Welcome to the future of hospitality marketing, where it’s all about the experience. Think about the best hotel you ever stayed in or the most impressive bar or restaurant you dined at. What made it so great? It was probably a combination of things, from the food to the service, atmosphere, and overall vibe. All these elements culminate to create an incredible experience that makes a lasting impression on you.
Experiential marketing is about creating memorable, engaging experiences that capture audience attention and help foster long-term connections with customers. The quality of an experience makes all the difference when determining whether a guest will likely choose your business again in the future.
Experiential marketing is on the rise and emerging as a go-to strategy for businesses in the hospitality industry. Keep reading to learn how to transform the ordinary into something extraordinary for your guests.
Understanding Experiential Marketing
The Evolution of Experiential Marketing in Hospitality
Key Elements of Successful Experiential Marketing Campaigns
Innovative Examples of Experiential Marketing in Hospitality
The Benefits of Experiential Marketing for Hospitality Businesses
- Increased Customer Loyalty and Repeat Business
- Positive Word-of-Mouth and Social Media Buzz
- Higher Perceived Value and Willingness to Pay Premium Prices
- Enhanced Brand Reputation and Differentiation in a Competitive Market
Understanding Experiential Marketing
So, what exactly is experiential marketing? This marketing strategy takes a more hands-on approach than traditional tactics, aiming to create immersive customer experiences.
Traditional marketing relies on one-way communication. Your marketing team creates content or a campaign, launches it to your audience, and then watches from a distance to see how it’s perceived. On the other hand, experiential marketing engages with customers directly on a more personal level, encouraging active participation.
Experiential marketing can include events, pop-ups, samplings and demos, tailored services, and any other unique experience you can come up with that fits your brand. Whatever the experience is, you should always keep in mind the two fundamental principles of a successful experiential marketing campaign:
- Focus on creating memorable and engaging customer experiences.
- Emphasize emotional connections and personal engagement.
Historically, traditional marketing tactics like commercials and print ads aimed at a wider audience delivered a single message and either worked or didn’t. Nowadays, marketing strategies are much more intuitive. Even digital marketing strategies, like those on social media, are more advanced and customizable as your team can tailor content to specific groups and platforms and even engage with customers through marketing materials.
Traditional marketing methods don’t allow for that.
Experiential marketing takes it a step further. The average consumer has changed over time. In general, we all crave experiences. We want our interactions with brands to feel exciting and meaningful. Traditional marketing practices are just too passive to meet the mark here, which is where experiential strategies come into play.
The Evolution of Experiential Marketing in Hospitality
Providing exceptional experiences is the hallmark of any good business in the hospitality industry. Efforts like greeting guests in the lobby with their favorite drink, having staff on hand to help with luggage, and noting a guest’s favorite seat in your restaurant and reserving it for them have long been go-to methods of enhancing the guest experience.
Experiential marketing pushes the limits.
Early in the “experiential marketing evolution,” your marketing operations plan may have just included launching simple campaigns, like a signature cocktail, a themed hotel room, or an exclusive, limited-time dish. These experiences certainly captured the attention and engaged customers, but they only went so deep.
As time marched on, consumer expectations and behaviors changed. When staying in a hotel, they want more than just a bed and free coffee in the lobby. When visiting a bar or restaurant, they want more than just a meal and a drink. They want unique, personalized experiences that connect them with your brand and the local culture. Customer engagements don’t have to be stiff and one-sided like they may have been in the past. In fact, your guests want the exact opposite.
Social media plays a significant role in these new expectations. Guests will share their thoughts, feelings, and photos of their experience with your business online, which will be seen by thousands of people who may be interested enough to become potential customers. They’re going to come to you expecting an experience that compares to—or even exceeds—what they saw on social media. How are you going to deliver that?
Key Elements of Successful Experiential Marketing Campaigns
If you’re thinking about launching an experiential marketing campaign, you want it to be impactful. You can achieve that by including key elements:
1. Personalization
Any time you can incorporate personalization into your marketing strategies, do it. You can take experiential marketing efforts to the next level by tailoring the experiences to your customer’s preferences and needs. Think about events like concerts that offer various tiers for seating and experiences, from general admission to VIP. You can provide similar customization options for your guests, allowing them to “choose their adventure” whenever they interact with your brand.
2. Storytelling
Storytelling is a crucial aspect of any marketing campaign. Narratives should be compelling and authentic to help people understand your brand, who you are, and what you’re trying to achieve. Storytelling is your opportunity to appeal to guests emotionally. Aside from your brand story, you can also weave in narratives from the local culture and history to foster deeper connections with guests.
3. Interactivity
Interactivity is one of the primary draws of experiential marketing. These campaigns should encourage guests to participate in hands-on activities, like workshops, classes, guided tours, and games. With these campaigns, you should be curating experiences by giving your audience something to do.
4. Sensory Engagement
The best experiences stimulate all five senses — smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound. Include ambient scents like the aroma of fresh-cut flowers or baked goods, mood-setting music that fits the space, and eye-catching, colorful visual elements. Engaging the senses is how you captivate your audience and create experiences that stick in their memory.
