Steer Clear of These Common Experiential Marketing Mistakes

With more and more brands investing in experiential marketing, it’s easy for companies to get caught up in the excitement and dive right in. But, there are so many factors to consider when planning an experiential marketing campaign. Consequently, critical campaign elements are often overlooked. Here, we outline some common experiential marketing mistakes and takeaways for each.

4 Common Experiential Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

1. Rushing Through the Process

Experiential marketing events take time to create, plan, and develop. Rushing through any of these stages can be detrimental to the success of the campaign. Whether it’s a street team activation or a trade show booth, you have to determine your budget and goals, secure your vendors, plan the event elements, the list goes on and on. Successful events can’t happen overnight. Most experiential marketing agencies recommend a three to four-month lead time depending on what your event entails. 

Takeaway:  Allow plenty of time to plan and develop your campaign.

2. Choosing the Wrong Location

Location can make or break an event. Who is your target audience and what appeals to them, better yet, where can you find them? Will your event be indoors or outdoors? More importantly, could weather affect your event? Do your research to ensure you choose the right location for your demographic and one that matches your brand’s personality. You may also need to research whether you need permits for your vehicle, your staff, or your giveaways.

Takeaway: Research, research, and more research.

3. Poorly Trained Staff

Consumers crave authenticity and if a brand ambassador can’t answer a basic question about your brand or stumbles through the messaging, it reflects poorly on everyone. The message that you want to convey to your consumer is only as good as the person or people that are relaying the message. Training your brand ambassadors thoroughly is one of the best investments you can make for your event. Providing your staff with training materials is the first step. This can be online or an emailed document. Next, think about if you need to conduct a phone training or in-person training (this will depend on the size and scope of your program). Finally, prepare your staff by offering an online quiz or role-playing exercise to ensure that they know your brand and can handle any situations that may arise.

Many brands and agencies turn to an event staffing company to hire, train, and manage brand ambassadors. A staffing agency can guide you through the process and take care of the training and testing of your staff.

Takeaway: Invest in training your staff, it will pay off in the long run.

4. Forgetting About Metrics

Brands must clearly define what the objective of the campaign is BEFORE the activation and determine how to measure its success. Set benchmarks for your event in the planning stages and establish your KPIs. Is it the number of social media impressions or leads collected? The number of giveaways distributed? An increase in sales?

You may want to include softer metrics, too. Are consumers having a good time at the event? Are they interacting with the brand and participating in event elements? Rely on your brand ambassadors or staff to engage consumers in conversation and get truthful feedback without it seeming like a survey. Authentic conversations can reveal a lot about what consumers think of the brand and the event itself.

Of course, you don’t have to limit yourself to just one KPI, try a variety of metrics to give you even more insight.