In the last few years, experiential marketing, sometimes called engagement marketing, live marketing, event marketing, special events, on-ground marketing, or participation marketing has gained massive traction by creating immersive and memorable experiences for consumers in Nigeria. Its activities have not only transformed the way brands interact with their audiences but also contributed significantly to the country’s economic growth.
Economic Benefits
Looking at the big picture of the economy, experiential marketing initiatives have created jobs as they require a workforce to plan, execute, and manage events, activations, and experiences. Such employment opportunities, contribute massively to the country’s economic development.
It can equally boost tourism as most programmes often incorporate events and activations that attract tourists, generating revenue for governments, businesses and individuals besides enhancing infrastructural development. A flashback to the last ” Detty December” can easily confirm the tourism strength of experiential marketing
Apart from the national economy experiential marketing enables brands to create emotional connections with their audiences. It is majorly through engaging customers in immersive experiences, that brands can foster loyalty and advocacy, as well as increase their visibility, reaching a wider audience and generating buzz around the brand.
Benefits To Brands
Another unique benefit to experiential marketing is that it encourages consumer participation, allowing brands to gather valuable feedback and insights that can inform future marketing strategies and help brands differentiate themselves from competitors, to establish unique identities and market positions.
Nigeria’s experiential sector in 2024 was marked by significant growth, driven by the increasing demand for immersive and engaging brand experiences. This growth had a profound impact on the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) industry, as more brands are shifting their focus towards experiential marketing.
The increased emphasis on experiential marketing is because many brands are recognizing the importance of creating memorable experiences for their customers. This has equally led to a surge in demand for experiential marketing services.
Digital Impacts
Integration with digital marketing was quite visible in recent times as experiential marketing campaigns began to incorporate digital elements, such as social media and influencer marketing, to amplify their reach and impact.
With immersive and inventive technology, many agencies have brought to life extraordinary ideas that have created emotional connections, fuelled conversations, and delivered business results, even as technology integration and consolidation grew. The incorporation of technology, such as virtual and augmented reality, has enhanced experiential marketing initiatives as brands and agencies have explored these opportunities to stay ahead of the curve.
In the last few years, experiential marketing has been experiencing massive disruption occasioned by the Internet and social media
Recent happenings in the industry have also shown that any experiential marketer at home with trends is able enough to detect where the pendulum of the business is swinging to take the new trends seriously and update his skills to meaningfully engage consumers.
The wide spread of Internet penetration and the increasing competition among online retailers which have led to the rise of virtual experiential marketing (VEM), using the Internet and its various channels to create an enriched and engaging experience have contributed enormously to new ways of consumer engagement. It is note worthy that VEM also relies on an electronic environment that engages customers and arouses their emotional responses to create an unparalleled consumer experience and consequently capture their loyalty.
Even with experiential marketing, social media gives more power to the consumer, because it allows brands to engage and interact with them, pick up the trends, and navigate their product and marketing strategy. Striking the right balance of both worlds is the key to success.
Skills Upliftment
This development underlines the need for experiential marketing professionals to update their skills to become technologically savvy, understand digital data and analytics, etc., and make the most of the fast-evolving experiential space.
There was also an increased focus on new ideation, strategy, and execution as players took a closer look at the whole value chain itself to see how best to address each area independently and innovatively.
Since last year, agencies have been identifying and sharpening their competencies in events and promotional marketing, retail marketing, trade enhancement, digital, social, sponsorship marketing, employee engagement, public events, content marketing, guerrilla marketing, and more.
Apart from creating consumer and brand experiences, experiential marketing can also encompass a variety of other marketing strategies from individual sampling to large-scale guerrilla marketing.
Deploying Creative Innovations
Agencies showcased in this pull-out have shown remarkable competencies in events and promotional marketing, retail marketing, trade enhancement, digital, social, and sponsorship marketing, employee engagement, public events, content marketing, guerrilla marketing, and more.
Their activities of 2024 reveal their skills in immersive and inventive technology with the penchant for diagnosing brand problems, bringing to life extraordinary ideas that create emotional connections, fuelling conversations, and delivering business results. Little wonder they became the toast of their numerous clients. This is expected to flow into this year, 2025.
Even with current Infrastructure Constraints that can hinder the execution of experiential marketing initiatives as well as the complex regulatory environment in Nigeria with laws and policies that negatively affect the planning and execution of experiential marketing initiatives, these agencies have remained agile and compliant making the best of the present situation.
They have made great efforts to elevate the talents and skills of their workforce since the experiential marketing sector in Nigeria requires specialized talent and skills. Investing in training and development programs has helped these agencies to address many vital needs.
These experiential agencies have been in the business of helping their clients bring their brands to life and building a better customer experience through their engaging services. This also explains why they are the experiential agencies to watch for 2025.
Transparency and openness are other traits common among these outstanding agencies. They always showcase details of what they are doing for their clients to ensure that they are on the same page. They encourage the clients to focus on what they can achieve more with limited resources. Being able to be very honest with the client is key in today’s economy because of the thin bottom line that compels clients to account for every detail of their expenses. Such a high level of transparency in a client’s project, combined with ensuring that the main objectives of the client’s goal are achieved will undoubtedly make these experiential players the agencies to watch out for in 2025.