One effect of the Digital Age is that people are becoming more stimulated than ever. From a marketing perspective, it is becoming more apparent that new methods are needed to get a consumer’s attention, maintain their attention, and then get them to buy. To respond to shift in consumer response, marketing gurus are now using experiential marketing techniques to appeal to consumers.

What Is Experiential Marketing And Why Does It Work?

Experiential marketing is an approach to communicating a product or service that invokes one or more of the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. Traditional forms of distance marketing, such as television and radio ads are being replaced with more unique methods, such as outdoor displays and exhibits, street performances, and augmented reality demonstrations.

To understand experiential marketing on a small scale, consider the popularity of perfume samples and “scratch and sniff” opportunities in magazines. Magazines are now starting to get even more personal. The interactive print ads developed for Vogue.com are great examples. One ad for eye makeup allows the consumer to place the camera on their mobile device over an image of a model who is wearing a particular brand of eye makeup. The consumer is able to view the step-by-step process of creating the look.

Watch the Vogue campaign - Interactive Print Ads from Vogue

There are five key reasons why this experiential marketing campaign works:

- Connects consumers with the product

- Offers an opportunity to experience the product

- Highly likely to generate word-of-mouth

- Educates consumers about the product

- Intensifies the product’s brand message

To see experiential marketing in action, all you have to do is attend one or more of the surplus of social events in Miami. Although more rare, but increasing in usage, experiential marketing campaigns are also starting to crop up in unusual venues in Miami such as street corners and shopping malls. In both instances, the product or service is introduced in the consumer’s natural habitat.

Conclusion

Experiential marketing is now in its infancy, but is sure to gain usage as consumers continue to demand more of a deeper experience with products and services. It shouldn't surprise you if you walk down the street and have an opportunity to have a face-to-face encounter with a product or service.