The benefits of experiential marketing can be difficult to quantify, but the overall effects are nonetheless obvious.
Well-executed experiential marketing campaigns have created some of the most iconic brands we remember today.
Dove’s Real Beauty campaigning offers a clear example of successful experiential marketing in action.
When we look at Dove’s approach, we can see several aspects of experiential marketing:
- Effectively executed to create a memorable experience
- Increased customer loyalty
- A strong brand identity
Dove’s experiential campaigns feature women who are tired of being compared to size 0 supermodels.
Dove ran ads that let women explore their insecurities and discover the beauty in self-acceptance and imperfections.
They focused on inspiring more confidence in their consumers.
The videos in one way or another debunked the unrealistic expectations placed on women through media. And the advertising encouraged women to find the natural beauty in themselves.
Dove Gave Their Consumers an Emotional Connection
Consumers are most likely to make their decisions emotionally. If they feel that a specific purchase is, in fact, a moral purchase, this creates positive emotions for the consumer.
Several of the Dove-produced videos explored the effects of unrealistic expectations placed on young women.
They were also aimed to create an environment where women accepted and loved themselves for exactly who they were and what they looked like.
The Dove campaign incorporated body image and personal confidence to portray Dove as a brand that wants women to feel comfortable and confident in their own skin.
Dove created a series of videos with content that ranged from women being asked to describe themselves to a sketch artist, to women taking placebo “confidence-boosting” patches to wear and discuss.
The results in nearly all of Dove’s videos revealed overly critical opinions the participants had about themselves, which crumbled when presented against how others saw them or how visual advertisements looked before airbrushing.
With the patches, the women were told they were given placebos and that the confidence was always within.
The scenes other consumers were able to watch later featured scenes that inspired confidence. They spoke to a market of young and old women, and women of all body types.
The campaign attached a positive emotional reaction to Dove products.
Participation from Consumers
Making consumers feel like they were a part of the campaign was another way to contribute to their emotional investment.
In the actual making of these videos, Dove was taking consumers on an experience that gave them positive emotional reactions.
Dove made them feel good, which was an experience to remember. In the reception of these videos by potential Dove consumers, those consumers could feel like using Dove contributed to an overall increase in women’s self-confidence.
This marketing technique made using Dove equivalent to promoting confidence and positive body image amongst women.
This incorporation of the consumers made the marketing more about the audience than the products. The consumers, both participating and watching, received a face-to-face branded experience that seemed to speak to them directly, in a unique and personalized way.
Bringing authenticity to your marketing campaign will go miles in improving customer loyalty and bringing in new customers.
Use of Technology
Dove’s experiential marketing incorporated technology into the campaign strategy. The women were recorded so that their experiences could be consumed by wider audiences.
In a video about the airbrushing process, a simulation of the actual process was displayed to show consumers the alteration decisions as they were being executed.
Incorporating technology into an experiential marketing campaign has several advantages. If the campaign is happening in a more public space, technology can be used to help spread the word and share the content of your campaign.
As in Dove’s campaigning, technology can be used deliberately as a method to reach an audience in a specific way.
Immersion in a Memorable Experience
Dove’s emotional experience for consumers was also memorable and immersive. The process of actually taking women on a journey was a powerful one, letting women in the videos voice the thoughts of the women watching.
Telling them, they had nothing they needed to change about themselves was a different approach to selling beauty products than telling them how good they could look.
All of this worked toward creating that positive reaction, heartwarming to participate in and to watch later.
Through this approach, Dove increased value for consumers. Dove used experiential marketing to target an audience emotionally, authentically, and effectively.
The right implementation of marketing techniques like these can show an audience that the brand cares about them, and make a significant difference in the overall company image.
If you’re looking for more ways to develop your marketing strategy, contact us today. We’re here to help!