Today, more than ever, customers are seeking more than a transaction. They want an experience. It’s up to brands to deliver places and events where customers can try new products as they share photos and opinions on social media.
Of course, event marketing isn’t new. It’s always been a profitable strategy; however, it has reached new heights of attendance and interaction in recent years. The upward trend has been driven mainly by brands that are building more creative and carefully curated moments of interaction. It’s not unusual to see lines wrapped around city blocks or shopping malls filled with customers participating in a brand or influencer event. In some ways, these marketing events have become a third space for like-minded customers to gather, meet, and celebrate their love for a brand or activity.
The question facing your brand today is how to utilize interactive experiences effectively and what benefits can be derived from them, beyond mere exposure.
Are Trade Shows and Pop-Ups the Same Thing?
We’ll use the terms trade shows and pop-up events within this blog. Both fall under the umbrella of experiential marketing. They deliver opportunities to engage with customers, showcase your offering, and influence behaviors. However, trade shows and pop-up events are not the same thing.
Trade Shows
The trade show is among the most well-known versions of experiential marketing. It is primarily used by B2B marketers. The goals of a trade show are often focused around networking, lead generation, brand visibility, and supporting long-cycle sales. Trade show attendees include professionals within a specific industry, as well as related media representatives. They are held over a few days in a destination city that attendees must travel to. Trade shows often take place in convention halls and near upscale hotels. Due to the high travel costs and their brief duration, trade shows are an expensive experiential marketing opportunity. However, they deliver powerful ROI as the size and margins per deal are usually significant.
Pop-Up Events
A popular and somewhat new concept is the pop-up event. These are largely focused on B2C transactions. A pop-up can last anywhere from a few hours to months at a time. However, the point is to be special with a limited engagement. The goal of a pop-up event can be as simple as brand exposure, but many will provide direct sales to consumers. Unlike a trade show that is one location, pop-up events are part of a tour that visits multiple destinations. Pop-ups can be very affordable for brands, requiring a smaller, lighter, and more mobile booth experience. However, there are long-term staffing and shipping costs that can come into play. Pop-ups are a great way for brands to test the market, pre-launch a product, or quickly expand distribution without committing to long-term leases.
In-Store Installations
There is a third concept that is closely related to experiential marketing. It’s called the store-within-a-store concept. In that scenario, brand X builds in-store installations that it supports and staffs within an existing retail space of a different brand.
The store-within-a-store is like a pop-up event because it looks, feels, and delivers the vibe of the product brand rather than being part of the host retailer’s brand.
While an in-store installation may provide demonstrations, samples, and education, its goal is to create sales. That’s why it’s not quite the same as experiential marketing. Its focus is on sales more so than awareness.
Sometimes an in-store installation is temporary — say during a holiday buying season. However, customers may expect it to become part of the host store’s permanent offering.
Why Should Brands Adopt Event Marketing and Pop-Up Experiences?
The answers (and benefits) of adopting a pop-up type event will be unique for each company, but there are many shared reasons.
Forge Emotional Connections to Your Brand
Interactive experiences enable customers to engage with, try, and experience your brand firsthand. Doing so builds firmly rooted emotional bonds that extend beyond rational considerations, such as price and benefits. That is particularly important for products sold primarily online and for new products.
Unlike traditional advertising, event marketing moments foster genuine human connection. They make your brand more memorable and emotionally resonant, leading to stronger loyalty. Event marketing can also create authentic brand ambassadors who will suggest your products to friends and family.
Drive High Quality Leads and New Sales
Trade show, pop-up, and branded environment attendees often say they are only coming to try your product. But trying frequently results in buying. In fact, Capital One Shopping reports that pop-up shops generate an estimated $80 billion in annual revenue, with projections indicating that the market value will exceed $95 billion by the end of 2025. It also found that 80% of retailers that opened a pop-up shop considered it a success.
Why the success? These kinds of experiences enable your brand to interact with customers who already have an interest in your product or service. That means you’re engaging with a qualified audience, leading to better leads, more conversions, and even direct on-site sales.
Create Shareable Moments that Expand Your Brand Reach
At its core, a social media influencer needs three key elements to succeed: an audience, a product, and a location or event. Interactive brand experiences deliver all three. They offer moments influencers can utilize to further their careers while helping your business succeed. Well-designed interactive booths or experiences encourage influencers and customers to take photos, videos, or post about their experience online. This user-generated content creates organic marketing, extending your brand’s reach beyond the event itself.
