‘How experiential marketing industry boosts media communication’

The Managing Director of Black Purist Media, Chidiadi Madumere, has said that the event industry in Nigeria is currently going through a series of evolutionary milestones that will change it indelibly. He said technology, experiential event and media communications were the new evolutions in brand communications.

According to him, “This is not very simple to grasp for an everyday event planner but it must not be ignored. The event industry is rapidly transforming itself into an experiential event marketing industry”.

On the difference between event planning agencies and experiential event marketing agencies, he said an everyday event planner in Nigeria produces four to five lavish weddings and corporate conferences in a month whilst the experiential event marketers are successfully establishing themselves as leaders in the communication race, with distinct advantages over their counterparts.

“The difference is that the experiential event planners and marketers are adopting multi-disciplinary thinking, interaction, design and leading in ideas on how to configure interaction, personal responses and experiences: all crucial elements for communication and relationship building.

“So, with the help of technology and smart materials, experiential event marketers are now taking various stylistic trajectories in lending personality and engagement to brand identities. They are now able to create fully ‘conditional and experiential realities, using a fine blend of technology and integrating various communication channels such as design, public relations, advertisement, branding and marketing,” he added.

Madumere believes that the experiential event marketing industry is well placed to lead the future of media communications in Nigeria, Africa and the world.

Shedding more light on what an experiential event marketing agency do, he explained, “ First, you need to understand the word, experiential. I would define experiential as anything you can personally interact with. This rules out anything that sits purely online, on TV or in a newspaper.

“There is a universal truth that stems from the most essential belief in psychology which is that we learn from experiences. And that same principle applies to experiential event marketing. It’s important to note that a large amount of experiential marketing is done through events. The way a brand functions and the feelings it evokes within us are vital to the ultimate perception we possess of it,” he said.

He reiterated that Experiential event agencies create a closer bond and lasting positive impact between the consumers and the brand by immersing the consumers into a fun, playful, interactive, engaging, highly-personal and memorable BRAND event, adding, “If a brand event stirs genuine positive emotions within the people then they are more likely to associate those emotions with that brand, which is more effective than just showing them a Facebook ad hence the word marketing thrown in the mix.”

However, he said experiential event agencies are typically laden with onsite event management and production expertise and undoubtedly has the next generation of multidisciplinary experiential strategists, technologists and conceptual thinkers able to shape the next layer of integrated communications and physical environments.

“As beneficial and exciting as this scenario is for the event industry, shifting focus towards this experiential event marketing revolution will not be an easy task for the ordinary event planner, neither will it be a walk in the park for an established advertising agency or a PR and Branding agency. It will be problematic. Agencies will need to adapt and rethink traditional roles of employees, upgrade skills and realign new roles to meet the challenges of changing positions whilst constantly defending themselves to their clients.
Creating a highly knowledgeable team, agile and articulate enough to understand the ramifications of strategic and conceptual decisions is very essential,” he added.