Whether your brand is looking to expand into a new market, make a splash at an upcoming festival, or launch a new product, you’ll want to connect with consumers in a positive, memorable way. Experiential marketing is easily the best way to do that, but for a brand making its first foray into experiential — or trying something different — determining what to do and how to do it can be daunting. Even for brands with in-house marketing teams, planning and executing an experiential event like an activation or pop-up can be intimidating, especially on top of existing priorities and tasks. It’s time to call in a professional, and in this instance, an experiential marketing consultant could be the solution you’re looking for.
What’s an Experiential Marketing Consultant?
An experiential marketing consultant is a specialized expert who helps brands create and execute marketing campaigns that engage consumers through interactive and memorable experiences. “These are independent experts who offer a personalized approach and specialized knowledge,” explains experiential consultancy Ronin.
Part strategic advisor, part creative thinker, part project manager, experiential marketing consultants steer brands through the process of developing and implementing impactful experiential marketing initiatives.
Experiential marketing consultants draw on a very particular set of skills. They are strategic thinkers with a keen ability to develop creative and effective marketing strategies. Seasoned problem solvers, they work quickly and decisively to overcome challenges and implement innovative solutions. They are excellent communicators who can communicate effectively with clients, vendors, and team members. And they’re well versed in gathering and analyzing data to measure the effectiveness of campaigns and identify both successes to expand on and pitfalls to avoid in future projects.
Equally important is the experiential marketing consultant’s industry knowledge. They’re immersed in the field, and they stay up-to-date on best practices, trends, technologies, and successful strategies. They know what works and what doesn't. Depending on the market, the consultant may also have a broad network of industry contacts, including vendors, suppliers, and partners.
The experiential marketing consultant’s focus is always firmly on your brand and its experiential campaigns. Their goal, always, is to create immersive experiences that encourage customers to participate and form personal connections with the brand while remaining true to the brand’s personality and values.
What Does an Experiential Marketing Consultant Do?
Experiential marketing consultants work with brands and agencies to plan and execute engaging brand experiences. This work occurs across every stage of the experiential marketing event planning process:
Planning
The experiential marketing consultant will typically work with the brand and other agencies (if there are any) to understand its core values, personality, and objectives for the event, then incorporate these into strategies that align with brand values and marketing goals.
Beyond working with the brand, however, experiential marketing consultants conduct research to understand the target audience's needs, preferences, and behaviors, ensuring the experiences resonate with them. Says one marketing consultancy, “services include advisement on how best to efficiently engage in a wide variety of consumer environments: on-the-street, inside festivals, on-campus, in city shopping districts, while commuting, during holidays, and around trade show conferences.”
An experiential marketing consultant has the knowledge and resources to create a comprehensive plan that outlines the event or campaign's objectives, activities, timeline, budget, and measurement metrics. They’ll anticipate and plan for the small but critical details that can derail a project if not attended to.
Creative Concepts and Design
Experiential marketing consultants dive into the creative aspects of event and activation planning, working closely with the brand, and its in-house team or other agencies. They brainstorm innovative, engaging experiential concepts that align with the brand's objectives and connect with its target audience.
The consultant is also a fresh set of eyes, someone who can offer an objective, unbiased perspective on the brand, its audience, and how to connect with consumers. As “outsiders,” consultants also aren’t “tied down by internal politics or pre-existing notions and can offer fresh, innovative ideas,” says Ronin.
Production and Execution
Along with those small details, experiential marketing consultants understand the big moving parts to experiential projects. Depending on the brand’s needs, they may be involved in selecting suppliers, overseeing production and fabrication of custom installations and props, and identifying and managing relationships with third-party vendors, such as event production companies, staffing agencies, technology providers, and food and beverage suppliers.
Logistics and operations often prove challenging for brands new to experiential marketing, but these are two areas in which the consultant’s experience and knowledge really shine through: The consultant can oversee all logistical aspects of the campaign, including venue selection, equipment rental, material production, transportation, installation, site prep, staff hiring and training, and contingency planning. Often, experiential marketing consultants are present at events to ensure smooth execution and to handle any issues that arise.
Measuring Success
Experiential marketing works, no question — but quantifying the success of experiential campaigns is a consistent pain point for brands. How do you begin to quantify brand awareness, or measure emotional connection?
An experiential marketing consultant understands these complexities and will work with the brand to embed data collection and key performance indicators into the fabric of the experiential campaign. They will track relevant metrics throughout the campaign, such as attendance, engagement, lead generation, and social media mentions, then analyze that data to assess the campaign's effectiveness, identify areas for improvement, and measure the return on investment (ROI).
Perhaps most important for in-house marketers who must justify expenses and quantify the benefit of marketing decisions, an experiential marketing consultant will provide detailed reports and insights on the campaign's performance, highlighting key findings and recommendations for future marketing efforts.
Does Your Brand Need an Experiential Marketing Consultant?
Hiring an experiential marketing consultant can be a game-changer for a brand looking to create memorable and impactful campaigns. An in-house marketing team can’t drop everything to dedicate the time and resources needed to execute effective experiential marketing events. A brand’s existing marketing agency may not have the resources or specific expertise immediately available to dedicate to an experiential campaign — especially if experiential isn’t that agency’s primary focus. And agencies aren’t as nimble or flexible as consultants, who can adapt strategies and pivot conceptually as circumstances change in real time.
Hiring an individual consultant versus a separate experiential agency can be a more cost-effective solution, too, as experiential marketing consultants “provide the expertise without the overhead costs associated with larger entities,” says Ronin.
But can a consultant — one person — really tackle an undertaking so large and complex that the brand’s existing team can’t handle it? Yes, say industry experts.
“While they may not have the same level of internal manpower as other partners,” says Ronin, “they are more involved in each step of the experience, from strategy development to execution.” Coupled with deep and broad experience in experiential marketing, that translates into success for brands that outsource special marketing projects to the right consultants.
