Experiential marketing
Experiential marketing is the new darling of the marketing world. Agencies are popping up everywhere, promising to create experiential events to drive your customers wild.
Great. Do you know what that means, though?
It’s one of those vacuous terms that looks impressive on a website but has no meaning to the reader. To me, it’s a lazy way of selling an old concept. Yup, experiential marketing is not new.
The history of experiential marketing
The first recorded example of experiential marketing was in 1893 at Chicago’s World Fair. Several brands, including Wrigley, showed off their famous brands to a global audience. Wrigley handed out pieces of Juicy Fruit Chewing Gum to people hoping to boost sales.
Fast forward to my childhood, and the iconic Pepsi Challenge waved the experiential flag.
So, it’s not a new phenomenon; it’s an old, tried and tested marketing method wrapped up in modern terminology.
Show your customers what you mean
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against immersive marketing; it’s just how ‘experiential marketing’ is banded around that bugs me.
For example, if I am a brand looking for a new events and marketing agency to work with, I want to find one that speaks my language.
OK, I am a large corporation with a global reach. However, I am still a human looking to buy a service. I’m intelligent enough not to be bamboozled by an agency using hyperbole and ‘marketing-speak’ to sell me a basic concept. It’s almost as if the more syllables and words they use, the more they can charge.
I want an agency to tell me they will create a campaign encouraging customers to engage with my brand memorably because it:
- Has meaning
- States what they offer
- Tells me how it will benefit my brand
An experiential world gone mad
If marketers can’t say what they mean clearly, what hope is there? We’ll end up living in a world full of puff and no substance.
Shop assistants will become Customer Experience Enhancement Consultants; waiters will be Field Nourishment Consultants and window cleaners will be Transparency-enhancement Facilitators (thanks, Toughnickel, for those fabulous examples).
I appreciate many of you will disagree with me (and not just the Experiential Marketing Agencies), and I’d love to hear from you. However, this is my article, so I get to have my say.
Keep it clear and transparent
The number one rule when selling what you do is to keep it simple.
Your reader isn’t stupid. They’ll know puff when they read it. All they want to know is how you will help them, so tell them clearly in words that will not leave them reaching for a thesaurus or scratching their head.
Sally Ormond is a freelance copywriter – she writes stuff that makes your customers want to buy from you.