1. It’s All Relevant To the Audience
by B O B B I K L E I N
How do we make the event relevant for the audience
who is in attendance?
Experiential event marketing with all of its impact on the brand or product
must keep the event relevant for all otherwise your event could be a big flop
and not accomplish what you had as a goal.
The number one key here is to always remember your audience at the event.
You might be thinking, “Of course. How could I forget that?” Well, many
people do end up forgetting it and glossing over this vital point in their
marketing campaign, which causes a domino effect on their desired results
for the campaign.
In sports marketing campaigns, it may be easier to know exactly how to
market to your consumers. For example, if you are at a Major League
Baseball World Series game marketing your company, I would hope that
you would incorporate something for the baseball fanatics. Perhaps, it could
be a game of 3 Strikes and You’re Out filled with baseball facts and your
brand.
Sports campaigns can be created to easily targeted consumers. This same
philosophy can be used in any experiential event marketing tactics.
First and foremost and continuously, think about your audience. Without
an audience, you do not have a campaign. All events have a specific theme
whether it is baseball, racing, music groups, hobbies, or specific areas of
interest. The marketing campaign must realize that it needs to incorporate
this theme into its design if it is going to at least have a chance of being
successful.
The audience drives the campaign alongside having a creative, fun, and
informative background. Once a connection is made between the audience
and theme of event, then the rest will come naturally. All of the elements of

2. the marketing campaign will be driven with the audience in mind. This
creates consumer engagement in knowing and becoming familiar with your
brand. The audience is already interested in your campaign because it is
centered on something that they enjoy. You are already ahead of the
ballgame when you factor this into your campaign, because you are
guaranteed traction from the audience.
Remember the audience is the one who is going to spread the word to others
about your latest products, brand, and campaign targets. Why would you
want to leave this valuable piece out of your marketing campaign?
Audience + Campaign + Creativity = Success

3. To Buy Or To Be Sold
In the world of sales and marketing, there is a fine line that exists between
the consumer buying a product or being sold a product. Let’s take a look at
this from the consumer’s perspective and see how we can relate it our
marketing and sales techniques.
As a consumer, you want to be served, helped, and most importantly feel
like you matter to the company. Without these factors, you do not have a
relationship with the company.
Buying a product is something that you, the consumer, wants to do because
you believe the product will enhance your life; it will be useful; or it will
bring enjoyment to you. Have you ever bought a product that did not serve
these purposes? All of us have, and we usually end up returning the item or
at least hope that it was paid with American Express’ 90 day guarantee
return policy. Most importantly here is that when you buy a product it is
something that you want to do. It is not mandatory that you must purchase
this product. You buy it willingly and voluntarily.
On the other hand, if you are not buying a product, you are being sold a
product. Just hearing that puts a negative connotation and uneasiness in your
mind. Being sold a product is not something voluntary that you want to
purchase; you are put into a position, which makes it necessary for you to
buy the product; you do not see the same value as if you purchased it
voluntarily. The product may give you some benefit; however, you were
forced into the decision to think about it.

4. A great example here is buying a car. So many car salesmen try to push the
sale on to the customer. As the customer walks away, they usually think
“Wow! I don’t know if I really even like this car.” or “Do I really need all of
the extras?” What if the car sales industry flipped their method of selling and
put the emphasis on what the consumer says that they want? The salesman is
no longer directly upselling the customer with models that they have not
even mentioned but showing them exactly what they have asked for and
making them the only important thing at that moment. Other phone calls will
go to voicemail and showing other vehicles will not happen. When the focus
is on the customer, they are buying and you are not selling. They are
purchasing from you.
Looking at it in this manner, this should help develop how we market to our
clientele. We should make them want to buy the product on their own
intuition and not force the product onto them.
So are you going to buy or be sold that new car?