Have you noticed any recent social media campaign that does not have an event in their content? Almost all social media marketing strategies rely on at least one event idea to propel their products and services. Nearly all clients want their campaigns to go viral. Viral content is not an accident. Social media influencers, who create a successful viral content plan their presence, research the market and then post the videos, photos, memes, and messages that attract the attention of thousands. Viral content gives the brands leveraging digital media and event marketing the ability to reach thousands of potential paying customers at one go.
Today, experiential marketing and social media marketing are not exclusive of each other. These are parts of a working strategy that can bring fortune and fame for a company. So having one SEO person or a dedicated social media manager is not enough. You need an experiential marketing agency that can break the silos down and bring all aspects of marketing under one roof.
How to pick an experiential marketing team?
Just like a social media management group or a data management team, the team your brand needs to plan and execute events should understand your unique needs. The requirements are different for each company. Here are a few filters that should help you pick the right agency for your brand –
You need someone with industry experience
You might want to leave the responsibility of planning and execution to a startup because their ideas are in line with your views and policies. However, engagement marketing is challenging. Apart from a tight budget, your team has to maneuver around a scrutinizing audience and please them with the limited resources you have. Whether you want higher traffic for your website, or you need better leads for your land-based stores, you need your event marketing team to create a magnetic personality for your brand in the market.
Understand your specific needs first
As we have said before, the requirement of each company is unique. You need to research into your current resources, the status of your market and the expectations of your audience to create the perfect engagement plan. You cannot give your audience a rock concert when they expect a free educational class! Whether you need to revisit your brand’s persona in terms of social media presence, search engine visibility (SEO), advertising or graphic design, you need to accept that and look for an agency that can specifically help you with that.
Analyze the core strength of the marketing agency
After you shortlist your goals and expectations, you need to find the core strength of your potential experiential marketing agency. Finding the right agency can be challenging, especially for new brands. However, new companies always have the opportunity of starting from a blank slate. You need to check their existing campaigns and old records. Find out what they are good at. Not every agency is excellent at achieving all goals. Your brand may need a team that can build your presence from the ground up. That will include the brand artwork, graphic design, brand activation, and event organization. Apart from these, you need to worry about data collection, sorting, and storage. Here are a few questions you must ask your potential options –
1. What kind of hardware and software support do they provide?
2. Have they worked with a similar brand or business before?
3. Have they targeted a similar market regarding size and quality?
4. What is their history of customer retention?
Think about the cultural fit
Marketing has transcended the realm of free products and samples. It is all about experience and culture now. Over 80% of potential customers state that they expect their brands to stick to ideologies at all times. Having a positive brand image and impressionable presence is imperative for any new brand to survive in the market. None of that is possible without the conservation of an inherent culture within the brand. The experiential agency you pick should be a good cultural fit. They should not only understand your team, but they should also be able to understand your local or geo-specific audience. You will have to trust your agency with sensitive company information at one time or another. Therefore, you need to be extremely cautious about the team you pick to take charge of your customer interactions.
Several event marketing agencies will claim to be fit for the job when you reach out to them. There will only be a few ready to walk the walk. Any agency worth its salt will strive to provide you with more than the standard logo design, website design, and trendy copy. What you need is a team that can take wholesome care of your marketing needs in today’s super competitive market. Your experiential marketing agency should be able the one that not only understands your goals but delivers the results too!
