Transcript | 2: What is Experiential Marketing and Why I’m Here For It | The Experiential Table Podcast

In this episode, I'll share a bit more about what experiential marketing is and my windy journey that eventually landed me in this field. But before we dive in, here's what you can expect from this podcast. Each week I'll have a new episode ready for you to check out. Some episodes will be just me talking strategy or uncovering inspiration from events we've created at Hidden Rhythm. Other episodes will feature interviews with industry experts. I'm talking to business owners and food and wellness experts in experiential marketing and many, many more.

Today, I'm starting with the basics. In this episode, we're going to chat about what experiential marketing is and why I am totally here for it. As a quick teaser, our next episode will be all about why you should even care about experiential marketing. It's a good one, you won't want to miss it.

And one more thing. We have a growing Facebook group called The Experiential Table. Yup, same as this podcast. This is where we continue the conversation and have a pretty good time doing it. I’ll link to the group as well as other places you can find us in our show notes.

Now let's get started. Tell me this: what's the first thing that comes to mind when I say experiential marketing? Well, most people see dollar signs, right? Super expensive events that only large brands can produce. Are you nodding your head? Maybe? Well, we're going to take a step back and actually talk about what experiential marketing is, and you may be surprised to find out that is very well within your reach, even if you're a small brand.

Experiential marketing is all about creating engaging experiences in the offline world. The goal is to build a relationship with your target customer that will turn into brand loyalty and eventually sales.

Another definition or way to think about it is that experiential marketing is not about advertising your product or service. Instead, you're giving customers the opportunity to see and feel how it could be part of their lifestyle. So those are two definitions that you can think about, but let's move it forward into actual practice.

What exactly do these experiences look like? Well, we're talking large scale pop-ups, right? Maybe you've seen them in Adweek or some marketing publications. They're big budget events. But, experiential marketing could also be applied to something like a hands-on workshop or even an influencer dinner. And there's probably some level of experiential marketing involved in what you might already be doing. So, if you're sampling at the local farmer's market or you’re demo-ing at Expo West, you are essentially creating an engaging experience in the offline world for your brand. So once again, I want you to think of experiential marketing as a broader umbrella that has different formats under it, and there's a chance that you're already participating in some of that.

Now one thing I want to mention is that I often use the word activation. Don't be scared of it. It's not a fancy term. In experiential marketing, the term activation is purely used to describe an event or an experience. So, they're synonymous; we’ll use them interchangeably here. But I just want you to know that if you hear that word, it basically means the same thing as an event, experience…all that good stuff.

At Hidden Rhythm, my agency, we've done everything from 15-person influencer and media dinners to help a brand launch a new product to large consumer-facing pop-up experiences free and open to thousands of people. Big and small, we've created experiences of all sizes. And I'm here to tell you that what makes a six-figure budget activation successful is the same formula you can apply to your own events regardless of size. And now this is what gets me so excited.

I’ll be talking about this later in the podcast is I share more about my story. But, let's just say that if you are a small business owner listening to this podcast, you are in the right place. I've got your back and we're going to talk through this whole experiential marketing discipline together.

Also, I’ll be offering up as many resources as I can. I’m an open book and I'll share it all on this podcast. You're going to hear me talk about some of my favorite vendors, resources, service providers, you name it. If they have helped me create events without breaking the bank, then I want to talk about them. Like many of you, I have a very small team, and I'm all about trying to do more with less.

Today, I want to share a bit about a service called Peerspace. Peerspace is an online marketplace where you can book venues for any of your upcoming events. They even have great spaces for photoshoots, too. It's basically Airbnb for event spaces.

I've used Peerspace so many times to find venues for my client's activations. We even discovered -- get this -- a flower shop. It was perfect for a wellness-themed event we had for a brand last spring. They have a wide range of prices on Peerspace so you can find a venue that fits your budget and also fits your brand look and feel because that's very important when you're creating an experience.

As an affiliate, I have a very special promo code with Peerspace. I'm delighted to share this discount with you. If you've never used your space before you can sign up for 10% off your first booking up to $50. Now to get this offer, you have to head over to hiddenrhythm.com/peerspace. There isn't a specific promo code. You just have to book through that link. So, head on over and check out what Peerspace has in your local area. You may find a flower shop, a cool cafe or something else that's a fit for you and your brand.

Earlier, we covered what experiential marketing is. But now I'd like to get a little personal and share more about my story and why I'm so passionate about creating experiences that connect people.

It actually begins with me as a child. I grew up in a Persian home; my parents immigrated from Iran to the U.S. in the late seventies. It was a really common time for Iranians to immigrate to the U.S. as it was during a time of revolution. I was born several years later here in the U.S.

One of my earliest memories was setting the table. My parents always had people over for dinner. They would cook abundant amounts of rice, kabobs, stews -- all of the different Persian foods that make our cuisine so rich and amazing to share. At the time, I was annoyed; I was seven or eight years old and I didn't want to spend my weekends helping my parents prep for a dinner party. But now, as an adult, I realized that food was a medium to build connection and to have a sense of community.

