EXPERIENTIAL A LA CARTE: Latest Data, Cool Reads, Fun Stuff
By Liz Bigham
It seems like just yesterday that spell-check programs automatically changed “experiential” to “experimental.” The “correction” felt like a Freudian slip or ghost-in-the-machine-snarkiness, but it was consistent with the skepticism some had until quite recently about experiential marketing as a category. Case in point: in 1998 a columnist at a major newspaper referred to us as a “so-called experiential marketing agency.”
But now all you have to do is launch your internet browser to find evidence that experiential marketing is increasingly accepted—and more importantly, being put to use by leading-edge marketers. Following is an “a la carte” view of some of the more interesting recent data, cool reads and fun stuff that comes up when you Google “experiential marketing” (results: almost 47 million hits).
LATEST DATA
- A survey of b-to-b marketers published in trade magazine b-to-b Marketing reports that 57.1% of the marketers surveyed said experiential marketing is important or very important to the future of their company; 64.1% said it’s important or very important to the future of b-to-b marketing overall. Amazingly, however, 64.5% of marketers reported that they do not have a system in place to measure the effectiveness of experiential marketing programs.
- The 2006 edition of the Communications Industry Forecast, released a few weeks back by Veronis Suhler Stevenson, signals that “the definition of media is expanding well beyond traditional formats like TV, radio, newspapers and magazines” to include "new forms of marketing spending, especially the kind of experiential marketing aimed at active young adults.”
COOL READS
- In case you missed it, the article “Wanted: Chief eXperience Officer” published earlier this year by Experience Economy gurus Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore in Event ROI is terrific. In it they argue for a new C-level position responsible for the design of customer experiences. You can find it and many other of their groundbreaking articles on their web site.
- Think tank Brand Experience Lab has one of the best blogs so far on experiences and marketing—plus links to terrific resources (like Jack Morton’s own 360 Newsletter) and recommended reading lists on experiential marketing.
- In our next issue we’ll be introducing a blog feature on 360—bringing from-the-trenches experiences and perspective from some of the leading minds at our agency.
FUN STUFF
- Search for experiential marketing on YouTube to watch our own video (“what does it take to get noticed?”).
- Look for definitions of everything from experiential marketing to experience design to word of mouth marketing on Wikipedia.
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