Building Personalized Experiences

Why data is now the driving force behind event marketing success.

- Gwen Keraval

In this era of personalized, one-to-one engagement, brands are increasingly turning to experiential and event marketing to create rich, emotional connections with consumers.

From huge events and sponsorships to small, guerilla-style activations, experiential and event marketers are generating new, highly creative initiatives that demand consumer attention. As important, these events become fodder for social media, encouraging Tweets, Instagrams, Snaps and streams. This not only amplifies the reach of an individual event, but also provides sponsors with unique, real-time insights into how consumers react to the campaigns.

In fact, experiential campaigns are going beyond brand awareness to drive direct ROI, whether in the form of immediate sales or, more importantly, in terms of the consumer data that can be gathered and analyzed. On-site registration and giveaways drive qualified leads. Event hashtags provide metrics for consumer engagement. Deeper social listening data gives a sense of overall event impact.

That’s not to say that brand perception is no longer important to experiential. Just the opposite is true. According to the Event Marketing Institute’s 2016 Event Track benchmarking report, 72 percent of consumers said they positively view brands that provide quality event content and experiences. More importantly, 74 percent indicated that engaging with branded event E2marketing experiences makes them more likely to buy the products being promoted. That explains why the study found that more than half of brand marketers were increasing their spending on experiential campaigns and events.