Generate Real-Time Market Insights
Highly innovative brands use each customer interaction at marketing events as a micro focus group. It’s initiated by offering free samples or demos, allowing customers to experience the product firsthand. Doing that enables customers to go beyond the package experience and truly understand what the product delivers.
During the product demos, your team can observe the customers’ initial reactions, general impressions, and product preferences. Then your team can dive deeper, asking key questions about likes, dislikes, competitor options, and more. The takeaway is fast, honest, unfiltered feedback from the core audience.
That data you glean is invaluable for any product. It sheds light on key topics including price sensitivity, customer interest, quality perceptions, brand alignment, and more. Those insights are must-haves for new product launches, product updates, or product line extensions.
Be Seen in a Crowded Room
When done right (i.e., creatively and purposefully), a trade show or pop-up event amplifies your brand, making it the loudest in the room.
What does it take to create a dynamic environment? It often involves a visually magnetic experience with deep product interactions that are free, fun, and emotionally compelling, delivered by a well-informed team. Do all of that and you’ll forge brand activations that become the talk of the room. These immersive environments become destinations within the event. Attracting your core audiences, as well as territory audiences who can grow into brand loyalists.
Deepen Retail and Distributor Relationships
We’ve portrayed customers as people, but often they are large companies and distributors that sell or resell your products. We are not forgetting them, nor should you. A well-conceived brand marketing experience is just as crucial for B2B as it is for B2C.
It should become your standard operating procedure to invite key retail buyers, brokers, and distributors to your brand activations. Let them see how you’re showcasing the product, fostering buyer demand, and building brand preference. Doing so will strengthen B2B relationships and support sell-in to larger chains or new markets.
Key Considerations for Creating an Interactive Brand Experience
It’s easy to become overly focused on the design of a booth or exhibit. Designing is fun and seems to be the most essential part of the experience. But we urge brands to broaden their viewpoint. A booth that looks good but fails to perform is a failure. Conversely, a booth that serves its duty can thrive with decent but not great design elements. You must consider many variables to optimize your interactive brand experience.
Exhibit Type and Dimensions
Defining the various use cases for your space right is job one — even before the design begins.
- Will your brand be hosting a one-time show, a multiple-stop tour, or a combination of both?
- Should the brand have a statement booth that’s 40 feet by 40 feet and two stories tall, or something small and easily transported from one shopping mall to another?
- Could the booth be a trailer or RV that is parked outside and very portable, or something that is only set up inside?
- Is a modular booth design that can expand or be stripped down to fit multiple spaces the best option?
All of those questions are foundational when setting up your booth parameters to deliver the best brand presentation and functionality.
Traffic Patterns
Consider the traffic flow around your space, including the area immediately surrounding it.
- Will there be lines of people?
- How long should the wait time be?
- How will the lines be managed?
- Should you have team members engaging people in line (yes!)?
Product Demonstration Spaces
What’s the best stage for people to experience your product or service?
- How many customers can your space serve at a time?
- How much space is needed for each person?
- Will you need a place for people to store their purses and bags?
- What items might they need to try your products (gloves, cutlery, napkins, safety glasses, etc.)?
- Can or should the people in line be able to watch others experience your product?
Fabrication and Materials
Consider all that goes into setting up your space and how durable it needs to be.
- Do the materials need to be weather-resistant?
- Should the booth be able to provide shade or cooling to customers?
- Will union workers assemble your booth, or will it be your people?
- What’s the anticipated lifespan of your exhibit — should it last days, months, or multiple years/events?
- Is the shipping weight and the associated costs a concern?
- How much time do you want to spend setting up and taking down the booth?
Ready to Improve Your Interactive Brand Experiences?
Creating compelling trade shows and pop-up experiences is only one aspect of in-the-moment-marketing — a strategy created by Momentara. We turn in-store, out-of-home, and event promotions into useful touchpoints that sync with the customer’s routines to encourage behaviors. The Momentara approach makes your marketing messages a welcome, impactful, and natural part of the customer’s day.
Whether your marketing needs are focused on interactive brand experiences or if you’re intrigued by the omnichannel opportunities offered by Momentara, we invite you to reach out. We bring you the technology, experience, production, scale, resources, and national presence to build certainty and programmatic success.
