Brands are increasingly utilising external activity and stunts in a bid to build a stronger bond with consumers through immersive and brand storytelling. However, it is not an approach that will work for every brand. Events agency, Identity says there is no one size fits all solution when it comes to experiential.

IPA Bellwether claims experiential marketing budgets were up by 5.5% in the final quarter of 2018, and a few months later at SXSW in Austin it became clear brands can send a bold message with these activations.

At the festival, Beautyrest mattress company sponsored an eight-hour concert by composer Max Richter. The stage was surrounded by 150 Beautyrest beds filled with lucky fans who tried to catch some sleep between the hours of midnight and 8am. The premise was that a night sleeping on a Beautyrest bed would leave attendees feeling refreshed and ready for the day.

“It’s vital to remember that one experiential campaign does not fit all, and that no consumer is the same,” says Identity’s experiential account director, Toby Havord. “A pop-up shop in Wigan may work well for a confectionary brand for example, but possibly not so well for a sports manufacturer. It’s vital to take the venue, location and consumers into consideration during the planning stage of your next experiential campaign.”