Fast forward several years later and I graduated college with my first job as a financial analyst. I had moved from my hometown of Seattle all the way to the suburbs of Connecticut and, frankly, had no idea what to expect. It was also at this time that I discovered my love for cooking. It was my first place that I had on my own and I spent a lot of time watching the Food Network and trying my hand at recipes.

My heart was not in the work and it was at that point that I realized that my next career move would need to be in an industry that was more aligned with my passions, or at least closer to it. I had a hunch that it would be in food, but I didn't know for sure. What I did know was that I would eventually want to start a business.

So, I did what many confused mid-20-year-olds do: I went to business school. And it was there that I got immersed in the entrepreneurial scene. I spent a lot of time working on business plan ideas; a lot of them actually related to events and entertaining. But ultimately, I set them aside to move to San Francisco and work at a tech startup where I could learn how to build a company from a team that had done it before.

After working in tech for about five years, I finally had the opportunity to do what I wanted to do: work in food. I had spent the last several years while working in my full-time job, exploring food in many ways. I had dabbled in food styling and photography. I had a food blog. I knew that I wanted to work in food, but I wasn't necessarily sure how I would translate my skills and my passion for that space as a career.

With a little bit of savings, I set out to build a company that I was pretty excited about. It was called Confetti Kitchen, kind of a cute name, right? It was all about inspiring millennials to cook for their friends and enjoy eating together. Going back to my roots of food as connection, I felt that people were eating more and more alone and our culture was all about how to eat on the go and eat in front of your TV. The fact that people were starting families later meant that you didn't have that nuclear unit to enjoy a meal with. I actually felt like this was a destructive thing for society and that people needed to spend more time eating together.

Confetti Kitchen was built on two foundations: content and community. We wanted to create really great content such as recipes and tutorials and have that paired with community events. And that's where things really changed for me. We hosted a pop-up event our very first month and continued to do these pop-ups where we would work with chefs, sell tickets, and work with brand partners, and try and get people in a space together to enjoy food. It was my first time planning an event. I was totally scared. I was in over my head, but there was no other option than to just do it.

And it's actually funny because, looking back, what I was doing was experiential marketing for my own brand, Confetti Kitchen. But, I didn't really know that that's what it was called. I continue to host these pop-ups, and over time I found my interest in the content dying and the opposite was happening for the events. Month after month, I continued to plan more events, and while they were exhausting and time-consuming, seeing what happened at these dinners was magical. Strangers from across the city were showing up, putting their phones away and actually getting to know one another over a delicious meal. I soon realized that this intimate dinner experience could work really, really well for brands.

Brands were looking to do more offline with their marketing efforts, and what better way to get to know your customers than to sit across from them at a table? So, that's what we did! For our very first branded event, we had hosted about 20 influencers for a dinner. It was a Summer Solstice-themed dinner sponsored by four brands. We handled everything from creating the menu, designing the invitations, setting up the venue and coming up with creative ways to integrate our sponsors’ products into the experience. For example, one of our sponsors was a pasta brand, and so we actually had a food styling station set up where our influencer guests — many of them were food bloggers and stylists — could actually style their food with different linens, flatware, bowls, and take a photo. What was most exciting about this event was that despite it being a brand-sponsored dinner, people really connected on a personal level. Representatives from the brands got to actually sit across from influencers who they had been wanting to work with or maybe had worked with in the past and had real, normal face-to-face conversations with them.

So, I followed this up with another dinner and the outcome was the same. It was super interactive, really engaging, and both brands and influencers left feeling great about the evening. The attendees had shared their evening on social media, the brands were excited to see that and it led to future content partnerships. After that second dinner, I decided that I wanted to go all-in on building out what I had now learned was an experiential marketing business.

We officially rebranded to Hidden Rhythm in September of 2018 and haven't looked back. We now work exclusively with natural food and wellness brands on experiential activations — everything from designing, producing to even analyzing and helping brands understand the effectiveness of the events.

And that takes me to why I am here. I want to empower you with the resources and community so that you can create really meaningful experiences for your brand. When I started out, I had to do things the hard way. I had to make mistakes and figure it out myself. But you don't need to. And, let's be honest - you probably don't have the time either. So whether it’s knowing what metrics to use for success, where you can find inspiration, or how you can create a bigger impact with less, I've got your back. And one more thing - as an outsider coming into this space, I couldn't help but notice that there just wasn't a real community around experiential marketing. Do you feel the same way? Well, with your help, we can change that together.

All right, we did it! That wraps up our very first full episode of The Experiential Table. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you learned a little bit more about experiential marketing as well as my story and why I am so inspired to help you plan your brand’s next experiential event.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you could subscribe, leave a review and share it with a friend. Also, head on over to our Facebook group, The Experiential Table to share your thoughts on this episode and more. Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you next time. Until then, get excited to get experiential!