Consumer Engagement: The New Norm
After nearly three months of social distancing, cancelled in-person events, and complete lack of face to face connections, we have learned that the power of human connection has never been more important. Many companies have pivoted their marketing strategy to go completely digital during this time, albeit an effective solution, experiential marketing may be the best option while looking forward in 2020 and beyond.
As restrictions are slowly being lifted, many consumers will be ready to emerge from isolation and return to a new normal. Brand experiences will play a vital role for those brands looking to differentiate themselves from their competitors and start connecting with consumers in a more meaningful way again. How we begin to navigate back to experiential events is crucial, here a few tips on how to approach experiential campaigns in this new norm.
Expand Audience Reach: Instead of asking how can we engage 1,000 attendees at once, we need to be asking how can we engage with 10 attendees in a safe and controlled environment and then repeat that process 1,000 times? Essentially, events moving forward should be designed to engage a few, but be shared by many. Smaller activations will be the move for the foreseeable future, making it vital to create an engaging an interesting experience that generates sharable content and conversation.
Word of mouth marketing is still a viable strategy and experiential marketing can do the work for you. Consumer’s will enjoy your memorable mobile tour, post on their social accounts for their friends to see and just like that more brand awareness for you. This also creates the opportunity for you to beef up your own company social accounts through sharing, liking, and reposting attendee posts. A smaller event and number of attendees does not have to mean a decrease in audience reach.
More Visual, Less Tactile: While restrictions may become less constricting, social distancing is still in effect and attendees may be more hesitant when it comes to common touch points. One solution is to adapt your experience to be more visual than tactile, to increase physical distancing and limiting close interactions between consumers and event staff. One solution could be larger outdoor experiences, rather than an enclosed space. You can still create a personal connection from afar, especially with a fully branded vehicle as your backdrop. Another example could be a sampling initiative, that can be done through vending windows, with spread out lines providing less person to person interaction. There are a variety of options that promote your brand and products with less touching and more looking.
