Top Experiential Marketing Agencies

What Is an Experiential Marketing Agency?

Experiential marketing companies focus on the first-hand encounter or engagement between a brand or a product and the target audience.

In this event, people can test your product and actively participate in the campaign. The audience willingly participates in the activities so it is called “engagement marketing.” 

When you let people interact with your brand, you draw their attention, making you stand out from the crowd. Collaboration with an experiential marketing agency can bring your brand quality attention from the public eye. 

These strategies raise the interest of your product through the organization of specific activities, and some of them are: 

• Interactive Events: When bigger events are organized, the audience can play games, take photos or even listen to lectures. This develops a more interactive relationship with your potential clients or customers, which makes you more recognizable in the long run. 
• Classes or Workshops: These events should be informative and not only promotional. This will attract the public’s interest, who will see your brand as an advocate of knowledge and education. 
• Brand Activations: These are employed if you are introducing a new product or are new to the public eye and want to present yourself. The point of brand activation is for you to gain initial recognition and convince that your product or service is worth connecting with. 

What Do Experiential Marketing Companies Do?

Investing in experiential marketing services means inviting the audience to interact in a real-world situation. It shows the customers what the company offers and stands by using hands-on, participatory, and tangible branding material. 

Making a personalized brand experience creates engagement with current and potential consumers, allowing an increased brand image improvement. 

These companies can provide you with the following: 

• Brand ambassadors 
• Promotional models 
• Corporate hosts 
• Costume characters 
• Expo and RSA-certified staff 
• Street teams 
• And more 

Experiential marketing agency delivers quality campaigns to B2C and B2B audiences, striking a balance between innovative solutions and tangible ROI results. 

Why Hire an Experiential Marketing Firm? 

Despite the pandemic’s effects on the industry, experiential marketing services are on the rise, with 63% of B2C marketers and 68% of B2B marketers hosting live and in-person events from July to December 2021, and 81% plan to proceed with this practice throughout 2022. 

The benefits of investing in experiential marketing services are: 

• Makes your business stand out 
• Boosts brand awareness 
• Involves two-way communication 
• Builds emotional relationships with customers 

In addition, an ingenious campaign can attract media interest. This can mean unpaid media coverage, which is a perfect way to spread the word about your company. The best example can be social media with the following: 

• Professionally created content going viral 
• User-generated content creating a closer connection 
• Hashtags being generated and widely used  

How Much Do Experiential Marketing Companies Charge for Their Services?

When hiring an experiential marketing agency, remember that the campaign must result in leveling up your company’s public image. 

In the early stages, you should evaluate the overall activation scale of the planned growth. This comes in many shapes and sizes.  

Investing a little more in experiential marketing services can go a long way. The budget is based on your project’s aspirations and goals. Sometimes, you might need an hour-long event, and other times a couple of days of planned activities. 

Prices of events range from $20,000 to $250,000 depending on the following: 

• Size 
• Location 
• Scope 
• Duration 

How to Find the Right Experiential Marketing Services for Your Business? 

You must offer people fun at your events and develop a connection between your brand and the target audience. This means that people will more easily recognize your offer if they engage with you than by watching banner ads or TV commercials. 

Take into account the next four steps when finding the right experiential marketing agency for you: 

Step #1: Do Background Research 

Take online testimonials with a grain of salt because it is not always as accurate. Sometimes, agencies cut a deal with clients, exchanging free work for a positive testimonial.  

It is better to go straight to more good reviews on sites that request authentic comments. 

Step #2: Check the Prices 

If the agency you want to pursue is charging meager rates, the reason is most often inexperience or bad general results. 

While many agencies provide results that justify charging high rates, many do not. 

Step #3: Read Case Studies 

Read the experiential marketing agency’s case study and ask them about the results and methodologies. Case studies show the experience that agency has to drive the results for a business similar to yours. 

Reach out and see if they have experience in your niche because only some firms do continuous case studies. 

Step #4: Ask About Values 

Ask the agency about its values and ethics the same way you ask individual consultants. It’s essential that they have a solid cultural fit for your company.  

