Experiential marketing is about to step out into the sun. Fifteen or so years ago, it was an afterthought, perceived as the sprinkle dust for a traditional advertising campaign. Today, brands continue to invest in this space and are adding a zero to the end of their budgets.
To delve deeper, Event's asked more than 250 agencies and brand managers to help identify the biggest spenders in experiential, spending trends and how important our marketing discipline is to building brand power.
The big hitters
It may come as little surprise that some of the biggest spenders in experiential marketing in the past 12 months were the likes of Adidas, Samsung, Coca-Cola and Red Bull. The sectors to dominated the top ten were IT and telecoms, food and drink, automotive and sport.
Objectives
When asked why they invest in experiential, 47% of the brands surveyed stated that their primary objective was to create or increase brand awareness. Some 22% said that driving sales was their core aim, while 18% want to encourage deeper customer involvement in their brand. 'To launch a new product' was cited as the reason by 7%, while 6% said it was to enhance product knowledge and understanding.
Spend levels
The research presented positive news on budgets. In the past 12 months, 75% of brands have seen an increase in experiential budgets, while 25% said they had remained constant. Looking to the year ahead, 50% anticipate a rise in budgets, while the rest expect them to plateau.
Mixing it up
The report also identified that event and experiential marketing budgets are benefiting from a shift in the marketing mix. When asked for the sources of this increased spend, 66% of brands stated that it is coming from other parts of the marketing spectrum, while 33% said the funding came directly from the company.
When asked for their top three most effective marketing mediums, experiential came out on top, followed by the internet, main media advertising, PR, events, direct marketing and sales promotions.
Top 25 - Brands by UK activations and experiential spend (2014-2015)
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1. Adidas |
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2. Samsung |
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3. Coca-Cola |
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4. Red Bull |
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5. EE |
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6. Three |
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7. British Airways |
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8. Carphone Warehouse |
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9. Heineken |
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10. Pepsi Co |
11. British Airways
12. Dyson
13. Nike
14. Diageo brands
15. EA
16. Playstation
17. Danone
18. Arcadia
19. You Tube
20. John Lewis
21. Microsoft
22. BMW
23. Jaguar Land Rover
24. Converse
25. Unilever brands
More
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