Content Is What Decides.

5 min. reading

Statistics showing advertising over-saturation and low confidence in advertising messages are caused by conformity. Media churn out similar - and therefore wholly predictable - presentations of brand benefits at us. They keep repeating the same message, increasingly fiercely: how they have improved the product and innovated the service, and how great we'll feel with them. They seem to have overlooked the fact that our attention has shifted from the brands that offer themselves to the brands that attract us through their activities. Hand on heart. How many times have you found yourself looking at a banner, a spot, or an advertisement and said, “I want to experience that too. Who's behind it?”

So here's a complete summary of key statistics from the perspective of experience marketing. The numbers are presented by companies such as Nielsen, Focus, CMS, McKinsey, and Forbes. Put into context, they can help marketers find answers as to how they can effectively establish relationships with consumers, create positive brand awareness, and drive customer loyalty, and thereby improve their marketing plans.

• 70 % of Czechs don't trust advertising. (*1)
• 72 % of the population does not trust advertising. (*2)
• 60 % of people are bothered by Internet advertising. (*2)
• 85 % of the adult population feel overwhelmed by advertising. (*1)

“From the perspective of the past five years, the numbers of those who believe they need advertising are dwindling. Even if they recognise its importance to the economy.” (*2). Therefore, before the brand incurs advertising costs, it should be more than sure that it will speak to a larger audience than just the 30% of people who give it at least minimal attention. Otherwise, it might harm it in the long run.

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So what really influences purchasing decisions?

• 92 % of Czechs make purchases on the basis of a recommendation by an acquaintance rather than advertising. (*1)
• 92 % of people trust recommendations from a friend or acquaintance, 70 % opinions in the online environment, and 58 % articles and editorials. These are currently the three most trusted sources of information. (*3)
• 72 % of people born after 1980 prefer experience and experiences to material objects. (*4)
• 87 % of people will understand brand values better through live events than through TV advertising. (*5)
• 71 % of people prefer to explore a brand personally, rather than through traditional push advertising. (*6)
• 56 % of people born after 1980 subscribed to brands e-mailing lists for events, and 67 % follow them on social networks for the same reason. (*7)

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Experiencing instead of reading.

Trends show that the more confidence in advertising decreases, the greater the significance of brand experience and friends' recommendations. Marketing can adapt to this. If people need experience with a brand, all one needs to do is provide it. If they want more intense experiences, those can be created. And if friends' experiences are important, they know how to convey them.

 

• 69 % of people born after 1980 experience FOMO - the fear of missing out. (*4)
• 74 % of participants in live events have a better opinion of the brand presented. (*5)
• 98 % of participants are more inclined to purchase a product after an experiential marketing experience. (*5)
• 87 % of participants who have bought a product at an event will buy it again. (*5)

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WOM is the leader in information reliability.

Enabling people to interact with a brand evokes a positive emotional connection. That is why 87 % of people perceive "live brand experience" as a more effective form of brand marketing (*5). This live communication allows them to experience the advertising message and open the path to the natural engagement of people and a memorable personal experience. This leads to recommendations between family, colleagues, friends and communities, and this is the strongest incentive to buy in both the brick-and-mortar and the digital world.

• > 50 % of all purchasing decisions are influenced by word-of-mouth. (*8)
• 96 % of participants talk about a particular brand that was responsible for their experience. (*5)
• 71 % of participants share live event experiences with friends and family. (*5)
• 98 % of people born after 1980 share content from experiential activities that they have attended. (*7)

• 71 % of people share the official hashtag. (*7)
• 98 % of people arbitrarily create social content during an event or experience and then share it. (*17)
• 67 % of people start to actively follow a brand on social networks after they have experienced something with it. (*7)
• Each person passes his/her experience on to 25 other people through WOM. Each of these will probably share this information with another 1.5 people. (*9)
• WOM generates 2x more sales than paid advertising. (*14)

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The marketing mix is hungry for authenticity.