You and your business partner should share similar values, so be mindful when conducting the outreach. 

10 Questions to Ask When Interviewing an Experiential Marketing Firm 

Creating a partnership with an experiential marketing agency requires asking key questions to determine if the agency is the right fit. Here are the top five questions to ask before hiring your potential business partner. 

Question #1: How Do You Select Brand Ambassadors?

Brand ambassadors are the face of your brand, and they are the ones who deliver your message to the audience and create experiences for the guests. This is why it is important to find the exemplary ambassadors an experiential marketing firm can train properly. 

They should be relatable to your target audience, for instance, a senior citizen for the promotion of retirement plans.  

Experiential marketing companies have a plan to train ambassadors before an event about the following matters thoroughly: 

• Brand’s products or services 
• Target audience 
• Goals of the event 
• And more 

Question #2: How Do We Communicate in This Collaboration?

Although experiential marketing companies handle the planning and execution, you are still involved in the process by sharing your ideas and strategizing the outcome. The firm makes sure the plans are consistent with your company’s message.  

Most often, you are in direct contact with one of the agents who ensures that all is going as planned for your brand’s voice event planning process. 

Question #3: What Type of Clients Did You Work With in the Past?

See if your chosen agency has experience working on projects with similar goals to yours. This is highly important if your drive is heavily regulated.  

A good example is healthcare companies that should try to find experienced firms that know the rules and risks of promoting pharmaceuticals. 

Question #4: How Do You Measure Success?

If you are investing in an experiential marketing agency, it is essential that you know the results when the events are finalized.  

When selling products or services, it is simple to calculate the ROI. But it is a different procedure when the goal is to raise brand awareness or generate new leads. 

So be sure to check how each company measures the success of its programs and plans for these types of events. 

Question #5: How Would You Describe Your Perspective on Experiential Marketing Campaigns?

Knowing whether the company you are interested in has the right perspective on experiential marketing is essential. Many firms carry out experiential campaigns, but they also do print and digital. They can have the resources but do need to gain the knowledge for a high-quality experiential marketing plan. 

Look for a partner that works with clients who plan these types of events instead of settling for ones that dabble in this marketing technique. 

Question #6: Have You Developed Campaigns for Our Industry Before?

Experiential marketing campaigns engage your target audience, support the overall marketing and sales goals, and match your brand’s personality. 

So, look for an agency with experience in the specialties that your project requires. This results in good project mapping over the budget and synced timeline. 

Question #7: Do You Outsource Your Experts?

Some agencies bring additional vendors during a project, so be sure to know how does the communication develop from then point onwards.  

The team you hire should have a complete control over the steps, from start to finish. Ask them if you will have to additionally communicate with the outsourced team member. 

Question #8: Can We Count On Your Management of Shipping Logistics?

Aside from managing the event, the traveling installation needs to be durable for moving it to several locations. Ask the agency if they strategize the shipping requirements, together with design, simulation, building requirements, activation, and finally the break-down. 

Question #9: Do You Do On-site Installations?

The experiential marketing services can be creative and technical at the same time, requiring additional expertise when it comes to installations.  

Planning a construction means that you need to ensure that the piece is safely installed, so it was safe to use. Ask the agency if they have a working proof that you will hire the right group of people to build and break down the installation. 

Question #10: What Are Your Team’s Core Competencies?

Determining a firm’s core competencies can make you feel safe in choosing the right business partner. Competencies can go from transportation and graphics to technology and set building.  

Takeaways On Experiential Marketing Agencies

Ultimately, a well-thought-out campaign can be hugely beneficial for your services or products.  

Your company can use it to appeal to consumers’ emotions and ensure recognition and loyalty among prospects. 

Whether you are looking to increase brand awareness or to promote your next product, the experiential marketing agency of your choice should have the ideas, capabilities, and skills to kick-start your brand. 

When searching for your perfect fitting business partner, please remember that you can filter our agency directory by reviews, hourly rates, and budget. 

Best of luck!

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