Industry News

Experiential marketing can transform the way that potential customers connect with a brand, elevating understanding and translating real-world experiences into brand loyalty and future spend.

It offers unique opportunities for consumers to ‘meet’ and engage with your brand in the real world, creating memorable, high-impact alternatives to increasingly removed and impersonal brand interactions online.

We know that experiential is a highly effective part of the marketing mix – and with the release of the Bellwether Q4 2018 report, it’s clear that CMOs and Heads of Marketing at sector-leading organisations across the UK know it too.

What is the Bellwether Report?

The IPA Bellwether Report is a quarterly survey researched and published by IHS Markit on behalf of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. The survey collects and analyses projected budgetary data from around 300 marketing professionals from across the UK’s top 1000 companies.

What did it say?

The most recent report, from Q4 2018, was subtitled ‘Marketing budget growth flatlines amid heightened business uncertainty’. It showed that, while average overall marketing spend plateaued in 2018, “Budgets for events marketing received a boost (net balance of +2.6%, from - 1.1% in Q3)”.

In short, while overall marketing budgets didn’t grow, the proportion of those budgets being spent on events and experiential marketing saw a significant increase.

Why are organisations investing more in experiential marketing?

The logic behind the UK’s biggest and best organisations increasing their spend on experiential marketing is simple – it’s because it works. Let’s look at some of the stats:

• 98% of people said that seeing a product or service marketed through an experiential marketing campaign would make them more inclined to purchase it.  
  (EventTrack Survey from Event Marketing Institute)

• 65% of brands say that their event and experiential programmes are directly related to sales.  (EMI & Mosaic)

• 70% of users become regular customers after an experiential marketing event.  
  (EventTrack Survey from Event Marketing Institute)

• Those who undergo a live brand experience will tell an average of 17 people about that positive experience.  
  (Experiential Marketing: A practical guide to interactive brand experiences)

• 85% of customers who sample a product say they would buy it again in the future. 

We would love to talk to you about how experiential marketing can help you to create loyal, long-term customers, generate huge PR opportunities, and make a real difference to your results.

To speak to a member of the Inconnection team, click the button above to send us an email or call the office on 0161 498 3311.