This “experiential boom” is due to a change in consumers, a product of the evolution of human beings but also of recent times.
Two milestones coincide: the public's demand, which prefers to see brands acting and demonstrating rather than telling, to give them credibility and, on the other hand, the need that has arisen after the pandemic to experience everything in a more direct way and the importance that emotions have acquired, contained during the pandemic.
Both circumstances have made experiential events widely accepted for some time now, and having a clear guide to organizing this type of event is a priority.
Beautiful summery setting on Valdevaqueros beach, in Cádiz
These types of events have advantages for brands and consumers, and that is where their value lies. For brands, they allow them to know first-hand what the public wants and what they don't. How they think, what worries them, what they need... seeing consumers interact live with their products gives them invaluable information that allows them to draw conclusions for improvement in the future.
For consumers, they allow them to play an active role and become aware of the importance of their role. The consumer is placed at the centre and experiences the value proposition first-hand. They feel and are listened to.
It is clear that events are the best showcase for brands, but the experiential component of events has also brought the opportunity for a two-way dialogue between brand and consumer. The brand expresses itself through the experience it offers to the consumer, but it is also nourished by the result that this experience provokes in the consumer.
But what should not be missing in an experiential event to be a success?
Creativity_ One of the most important elements to take into account in an experiential event. If you want to be remembered, do things differently. In an event of this nature, creativity must be a vehicle to provoke all kinds of emotions and must permeate each of the resources that are part of it.
Memorability: closely related to the previous point. Make your event memorable. Do something that has not been done before or that has been done in a different way to surprise the public. If your event is memorable, it will remain in the minds of your audience. In addition, it will be shared, so its impact and reach will be greater.
Personalization: one of the most powerful values. Personalize your experiential event to the maximum to make the consumer's experience unique and unrepeatable. It has been proven that the more the public sees itself reflected in your brand, the greater the consideration they will have for it. Personalization is the way to achieve this.
Beautiful summery setting on Valdevaqueros beach, in Cádiz
Create a community . Take advantage of your event and the people who are there to create a community around your brand. This will allow the event to multiply its potential and its memory to live on beyond that day. To do this, involve consumers in your event, allow them to generate the content of the event, share it and don't forget to encourage relationships between them and around the brand.
Social and environmental commitment_ From the 2030 Agenda to environmental movements, cultural advocacy actions... Everything indicates that today people are committed to making a better world. Including some kind of initiative in your event focused on sustainability, understood from an environmental, social and economic point of view, is an element that will undoubtedly have a positive influence on your brand image. Creating your experiential event with sustainable materials, hiring inclusion people for its development, donating the leftover materials from your event to an association to amplify its use, are some initiatives that will help you fulfill this sustainable purpose.
There are thousands of success stories to draw inspiration from when developing an experiential event that can help you plan your next event.
Remember, when a brand holds an event, it's like opening its home to you and inviting you to dinner. It wants you to get to know it, tell you about everything new it has done or that has happened to it, how it has changed over time. And above all, it wants you to take with you a good memory when you leave and not walk out the door without saying, "I wish we could do this more often." Experiential events help you achieve this goal.