Marketers had to respond to the turbulence that the emergence of the Internet, social networks, and lifestyle changes brought with them. The marketing mix of brands is, in a way, returning to its core. Brands are no longer showing happy characters on television, and prefer to make real people happy. Authentic experiences take the place of storytelling.

 

• 81 % of brand marketing managers believe that, compared to the traditional approach, delivering experiences to customers is a better way of building brand performance. (*10)
• 80 % of all marketers surveyed believe that a live brand event is the route to the success for the whole company. (*11)
• 79 % of brands announced that this year they would realise more events and experience campaigns compared to the previous year. (*5)
• 95 % of all marketers agree that live events provide participants with a valuable opportunity to create a personal link with the brand. (*11)

 

• 74 % of live event participants said that they had a better perception of the brand thanks to the experiential campaign. (*5)
• 59 % of marketing executives chose a valuable brand experience as a basis for creating a relationship with a brand. (*12)
• 66 % of marketers have confirmed that brand experience is an effective way to achieve marketing goals. (*16)
• 65 % of brands state that events and experiential campaigns are directly linked to sales figures. (*5)

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Impact on sales figures.

It is therefore a matter of how to grasp everything and connect it into one functional idea. This can be done with brands by transforming traditional approaches into experiential campaigns. These are based on a live event involving people in creation, and spreading the resulting content further through WOM and normal communication channels. Overall, it enhances a brand's positive perception, leading to more frequent product purchases, and thus to improved sales figures.

 

 

• Engaged consumers buy 90 % more often, spend 60 % more per transaction and state five times more often that that brand is the only one that they will buy next time. (*13)
• 65 % of consumers have bought a product or service promoted directly at an event. (*5)
• 48 % of brands showed an ROI increase of between 3:1 and 5:1 due to experiential campaigns. (*5)
• 70 % of participants who purchase a product or service during a campaign become regular customers. (*5)

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Trend that move brands.

It is easy to question any numbers regardless of whether they show ratings, click-rates, number of copies, conversion measurements, number of leaflets distributed, or linking live events to sales. Before we start, let's think.

We naturally devote our time to things that bring us some benefit - they educate us, entertain us, enchant us, or engage us. They provide experiences. Above all, it depends on the content that the brand creates.

Today, it is quite natural that we form an opinion of “twisted” promises and advertising messages before we verify them ourselves - or before someone else who we trust verifies them for us. Instead of persuading in the "we're here, we're great, buy me" style, the brand can lead us to an opposite, more inspiring way of thinking: "Is this is a great experience or project?" I was really surprised that it came from this brand.”

This is a way of measurement that are a little bit different than monitoring how many people have seen a spot or clicked on a banner. Its metric is the length of time long the brand has managed to keep our attention so that we can understand its uniqueness and strengthen our bond to it. To what extent we would recommend it.

It is experiential campaigns that reach the standard of a high degree of trust and excellent memorability. They have a strong overall idea with a distinctive concept that differentiates them from the competition. They act as a great basis for overall content and for integration of advertising messages across individual offline and online channels.

As a result, they are a much more solid basis for a marketing plan.

 

• 31 % are integrated campaigns, which are more effective in building brands. (*15)
• 64 % achieve better results in all key brand indicators for brands that have a campaign with a strong central idea. (*15)

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Stats sources:

*1. Focus, Reklama optikou české populace, 2015 *2. Focus, Češi a reklama 2017 *3. Nielsen, Global Trust in Advertising, 2012 *4. Harris Group, Millenials – Fuelling the Experience Economy *5. Event Marketing Institute, Event Track 2015 *6. Marketingweek.com/2018/08/06/ *7. Splash, Millenial study, 2017 *8. McKinsey & Company *9. A Practical Guide to Interactive Brand Experiences, S. Smilansky *10. Brandworkz, CIM Brand Experience Survey 2016 *11. Bizzabo *12. Forbes, June 19, 2017 *13. Rosetta *14. ReffrealCandy, How powerful is word-of-mouth *15. Kantar Milward Brown, AdReaction, 2018 *16. Freeman, Global Brand Experience Study, 2017 *17. Event Marketing Institute, Event Track 2016