Experience launches bring customers into a setting and involve them in the experience of rolling out your product. A launch that leverages immersive experiences gets more eyes on your product, makes it more memorable, and encourages more people to buy it.
The art of experience launches takes calculated effort to master. By creating a road map with clear goals, timelines, and promotional strategies, your brand can master the art and reap the benefits of enhanced sales.
Experience launches make for fun, joyful, and impactful product launches, but the most important work happens well before the actual launch.
Any successful launch starts with a clear goal and objective. Clear and measurable goals provide a sense of direction for your launch so you can take more targeted steps. Think about your goals in tangible metrics, like media reach, attendance, and product sales.
Some questions to inform your goals include:
For example, consider whether your main goal is for people to buy your new product that day, or if you want them to share their experiences on social media to generate more interest. Understanding your desired outcomes will improve the success of your event and provide you with more direction on what steps you should prioritize in preparation.
Understanding your target audience is crucial so that you’re not simply aiming your efforts without any direction. As you work to narrow down your target audience, consider these points:
Consider the demographics you’ll target, like age, gender, and income levels, as well as psychographics, like interests and values. This understanding allows you to tailor your experience and messaging framework accordingly.
Consider all areas that you’ll need to include in your budget, and which you should prioritize depending on your goals.
Some of the costs you will have to account for in your budget include:
A well-structured timeline ensures all elements of the launch are executed seamlessly and gives a roadmap of what steps you need to take to maximize the impact of the event. A strategic timeline should include:
Adding in the following elements will allow you to capitalize as much as possible on the experience so that it’s memorable and resonates.
A good story builds a common ground between you and your customer by providing a relatable experience. It should appeal to emotions and resonate in a way that your audience can see themselves in your story.
A common story format for product launches features a given problem, how the product was developed to solve the problem, and how it makes life easier. Bring a captivating story into your launches through video presentations, blog content, and social media posts.
The design of your space has a significant role in increasing your event’s impact. The space should be easy to navigate, engaging for attendees, and clearly designed so audiences know the purpose behind the event and have no confusion about whose event they’re attending.
As you design the space, consider:
Especially in today’s world where we value stimulus for its ability to grasp our attention, it’s beneficial to incorporate other sensory elements. For example, consider incorporating video, music, and even actions into the experience. Think about activities that can get attendees to write, use their hands, or move a little bit to make your launch all the more memorable.
If you can incorporate other senses, like taste, smell, and touch, you can make even more of an impact. Brands that sell food and launch new flavors have a leg up here, as they can provide samples to engage multiple senses at once.
If there is a unique aspect of your brand, use your launch event as a chance to highlight it. It can be easier than you’d think for an attendee to remember the experience of an event, but not necessarily remember the host. Bring out a mascot or a representative that is unique to your brand and a recognizable part of your identity.
The event should also be on brand in the sense that it speaks to your values, mission, and voice. Don’t confuse your audience by choosing an activity that doesn’t somehow point back to common brand themes, messages, or ideals.
Buzz and excitement surrounding your product launch is what compels people to feel like they can’t miss out on your event. Take the following steps to generate hype.
Preface your launch with a teaser, and don’t show all your cards right away. The mystery provides an opportunity to pique the interest and curiosity of your target audience, which is what makes teaser campaigns so effective.
As you release teasers, consider providing enough information to get them interested, but leave out enough to keep them guessing. For example, you can introduce the problem a product solves or exciting features that it will have without showing the product itself.
Some ways you can build an effective teaser campaign include:
In-person events also serve as a foundation for you to reach those who aren’t present. A good margin of your efforts should be sharing your event on social media throughout the launch. Leveraging social media allows you to expand the hype and excitement of the event to those who aren’t there.
Invite influencers to your event so that they can help in spreading the word about your launch. They’ll be able to share your event with their followers and give you even more credibility across audiences.
