The Covid-19 pandemic led to a lot of sudden changes. People were suddenly working from home and wearing masks in the grocery store. A lot of large events needed to be canceled.
This also affected the brand ambassador program that a lot of companies used for advertising. Suddenly, pop-up displays at malls and concerts had to be canceled or changed. This kind of experiential marketing had to adapt to these sudden changes.
The good news is that the pandemic is coming to an end. And with that, these types of pop-up events are beginning to start back up again.
Read on to learn how these experiential advertising and marketing campaigns might change in the post-COVID world.
A Focus on Hygiene
It’s not surprising that many people are going to feel more health-conscious from now on. They may not want to spend too much time at a crowded concert or pop-up display in their local mall. So what can brands do to make people feel safe at these events?
In the future, you will probably see these events focus more on hygiene. They’ll most likely encourage people to wear masks when approaching the table. You will probably see a bottle of hand sanitizer at these displays.
These events will probably also encourage social distancing. They might even try to reduce the number of people touching certain surfaces.
For example, they may have an attendant handle touch screens rather than let hundreds of people touch them in a short amount of time. They may do product demonstrations themselves rather than let many people handle their products. And any sampling at these events will most likely be done in individual packaging.
These measures will keep employees and customers safe and encourage healthy habits at the same time.
Moving Outdoors
In sunny areas, research has shown that many viruses and bacteria cannot survive the sun’s ultraviolet rays. So another way to encourage social distancing is to move these pop-up events and displays outdoors. There’s a lot more space to spread out, and it can be fun to spend some time outdoors when the weather’s nice anyway!
And the truth is that outdoor events became fairly popular during the pandemic. It turns out that people genuinely enjoy spending time outside during nice weather.
It might even be a good idea for brands to invest in logoed tents to go over their displays. This will signal to people what brand the event is for and protect the display in case of unexpected rain. Customers will be more likely to approach you if they already have an idea of what your display is for.
And for brands that are feeling generous, people enjoy free treats and samples. On hot days, you can encourage guests to come over to your display by offering cold drinks or popsicles. If it’s cold out, then some hot chocolate is always a favorite for warming up and having a conversation about your brand.
Targeting Smaller Audiences
The strategy of the past at concerts and pop-up events in the past was to attract as many people as possible. They would try to cater to a wide audience or have something for everyone. This logic made sense since it was an easy way to make money at that time.
But with customers wanting to be more protective over their health, some brands may try switching to a different strategy. Rather than attracting as large a crowd as possible, they may actually start thinking smaller.
Attracting the attention of smaller crowds means that it’ll be easier to enforce mask-wearing and social distancing. Brands may consider setting up more pop-up events in smaller towns and malls. They may design their events to attract people of certain demographics instead of having something for everyone.
To account for the events being much smaller, brands may also want to set up more pop-up events than they were holding before. They might go to many smaller concerts rather than fewer larger ones. They can return to the same small towns a few times to attract different demographics to their display.
They might even do a combination of smaller and larger events during a year. This will attract a lot more customers and encourage social distancing at the same time.
Virtual and Hybrid Events
Another thing brands may want to take advantage of is virtual and hybrid events. Since some events, such as concerts, may continue to limit the number of people allowed inside an in-person venue, live events may offer some degree of virtualization for those who can’t be there physically. This offers these people a chance to join in on the fun without leaving home.
It also gives brands a new platform that they can use to advertise to people. They may be able to perform product demonstrations over a video that customers can watch. They may even invite virtual guests at events to attend a separate live stream that will discuss the product in more detail.
And that’s another thing that brands can do in the post-covid world: live stream events. Technology has been creating pathways for people from different countries to communicate with each other. There’s no reason why brands can’t take advantage of this as well.
Live streams and videos are a great way to demonstrate a product to the public. Live streams even have the ability to take and answer customer questions during the stream, so customers can feel just as confident in your brand as you are.
Hire Experiential Marketing Experts Today
Engagement is often the key to a successful business. This is why brands have been using experiential marketing to attract customers for a long time. And this isn’t about to change any time soon, even if these events may look a little different from now on.
And Auctus is here to help your brand with experiential marketing right now. We’ll help you set up your displays in a way that customers will respond to in the post-covid world. Contact us to see what we can do to help your brand’s experiential marketing today.
