Street Sampling Blog

[experiential marketing]

I’m a subscriber to AdvertisingAge, and while reading the November 3rd issue, I came across an article by Laurel Wentz titled, “Experiential Media No. 1 Way to Influence Latinos.” She’d subtitled it, “Word-of-Mouth, TV Much More Effective Than Print, Survey Finds.”

Wentz targets a lot of her advice at the Latino market, but easily that same advice can be applied over a wide range of demographics (what makes YouTube such a hit with everyone? A redundant question, yes, but proves my point.)

Since Laurel Wentz does such a fine job presenting surveyed details, I’m going to quote her entire writeup here. The only thing I have done is move the graphic to the top. Enjoy!

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Experiential marketing is the medium most likely to persuade Hispanic consumers to buy a product, according to a recent survey commissioned by experiential-marketing company Jack Morton Latino, but respondents had strong opinions about how events should be organized.

Respondents said they shun a hard sell, with people representing the sponsor brand and expect a live event to be complemented by social networking, blogs and mobile-phone activities.

The online survey of 500 respondents focused on acculturated Hispanics, typically U.S.-born and bilingual. Of those surveyed, 39% said they had participated in a live brand experience in the last year. Asked which medium would be mostly likely to drive their purchase of a product, respondents ranked experiential media first (30%); followed by word-of-mouth (24%); TV (23%); and the internet (14%). Print media, direct mail and radio all got responses of 4% or less.

Word-of-mouth is especially important in the Hispanic market; 68% of survey respondents said they interact with between three and 10 family members weekly.

Just 2% of respondents said they preferred hard-sell “active interaction” with people representing the brand; most preferred a softer sell and a more passive message at an event, conveyed through signage or video presentations. The main technologies respondents expected live events to be linked to were social-networking sites and blogs (25%) and mobile phones (18%).

Isabel Villegas, senior Latino-market specialist at Jack Morton Latino, said the live-concert series the agency created for client Alltel in key Hispanic markets in the Southwest also involves Facebook and MySpace pages, as well as pictures taken of attendees at the concerts to be put on “find yourself” screens during the events and posted later.

Whether you call it experiential marketing, guerilla marketing, word of mouth marketing, or just spreading the word through media, this powerful form of marketing and advertising is one you and your company should be exploring – now during the holiday season and into 2009.

[experiential marketing background highlights]

Strangely enough, I feel compelled today to backtrack a bit and give you some background on how and why I “got into” experiential marketing. It’s often life’s odd paths that help you branch out and form your own business. My paths have been no exception.

First, I am the President of Street Sampling, Inc., an experiential marketing agency (sounds a bit like the line from the movie “American President,” but it’s true).

I started my marketing career as a consultant in 2004. By 2006, I’d founded Street Sampling, Inc. This company has gone on to execute numerous experiential marketing programs on behalf of agencies and clients such as:

o  Chevy
o  Lacoste
o  Krispy Kreme
o  Dr. Pepper
o  Reynolds
o  Puma, and
o  The Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Prior to striking out on my own, I honed my marketing skills as a Field Marketing Manager for Princeton Partners (on behalf of PNC Bank). During this period of explosive growth for PNC, I lead the field outreach efforts for new branches. Ideas I incorporated were:

o Street teams (using brand ambassadors)
o Event activation
o Grand openings
o Major contests and VIP events.

While I didn’t invent these ideas, they were not being used well by the company. I made sure they worked.

In fact, at its peak, this group supported 40+ new branches. All the while, I played an integral role in the field marketing during the conversion of Mercantile Bank (Baltimore) and Yardville Bank (New Jersey) into the existing PNC footprint.

What I have done with Street Sampling, Inc., is conceptualize, create, execute, and/or fix broken programs for many of the Fortune 1000. From multi-city tours, special events, grand openings and live product sampling, I’ve has done it all – 12 years+ experience within the hospitality industry – from senior manager to director positions.

As with any business, having extensive operations experience lends itself well to the successful execution of each and every experiential marketing program event.

At Street Sampling, we take pride in exceeding client expectations.

So as I draw this post to a close, I also wanted to leave you with an important thought. Don’t forget as you contemplate starting or expanding your business that it’s also critical to become active within your physical community. With that said, I’m also a member of the:

o DC AdClub
o Latino Economic Development Corporation, and
o Potomac Executive Network.

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading a bit of my background as much as I’ve enjoyed sharing it with you.

Feel free to make and take a moment and tell me something about yourself by commenting to this post.

Experiential marketing lets your customer immerse him or herself in your product before buying it. Major department stores use this type of marketing all the time, but experiential marketing does not stop there. While a street sampling company works offline for a myriad of business models, promoting a wide variety of online businesses using the backbone of experiential marketing is also possible. So let’s explore the question, “Can experiential marketing be used to target your customers online?” (And if so, how)

Think of experiential marketing online as the ways to create reaction and interaction with your website visitor. Flash, 3D technology, surveys, and blogging are just some of the methods you can use to create that “in your face” reaction your business might need. However, just being “artsy” for the sake of doing something odd is not a solid enough business plan. Your intercept marketing concept should have a goal in mind. What that goal will be will be up to you – but have a purpose.

Need an idea? Your experiential marketing planning might include careful research on your targeted customers. As mentioned above, an interactive survey draws people in, and achieves your goal to collect specific demographics about your visitors. A carefully crafted survey can supply your business with statistics for months to come and provide direction and focus for your online business marketing plan.

When you add the “experiential” experience to your website, you take it out of the passive state and make it dramatic. People remember dramatic; they are drawn to the unusual.

Along with proper website development, your mapping and planning for traditional forms of marketing (search engines marketing; email marketing, banner advertising, etc.) don’t forget this critical component. You can start as small as a form for your visitor to fill out to full-fledged videos and interactivity.

Make your website memorable. Your goal is the make your site stand out from the crowd. Implement an online experiential marketing plan and reap the benefits.