By engaging the local community, your web of outreach only grows, as they will be able to spread the word about the event. Showing that your brand is interested in partnering with the local community will also increase your credibility and encourage greater participation.
Traditional PR efforts are still plenty valuable, especially for newer brands that don’t have large followings. Scheduling media coverage from local news outlets, writing a press release, and buying ad space are great ways to expand your message, highlight your product, and interest more people.
Launch day doesn’t bring a sigh of relief just yet—the day itself should involve several steps to maximize the impact of the experience.
Even with all the planning you put in, the last-minute details still matter. Run through a checklist before the event:
When it comes time to open the doors to the event, take the following steps to ensure everything runs smoothly from start to finish:
User-generated content (UGC) provides a strong avenue for introducing new customers to your brand, offers a sense of authenticity, and builds an unparalleled level of consumer trust. During your event, encourage attendees to post on social media by offering incentives like discounts or free merch.
Having attendees take photos and share them is excellent for spreading the word about your event, product, and brand. Encourage attendees to join the marketing effort voluntarily by taking the following steps:
The work doesn’t stop on launch day. If you truly want to maximize the impact of your product launch, you should follow up with a few extra steps.
Use this launch as an opportunity to inform your process for future launches. Analyzing your launch’s success will also help you determine whether you need to adapt your strategy and pivot during the current launch.
Ask yourself, what went well? What could have been improved? For example, if you feel that there was a gap in your ability to gather customer information, then you may feel the need to put more energy into your social media campaign or your event follow-up.
Don’t let your efforts to convert your customers lose steam. If you have attendees that didn’t convert quite yet, you still have a chance to reel them in before it’s too late.
Leverage your post-launch momentum by:
Find ways to keep customers engaged past the point of the launch:
Customer voice is crucial to the product launch process and how you move forward. Gathering customer feedback gives you context for how you can adapt your efforts and expand your reach to maximize sales.
Some steps you can take to gather customer feedback include sending out customer surveys with targeted questions, posting on social media asking for feedback, and scouring social media for mentions of your brand.
Some brands have mastered the art of engaging their audiences in product launches. The following experience launch examples provide valuable lessons.
With the release of their David Bowie collection, the popular shoe brand held skating pop-ups at its House of Vans skateparks in big cities like New York and Chicago. The pop-ups brought skaters together to enjoy music, art, skating, and a great social opportunity.
The launch was true to the brand identity and brand purpose, which is centered around a love of creative expression and inspiring youth culture, and it incorporated multiple elements to keep participants engaged.
The marketing for the Barbie movie incorporated several ways to engage attendees in an immersive experience. Movie theaters worldwide had photo ops, prompting moviegoers to dress up and take pictures of themselves in life-size Barbie boxes and along Barbie backdrops.
Warner Brothers also used generative AI to immerse audiences. Users who went to BarbieSelfie.ai could take pictures to turn themselves into a Barbie character and share them on social media. People saw their friends attending the movie on social media and were likely influenced to see what the hype was about.
There’s no way to determine the success of your launches without actually measuring the success of your efforts. It’s crucial to set metrics and use the information you gather to adjust your strategy.
Some specific metrics and KPIs you can use to track and analyze the effectiveness of your launch include:
Use insights you gain from the experience to celebrate your successes and learn from any major setbacks. Maybe launch day didn’t have as many product sales as you’d hoped, or maybe you lost momentum after launch day. Consider what steps you could improve upon for your next launch.
A meaningful and effective experience launch starts with a plan and gains traction by engaging audiences before, during, and after the event. Brands that can leverage experience launches effectively can expand your reach, connect you with new audiences, and generate more sales.
At PETERMAYER, we can support you in facilitating a joyful and buzzworthy experience launch efforts. We’ll help you organize an engaging event, connect you with media, and enhance your promotional efforts. We’ve assisted several brands in creating meaningful, highly anticipated launches and a lot more, too.
Schedule a discovery call with us today and learn more about how our branding agency can help you maximize your experience launches and brand reach.
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