06 Jul Asking Your Experiential Firm the Right Questions

Let’s be honest, there are many marketing, advertising, and promotional channels that your company can consider integrating into a campaign. It can be challenging to sort out what is best for your brand at a given moment, and how it can make the most impact on your target audience and bottom line. If you want to directly engage potential customers through participation, then perhaps experiential tactics like street teams, event promotions, live product demonstrations, product sampling, and launch events are your best bet.

This is especially true if you find yourself in a position where there simply aren’t enough internal resources to activate these types of outreach programs – so now is a great time to consider hiring outside expertise. But before jumping into a new relationship with a prospective experiential marketing firm, let’s first talk about how to establish some benchmarks for success by asking your experiential marketing agency the RIGHT questions.

Is Experiential Marketing Where They Excel?

While it may sound obvious, it’s important to inquire with different agencies and determine their definitive specialties. You shouldn’t pursue an advertising firm that creates award-winning outdoor billboards to deliver a face-to-face campaign. Does the firm have the skills, talent, and enough of an experiential portfolio to manage the type of program you are hoping to create? If not, keep researching partners! If yes, please proceed to the next question.

What’s the Creative?

You know your brand better than anyone, and this knowledge should be shared with the creative thought leadership team to brainstorm new ideas. An open line of communication should be established between your company and the experiential marketing experts so that they have the background, parameters and tools they need to develop the most dynamic, engaging, and memorable experience possible. Do their consumer engagement ideas elicit new possibilities?

How’s this Measured?

Big ideas are important, but so are quantifiable results. During the development phase, team leaders should be assessing if the program will have the capability to deliver on the goals of your brand. If you’re unsure of the best methods to achieve these goals, rely on your agency to recommend ways to engage your audience, influence buying behavior, or build brand awareness. By working together, you’ll have the ability to translate experiential marketing into definable ROI.

Who are the Brand Ambassadors?

The field staff serves as an extension of your brand, so it’s imperative that they look, act, and speak the part. Review brand ambassador selection procedures with your hiring agency, and explore their training methods so that you feel comfortable with this representation on-site. Be sure to have the ability to train and then evaluate the team in the field, and make any changes to the frontline staff that you deem necessary.

Remember, YOU are the client, and our job is to make experiential marketing a seamless outreach tactic that brings your brand to life in more ways than you ever thought imaginable. [vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” header_style=”” parallax_content_width=”in_grid” anchor=”” in_content_menu=”” content_menu_title=”” content_menu_icon=”” angled_section=”no” angled_section_position=”both” angled_section_direction=”from_left_to_right” text_align=”left” video=”” video_overlay=”” video_overlay_image=”” video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_image=”” background_image=”” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” section_height=”” parallax_speed=”” background_color=”” border_color=”” row_negative_margin=”” side_padding=”” parallax_side_padding=”” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” color=”” hover_color=”” more_button_label=”” less_button_label=”” button_position=”” css_animation=”” transition_delay=””][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_empty_space height=”32px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][/vc_column][/vc_row]