Experiential Marketing and Event Planning are not the Same Thing
Before beginning to take my freelance work to the next level, I was looking for full-time jobs in Experiential Marketing. As a form of marketing that is relatively new (though pieces of it have existed for ages), I often found myself explaining the concept over and over again. The question I most commonly received was, ‘Is that just a fancy way of saying event planning?’ Though some marketing resources will consider them to being one and the same, as someone who’s been planning and hosting events since my freshman year of college, I didn’t see it that way.
Event planning is the tactical aspect of putting together an event: coming up with the theme, securing the vendors, managing the guest list, organizing the space, and then running the show on the day of and making sure everything goes smoothly. Many brands host events, but event planning also encompasses weddings, sweet 16s, award shows, galas, conferences, etc.
Experiential Marketing is a broader term, focused on crafting an intimate experience around a brand’s interaction with a consumer. It has in part risen in prominence due to the growth of brands that are born online and are looking for ways to make an impact on consumers in person. True experiential marketing encompasses a variety of online/offline strategies that are integrated and work to reinforce one another. Event planning, therefore, is a tactical component of Experiential Marketing, but there’s a lot more to it.
For instance, last month, popular skincare brand Glossier, took over a diner called Rhea’s Cafe in San Francisco for a month-long pop-up. They transformed the diner with Glossier branding, served customers classic menu items from the restaurant, and also displayed and made their products available for purchase. For a brand that primarily sells its products online and has grown in popularity due to social media, this in person experience was a chance to interact with their customers IRL and create a 360-degree experience that would strengthen their connection to the brand.
The goal of the pop-up was to convey the brand story in a way that surprises and delights (how often do you buy makeup while eating a fried chicken sandwich? and deliver an experience that generates word of mouth, genuine social media coverage, and press. To create an experience like this, everything has to be well thought out — from securing the right partner in Rhea’s Cafe, to the duration of the pop up, spreading word via Glossier’s content channels, painting a mural outside the restaurant that makes for great Instagram fodder, and finally leaving behind the behavioral residue Glossier is known for creating with stickers, packaging, iPhone wallpapers etc. Only with all of these elements in place can the offline and online elements work together to create compounding impact.
Experiential Marketing is a bit of guerrilla marketing, event planning, partnerships, social media, and content marketing all rolled together in one. It’s less about how each of those elements performs independently, and more so about how they reinforce one another to create a memorable experience that pays dividends for the customer and the brand well beyond the date of the experience. Consider it growth hacking for products that aren’t apps. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
