What is the future of experiential marketing? If you were to build an agency from scratch how would it look? What businesses would you acquire to build it into an experiential powerhouse?
We know that experiential works, but things have changed massively, would you need new types of experts on your team, more of a focus on health and safety, maybe experts in spatial planning that can keep a flow of people freely moving without bumping into each other?
To save having your lunch eaten, let’s look at that model again. You can build out a broader set of skills for your agency: Create digital first, video first experiences, augment with VR and AR, bolster your team with 3D spatial planners and safety experts so we can do this thing IRL not just WFH.
Experiential agency acquisitions
If you’re an experiential agency owner are you thinking about building out your skill set so you can augment your live experiences more easily with virtual or hybrid events.
Would you acquire a digital agency, one with VR or AR capabilities? Could you bring your range of services to the digital world and improve the offerings of digital agencies?
How about talent acquisition, can you grow a pool of owned talent, creating branded experiences on O&O channels, creating and selling your own digital products on your own ecommerce platforms?
The future of experiential
The future of experiential marketing is an exciting one that will no doubt continue to break the rules and create unforgettable experiences for brands and brand ambassadors.
There is a much larger picture for all types of marketing agencies to look at building a 360° agency model where you own the audience, own the marketing and own the products.
Hugely successful agencies are being built by the next generation of CEOs, standing on the shoulders of giants of course, but Timothy Armoo of Fanbytes, Jamie Bolding of Jungle Creations and Steven Bartlett of Social Chain are at the forefront of building robust disaster proof business models.
They have built agencies that brands flock to for campaign design and management, social and video first campaigns that reach Millennials and Gen Z, but also own their own digital channels, experiential events and develop products to sell on their own ecommerce platforms.
You don’t have to be a twentysomething hotshot to create these kinds of businesses either, Shane Smith, Gary Vaynerchuk and Justin Gayner whose brilliant Hit Networks is the perfect 360° business model of the future, have all trailblazed the pathway for the digital natives to follow.
Experiential agency model for the future
So where would that leave an experiential first agency who has to build every campaign from nothing versus a 360° agency which has everything set up and ready to go, just hand them your brand assets and let their talent fly across their own channels, or the brands channels, or both.
To save having your lunch eaten, let’s look at that model again. You can build out a broader set of skills for your agency: Create digital first, video first experiences, augment with VR and AR, bolster your team with 3D spatial planners and safety experts so we can do this thing IRL not just WFH.
Deliver your experiences across not only the client’s channels, but use paid media for reach, you have paid media experts on your team now, right? You’ve bought in talent and you have your own Tiktok accounts for 20 different passion points and fortunately that social ecommerce business you just acquired will give the client some easily measurable ROI.
What about your experiential agency?
How are you thinking about experiential agencies in the future, do you have your own ideas?
At Capital A we specialise in creative agencies, helping our clients to build & buy the agencies of the future. If you would like a no-commitment conversation with myself or one of our experts, fill in this questionnaire and we’ll be in touch to set up an appointment.
