8 Experiential Marketing Examples For Your Exhibition
Marketing an event is way more important than just booking and turning up, it should be an all round experience which is where experiential marketing comes in. Sure, the event itself will have it’s own marketing, but it won’t be tailored or bespoke to you and your business. Think of it this way, the event you are exhibiting at will bundle all of the businesses exhibiting under the same marketing umbrella to draw in people who are interested in the overall concept for the show. They won’t capture the essence of your business or be able to target your desired audience, only you can do that. But how do you keep your marketing fresh and interesting? Here are 8 of our best experiential marketing tips to help elevate your brand and engage your audience on the run up to and during your trade event!
The Best Experiential Marketing Ideas
Trying just one of these tips could bring 10% more footfall to your stand on the day, and with more people comes more opportunities to score new leads. So let’s get creative!
1. Social media
The easiest and free-est solution to dip your toe into experiential marketing is the wide wide world of social media marketing. Yes, it can take a while to curate your perfect/ideal audience but creating content to market your brand on social media is a great way to get your brand out there. The only thing you need to do is decide what platforms you want to use. Take a look at what your competitors use and try to identify a gap in the market. Then fill that gap! Spend a little bit of time doing some research into some trends and then just go for it. Think Aldi or Innocent Smoothies and tear up the rule book! Remember, you’re talking to real people so your goal is to evoke emotion from your (ideally) engaged audience.
2. Get creative!
Think outside of the box in terms of how to display your products. The best example we can think of here is the 2007 Skoda car advert – do you remember this? The one where they made a Skoda Fabia entirely out of cake? Yes, that one. What’s cake got to do with cars you may ask? Literally nothing. That’s the genius of it. Car’s aren’t all that interesting unless they’re supercars – let’s face it – but one thing everyone loves is cake! So, merge the two and voilá! Not only do you stick in people’s minds but you evoke a serotonin loaded response! We’re not saying make all of your products into cake, but we are suggesting you really let your imagination fly and roll with it! Some of the best product marketing campaigns actually had nothing to do with the product at all. It’s all about the customer experience and being memorable.
3. Invite people to get involved
Adding an interactive element to your stand encourages people to experience your brand and how it can work for them first hand. For example, if your business sells pens why not get a blank wall space or keep your floor white and invite people to draw on it? If your business sells bar equipment, why not do a cocktail masterclass and get people using your products with the best bespoke cocktail per session winning some money off your products? Interacting with your customers in this way is an invaluable avenue to get them to connect with and trust your business in a way that a lot of other people won’t be able to.
4. Demonstration time!
A demonstration is a little different to a masterclass as you will not be getting people from the audience involved to help. However, a demonstration is just as important as you can really show people what your product can do. Just because you will be showing people rather than involving them doesn’t mean this can’t be interesting, fun and engaging. What about adding a bit of comedy to your script or a bit of flair? Depending on your product, you could really pack a punch here.
5. Photo booth
Think outside of the box in terms of how to display your products. The best example we can think of here is the 2007 Skoda car advert – do you remember this? The one where they made a Skoda Fabia entirely out of cake? Yes, that one. What’s cake got to do with cars you may ask? Literally nothing. That’s the genius of it. Car’s aren’t all that interesting unless they’re supercars – let’s face it – but one thing everyone loves is cake! So, merge the two and voilá! Not only do you stick in people’s minds but you evoke a serotonin loaded response! We’re not saying make all of your products into cake, but we are suggesting you really let your imagination fly and roll with it! Some of the best product marketing campaigns actually had nothing to do with the product at all. It’s all about the customer experience and being memorable.
6. Competition
Remember what we said above about the best kind of marketing having nothing to do with the product? If your goal for exhibiting is to gain contacts or expand your email list, why not think completely outside of the box and get a game like an old school arcade game or game show-esque prize wheel. For people to play, simply exchange their email address for 3 tokens! You could go one step further here and ensure ‘everyone’s a winner’ with money off vouchers or even a free trial of your product.
7. Business themed cocktails
If there is one thing that everyone loves, it’s a Photo Booth! See if you can source or make props that are industry specific and challenge people to take the best photo in your booth! Ensure you have created a bespoke hashtag for that and ask people to upload their photo strips to social media with that hashtag with the best photo winning a business-based prize. This is also a great way to get user generated content for your social media as well!
8. VR
Virtual reality is taking the world by storm and it is no different within the exhibition sphere. There are some websites that allow you to upload your space and visualise what certain elements would look like in your home. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could do that at a show via VR? Imagine your company sells tiles and your customer wants to see how they will transform an area of their space! Simply get them to send you the picture of the space, match with their chosen tile and ask them to pop on the VR for a real time reaction! This will also allow you to talk them through everything and maybe offer them different options.
Whatever you decide to do, choosing the right exhibition stand designer is the first step in executing your big ideas on the day. By working with a company like Insideout Events you will get assistance at every stage, so from design, lighting to installation, our project management team will be there to help.