09.19.25
By Lisa Major
Marketing campaigns are never without unexpected challenges. You can’t predict buzz-worthy current events, competitive messages, or audience responsiveness, all of which could impact or detract from your campaign’s success. Experiential marketing comes with its unique challenges, but fortunately, with the right executional strategies, event marketers and organizers can more easily anticipate common challenges and plan for contingencies in advance. Here are five hurdles to consider when planning your next event or activation, and simple strategies to overcome them.
Many experiential events and activations are outdoors. High-profile sponsorship activations benefit from being a part of a larger event or festival, which has its own weather contingency plans and alerts. But what if your activation is an individual pop-up or activation, or what if the weather isn’t a safety issue but rather a challenge in keeping guests comfortable? Regardless of what the weather forecast predicts, have backup plans for any scenario. Even with careful planning, attendance can fluctuate in less-than-ideal conditions, so have plans in place to reschedule if necessary or ways to keep guests comfortable and lingering, like providing covered or shaded areas, offering cold drinks on a hot day, ponchos on a rainy day, or adjusting activation elements to ensure the experience remains enjoyable and memorable.
Read More: Planning an Outdoor Corporate Event: 4 Contingency Plans to Have in Place
You’ll hear it said many times: your brand activation or experiential event is only as strong as the staff and brand ambassadors you hire to deliver the message and engage with your audience. That’s why partnering with an experienced event staffing agency can make all the difference. Agencies help mitigate common challenges, like no-shows or undertrained staff, by vetting top-tier professionals who understand your brand and objectives.
A good agency will guide you in training staff effectively, maximizing the impact of every interaction, and building in contingency measures, such as having on-site backups ready to work in the event of a call-in or no-show. Staffing experiential events can be unpredictable, but with the right partner, you’ll have a plan in place to address challenges quickly and ensure your activation runs smoothly.
Experiential marketing is a significant investment, especially when custom elements tailored to the brand identity must be delivered, set up, and operational by an event deadline. If there’s a chance that something may not arrive on time or could break during setup, have a backup plan in place. A logistics manager working with a detailed production schedule is ideal for managing load-in and load-out procedures, but having a comprehensive project plan with long lead times is even more beneficial.
It never fails. You can test every piece of technology and equipment ahead of “going live,” and you’ll likely still encounter a glitch, bug, or device failure. Therefore, plan for technology trouble. One line of defense is to make sure your staff is well-trained on the technology being used and taught how to troubleshoot as a first attempt. Another contingency is to have duplicates of key equipment, like tablets or mobile hotspots. And don’t forget extra chargers or batteries! However, the best plan is to have tech support on call to address any IT needs immediately, so your audience isn’t impacted, or better yet, doesn’t even notice there’s an issue.
The challenges referenced above aren’t without viable solutions, but backup and contingency solutions easily add to the total cost of an activation. So, in the spirit of planning and preparing for any scenario, be it weather, staffing, or technology, plan your experiential budget with extra contingency to pay for the…. contingencies. And in the event a plan B scenario contributes to scope creep, know ahead of time what high-impact elements are the priority and what can be scaled down or removed if the situation calls for it.
Every event has its pain points, but with the right partner, staffing doesn’t have to be one of them. Contact us to see how our experienced event staff and brand ambassadors can help you deliver seamless activations and events from start to finish, allowing you to focus on the bigger picture.
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