadcast their love and appreciation for your products to the masses via print, digital, and social media, only if they have bought into the brand first.
It works
Experiential marketing gets results. A survey by EventTrack showed that 74 per cent of people had a more positive brand perception after an event, and 65 per cent purchased the product or service being promoted. As many as 70 per cent of participants end up becoming regular customers â a great return on a brandâs investment.
It offers a new way to experience a brand
Experiential marketing generates authentic brand awareness. When executed well, itâs hugely engaging, which gets attention and helps people to remember a brand. To build positive connotations of a brand, people first need to interact with it. Brand experiences are typically fun, unique and memorable â they provide experiences people enjoy.
Through events, the press and consumers are invited to get to know a brand via their senses. These tangible experiences create stronger bonds between people and products, as people can interact with a brand in a genuine, real-life way, creating a lasting impression, and ultimately leading to brand loyalty. With experiential marketing, you arenât advertising a product, instead, you are letting people see and feel what their lives would be like with it.
It was exactly this ethos that encouraged us to reimagine our annual Summer Showcase event into the House of Rooster â A living, breathing (sometimes working), but mostly playing, fully functioning residence.
Journalists and influencers were welcomed into the household to experience the very latest and greatest products from our eclectic selection of clients across lifestyle, tech, interiors, and fashion, all of which could be experienced first-hand.
Everything on show was presented in situ â someone lives in the house where the event was held â so attendees could get a true feel for how every trend and innovation plays out in real life.
Guests were encouraged to treat the place as a home away from home and were invited to grab a drink, have a bite to eat, kick their shoes off (optional), and immerse themselves in everything from the house party happening in the living room to the 80s workout in the gym.
An Active Understanding of Your Product
One of marketingâs main goals is to educate about a product, and that only works if the audience is engaged. Tie your brand or product to a fun experience, like a live event, and consumers are more likely to get the message. According to an EventTrack research report in 2021, 40 per cent of consumers said they felt more brand loyalty after participating in an experience or interaction, and 91 per cent were more likely to purchase the product or service.
The House of Rooster was created with the express purpose of ensuring every brand on our roster was presented in an engaging and relevant way. On entering each room, guests were greeted with a room descriptor which gave a sense of the scene at play, then encouraged them to explore the products in their own time and ask a member of the team or â one of our illustrious clients â for more information if they were interested in what they saw. Needless to say, hundreds of purposeful conversations were had over the course of the day. From The Breakfast Club in the kitchen to the Elegantly Wasted after party in the lounge and games den to the Electric Dreams set up in the gym, the event truly offered something for everyone, whatever their taste, passions and interests.
Experiential marketing makes the most of social media in a natural way
When it comes to Social media, experiential marketing is perfectly placed to capitalise on this. Experiences perfectly suit how people use social channels, encouraging them to capture and share visual content with their networks, expanding the reach far beyond the physical event itself.
The fact that people love capturing the moment to bump their status (it’s true, admit it) gives brands a way to access free grassroots marketing while engaging consumers at the same time.
At the House of Rooster, plaques were created for all hero products around the venue, within each room set, featuring the social handles for each brand. This ensured the social content created and shared tagged the correct brand, enabling our clients to reuse and reshare this invaluable UGC (user-generated content) across its own channels and extend the reach of the event itself.
Fancy getting involved next year?
Little Red Roosterâs annual Summer Showcase is a golden opportunity for your brand to speak directly to over 300 UK media outlets and influencers, allowing you to enjoy all the benefits that come from experiential marketing in a far more targeted and cost-effective format compared to creating your own pop-up or exhibiting at trade fairs. Get in touch with us to find out how you can get involved in next yearâs event.
