How Experiential Marketing Impacts Emotion and Attention

Marketers continue their quest to crack the code of consumer attention in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. While many are relying on emerging technology to solve the puzzle, the pieces themselves haven’t changed. In its analysis of 2024 marketing trends, Kantar noted how important consumer attention is for creative and media effectiveness and that marketers are looking to more nuanced metrics than viewability. It’s a logical evolution of measuring campaign value, and new gaze tracking and AI-based attention predictors are trying to take the guesswork out of ROI modeling. But, if emotion and attention are the favored leading indicators of success, a proven marketing channel, experiential marketing, already prioritizes and delivers these behavioral metrics. And measures them in real time with instant feedback. 

EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING EMPHASIZES AUDIENCE ATTENTION AND EMOTION

Emotion and attention may be marketing buzzwords in 2024, but they are also established drivers for converting consumers through the marketing funnel. Simply putting messages in front of audiences and measuring impressions isn’t the only goal anymore. You have to effectively get them to pay attention to the message first and then have the message resonate emotionally. This is why experiential marketing is a prime channel for activating emotion and attention in consumer campaigns. Your branded experience is built to be engaging and interactive at a one-on-one level. With every consumer interaction, you are earning their attention and getting real-time feedback on how they connect with the message and, what’s more, how likely they are to convert. The learnings you get from experiential marketing initiatives can be used to scale to larger audiences.

 The interactivity of brand activations and experiences is paramount, but it requires professional and skilled experiential event staff facilitation to maximize its value. They are on the ground observing audience behaviors, including what kind of attention your activation, immersive experience, or trade show exhibit is receiving and how well consumers are connecting.

But it’s also important for promotional staff or brand ambassadors to know what should happen after attention is earned and an emotional connection is made. What’s the ultimate goal that attention and emotion will garner? Whether it’s data collection, lead generation, purchase intent, or sales, your team should know where to lead them in the customer journey to see real ROI.

EMPHASIS ON QUALITY VS QUANTITY

The one-on-one engagement fostered in experiential marketing is hard to scale unless big budgets are involved. But the quality interactions and audience responses are sometimes the most valuable first-party research you can gather. Even if you can’t deliver the activation itself to a broader audience segment or present at every industry trade show, the feedback you receive from audiences can be applied throughout an integrated campaign.

If increasing the impact of emotion and attention is a key objective in your 2024 marketing goals, executing an experiential marketing campaign is an established approach to capturing an audience and building on their engagement. Consider a professional event team to help you execute against these metrics and convert customers further down the sales journey – no AI algorithms required.

For over two decades, ATN Event Staffing has provided dedicated, experienced, and professional teams of brand ambassadors and event staff for thousands of marketing campaigns across the nation. When you’re looking for a staffing partner for your next campaign, ATN would love to assist. Contact us to learn more about our staffing solutions and how we can help you bring your brand to life!