“One of the problems is that there is no defined industry. Most in the marketing world have identified that experiential is an important part of the future of marketing communications, and, therefore, almost every agency – whether advertising, PR, direct or other – has created a brand by adding the word LIVE!, usually with the exclamation mark, to the end of their name.

“The reality is that few of these shops can actually back up that promise with experienced resource and track record, and most are out-sourcing to freelancers, or indeed other agencies. It is also a very different discipline to traditional field marketing, and that needs to be understood. It's not just a new trendy word for field marketing, as so many seem to both imply and believe. However, in the handful of agencies that genuinely do understand the medium, and can back this up with proven capability, the opposite is true. As to the definable metrics; certainly at Jack Morton Worldwide we have developed useful measurement tools specifically for experiential marketing, and our clients are benefiting from them.

“The most important issue for the industry is to keep working to develop a deeper understanding of the impact of experiential marketing among our clients. Jack Morton has commissioned research among its consumers, and published the results widely in each of the last three years. This research consistently proves that experiential is the most impactful tool in any marketer's armoury, and it also shows that this becomes more true each year.

“We applaud MICE for also publishing some work on the subject, and encourage others to do the same. Once marketers understand the direct and measurable impact of experiential marketing they will employ it as a strategic tool rather than the current more tactical trend, and in doing so they will allocate annual spend to it rather than borrowing – usually too little – from other budgets.

“Another key issue for the industry is to establish a common understanding throughout the trade press as to what experiential marketing is about, its importance, and who the main players are on both the client and agency side. Marketing media should be covering it as a core marketing discipline rather than as an interesting sideline. In turn, agencies need to supply the ammunition to back this up.”

What is your definition of experiential marketing and what media does it include?
“Today's consumers are different. They want more from brands. They want to be marketed to in a new way. They want to experience and see for themselves why they should invite a brand or product into their lives. Experiential marketing engages consumers where they live, work and play: leveraging one-to-one experiences to get consumers to experience a brand and its products, generate leads, differentiate and build awareness, buzz, and most importantly word of mouth and indeed advocacy.”

Julian Pullan is joint UK managing director of Jack Morton Worldwide