An effective experiential marketing campaign has the power to bring consumers and brands together through a powerful and rewarding experience. The results of this experience are myriad but the positive connotations gained for the brand and the subsequent positive word of mouth referrals can be seen as one of the most desirable outcomes of an experiential campaign.

But how do you make sure your experiential marketing campaigns are successful? How do you achieve that ultimate goal of creating numerous brand advocates who are ready to refer your products or services to everyone they meet because of a positive brand experience? The considerations below are just some of the key elements of successful experiential marketing campaigns, by making them during the planning stages it should possible to achieve your goals.

First and foremost your campaign must have a target audience. Ask who your products or services aimed towards and from this point you can start to imagine experiences and locations that are likely to appeal to this target market.

These experiences must be relevant to your target audience and your choice of location is key to finding them. Your target audience is the basis from which all other decisions are made as the tighter your focus, the better the chances of success.

With your audience identified you then need to think about how you can engage with them in a way that is natural and relevant. A cold hard fact within experiential marketing is that you cannot force experiences on people; there must be two way engagement. Two achieve this you must tap into your target audience’s state of mind, emotions, drives and use this intelligence to develop an experience and location that is in harmony with their lives and current emotional mindset.

As a company there is no point in picking a totally wacky experience if it is not aligned with your serious brand values. For example, Red Bull regularly holds their experiential campaigns at extreme sporting events, but their brand is heavily involved with adrenalin fuelled sports – the result is perfect alignment. It is this sort of concept and alignment that improves the success of experiential campaigns.

These considerations, although brief give an indication as to what you must do to come up with a good concept for your experiential marketing campaign. Define your target audience early on and use this to develop your experience and locations and you are laying a solid foundation for success.