Mobile Experiential Marketing: Bringing Your Brand to the Streets

With shorter attention spans and fast-paced entertainment, it’s not surprising that the world of marketing is undergoing an identity crisis. What used to consistently pull in brand activations and long-term customer engagement just isn’t working anymore, and more traditional methods of marketing are having lower and lower efficacy rates. That’s why many companies are turning to the cutting-edge world of mobile experiential marketing.

What is Mobile Experiential Marketing?

Mobile experiential marketing is a guerrilla marketing strategy that involves close-up customer connection, and physical brand interaction. This advanced subset of experiential marketing takes the tried-and-true tactics of your traditional engagement marketing campaign, and gives it the added benefit of mobility. The world isn’t sitting in one spot, why should your marketing campaign?

With mobile experiential marketing, you can select multiple areas with the same promotional event, helping your brand interact with different samples of your target demographic. Instead of organizing a singular stationary promotion like a pop-up shop, you can pack up that promotion and ship it to a new location with ease. You may be asking, how exactly is this possible? Well the answer to that lies in the different forms that mobile experiential marketing takes. The first step in establishing your campaign is choosing what type of method you will use.

There are several different kinds of branded vehicles that would work for your guerrilla marketing campaign, and each have distinct advantages to help you garner long term customers. Make sure to choose a tactic that best aligns with your brand’s image, and what you think will connect best with your customer base.

Step 1. Choose a Mobile Experiential Marketing Method

Before you design your campaign, you’ll first want to look at what the foundation for your strategy will be. There are many different ways to house your brand experience, and which one you choose depends entirely on your specific campaign goals. Here are two effective mobile experiential marketing variations.

These consumers then connect the positive experience created by your branded food truck and associate it with your product or service. This helps ensure long-term emotional connections between you and your customers.

Mobile Pop-Up Shops

We mentioned pop-up shops above, but what about their mobile counterpart? Pop-up shops have long been known to be an effective marketing tool to garner customer engagement and interest. You walk by a retail space that was empty only yesterday, and suddenly there is a bright and flashy new coffee shop promoting an upcoming movie. That surprise and intrigue is naturally enticing to the average consumer, and more often than not, they’ll be compelled to come inside.

So how is a mobile shop superior? Imagine this surprise and mystique, but with the added element of scarcity. A mobile shop is, by its very nature, more transitory than a traditional pop-up shop. Mobile shops occupy a space for the span of a single day, and therefore consumers will feel even more of that ever-valuable F.O.M.O. With a pop-up shop, you can say “Oh maybe I’ll go in there tomorrow.” With a mobile shop, the call-to-action is immediate. They have to come now because it won’t be here tomorrow.

Branded Food Trucks

A branded food truck is simply that: a food truck that’s been wrapped in your brand’s unique image. Your immediately identifiable logo will be strongly associated with the positive experience of a delicious meal. Not only that, but you’ll have that logo catch far more eyes than it would at a stationary food stand.

Customers will be engaged by the meal, but that’s not the only connection they’ll make through this marketing method. Brand ambassadors will also be there to further connect them to your company, using QR-codes to gather information and offer special promotions to entice further engagement. Food and a friendly face combine to pull in potential consumers and foster a real connection between them and your brand.

Step 2. Decide on branding for your Mobile Experiential Marketing Vehicle

Once you’ve chosen a type of mobile experiential marketing, you’ll want to decide how you’ll advertise your brand on that vehicle. Professional experiential marketers can often help decide this for you, as their teams are well versed in what type of imagery best catches the eye. The key here is to think about what will not only grab people passing by on the street but what will get the attention of those you pass as they’re driving?

A big mistake many brands make is not considering how their imaging will look on the go (hence, leaving this sort of decision to the professionals.) If you end up smashing too many words or graphics onto your vehicle, it will look like little more than a blur when driving by potential consumers. Make the image simple yet provocative, and have ways the customers can find more information online clearly displayed.

Step 3. Select an area comprised mainly of your Target Demographic

This step depends heavily on what type of customer you are intending to reach. You’ll want to research where your target demographic resides, and what location would best allow you to connect with them. For example, if you are selling fitness-related products, you would want to select areas near gyms or fitness centers.

Choosing incorrectly could mean an unsuccessful mobile experiential marketing campaign and an unnecessary drain on your budget. If your promotions are established in an area where no one is interested, then why would anyone want to connect with your brand. Choosing the right areas can be difficult, and this is where it is again always better to seek out the guidance of trained marketers.

Where can I get help with my mobile experiential marketing campaign?

Designing a mobile experiential marketing campaign is not easy, and takes years of experience to pull off. The best way to establish your experiential strategy is to go through a company that specializes in this marketing style. If you want the absolute best in the industry, you’ll want to choose Food Truck Promotions.

At FTP, our mobile marketing campaigns have helped big-name businesses like Chanel, Adidas, Arizona Ice Tea, and Dior successfully advertise their brands. We take the time to research what style of mobile marketing works best for you, and where exactly our promotions will be the most effective.

If you want a better R.O.I for your marketing campaigns and stronger connections with potential consumers, then mobile experiential marketing is for you. Simply contact us or learn more about us here.