Sell Experiences, Not Just Products

Introduction

Marketing, for the most part, has been pretty similar over the past couple of decades, utilizing a lot of the same tactics. Some companies, however, have seen increased business by the use of experiential marketing. What that means is instead of simply just laying out the positives for whatever product they're advertising, companies have started to advertise experiences that you can have tied to their products. Following the successful strategies of these companies could make your company's products sell more.

Red Bull

Red Bull is a company known for the very strong amount of marketing they put into different events. Since the drink was first introduced in 1987, the company started advertising campaigns by marketing with extreme sports such as mountain biking, skateboarding, and surfing. They have also seen themselves get involved in different art and music initiatives, sponsoring art shows and music festivals where they bring out curated artists. Red Bull constantly sees themselves investing in new marketing initiatives every year that make them one of the leading companies when talking about marketing.

GoPro

GoPro is a camera company that was started in 2002. The company first came as an idea with wanting to capture extreme sports like surfing, but the technology to do so reliably was expensive. GoPro has been able to become successful by first creating a cheap camera that works in extreme situations, and then making it very easy for users to share whatever they record. By users uploading content like them snowboarding or surfing, viewers get to watch sports content for free that shows off the capability of the cameras. While GoPro has gone on to make official commercials using some of this footage, the company has found that a lot of their business comes simply from the marketing users of the camera have made without them even having to step in. By making a product that works well in different fun experiences in their life, potential customers will eventually be interested in them.

HBO

HBO is a premium television network that is known for consistently airing new films that premiered in movie theaters along with their own original television series. While HBO doesn't completely focus their advertising around experiences, they have had multiple events that gave the shows involved a huge buzz. During SXSW 2017 in Texas, HBO took the popular experience type known as escape rooms and created a unique event where visitors could play through rooms based on some hit HBO shows. Visitors would go to three different rooms based on the sets of the shows Veep, Silicon Valley, and Game of Thrones, figuring out how to make their way out of each one. Additionally, in 2018, they came back to SXSW, where they created a miniature town based off the show Westworld. Visitors could watch different events happen in the street, such as a shootout or talk to different actors like the bartender to get more information about what was going on. Creating a unique, interactive experience will make people a lot more engaged than any other form of advertising out there.

JetBlue

JetBlue is an airline operating in the United States. Once during the winter, the company thought it was a good idea to advertise their new flights from New York to Palm Springs by showing how good of a summer destination it was. Visitors of their "Ultimate Icebreaker" exhibit could win prizes like golf clubs, beach clothing, and free plane tickets by working to break away at ice cubes that contained prizes inside. By having fun initiatives like this with the goal of winning prizes, many will line up for the opportunity.

Conclusion

By tying any sort of experience to your marketing, you're likely to gain new customers. Ever one enjoys a fun time or free stuff so experiment with what works for your company. This type of marketing is likely to become even more popular over time.