When the world’s largest sticker store opened on August 12 in Toronto, Canada, it cemented StickerYou as a leading voice in the country’s growing experiential marketing trend.
The brainchild of Toronto e-comm startup and customized die-cut sticker company StickerYou, StickerYou: The Store will feature a unique, 3-storey high stickerbombed design on the storefront, installed in collaboration with applied sciences giant 3M, a stickerbombed interior, a custom experience center where customers can touch and feel stickers and be inspired by unique use-cases, kiosks in which to place personalized orders on the spot, as well as a sticker art museum that showcases the history of stickers through the ages.
For the e-comm startup StickerYou, opening a retail location in Toronto is part of an experiential marketing play that invites customers to engage directly with the company’s product (custom stickers, labels, decals, iron-ons, temporary tattoos, etc.), but to also be inspired by innovative use-cases, the history of stickers, and sticker art. The purpose is to underscore the potential for consumers to create things that are important to them, and that empower them in both personal and business matters. This is part of the company brand, encapsulated in the motto: Make What Matters Stick.
By creating an environment in which customers can experience inspiration and innovation and link them to personal or business projects, StickerYou is creating an emotional connection through experience that will raise brand awareness and brand loyalty, both of which are important in discovering and retaining customers as well as driving sales.
Experiential marketing is the new black. Marketers are using experiences to drive sales and brand awareness in ways that are upending the advertising industry.
According to a study by the Tempkin Group, when individuals have a positive emotional association with a brand, they are 8.4 times more likely to trust the company, over seven times more likely to purchase more, and over six times more likely to forgive and forget a company mistake. And according to a Nielsen study, ad campaigns that elicited an above-average emotional response in consumers caused a 23% increase in sales as compared to average ad campaigns. Emotional connection converts.
But creating a genuine, authentic emotional connection is more challenging than it sounds. Today’s consumers are sharp and media-savvy. They resent obvious sales pitches and block ads whenever possible. For this consumer group, it’s about more than just the product. It’s about the company, what it is, what it represents, and how it creates products and sells them to consumers. Experiential marketing capitalizes on this desire for authentic experiences and uses it to connect brands and consumers in unique ways that inspire brand loyalty and trust, which in turn lead to a more engaged consumer base and higher conversions.
Knowing what the message is, is a key element in the success of an experiential marketing play. StickerYou’s motto Make What Matters Stick is the message the company wants to drive home to consumers. StickerYou’s products are a way for them to make what matters most in their lives, whether it’s a business, or a personal endeavor, stick. It’s an inspirational and empowering message, and this is the driver behind the company’s experiential initiative.
Experiential marketing offers profound benefits and impressive results when executed properly. An experiential campaign done wrong can just as easily damage a brand. One of the most common ways in which brands misstep with experiential marketing is by making the campaign a sales pitch. The viral potential for these campaigns can turn negative quickly, as consumers turn to social media to share negative experiences.
Because of this, it is imperative that brands take time to fully consider a potential experiential marketing campaign from every possible angle before proceeding. Brands should have a clear goal in mind when considering an experiential marketing campaign, clear and well-defined values to transmit to a consumer audience and commit to a clear plan of action in execution.
