The Power of Experience

When guest lecturer Brendan Walsh of Mole Street joined us for a lesson on experiential marketing, the concept was new to me and one that really got me thinking. In today’s technological world of mobile device usage at an incline since 2012, the power of a fun, exciting and positive experience is very influential when you go to talk about it digitally.

Highlighting something that has never been done before, much like the example of Bud Light’s “Whatever, USA” campaign is news worthy. Generally, people are curious about something they have never seen before and are quick to judge one way or another how the experience unfolds.

What is fascinating about experiential marketing is that people actually want to participate and don’t feel like they are being pushed to do so. I think this is a huge differentiator in the traditional ways of seeing an ad about a brand or getting a pop up on your computer.

In my day to day as a marketing specialist, I help foster online reviews of our tax software solutions. To me, these experiences, whether good or bad, illuminate the customer’s thoughts on how their experience is with our products. It is through channels like these were we can capitalize on the user experience and feedback from other marketing efforts.

I like the idea of seasonal experiences. I have never heard of Molstice, where Mole Street celebrates the summer solstice, and throws a big block party but I think that when you have a specific timely event and fine-tune your marketing campaign around the planned event, it completes the experience.

So, what is the next big event to experience? How can brands successfully execute experiential marketing? It requires thinking outside of the box and handpicked influencers that will help push the experience to those that cannot actually experience it. It provides special exclusivity to some.

I thought Brendan Walsh was an excellent speaker and the entire concept of experiential marketing is one that I will consider in the future as it could be the next new way of getting through to your consumer base.