On the back of the IPA’s Bellwether report for the fourth quarter of 2018 showing that experiential was the only discipline experiencing growth in investment by UK brands, two US study shows the discipline is also increasing in popularity across the pond.
Surveying more than 1,000 brand marketers in the US, the Event Marketing 2019: Benchmarks and Trends Report found that 41% saw experiential as their top marketing channel. This was up 32% ear-over-year and ahead of content marketing (27%), email marketing (14%) and social media (6%).
Some 62% of respondents also said that they plan to increase their budget for live events in 2019, by an average of 22%, a rise of 39%. Meanwhile, 85% believe live events played a major role in their companies successfully meeting their business goals, and 77% believe live events will be increasingly important to the success of their brands in the coming years.
The report also found that 89% of overperforming businesses put a high value on live events, with 84% of them saying that they have strong support from leadership when it comes to experiential marketing.
A new report by also revealed how important experiential marketing is becoming in the business-to-business space. The 2019 State of Experiential Marketing report surveyed over 700 industry professionals across Fortune 500 companies, agencies and vendors.
It found that 92% of brand-side respondents believe integrating experiential marketing within the overall sales and marketing funnel is imperative to their success. What more, 67% of B2B brand-side marketers anticipate a growth in events/experiential budget in the next 18 months, a 17% rise from 2018.
Plus 75% of B2B brand-side respondents agree that experiential has proven to be the most successful tactic of their brand’s various marketing strategies, a 14 percent increase from 2018.