A comprehensive guide to experiential marketing for tours and attractions

Carla Vianna
Carla Vianna
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A comprehensive guide to experiential marketing for tours and attractions

Customers today have more options than ever when it comes to travel and entertainment, leaving owners, operators, and marketing directors in a tricky position. While investing in social media ads and quality content will always be part of a well-rounded marketing strategy, every other operator is doing the same.

It’s time to think outside the box with experiential marketing, a strategy that involves creating an experience that allows customers to interact with your brand in a more immersive way. Experiential marketing can transform how you connect with your audience, creating memorable experiences that leave a lasting impression.

Whether you’re part of a team running a tour company or attraction, this guide will walk you through the steps of creating a successful experiential marketing campaign.

What is experiential marketing? 

Experiential marketing, also known as engagement or event marketing, is a tactic that aims to forge an emotional bond with customers through unforgettable experiences. Instead of merely showing customers advertisements for products or services, experiential marketing plunges them into immersive physical or digital activities.

For tour and attraction operators, this means crafting memorable experiences that resonate with guests long after they’ve left. This could include organizing live events, setting up pop-up activations, or creating interactive digital experiences where customers can virtually test an activity themselves.

The goal is for the interactive experience to elicit an emotional response that goes beyond simply viewing an advertisement. The goal is to nurture a deeper personal connection between the customer and your brand.

How has experiential marketing evolved? 

Experiential marketing has come a long way from traditional in-person events. With advancements in technology and a shift towards more personalized experiences, brands are now able to create highly customized and impactful campaigns.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’ hologram campaign is a prime example. The airline set up a “hologram bar” in the Amsterdam, Oslo, and Rio de Janeiro airports, where travelers could speak to one another through hologram technology. While they waited to board their flights, strangers in each city could exchange tips face-to-face through a live hologram, an experience they are unlikely to forget any time soon.

The rise of social media has also played a significant role in the evolution of experiential marketing. Now that guests can instantly share their experiences on their social channels, brands can rely on social sharing to expand the reach of the campaign. Many brands now use a specific #hashtag to encourage guests to post about the experience on Instagram.

Experiential marketing campaigns are becoming increasingly creative and interactive by the day. With the use of creative AI technology, this is one marketing strategy that can effectively set your brand apart from your competitors.

Why does experiential marketing matter for tours and attractions? 

For tours and attractions, experiential marketing is crucial in differentiating yourself in a competitive market.

Experiential marketing helps create a strong emotional connection with guests, making them more likely to recommend the experience to friends and family. In-person activities or immersive online experiences capture attention, drive foot traffic, and give guests a reason to talk about your brand online—even before making a booking.

Ultimately, the buzz drives more bookings and revenue for your business.

Types of Experiential Marketing

Now that we understand the significance of experiential marketing. Let’s explore the different types of experiential marketing that you can use to set your brand apart. Grab a notepad; you might just walk away with some great ideas.

Event Marketing

Event marketing involves creating and hosting events that allow customers to engage with a brand in a meaningful way. This could be anything from a music festival to a themed tour highlighting a new experience offering.

For example, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is a prime example of event marketing in the travel industry. This annual event attracts thousands of visitors from around the world, providing them with an unforgettable experience that highlights the culture and music of New Orleans.

Guerrilla Marketing

Guerrilla marketing is the use of unconventional advertising methods to create buzz around your brand. Marketers like these campaigns because they are budget-friendly. Guerilla campaigns instead rely on a “wow factor” that encourages people to stop and pay attention, as well as share about it on social media. A flash mob is a great example of this. A brand might organize a big, choreographed dance in a public place to grab everyone’s attention.

Brand Activations

Brand activations are campaigns that bring a brand to life through interactive and engaging experiences. These activations are designed to create a strong emotional connection with the audience.

Airbnb’s “Night At” series is a great example. The home-sharing service transformed iconic locations like the Louvre in Paris into temporary accommodations, allowing guests to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The campaign helped the brand achieve global publicity, underscoring the importance of location for these types of campaigns.

Pop-Up Experiences

Pop-up experiences are temporary installations or events designed to create a sense of urgency and exclusivity. These can be highly effective in generating excitement and attracting visitors.

Here’s a unique example: Hôtel de Glace is a pop-up ice hotel in Quebec, Canada, which gives guests the chance to stay in a beautifully crafted ice suite for a limited time each year. Only 99% of all ice hotel guests spend just one night inside their icey room—but thousands of visitors from all over the world flock here every winter to do so.

Of course, the hotel is only around for a limited time, making the experience feel even more elusive.

Immersive Experiences

Immersive experiences involve using technology and interactive elements to create a fully engaging and memorable event. For example, Netflix show “Stranger Things” created an immersive experience by transforming The Duggal Greenhouse in Brooklyn, NY, into the town of Hawkins in 1985. The event offered an intimate, guided adventure through iconic settings from the show, where guests could use their “powers” to help save Hawkins.

How can we bring this idea home? Well, a historical tour operator could recreate a significant event from history with actors and interactive elements, allowing guests to step back in time. Similarly, a whiskey distillery could offer a blending workshop where guests can learn about the distinct flavors of the brand’s different varieties.

5 key elements of effective experiential marketing

By incorporating these key elements, tour operators and attractions can create powerful experiential marketing campaigns that resonate with their audience, drive engagement, and build lasting loyalty.

1. Personalization

By customizing experiences to meet individual preferences and needs, brands can forge deeper connections with their audience. You can achieve this by leveraging customer data to offer tailored recommendations and exclusive experiences that make sense for your particular customers. For instance, a tour operator might analyze previous bookings and interests to suggest personalized itineraries—like a special wildlife safari for nature enthusiasts or a gourmet food tour for culinary aficionados. This level of customization makes guests feel valued and enhances their overall experience.

