Experiential marketing | From exhibition stand to brand experience

An experience touches multiple senses. No wonder that people remember experiences better than the things they hear or see. In this blog series we discuss the world of brand experiences. Do you want to engage your target group? Create a brand experience at your exhibition stand! In part 1 of this series, we have discussed how standdesign contributes to an increased brand experience. In this blog we’ll focus on the second layer: experiential marketing. What is experiential marketing and how can you effectively incorporate it into your exhibition strategy?

What is experiential marketing?

While traditional advertising verbally and visually communicates the brand and product benefits, experiential marketing tries to immerse the consumers within the product by engaging as many other human senses as possible. The goal of experiential marketing is to form a memorable and emotional connection between the consumer and the brand so that it may generate customer loyalty and influence purchase decision.

Experiential marketing in exhibitions

Exhibitions are new business hotspots. It’s the place where an entire industry comes together to expand their network and meet new customers. That being said, exhibitions are the perfect place to engage your customers with your brand through a brand experience.

Fun vs. function

First and foremost, experiential marketing needs to be exciting and fun. Otherwise, it won’t generate much traffic. However, an experience doesn’t serve much purpose if there is no larger idea behind it. A VR experience, for example, makes sense if the visual content is related to the exhibitor’s business activities. If it’s just a gimmick, visitors will be likely to remember the experience, but they probably won’t remember the business behind the experience. So, when does experiential add value to your exhibition participation?

If it’s used to:

• Make visitors experience and/or test a new product
• Provide visitors with in-depth information about products or services
• Present the company in an attractive and interactive way
• Get to know more about your target group at the exhibition (data collection)

An effective brand experience is both fun and functional. Are you planning on incorporating experiential marketing at your next event? Ask yourself how it contributes to the objectives of the event and the objectives of the overall organization.

The stand as playground

The exhibition stand is the basis of a good brand experience. The standdesign is the determinant for the overall appearance of the brand during the exhibition, as well as the carrier of the brand experience. When it comes to the integration of the experience with the stand design, be aware of the fact that those two are fully entwined with each other. Unfortunately, what’s often been seen is that the stand and experience are often developed by two different parties. This often results in a rather messy and sometimes even confusing exhibition stand. By developing one single experiential marketing concept of which both the stand and the experience are part, the final presence on the exhibition will have a much larger impact. Discuss the development of a brand experience with your standbuilder in order to find out about the possibilities.

KOP’s expoboosters

At KOP, we are developers and creators of exhibition concepts. We don’t just create exhibition stands, we also develop brand activation as part of the exhibition stand. Our brand activators attract, engage and activate your prospects during the exhibition and are fully entwined with the stand for an optimal presence.