Experiential marketing experiences are increasing in number and complexity. Some experimental marketing campaigns are nearly identical to paying attractions like pop-up museums, haunted houses, festivals, and carnival walkthroughs. How can the attractions industry and other types of companies use experiential activations to drive brand awareness, connect with consumers, and ultimately drive sales? Philip and I discussed the opportunities of this burgeoning medium in episode 29 of the “Marketing Your Attraction” podcast.

Experiential Marketing Podcast

Have you taken part in a great marketing activation or experiential experience that we didn’t discuss on the show? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments. We are particularly interested in examples of theme parks, amusement parks, museums, and other types of attractions utilizing this type of marketing for discussion in a future episode.

Experiential Marketing Example Razer Tour

The key to every marketing tactic is ensuring that it ties into your overall strategy and that there are clear goals set from the beginning. These types of events and experiences are no different. Is your goal to generate sales during the event, drive online conversation, capture attendee data for future remarketing, or something else entirely?

Here is a quick cheat sheet:

  1. Decide Your Goal – What is your goal? Sales, in-person brand awareness, online exposure, data for future remarketing, etc.
  2. Costs/Location – Ensure you will be located near your target demographic. Consider malls, festivals, community centers, city events, city centers, beach piers, farmers market, and others.
  3. Quality – Every extension and touchpoint of your brand needs to align with your brand. For example, if you are a luxury brand, you probably shouldn’t be at a small community event with a thrown together booth.
  4. Expectations – Make sure you set your audience’s expectations. This is particularly important for attractions that are only showing a small demo of their main experience and pop-ups that require reservations. You need to make the length crystal clear when signing up and that this is only a trial of a much larger offering. Leave the participants wanting more at the end.
  5. Key Performance Indicators – How do you prove the value? You need to measure the performance based on your original goals.
    1. Sales at the event.
    2. Email signups -> Remarket and compare the future purchase history of those who interacted at the tour.
    3. PR value: invitations to media, tracking impressions.
    4. Connection to fans: Pushing them down the funnel/cross-selling.
    5. Time spent in the attraction.

Show Note Links