Experiential To Fare Better
than Most in Today’s Tough Times ...

In September it was announced annual marketing budgets were revised down to the greatest extent ever recorded in the last 10yrs, with main media advertising one of the hardest hit.

But at the risk of sounding like a Daily Mail journalist, all is not gloom and doom on Planet Experiential. In fact, our industry continues to fare better than nearly all other areas of marketing and advertising according to many reports, leading to it accounting for a larger share of marketers’ spend.

Indeed 75% of marketers surveyed in the US, the UK, Europe, China and Australia affirmed they increased spending on experiential marketing in 2008, 70% of whom say that experiential marketing is now extremely or very important to their organisations. This clearly reflects a movement away from advertising towards price-based incentives where activities like free trial become an important aspect of fighting weak demand. If history repeats itself, promotional marketing, and within that experiential marketing especially, will do better as budgets are switched to more accountable channels, As a promotional technique, free product and positive brand experiences will do much better in an economic downturn as activities like this become an antidote to more pressured household budgets.”

The survey results come after a year of intense debate over the future of traditional and non-traditional marketing media fuelled by the demand for new ways to reach increasingly sophisticated and selective consumer audiences. Experiential marketing's unique ability to reach, engage and make relevant connections with audiences has contributed to its growth in this climate. Highlighting this point, 93% of respondents agreed that experiential marketing generates advocacy and word of mouth recommendations—the ultimate "user generated content" in an era of increased consumer control and hunger for authenticity. 92% agreed that experiential marketing both builds brand awareness and brand relationships. 77% also stated that it generates sales and leads.

Marketers agreed that if it is to retain its position as the discipline most likely to beat the credit crunch, then demonstrating ROI is a key area of interest and opportunity. Measurement is often cited as both as the #1 obstacle to successful deployment of experiential marketing and as the #1 topic they'd like to learn more about.

If Experiential Marketing can continue to beat the credit crunch it will emerge the other side even stronger and more respected than before, as an increasingly effective and powerful tool in any marketer’s armoury.

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