2. Storytelling

There’s plenty of room for storytelling in experiential marketing. Storytelling transforms a mere activity into an engaging and memorable experience. Think about the narrative of your brand—what do you want guests to remember when they walk away?

For example, the “Game of Thrones” tours in Northern Ireland take visitors to iconic filming locations while narrating stories from the show, making fans feel like they are part of the fantasy world. In 2018, visitor figures suggest that the HBO show helped attract one in every six out-of-state visitors to Northern Ireland—and tour operators took notice.

By integrating storytelling, operators can enrich their offerings and turn a simple guided tour into a memorable journey that resonates with guests long after the experience ends.

3. Interactivity

Interactive elements encourage active participation. Consider incorporating hands-on activities, virtual reality experiences, or live demonstrations that allow guests to engage with your brand. For example, an “Explore Like a Local” tour in San Francisco might include interactive cooking classes with local chefs, allowing visitors to dive into the city’s culinary culture. Not only will that experience educate guests, but also create a fun and dynamic environment during the tour.

4. Sensory engagement

As the name suggests, experiential marketing banks on delivering a memorable experience. And engaging multiple senses can make any experience more impactful. Most ads rely on one sense only: sight. They’re visually appealing, but that’s about it. An experiential campaign has room to play with sounds, smells, tastes, and touch. Imagine creating a totally immersive environment, like the Quebec Ice Hotel we mentioned earlier. Sensory engagement helps in creating a richer, more vivid memory, making the experience stand out.

5. Shareability

Design elements that encourage guests to take photos and videos and share their experiences online can significantly amplify your campaign’s reach. Something like a brightly decorated and themed photo booth at a tour stop can entice guests to snap pictures and share them on Instagram, tagging your brand and spreading awareness about the experience. This not only increases visibility but also leverages user-generated content to attract new customers.

Measuring the success of experiential marketing campaigns 

Let’s take a look at the metrics that will bring you the most insight into your campaign’s success.

  • Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS measures customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking customers how likely they are to recommend the tour or attraction to others. Calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors (those unlikely to recommend) from promoters (those highly likely to recommend), NPS provides valuable insights into overall customer sentiment—and can be especially useful to gauge their reaction to an experiential campaign.
  • Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors who take a desired action, such as booking a tour after visiting your website or engaging with your marketing campaign. Monitor website analytics, booking software data, and track specific campaigns to see how many leads convert into paying customers.
  • Attendance and Participation Rates: The number of participants in your tours or events compared to the number of bookings or invitations sent. Track the number of attendees using your booking software. This KPI helps you understand the effectiveness of your promotional efforts in reaching a desired audience.
  • Return on Investment (ROI): At the end of the day, every operator is interested in the ROI of a campaign. ROI measures the profitability of your marketing campaigns by comparing the revenue generated to the cost of the campaigns. Considering that interactive campaigns tend to be more resource-heavy than others, ROI is an especially important metric to track.
  • Social Media Mentions and Sentiment: Use social tools to track the number of times your brand is mentioned on social media and the overall sentiment (positive, neutral, or negative) of these mentions. This provides insights into brand awareness, customer opinions, and the effectiveness of your campaign. You might, for example, come up with a specific hashtag for your campaign and encourage guests to use it when they share about the experience.
  • Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): CSAT measures customers’ satisfaction with their tour or visit through post-experience surveys or feedback forms. It helps gauge satisfaction levels and identify areas for improvement by asking customers to rate their experience on a numerical scale or provide qualitative feedback.

If you’re diving into experiential marketing today, these are the three key trends to keep top of mind.

Hybrid Events

Hybrid events combine the benefits of both virtual and in-person experiences. This trend emerged strongly during the pandemic and has continued to evolve as businesses leverage technology to create immersive experiences that are accessible both online and offline.

In the experiential marketing world, hybrid events have become a staple due to their flexibility and broad reach. By blending virtual and in-person elements, brands can offer interactive and engaging experiences that cater to a wider audience.

Hybrid events allow travel operators to reach potential customers who cannot attend in person. For example, a tour operator could offer virtual reality experiences of their tours to online participants while conducting the actual tours on-site. This approach not only broadens market reach but also enhances customer engagement and satisfaction by offering a taste of the experience before they commit to booking.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Experiences

AR and VR technologies create immersive experiences by overlaying digital information onto the physical world (AR) or by creating entirely virtual environments (VR). These technologies are increasingly being used in marketing to provide interactive experiences for consumers.

AR and VR campaigns significantly enhance the marketing efforts of travel operators by offering potential customers a preview of their travel experiences. This immersive approach can help build excitement and anticipation, leading to higher conversion rates.

Leveraging User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-generated content refers to content created by consumers rather than brands. This includes reviews, photos, videos, and social media posts, which can be repurposed by your brand in several different ways.  For example, a cruise line might feature guest photos and reviews on its website and social media channels, providing an authentic look into the travel experience and encouraging more bookings.

Key Takeaways

  • Experiential marketing creates memorable and immersive experiences that forge emotional connections between customers and brands. It has evolved significantly with advancements in technology, allowing for more personalized campaigns that leverage social media to expand their reach.
  • For tour and attraction operators, experiential marketing is crucial in differentiating themselves in a competitive market. By creating strong emotional connections with guests through immersive experiences, operators can drive increased engagement, bookings, and brand loyalty.
  • Key trends shaping the future of experiential marketing include hybrid events that combine virtual and in-person experiences, the use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), and leveraging user-generated content for a more authentic approach to marketing.

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Writer Carla Vianna

Carla Vianna

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