© The Marketing Arm for State Farm

A new year is approaching, and budgets are being crafted for 2019. It’s a great time to be bold. It’s time to consider new tactics to communicate the story of your brand and collect useful data. And I suggest planning for strategic events that compliment your marketing goals.

A Freeman Global Brand Experience Study reports that one third of CMOs are devoting 21-50 percent of their budget to experiential marketing.

Consumers today prefer face-to-face experiences compared to advertising across other channels. Events are not disruptive and allow for meaningful dialogue between consumers and brands. Participants are free to learn, discover and share their experience across digital platforms, providing engagement data that can help improve larger marketing strategies.

According to a Freeman Data Benchmark Study – of all marketing channels – events and experiential marketing stand out as effective sectors for data collection, generation and influence. CMOs indicated that events provide a “wider and deeper” range of data and metrics than other channels, demonstrating that event data not only informs strategy and planning, but also adds value and insight to wider marketing purposes and campaigns.

In 2019, decide to be bold and incorporate event and experiential marketing into your overall marketing strategy. Even if you start with just one or two events. And build authentic relationships with consumers who will share your story for you.

Don’t know where to start? Check out brands using best practices in experiential marketing by visiting the 2018 EX awards.