The world of digital advertising is becoming increasingly complex due to Google's crumbling third-party cookies, creeping costs, and saturation. As marketers find it harder to stand out online, direct-to-consumer bedding brand Parachute His Home is ramping up experiential marketing to stand out in person.
“We believe that experience is the foundation of Parachute,” said Fujan Volk, Vice President of Brand at Parachute Home. “Real moments are fundamental to who Parachute is as a brand and how our customers want to experience us.”
This year, Volk said, Parachute Home's budget is dedicating 30% off to experiential marketing strategies, double what it was last year. (She did not disclose her specific amount.) Her investments have steadily increased to support last year's holiday market and more. According to Volk, post-event surveys revealed that attendees had higher brand favorability than online consumers.
Experiential momentum is growing, with its origins dating back to 2022, when a number of in-store events were held, which led to increased sales, foot traffic and first-time customers, she added. There are many other experiential marketing moments planned for this spring, including her Mother's Day.
Performance marketing doesn't build brands.
Foujan Volk, Vice President of Parachute Home Brands
The DTC brand, which has since opened 26 retail stores across the country, is looking to use its physical space to its advantage, also to build brand recognition and equity in an increasingly crowded market, says Volk. he said.
In order to increase experiential marketing spend, influencer marketing budgets took a hit, dropping by 20% year over year to 28% of marketing budgets. Bork did not disclose the specific amount. According to Vivvix, Parachute spent his $5.5 million on media last year, including paid social data from Pathmatics. This number was a significant decrease from his $16 million spent in 2022. It’s not that brands haven’t had success with influencer marketing strategies. However, as the space expands and the cost of partnering with influencers becomes more expensive, Parachute is focusing on influencer marketing, relying less on long-term partnerships and leveraging new influencers to develop new audiences. We are rethinking our strategy.
“We know we need influencers, and they are a necessary extension of our brand,” Volk said. “So we want to continue working with them, but ultimately we want to optimize who and how we work with them if the goal is to increase brand awareness. ”
According to Volk, when Parachute launched as a direct-to-consumer brand in 2014, pre-pandemic, experiential marketing with in-person events was essential to the media mix. “…and then the pandemic happened and everything closed. Our retail stores closed. All of that budget was diverted to digital,” she said. But as online marketplaces become more expensive and loaded with privacy initiatives that poke holes in targeting and measurement capabilities, marketers are seeking a media mix that balances both performance and brand. Masu.
In what you might call an industry pendulum effect, Parachute is recalibrating media spending to prioritize brand building after the economic uncertainty of the pandemic ushered in an era of emphasis on performance marketing. It's not just the company. As advertisers struggle to stand out in a saturated online market, brands like Orangetheory Fitness are turning to a more holistic approach that balances performance and brand-building marketing tactics. In fact, agency executives say they've been inundated with requests for brand-building strategies recently.
“Most of our clients take one look and say, “Okay.'' It's not just about the lead. It’s about the content you create,” John Geretka, founder and chief experience officer of independent advertising agency Geretka+, said in response to a question. On the rise of experiential marketing.
Geletka said having a real-world presence is becoming increasingly important as in-person events increase and a more “balanced media mix” is required.
“We expect to see more balance and enhancement as well as more experimental and experiential stuff as part of the mix,” he added.
But it hasn't been an easy sell for executives who rely on performance metrics to prove success. The brand marketer's job has become to manage executive expectations and rigorously apply measurements that show business growth rather than vanity metrics.
“We have to manage expectations for the fact that brand activity does not immediately impact revenue. It takes time,” Volk said. “The more we can prove that over and over again with more events and bigger events, especially after all the big hype at all costs, so people understand that you can't build a brand on performance marketing. It will start.”
This year, Parachute Home will also incorporate media channels such as podcast advertising, streaming television and brand partnerships into its media mix, alongside outdoor advertising such as in-store window displays and billboards. It's all about balancing performance and brand marketing.
“I think there's always going to be a place for that. There's always going to be demand as a DTC brand, conversion-based marketing,” Volk said.
