Experiential marketing is a great way to create an emotional connection with your target audience. Whether you’re considering a pop-up event with virtual reality or smaller product sampling initiatives, it can quickly become a lot of work – which is why many people turn to experiential marketing companies to get the job done.
“There are a lot of experiential marketing companies out there, so you need to make sure you partner with the right agency. Instead of trusting that someone else is an expert in experiential marketing, ask the right questions to help you narrow down your search,” says Greg Martin from Tradeway before listing a few questions that brands should consider:
How do you find, choose and train brand ambassadors?
Brand ambassadors will become the face of your company during these events. Find out how the company goes about hiring them and whether they are able to recruit people from all over the country in a smart way (for example, if you are hosting an event in Cape Town, then you don’t necessarily want to be paying for brand ambassadors to travel from Johannesburg to Cape Town).
The brand ambassadors need to be a good fit with your brand as well. If your target audience is tech-savvy millennials, then you wouldn’t want to hire middle-aged sales reps. If you are selling IT infrastructure products to Chief Technological Officers, then you will need people with the right level of technical expertise and negotiation handling training. The way the company selects and trains brand ambassadors can make or break your experiential marketing campaign, so make sure they have a rock-solid plan.
What will your involvement and our involvement be?
Ideally, you would want the experiential marketing agency to be able to present ideas, get approval, then run with the strategy and provide continuous feedback. Make sure the terms of who is responsible for what is set out clearly so that you know what your responsibilities are and what the agency’s responsibilities will be for any event.
Who are your past clients?
If you’re in an industry that is heavily regulated, such as the financial sector, then partnering with an experiential marketing company that has worked with banks in the past becomes crucial. They will understand the ins and outs of legislation involved in your marketing and communication, and be able to advise appropriately.
What are the measurable?
Any marketing campaign needs measurable goals and experiential marketing is no different. Calculating an ROI isn’t always clear-cut when your goal is to raise brand awareness or generate new leads. Ask the agency to come up with a plan of how the interactions with your brand will be monitored and measured to determine the success rate of the event or campaign.
Tell me about your greatest experiential marketing campaigns?
Ask the agency about the events or campaigns that they are most proud of. Pay particular attention to the wording that they use to determine whether they succeeded at creating a buzz, pulling off a successful event, or increasing the sales numbers for a company.
Need help with your experiential marketing campaign? Then contact Tradeway today.