The core of experiential marketing is creating good memories of your brand in the minds of consumers through positive, interactive experiences such as brand activation events or pop-up stores. It is about promoting community and drawing consumers in so that they feel a deeper sense of connection to your brand, which, in doing so, cultivates stronger brand loyalty moving forward.
In the article, we will discuss what’s in and what’s out regarding trends in experiential marketing for 2025 in order to help you make the best possible decisions when planning any upcoming events you may have.
Encouraging Play
Allow those that come to your brand experience events to release their inner child! Games and other activities that encourage play are not just a good way to get people involved and having fun at the event itself; they can also leave lasting impressions.
This can help you build stronger connections with consumers as they will leave with fond memories of the event and, therefore, continue to think positively about your brand.
Intentional, Personalized Experiences
When creating a live brand experience like a pop-up store, it is important to make sure that this is intentionally done, personalized to the consumers you are trying to target. It should not just be about selling a product, but more so about building a loyal community.
For example, beauty brands have all but perfected the personalized experience, from allowing consumers to curate their own makeup kits to offering custom recommendations and specific samples tailored to each and every attendee of the event.
In this way, consumers feel a personal connection to the brand and are able to see and appreciate the care and attention to detail put into the event itself. When a deeper connection is built with potential customers, it is more likely that they will choose your brand over others when shopping and stay brand loyal for a longer time.
Immersive Events
Creating an interactive brand experience, one that immerses people in the story of the brand, is a great way to guarantee that you have a successful event and build a better connection with attendees. Instead of being passive spectators, consumers want to feel like they are part of your world and that they have an active role in shaping the narrative of both the event and the brand.
When it comes to brand activations, unfortunately storytelling is simply not cutting it anymore. You should not just tell the attendees about your brand at an event; instead, as you show them what your brand is about, let them experience it properly for themselves through different activities.
Sustainable Designs
To resonate with a more socially conscious audience, focusing on eco-friendly activations and ensuring sustainable designs is the way to go.
This doesn’t just mean using sustainable materials and minimizing waste; it also means being transparent about where and how materials are sourced to showcase responsibility and care for the impact on your community.
Experiential Brand Marketing to Avoid: What’s Out
Overly Promotional Activations
Activations that are overly sales-driven can sometimes be off-putting to consumers, making them resistant to the brand. If you are only focused on selling your product or service rather than cultivating a relationship with consumers, you can come across as too pushy.
This does not just make the consumer uncomfortable, but also does not give them the time or space to really enjoy the event or leave with many positive memories, making it less likely that they will seek out your products or services in the future.
Generic Experiences
Brand experiences that are simply generic, whether it is because of something like the use of standard photo booths or giving away run-of-the-mill swag bags, will not help you build long-lasting connections with consumers.
Ultimately, you won’t leave an impression on attendees and they will walk away thinking that your event was just one more in a long line of other events that could have belonged to any brand, after which they will most likely not go out of their way to look for your brand out in the world or purchase your products or services.
Alcohol-Centred Events
With Gen Z prioritizing health and well-being, there has started to be a push for catering to a more sober demographic and alcohol-centred events (unless of course that is the product you are selling) have become a thing of the past.
Avoiding the typical late-night drinks in favour of daytime events that promote physical and mental wellness, with the inclusion of activities such as cold plunges, can help you bring in a younger audience and community to your brand.
Surface-Level Influencer Partnerships
Consumers are starting to reject influencer partnerships with brands that are only surface-level. Instead of an influencer simply showing up to an event, they should be true collaborators.
By demonstrating that the influencer truly cares about a brand and is involved with the event, consumers will then feel a stronger connection with the brand itself and begin to build a stronger community around it.
Final Thoughts
In this article, we have discussed the dos and don’ts of experiential marketing events. An important thing to keep in mind as you move forward with experiential marketing is that an event should be interactive and immersive to keep consumers engaged rather than overly promotional and generic.
At Custom Engineered Arts, we are dedicated to crafting projects that will help your brand stand out and draw consumers in, from trade show booths to window displays and so much more. For more information on the services we provide, contact us today!
