Over the years, health and wellness trends have become a sizeable aspect of people’s lifestyles. There is a record-breaking number of participants in these trends, and the audience is only growing. More and more companies are taking advantage of this increase and have incorporated health and wellness into their brands. What better way to promote these concepts than allowing consumers to experience them themselves?
Poor Planning
Poor preparation leads to lackluster events. It’s essential to give yourself ample time before the first day of activation. The most significant component in preparing for an experiential marketing event is research. Research needs to be done first, and it must be extensive. You’ll want to identify your target demographics, competition, and stakeholders. From there, you need to create a strategy. If your event has no clear plan, it will be unsuccessful. Your strategy will include every aspect of your event in a straightforward way that everyone involved will understand and implement. Event preparation takes time. DO NOT rush the preparation stage of experiential marketing. Your event will suffer.
Budgeting
Regardless of how big the budget is for your experiential marketing event, it’s essential to ensure it’s sufficient. It’s common for brands to underestimate their budget and be over their allotted amount before the activation has concluded. Give yourself some breathing room with your budget to account for unexpected expenses and changes. It is better to have extra funds than to be over budget.
Choosing the Wrong Location
Location will make or break any XM event. You can’t satisfy everyone. Brands will often try to cast their nets too wide. In attempting to reach everyone, you may create an event that is too generic and that doesn’t resonate with anyone. Limit your audience by sticking to your target consumers. Catering an event to your desired public will increase their brand loyalty and your ROI.
Lack of mobility of locations restricts your potential consumers. Staying in a single location limits visibility and consumer interaction with your brand experience. Marketing vehicles are a great solution to this problem. By creating a mobile event, you’ll be able to reach your local consumers while also reaching your target audiences in more significant areas.
Not Seeing the Bigger Picture
An experiential marketing event is more than a fun experience for consumers. It is an opportunity for your brand to connect with your audience. As a brand, it is beneficial to build relationships with consumers. Doing so can only increase brand loyalty. You want to have the mindset that your event is creating lasting connections. This will increase your brand’s long-term viability.
Planning for the Unexpected
Events have several moving parts involved. While it is necessary to plan every detail with perfection in mind, that is not usually the reality. XM events almost always have small bumps in the road. No matter how much time and preparation you put into an event, your brand always needs to expect the unexpected. It’s important to have alternatives and backup plans for these situations. Assuming everything will go off without a hitch can leave your event vulnerable to failure.
Keeping it Safe
Safe is boring and predictable. To really be able to WOW your audience, your brand must step outside the comfort zone. Results happen when people have memorable experiences. When thinking of what your brand should incorporate into your XM event, consider how you can be unique, and imaginative, and produce something that’s never been done before. The best events are ones that create lasting impressions.
Losing Focus
Brands often get carried away by the event and lose focus on the message they are trying to convey. Over-the-top events aren’t always the answer. While you want your audience to enjoy the experience, you always want them to consume your product. Your event is ultimately the showcase for your brand. It should incorporate the brand voice, values, and message. Your brand needs to keep these factors the focus of the experience to have the most success with consumers.
Not Following Up
It is common for companies to feel a sense of closure immediately following the conclusion of their XM event. Why wouldn’t they? The event is over…right? Nope! To achieve the most success out of your marketing efforts, it’s essential to follow up with the attendees of your activation. Reinforcement is the best way to increase brand loyalty. Following up with your audience will remind them of the incredible event they just went to and solidify their brand awareness.
There are several ways you can follow up with your audience. You can send a thank you email, create a highlight reel from the event, invite participants to fill out a survey, or have your teams reach out to individuals personally. As a brand, following up on an event is crucial to the event’s success.
Hiring Inexperienced Staff
Your staff is an essential part of the success of your event. One of the worst things that can happen during your activation is a consumer asking a question that no one knows the answer to. The ambassadors are the voice of your brand at every event. It is their job to sell the brand to consumers. If they cannot answer questions or promote the brand, you need to find someone who can. Make sure you give brand ambassadors proper and extensive training before the event.
Forgetting the Metrics
Analyzing metrics is a simple task that often gets overlooked after the event has concluded. After all the time and effort you put into ensuring your event is successful, you need to have data that backs it up. Your brand needs to make sure the data represents evidence of your goals for the event. Your event should have contributed to your brand’s high ROI. This shows that the activation was successful and beneficial to your company.
It can be stressful to produce an experiential marketing event. Mistakes are inevitable, but your experiential marketing event will be highly successful in audience engagement, attendance, and ROI with these simple reminders! Just remember, it’s all in the details.