Lead Generation with Experiential Marketing

Suppose you’re strolling through a mall and you happen to see a new pair of Adidas shoe being launched with few engagement activities going on for the crowd around, and suddenly your favourite basketball players comes swooping in through the  crowd performing and amazing dunk. How would you feel? Awestruck! right? Well adding more to your excitement, to our don’t just get a chance to meet your favourite basketballer but also get a chance to take home those new pair of shoes with you, by jumping as high as he did. Just as you would have felt, many people also take home the brand’s experience with them from an experiential marketing event.

“A consensus among the marketers have developed, that brand experience builds loyalty” states Freeman CMO Chris Cavanaugh

Experiential marketing stands a higher chance of generating leads as opposed to traditional marketing stunts. Let’s see how experiential marketing has evolved to be the new lead generation catalyst.

Technology is your best ally

• From pre event analysis to post event marketing, use of technology is a constant.
• Including VR gears or live virtual gaming at an event makes sure you stimulated the audience’s senses well.
• Use of AI monitored Interfaces for audience interaction would help in streamlined data collection during the event, hence lead generation made easier.
• Aware your audience through social media, emailers about your upcoming products and services they might be interested in.

Out of the box ideas for engagement and data capture

• Google giving out Mini Doughnuts and actual donuts in similar boxes to people winning the on the go quizzes at public places would definitely make a buzz.
• At a photo app launch, if you click a picture through the app and upload it on the link provided at the kiosks, you can have free cupcakes. Have a sweet tooth? You would make that event a hit.
• Creative engagements never fail to leave a lasting impression on the customer’s mind and you can capture their data to build leads.
• You might forget how the stairs you took today looked like but not if they are transformed into a piano so you can hop and play as you like. Similar engagement was performed by Volkswagen at a subway station steps.

Rope in influencers

• Like the example I quoted about you meeting your favourite basketball player unexpectedly in a mall, leaves no scope of doubt that your buying decisions are majorly influenced by a impactful person, called influencers today.
• Since the cycling era seems to be making comeback now, with millennials following the fad and buying bicycles to stay fit. Bicycle Gear brands can encash this trend by flagging off a cycling event with famous cyclists or sportspersons to promote the brand.
• Social media has revolutionized the concepts of marketing, people follow influencers to the point that they do shadow styling. They try to copy everything their social media idols do. So if you tap into this pool of opportunity of having an influencer to showcase your product or service, you are confirming your leads in promising numbers.

Being cognizant of pop culture trends, TV series that are gaining popularity across the globe, and also able to incorporate them into your experiential planning. Best experiential marketing agencies would not miss a chance to weave their strategies around social media trends or a Netflix popular series.

• HBO created a hype for the release of a Game of Thrones season by invading major cities with dragons(unfortunately! Not real ones) and made the place around looked like crashed down with trash bins squeezed and claw marks everywhere. The official teaser they created was a huge trigger for curiosity among people as they couldn’t wait for that season to go live. Every Game of Thrones fan would have missed everything else to experience that.
• Even Apple couldn’t resist the temptation to experiment with the fever of Game of Thrones. It customised it’s AI based personal assistant, Siri, in a way that that Siri introduce itself like the King of seven kingdoms in the show, whenever anything was asked of it. Though it wasn’t a direct marketing of any of apple’s product it still managed to capture billions of emotions with that gesture.

“Not everything can be 100% quantified. The small smile you bring to someone’s face, that is something”. Raja Raja Mannar, CMO, MasterCard

Experiential Marketing when done right is a powerful lead magnet and the elements which make it an impactful approach, work best when applied in carefully calibrated proportion. Experiential campaigns provide you with best lead generation opportunities if you’re smart enough to capture and process that data to design your targeted marketing strategies.