Taylor Wessing
Experience & Strategy
Insight
By Ciara Garratt
18th Oct 2024
Whether it’s holidays instead of gifts or socialising over social media, experiences have never been more sought after. Amidst times of economic hardship as traditional markers of success – whether it’s a big house or flash car – become out of reach to many, experiences seem more in grabbing distance. It’s a comforting thought that us humans, who are social creatures at our core, always want to come together collectively whether it’s for celebration or escapism.
With experiences a bigger priority across the board, this has naturally translated into business and experiential marketing has never been more important to building a successful brand. Something here at Marble we believe in wholeheartedly – after all, we would always choose a party over a purchase.
An IPA Bellwether Report, a quarterly survey outlining UK companies’ marketing spend intentions released in April of this year, found that event spend has been up for nine consecutive quarters. 32% of marketers reported an increased events budget and the trend is set to continue into 2025 with the report forecasting an annual spend increase of 18.7%.
On the other side of the pond, a study by US marketing agency Gradient found that 82% of retail companies have increased their experiential marketing budgets over the last three years and on average, companies now account for 10-30% of their overall marketing spend for experiential campaigns.
Across the board, as customers are forced to become choosy with how they spend the money amidst the cost of living crisis, brands are having to work harder to win over consumers. Building brands centred on community is proving the most successful route and to do this successfully requires an emotional connection best fostered by event based activations. You only need to look at ASOS’ recent decision to ring fence an additional £30 million just for this purpose to see how valuable this asset can truly be.
With the digital space so crowded and consumers overwhelmed on a majority of social platforms, creating truly unique and memorable online campaigns is getting harder and more competitive.
Naturally, the consumer’s experience mindset is clearly driving demand for experiential marketing, especially amongst some demographics. For instance, an Eventbrite survey discovered that roughly 78% of Millennials prefer experiences over products. This demand for IRL experiences is largely a reaction to our always-on world where so much of our days can be spent in front of some sort of screen. For businesses and brands, hosting events is also an excellent way to directly interact with customers – an element of community building that can’t be underrated.
Simultaneously though, event activations create excellent content opportunities and feed back into the digital world in a refreshing way. Eventbrite’s annual trends report found that 71% of 21-to-35-year-olds and 63% of all attendees share and post videos and images from events via their mobile.
In the past, one of the biggest challenges for Marketing Directors has been justifying spend on experiential marketing campaigns which are traditionally harder to measure in terms of ROI. In comparison to data driven online marketing campaigns where stats can show a direct link to sales, experiential marketing’s impact is much subtler. Of course, success of experiential campaigns can be measured but it isn’t often directly based on sales.
According to Gradient’s research, 64% of brands focus on earned media value and 51% prioritise social engagement when it comes to success metrics of experiential marketing campaigns. Other options include measuring success by attendance or on the ground feedback.
While these metrics hold value, here at Marble, the most important outcome for us is sentiment and emotional connection built between customer and brand. We have seen first hand how it’s the businesses who understand the importance of brand and community building and base their budgets on investment in this outcome over anything else who reap the biggest rewards from experiential marketing.
Are you looking to build your community and bolster your brand? Drop us a line – we would love to help.
