We know that brand experiences aren’t cheap. But that doesn’t mean they’re not worth every penny.
Done right, physical experiences are much more of a worthy investment than digital experiences. They have the potential to reach a wider audience, deliver a higher Return on Investment, and create amazing in-person engagements. By extending the life of carefully crafted, one-off stunts, it’s easy to maximise the ROI of an experiential event, and reap long-term benefits. Here’s how:
#1 Make a great lasting impression
We love to reminisce, and share our favourite experiential event gems with our friends and followers. While we love our work, it’s important that consumers love it more. To continue leveraging social engagements, and getting post-event ROI, we make sure to leave guests with a final impression that will inspire them to get tweeting.
A nice gesture goes a long way! By making a quick speech thanking guests for coming, or having staff saying goodbye to them individually at exists, you can give your attendees that final little buzz. Gift bags or brand merchandise giveaways are also great for creating great last impressions (but more on that another time…).
#2 Make shareable content
Live events combined with social engagements are like the golden ticket when it comes to a brand’s ROI. Post-event tweets, Instagrams, and Facebook posts will continue to strengthen your (already budding!) relationship with guests – and expose your brand to a whole new audience.
To create amazing content, always make sure that it fits in with the objectives of your event, and that it will enrich your consumer’s life in some way. Content with quality, relevant images and videos unsurprisingly gets shared a whole lot more than blurry snaps, so don’t scrimp on a great photographer or videographer.
#3 Track your earned media
We love self-love! By all means, blog about the success of your event to your hearts content. However, if you’re the only one talking about your event online, your message will soon fail to resonate with your audience.
Try gaining the attention of the press to really maximise your ROI. All it takes is telling the right story to the right editors and bloggers. Then, you can track the number of articles that mention your event, and see how many people your earned media efforts are reaching.
#4 Measure your brand experience
There’s a widespread rumour that experiential isn’t measurable.
Do. NOT. LISTEN.
The truth is, brand experiences are easy to evaluate and analyse, so long as you develop a clear measurement strategy from the start. Dig into your business goals, and think about the effect you want the event to have on brand awareness and advocacy. Then, with an end goal in mind, you can measure attendee participation, social activity, leads and conversation ratios, and get rewarding and rich customer data.
Here at this is LESTER, we develop long-term brand strategies that make sure you get maximum use out of your brand experience. We design events with intention, and use our creativity to exceed your business goals and expectations. To talk all things business, or to get creative, please get in contact! We also create awesome post-event content- just check out our reel.