It is common to see B2C brands linking their Public Relations strategy to experiential marketing. The two are becoming closely connected and are leveraged for the common purpose of engaging with the consumer. We often see beverage, airline and lifestyle brands clubbing experiential marketing with Public Relations. The brands which are successful thoroughly understand how to engage with their key stakeholders – consumer and the media. If the campaign is successful it is (almost) always able to create a huge impact on both the stakeholders. A few things in my opinion that make experimental marketing a PR success are as follows:

Engagement with Target Audience: Engagement is the most important part of any experiential marketing campaign. If you (as a brand) cannot engage with your target audience then the campaign implemented is of no use. The element that makes experiential marketing a success is the two-way communication versus a one-way dialogue.

Excitement: An experiential marketing activity engages with the audience in the best manner if it is able to generate excitement. When your target audience is attracted to know and experience what you have; that is when your creativity has made an impact.

Relevance: What is a fruitful activity if it is not done for the right people? Hence the relevance of the campaign to its target audience should be on point. If a product is targeted at mothers and the marketing attracts grandfathers then it is not a good use of effort, time, money and resources.

Emotional: Brands are often able to create an impact on their target audience if they are able to touch them emotionally. We have seen airline brands and also beverage brands do that very successfully in the past.

Social Media: Social media is a big part of what we do today. While offline engagement is important, online engagement has become equally essential. With the inclusion of social element one may reach out to a much larger set of audience in no time.

– Radhika Nandwani

Radhika is the Corporate Communications Advisor at Dell’s Performance Analytics Group. She started her career in 2011, with one of the leading public relations firms of India – MSLGROUP, specialising in technology brands. The campaigns executed by her while at MSL, have won several public relations industry awards including SABRE and PR Week Asia. In her last role, she was the founding team member and the marketing communications manager at SCoRe. Radhika is an English graduate and holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication. She loves reading and is passionate about gender equality, food and Bollywood. She can be reached at @RadhikaNandwani on Twitter and here on LinkedIn.