Enter the experiential marketing era

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc. / LMMiami.com

  • When I started out in this racket, mid 90s, TV reigned supreme.
  • It still does to some extent.
  • But the monarch is shedding its clothes.
  • The advertising center of gravity is shifting from Madison Avenue to Silicon Valley.
  • It all started when the PC began stealing TV’s thunder as the go-to contraption for media and entertainment consumption.
  • It came of age when Silicon Valley decided to put as small wireless computer with a hi def display and not one but two hi res cameras in our pockets, purses and fanny-packs.
  • One front facing for selfies and one back facing for everything else.
  • With so much content out there, user-generated and otherwise, all hell broke loose.
  • And experiential marketing was reborn.
  • Also known as event marketing (this terminology is a bit passé though).
  • Loosely defined, experiential marketing includes any and all gigs where consumers attend in the flesh.
  • Sports, concerts, sampling, tastings, with technology adding a new sensory layer.
  • From grassroots to gaming and everything in between.
  • Experiential marketing has many “fathers”: PT Barnum, Walt Disney, Bob Geldof.
  • It has many canvases too: Woodstock, Lollapalooza, Coachella, Ultra Music Fest.
  • Mardi Gras, St. Patrick´s Day, Puerto Rican Day Parade, the Gay Pride parade.
  • The Super Bowl, Nascar, Wimbledon, Roland Garros, the FIFA World Cup.
  • They are all big experiential marketing initiatives.
  • FIFA, in many regards, is an experiential marketing agency.
  • Anything that lends itself for a selfie or other form of social media amplification is experiential.
  • Flash mobs, hidden cameras, street theater, street art and installations.
  • The “Fearless girl” that raked so much traction on social media a few years back is a perfect example.
  • For a few years now the trend at international award shows is to submit “case histories” which usually include heavy loads of experiential moving parts.
  • Media and socialgenic.
  • A good experiential initiative demands a viral publicity stunt and a social media-friendly photo op.
  • PR agencies were beautifully positioned to ride this wave but, as usual, their missed it.
  • There’re a few agencies who era leading the pack in this new field: Giant Spoon (giantspoon.com), MediaMonks (mediamonks.com).
  • In the Hispanic world, Argentina based Ketama (ketama.net) comes to mind.
  • Are you experienced in this thriving field?
  • If you want to maintain your relevance in then marketing world, you should.

 

 

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