Experiential activations continue to grow as marketers embrace the idea of one-to-one consumer marketing.  What many agencies and clients have been doing thus far is experimenting in order to find out what works, and in the process, some have had spectacular successes and also some notable “we’re not going to do that again” moments. 

At IMI International, we’ve been measuring activations in and around experiential marketing for over 20 years.  As a result, a database of over 1,500 consumer measurement initiatives has been complied in order to find out exactly what initiatives are working and those which need to be reconsidered. 

Measuring experiential marketing is a three-step process:

1.  First, it’s critical to isolate the experiential impact of the activation.  This means that you are able to remove the other elements that can be driving impact in the marketplace, such as television ads, retail offers etc., and instead, simply focus on the activation on the streets, at festivals, sports events and other areas.  This allows for a “clean read” on the activation and for you truly know how it is working.

2.  Second, use consistent measures since they are extremely helpful.  Specifically, we leverage three types of measures in order to evaluate a campaign and its ROI.  These include: 

• Efficiency, meaning how successful was the activation in terms of reaching your target market;
• Effectiveness, namely how impactful the message was in making your target consumer learn new brand info, change an attitude or behavior (to have them do/buy/say what your campaign wants them to do; and finally,
• Cost effectiveness, or how much of an investment was required in order to make the activation work.

Used together, these consistent measures allow you to compare all experiential marketing activations using the same ruler in order to compare results, whether different events, tactic s or objectives for the same campaign, or different campaigns across an activity calendar.

3.  Third, compare your results, not just to each other in one-off campaigns, but to a much larger, more robust database, allows you to understand a more “absolute” level of performance across like-type initiatives and brands in the marketplace.  For instance, if 42% of consumers are more likely to buy your product as a result of an experiential campaign, is that good or bad?  Being able to compare against a large set of similar programs with actual in-market linkage (like IMI’s database) allows for context to be provided and to ensure your program is breaking through above and beyond its local competitors. If you only compare to your own programs you may never find the optimal level for your programs.

Standardized measurement is important since it allows for true understanding of the impact of your marketing program.  Measurement gives you credibility and protection against having to defend your budget for next year’s experiential campaign since you can prove its effectiveness.  Most importantly, it allows you to understand where your brand currently is performing and how you can optimize it for future incremental gains.

For more information, please visit IMI International’s website for more experiential topics.