02.21.25
By Lisa Major
When investing in brand development, companies take many directions. Some will be complete with logo design and brand standards. Others will go further into brand expressions, personas, and journey maps. The most important component of any level of brand development is consistency because, ultimately, you want your audience to quickly connect the message they receive to what they already know to be true about your brand. Investing in brand development is essentially helping your marketing work smarter, not harder.
And in that spirit, having a cohesive brand narrative is the smartest strategic element in executing an experiential event. The impact of experiential marketing is that it allows your audiences to interact with your brand as if it were a tangible thing and form a personal connection to it. A brand narrative helps bring the story to life so that it’s easier to comprehend and connect. Here are three things to consider when developing a compelling brand narrative.
When planning experiential campaigns, always start by asking why. Why is this channel right for our brand goals? Why will our audiences care? The answers to those and other questions will establish a purpose for the narrative you are crafting and, therefore, guide the execution like a north star. Suppose a detail or component of the experiential execution doesn’t serve the purpose of this campaign. In that case, it’s likely to stick out as confusing to audiences and detrimental to the cohesion you’re striving for.
If you have a well-developed brand, there is likely a definition for the brand’s tone and personality. So, applying that to an experiential event seems pretty straightforward, right? Well, yes and no. Yes, it’s best to pull through the brand personality so there is consistency between marketing channels and overall brand cohesion. But, for experiential events, bringing the brand personality to life is vital to a successful campaign event. Because experiential marketing emphasizes a tangible, immersive, and personal experience, it’s better to think of your brand as a host bringing their personality to life with thoughtful and considered touches that make guests to the experience feel like they belong.
Brand ambassadors are your secret weapon to amplify this personality in a genuine way. They are a living extension of your brand and shape the attendee experience, ensuring the brand’s personality shines, and they make those oh-so-important connections. The energy they bring and how they communicate your messaging makes each interaction feel intentional and on-brand. Having the right team of brand ambassadors is important to ensure that consumers don’t just see the brand’s personality but experience it in every conversation and interaction.
A brand narrative has to have relevancy to resonate with audiences, and experiential marketing is the channel that delivers relevancy most effectively. So, in executing an experiential event, you can’t build the experience in a vacuum and drop it into whatever setting the event will take place. The brand narrative must adapt to the setting and find relevancy within the who, what, and where in order to maximize the why. This means the narrative may change slightly between individual event executions, but that work will only make the story more impactful and more meaningful to your audiences.
A brand narrative is the cornerstone of an experiential event because it’s essentially telling the story you want your audiences to connect to. So, developing it through that lens will help you consider the best people to tell that story – the staff you hire to deliver the experience.
Connect with ATN Event Staffing to match your brand narrative to the right people to personify it. With over two decades of experience, brands and agencies trust ATN to deliver top-tier brand ambassadors who bring events to life. Our dedicated team ensures seamless execution and exceptional service at every activation. Let us help you reach your goals and make your next experiential marketing activation a success!
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