The "5 keys" to successful experiential communication

What is experiential communication?

Let’s start by looking at what experiential communication is. When a company wants to communicate experientially with its audiences (prospective and regular clients, influencers, etc.) they use methods and content to engage and interact with them. In contrast to more traditional passive communication, the devices and systems implemented offer fun, creative and interactive experiences between the brand and its audience.

Let’s take a closer look at the 5 keys to successful experiential communication: the role of the audience, the brand’s approach, speaking to the senses, using phygital technology and aiming for long-lasting experiences.

1 - An active audience

When you communicate via experiences, you give your audience the power to make decisions and be active participants rather than spectators. Audiences choose to interact with you and receive selective information according to their own interests.

You no longer deliver “one-way” content, instead you establish an interaction between the brand and its community through personalized actions.

Delivering a piece of experiential communication means: allowing your community to enjoy an experience based on choice, providing content that truly brings them added value, promoting active discovery and learning, and offering a moment of fun and sharing.

2 - Focus on substance before style

When it comes to your communication, there’s no point in using digital tools at all costs just to give your company an innovative or up-to-date image. Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality headsets (VR) and XXXL screens are becoming more and more common. While they certainly create a “wow” effect, unfortunately it’s often short-lived.

 

  • First of all, we always try to define what objectives need to be reached, what messages need to be conveyed, which audiences need to be targeted, but also, the reasons why. This is where things get interesting! Are you looking to inform? Educate? Raise awareness? Entertain? Provide information? Surprise? …
  • Then comes the “how”. How do you go about delivering your message? In what form? Through what media? By playing with which senses and at what moments? We particularly enjoy this phase of the project since we can explore and show you the vast realm of possibilities!

3 - Immerse your audience

Allowing your audience to be completely immersed in the experience ensures its effectiveness. After all, an experience only makes sense when it is in sync with its own environment, just as a story needs context for it to exist and evolve. 

The stronger the immersion, the more emotions the person will feel which in turn will help them retain the information you provide.

Immersiveness can be achieved in different ways; it’s not all about the visual environment. By engaging the different human senses, we can create much richer experiences. Hearing, smell and touch are interesting senses to stimulate to naturally provoke the emotions and sensations you want each audience member to experience in their own way.

4 - Blurring the boundaries between the digital and the physical

Experiential and sensory communication come in different forms: technological, physical, real, imaginary…

When we create our devices and systems, we design them as a whole so that the experience can be natural and intuitive. For instance, a sudden transition from a digital technology to an unprepared real-world environment doesn’t allow us to be gently immersed in the story, it just brings us out of it too quickly.

Digital technology (hardware and user devices) is omnipresent in our environment and daily lives but it’s still a barrier that, here at SoWhen?, we strive to make invisible. For example, physical elements can be “digitized” and become hybrid, or as we say, phygital (check out our article on phygital technology here). We encourage the active participants (the brand’s audience) to play with these objects to see how they interact with the other elements of the experience.

5 - Provide a complete and ongoing experience

Whether it’s for your audience or for your company, providing an ongoing experience offers rich and meaningful memories which, above all, creates special long-lasting connections.

There are several ways to bring about this longevity:

  • For a temporary device – As explained earlier, providing a meaningful and fully immersive experience should not be overlooked, both for its immediate effects on the experience and for the memory it leaves in the person. However, the link can be maintained afterwards thanks to data collection. The public can also choose to leave their email address to receive more content from the brand. Audiences who enjoyed the experience will follow the brand that provided its content and come back for more… and so, the link is established.
  • The ideal solution is to set up a long-term device or system which allows the experience to endure, evolve, and be brought to life! When we say “long-term”, this doesn’t necessarily imply a permanent installation. Rather, we mean a device that can be set up again and again at your convenience, that can be customized and upgraded to follow the evolution of your brand, that can provide your audience with ongoing or temporary experiences. And like any communication device, it is designed to be part of a whole, linked to your brand in many ways. Economies of scale are measured, brand image continuity is ensured and the links with your audience are maintained.

 

Our team is always available to answer any questions you may have.

If you wish to discuss your future communication projects, do not hesitate to contact us via the email [email protected] or via the contact form on our website.

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