Dive Brief:

• London-based agency Lagardère Sports and Entertainment and WPP creative shop Berlin Cameron both recently announced new experiential marketing arms, called Lagardère Plus and BCXP, respectively, Adweek reported. BCXP, for its part, already has clients including Capital One and ABC. 
• These developments fit into a growing trend of marketers building out their experiential expertise to better accommodate consumer tastes and brands' demands: Experiential marketing drives 82% of consumers to talk about the brand with friends and encourages 62% to research the brand online, according to research by IPG's Momentum Worldwide cited by Adweek. The tactic also inspires 53% of those surveyed to make a purchase.
• Lagardère Chief Strategy Officer Jonathan Isaac suggested to Adweek that experiential marketing is a crucial way to preserve brand presence at a time when many are moving to "delete advertising from their lives." But Momentum CEO and chairman Chris Weil, also speaking to Adweek, cautioned that agencies should focus on maintaining an authentic brand voice instead of simply jumping on the bandwagon. 

Dive Insight:

As marketers weather a variety of industry headwinds including ad-blocking technology and increased competition from e-commerce companies like Amazon, the need to provide eye-catching and unique brand experiences is growing. The demand for crafting those types of experiences is clearly being felt at agencies, which appear especially focused this year on marketing campaigns and stunts that seamlessly tie together a variety of channels including out-of-home, digital and social media. The Lagardère and Berlin Cameron news underscores how more of these shops are sinking significant time and resources into developing experiential specialization, which might become a staple of the industry as opposed to a more niche strategy. 

When executed well, experiential marketing provides consumers a richer storytelling experience and a more tangible interaction with the brand. The Momentum Worldwide research called out by Adweek outlines how this can translate, not just to increased brand share, but also sales. This is particularly valuable as consumers, particularly millennials and Gen Zers, start to prefer experiences over being served traditional advertising. 

In recent months, several companies have rolled out experiential activations that serve as standout examples: In August, paint brand Behr built a pop-up house in New York City's Grand Central Terminal that included elements of virtual reality and a 360-degree video experience. Later this month, SunTrust Bank's online lending division LightStream will also install a miniature pop-up forest in Times Square that ties to social media and the arm's ongoing tree-planting project.