Innovative Examples of Experiential Marketing in Hospitality
While experiential marketing is gaining popularity, it’s not a novel concept. Several businesses in the hospitality industry are already using experiential marketing to better engage with guests. Check out these real-world examples:
- Bellagio Las Vegas
- South Wind Motel
- Marriott International
1. Bellagio Las Vegas
The Las Vegas Strip is a goldmine of experiential marketing examples and inspiration, but one hotel that stands out is the Bellagio. This luxury hotel offers incredible amenities in an opulent space, but one of its biggest draws is The Conservatory and Botanical Garden.
Look up any “things to do in Las Vegas” list, and The Bellagio Conservatory is guaranteed to be a must-see. Each season, the hotel’s Horticulture and Engineering team transforms the 14,000-square-foot Botanical Garden into a themed showcase with larger-than-life displays of living plant material stimulating all five senses.
The installations each follow a specific theme but revolve around sustainability and celebrating nature. The team also has a unique display each year to celebrate the Lunar New Year, known as the Chinese New Year. This brings unique, immersive cultural experiences to The Strip that are unlike anywhere else. And clearly, it works, as The Bellagio sees about 15,000 to 18,000 visitors a day.
Knowing how attractive The Conservatory is, the Bellagio also began offering an immersive dining experience for guests to enjoy inside the Conservatory. It’s an exclusive experience that changes throughout the year to coincide with the season and theme of the Botanical Garden.
2. South Wind Motel
It’s not just large, world-renowned hotels that are leveraging experiential marketing. Smaller boutique locations are curating stand-out experiences for guests, too.
Take the South Wind Motel in downtown Columbus, for example. A prominent local architect, Harold Schofield, designed the Motel in the 1950s. Over time, the Motel naturally lost its spark as it remained frozen while other lodging options innovated with technology and new amenities.
A local family bought the property in 2021, renovated it top-to-bottom, and reopened it in 2022. The South Wind’s goal is to celebrate and preserve the culture of the American roadside motel, a phenomenon that has largely been lost to time. The South Wind Motel isn’t affiliated with any national chain. Instead, it leverages its deep roots in the German Village, where the Motel is located, and the owning family lives and works.
The South Wind Motel is deeply community-driven and curates unique guest experiences by forming local partnerships — like with the Columbus-based eco-friendly product refilling company Koko — and encouraging guests to explore the surrounding neighborhood.
3. Marriott International
On the international level, chains like Marriott International are implementing technology to offer more personalized services to guests.
Marriott International has begun using AI technology to improve the guest experience and offer more personalization. The chain has experimented with AI-powered assistants that allow guests to control room settings like lighting and temperature with voice commands.
Marriott also has AI-powered concierge services at select Renaissance Hotels called RENAI. The tech helps connect guests to local experiences handpicked for them. Marriott has advertised RENAI as akin to having a well-connected local giving you recommendations, but they’re available 24/7 from the convenience of your smartphone.
The Benefits of Experiential Marketing for Hospitality Businesses
Experiential marketing can transform the way you engage with guests and can have countless benefits for businesses in the hospitality industry:
1. Increased Customer Loyalty and Repeat Business
When you offer guests memorable experiences, they’re more likely to become repeat customers. Customer loyalty is extremely valuable, as your loyal customers are the ones you can rely on to frequent your business and sing your praises in reviews and to their friends and family.
2. Positive Word-of-Mouth and Social Media Buzz
For better or worse, guests will share their experiences with your brand online, whether on review platforms or social media. Knowing this, you want to provide an incredible guest experience so they have something positive to rave about in their testimonials.
When people are researching hotels and restaurants to visit, they often refer to reviews from other guests to make their purchase decisions. Satisfied guests who leave positive reviews generate social media buzz and recommendations by word-of-mouth. This organic promotion attracts new customers and boosts your reputation, which is invaluable to any hospitality brand.
3. Higher Perceived Value and Willingness to Pay Premium Prices
Brands that offer one-of-a-kind, personalized experiences can justify higher prices. The exclusiveness of the experiences you’re offering creates a higher perceived value, and guests will be more willing to pay a premium rate if they believe they’re getting something special and memorable in return.
4. Enhanced Brand Reputation and Differentiation in a Competitive Market
The hospitality industry is competitive, and the digital marketing landscape is even more competitive. Countless businesses are pining for customers’ attention. So, what are you going to do to stand out?
Experiential marketing allows you to offer experiences unique to your brand that help you differentiate yourself from competitors, enhance your reputation, and make a name for yourself as a force in your industry.
Conclusion
Experiential marketing can reimagine the way hospitality brands engage with guests. Offering unique experiences that engage the senses and encourage guests to interact can foster brand loyalty, enhance your reputation, and differentiate your business from competitors.
You can start using experiential marketing today by identifying your target audience’s wants and needs and designing and executing memorable experiences that resonate with them and align with your brand. These could be exclusive events and workshops, collaborations with local artists, chefs, and influencers, and even tech integrations that provide guests with more convenience and personalization options.
Take a moment to evaluate your brand and the current guest experience you’re offering. Where can you innovate and make investments to add unique, personalized touches to the customer experience? Start small, be open to experimenting, and be ready to scale up your efforts once you see positive results.