The connection between experiential marketing and design
Just as brands dedicate attention to environmental and educational aspects in their activities, it’s appropriate to take responsibility for the brand’s behavior in the areas of culture, design, and content.
Around 2008, when I started working in the field of exhibitions, design, and event production, I didn’t understand that I was actually doing experiential marketing (sometimes called “brand experience” or “engagement marketing” in English). Experiential marketing is a marketing strategy based on the fundamental assumption that consumers choose a product or service based on the experience before, during, and after the actual purchase and consumption. Culture and design are wonderful means for creating such a connection. Unlike traditional marketing that relies on quality, price, and advantages, experiential marketing focuses on user experiences as they form during brand familiarization, consumption, and purchase. The main goal in experiential marketing is to evoke and create an emotional connection between the consumer and the brand, a connection that is vital to differentiate the brand from competitors. In 2019, the American business sector invested about $62.3 billion in this connection, which is 21% of the total marketing budgets of those brands. The trends show constant growth compared to the ongoing decline in investment in direct marketing channels.
Let’s go back for a moment to the jolly 80s
Experiential marketing was born in the 1980s with the understanding that emotional needs have tremendous power in consumer choices. Its relevance grew even more after the exhaustion of traditional marketing tools, which failed to address these emotional needs as they focus on more rational needs, such as functionality or attractive pricing. With the development of digital technology and internet use, a deep technological connection between brands, consumers, and customers became possible. This connection only tightened thanks to social media and various communication channels like WhatsApp, Telegram, chats, and different bots that allow easier and more immediate communication. In recent years, resources have been directed to collecting and analyzing the information produced from it. Brands today have much more access to data, algorithms, statistics, and many mathematical models that allow for precise interactions in terms of segments with a high level of effectiveness (performance).
Another aspect of the digital revolution is the ongoing dialogue between brands and consumers, which gives brands real-time feedback, a huge advantage when wanting to innovate, learn, and develop. Experiential marketing is also based on dialogue and interpersonal involvement that creates emotions and memories. The approach is not content with using statistical and/or analytical tools, but encourages the use of interdisciplinary tools that are the key to innovation and constitute added value and the socio-cultural context of consumption.
Let’s Play
Just before 2021, brands have already internalized that sharing a cultural, emotional, and social world is an integral part of marketing and content strategy. In experiential marketing initiatives and connection to design, different levels of involvement and participation are made possible and they are measured according to 4 quality principles:
Human interaction: Brands aim to create personal connections and sometimes choose to do this through personalization processes, so that the approach to the consumer allows for choice from many alternatives or analysis of preferences or personality traits to offer a specific service or product. This category includes all activities that create a human, personal, and authentic connection, whether live, digital, or offline. For example:
Project: Playland, Discoveryland, Dreamland by Pinterest, October 2019
Credits: Creative agency: Anyways, Design and production studio: One Rise East in collaboration with artist: Yinka Ilori
What’s the deal: Pinterest space at the Cannes Lions Festival. An experiential space, an installation divided into three different areas where the audience wandered to get inspiration, explore, get to know, and discover. The product is the result of color research of photos that interface users collected on the platform. The research was translated into a stunning set design according to different areas and levels of human interactions at different levels of participation. An inspiring space that allows room for everyone, the bold, the shy, the observers, and the mixers. The design is noticeably inclusive, accessible, energetic, and research-based. It’s a quality product of successful collaboration with top-tier designers. Bottom line, it creates a connection between experiential marketing and design in a homogeneous and accessible way.
Highlight: The collaboration with food design studio The Robin Collective, who created a self-service sensorial bar where you can smell, taste, and hear different scents, noises, and flavors and receive a personalized drink. An excellent example of promoting inspiration values through fun-based interactions, play in a non-sales environment. A very viral project made with a very high level of aesthetics that corresponds with the colorful world of Pinterest’s inspiration boards.
Tags: #fooddesign #designthinking #eventplanning #creativeconcept #design
