Can you taste it? Can you touch it? Can you feel, see or hear it?
You don’t have to tap all five senses in order to raise awareness for your product or service, but when you offer consumers a way to engage with your brand that goes beyond passive viewing, they form emotional connections that often drive sales. Experiential marketing, sometimes called engagement marketing, should no longer be an outlier strategy in your marketing plan. If it is, you’re missing an opportunity to convert potential customers into brand ambassadors.
Today consumers of every age are seeking personal experiences – meaningful connections and interactions. A company that facilitates these immersive, experiential marketing opportunities is often rewarded with a stronger, more loyal following.
Cookerly has helped many clients integrate experiential marketing into their marketing plans, designing everything from basic product sampling and classes/workshops to more complex product showcases, pop-up events and immersive experiences that tap virtual reality…for one client we even built a forest in the middle of Times Square.
And while it doesn’t have to be complicated, experiential marketing does have to be authentic. You must provide consumers with an intriguing, memorable experience that provides audience value and relevance.
There are many factors to consider before embarking on an experiential marketing campaign, that will determine the success or failure of this strategy. At a minimum, Cookerly recommends that you:
- Understand and evaluate your customers: What audience(s) are you seeking to attract? What do you know about the persona of this group? How do they experience your brand, and what is most relevant to them? What do they value in their personal lives? No matter how creative the tactic, if it does not resonate with your audience, it will fall flat.
- Establish measurable goals: What are you trying to accomplish? Is it general awareness? Do you want to deepen existing customer relationships? What is your call to action or what do you want the audience to do? As you design your program, it is easy to allow for scope creep. Not only can this be expensive, but it often takes away from the original goal and can dilute the effectiveness of the experience.
- Ensure program sustainability: A one-off event can be fun and memorable, but to be truly successful for your company, it’s important that your plan includes post experience follow up that continues to engage your audience. The more touchpoints you offer the consumer to experience your brand, the more likely you are to win their business.
- Consider additional amplification: Is this event strictly physical or is there a way to make it digital, as well? Will your audience find it social worthy? Will it generate buzz, media interest and drive word of mouth activity?
For both large brands and smaller businesses, experiential marketing is an exciting strategy that can help create an emotional connection between your audience and product or service. These experiences often create long-lasting memories and positive sentiment toward your brand when done right.
As a senior vice president at Cookerly, Matt helps organizations protect and advance their reputations and bottom lines through strategic communications programs. Using creativity, planning and flawless execution, he works with a team to deliver compelling public relations campaigns that produce results and support clients’ business objectives.
As senior vice president at Cookerly, Mike Rieman specializes in building and maintaining relationships with the media and has an excellent track record of landing significant placements in print and broadcast media including USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Money Magazine.
As vice president of Cookerly, Sheryl Sellaway uses her extensive corporate communications background to lead consumer PR efforts, deliver strategy for marketing programs and share expertise about community initiatives.
In his role as senior vice president of Cookerly, Chip Stewart is the head strategist for content services across all media. He shepherds the Cookerly Content Hub and can help clients get started on a blog or a vlog, a video or an editorial series, a mobile app or a meme, an infographic campaign or an annual report.
As senior vice president and chief talent officer of Cookerly, Keith Bowermaster leads the firm’s health care practice, shepherds clients through all facets of integrated marketing, manages reputation issues including complex issues and crises and helps cultivate a bright and engaged agency staff at all levels.
As senior vice president of Cookerly, Beth McKenna oversees integrated marketing campaigns for business-to-business, technology and hospitality clients. From creative brand-building to reputation management, she and her team leverage traditional and social communications channels to engage with key publics.
In his role as senior vice president and chief operations officer of Cookerly, Cory Stewart manages issues and crisis response for a wide range of clients.
In her role as senior vice president of Cookerly, Tracy Paden heads business-to-business accounts and high-profile integrated marketing campaigns for government, transportation, nonprofits and the public good. She leads massive cause marketing programs, devising strategies to drive behavioral change on issues from clean air to littering. She is also highly experienced in managing government contracts and budgets.
In her role as executive vice president of Cookerly, Jane Stout, APR, oversees financial and professional services accounts and sets integrated marketing strategy for the company’s top clients. From creative brand-building to reputation management, she and the Cookerly team leverage traditional and social communications channels to engage with key publics, consistently exceeding client expectations.
In her role as CEO and founder of the firm, Carol Cookerly is a chief strategist for building and sustaining brands. However, it is her deft management of complex crises and issues over three decades that has made Cookerly a top choice for clients when adversity strikes. Under her direction, the agency has been the lead strategist in scores of permitting efforts, contamination issues, natural and manmade disaster responses, instances of legislative and judicial activism, and challenging personnel matters including C-suite succession, whistleblowers, discrimination and harassment in just about every major industry.
