When it comes to work events, trade shows, or promotional campaigns, customers can be engaged beyond flash. It is not solely the product that motivates people to come back to a brand, but rather the way they experience it. This is where experiential marketing comes in. The goal of experiential marketing is to create lasting impressions on consumers, which they want to share with others and which, ultimately, leads to brand loyalty. You are not advertising a product – you’re letting consumers see and feel what their lives would be like with it. You’re creating an association between your brand and those positive vibes. A Freeman Global Brand Experience Study reports that a third of CMOs plan to devote 21-50 percent of their budget to experiential marketing efforts over the next several years. If the same efforts are not already a big part of your brand’s marketing strategy, then they should be. Here are three main reasons why experiential marketing is making an immersive comeback:

Many of the largest brands have already begun building lasting connections with their customers through experiential marketing, and the best strategies are those that extend beyond shopping. For example, American Express’s AI tennis game at the U.S. Open let event goers enhance their experience while associating American Express with something besides tickets and souvenir purchases.

When it comes to any form of marketing, knowledge really is power. Marketers need data about consumers to know where and how to reach them most effectively. Product developers need data to know which products appeal most to consumers. Business leaders need data to steer the direction of their companies. Experiential marketing gives consumers the chance to learn about products and brands while also enjoying the experience. And those consumers are willing to exchange personal info as the admission price to an event or experience they want to attend. Big data helps provide the tools to deliver real-time actionable insights, which enable brands to be more agile to make changes to messaging, create more value, and increase consumer engagement on the spot.

One of marketing’s main goals is to educate consumers about a product, and that only works if the consumer is engaged. Most people go out of their way to avoid commercials, yet most will also go out of their way for a new experience. That’s why experiential marketing works so well. Tie your brand or product to a fun experience, like a live event, and consumers are more likely to get the message. In fact, about 65% of consumers say that live events and product demonstrations helped them fully understand a product better than any commercial or other method could. Experiential marketing has the ability to transform and elevate the connections that brands build with their consumers, and that’s becoming increasingly important as consumers demand more personalization.

Technology giants will only be betting bigger on short-form content in 2024. With the rise and rise of TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and Snapchat amongst other platforms, short form videos are sticking around as consumers continue to demand engaging, visually rich content. Advertisers now have the ideal means of creating impactful and memorable experiences that connect with viewers in just seconds, while also reaching younger audiences through highly engaging content. With more than half of annual online website traffic coming from mobile devices and tablets Millennials and Gen Z consumers will continue to grow their mobile-optimized digital experiences.

Bite-sized broadcasting is paving the way for a more structured short-form media landscape, by unlocking a new playground of creativity and new engagement models for brands. Scrollable, easy to digest and commitment-free, short-form content will only get more innovative and influential, both for the attention span challenged and those inundated with content options. Not only does it take less bandwidth to create a short-form video, but this type of format aligns well with the fast-paced attention spans of online audiences in a variety of demographics. This will become more vital for business owners who market to fast-paced, highly connected consumers.

Brands of all sizes from established names, to SMEs, to innovative startups will only further tap into this new formula for gaining momentum with viewer engagement. Big Tech firms like Google, Amazon, and Facebook are continuing to fuel the content creator economy by incentivizing short-form video monetization and innovations across markets. In India, Amazon miniTV offers free content as an in app streaming option. Netflix’s new Fast Laughs tab, which includes a TikTok-esque feed of comedy clips from Netflix shows and movies, caught traction with the platform’s mobile app users who can interact with reaction buttons, and post clips on WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter using shareable links. Advertisers behind the curve would therefore need to update their strategies, and view the business model of television, as different than that of movies; of YouTube, as different than that of television; and short-form content, as different than that of long form video and podcasts.

Advancements in machine learning have extended the capabilities of advertisers. There is no question that AI (artificial intelligence) has taken the world by storm since the launch of ChatGPT. Everywhere we look, we find discussions or debates on how AI image generative tools are revolutionizing the world of content marketing, design, and management. Generative AI, a branch of AI, has caught the attention of many marketers. This technology refers to a type of artificial intelligence that is capable of generating new content or data similar to a given input. This can include generating text, images, music, and other forms of media. Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize many industries by automating content creation and enabling new forms of creativity. Industries that have already started adopting AI include marketing and advertising, technology, consulting, manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, and defence. Once-sceptical marketers are now using AI to enhance a multitude of campaign components. According to Statista, the global AI software market revenue will soon reach $126 billion by 2025.

Generative AI can be used in marketing and advertising to personalize experiences, content, and product recommendations. AI systems for instance can analyse data and behaviour to identify effective ad placement. It can also optimize campaigns and assist with programmatic ad buying and audience targeting. In digital marketing’s pursuit of reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time, artificial intelligence can help advertisers do this in fewer steps and with more impact. AI is a very transformative new tool to have in your arsenal that helps expand the narrative and open up new possibilities and avenues for creativity. It also provides additional options and sources of inspiration that can be accessed more quickly than ever before. However while it is clear that AI ingenuity is a game changer, we must also navigate the ethical concerns and strive to preserve the unique touch of human creativity. Finding the right balance between leveraging these tools and maintaining our artistic authenticity.