MUMBAI: ‘Experiential Marketing’ or the concept of creating a bond between the consumer and the brand beyond ‘buying and selling’ by immersing them in an experience, is an underrated and underrepresented form of marketing, several marketers guiltily admit.

Historically they have shied away from accepting experiential as a separate media to spend on, due to the dearth of representative figures, measurement challenges  and studies done on the subject.

Off-late things have changed and experts observe that experiential marketing is increasingly becoming part of the popular marketing conversation, thanks to the acceptance of digital and the advent of several new technologies.

This has led to several industry bodies to sit up and take notice, and do a quantitative evaluation of the sector.  In fact a recent report on the sector released at the EEMAX Conclave 2016 has raised India’s estimated total adex for 2016-2017 to Rs 62,483 cr by including an additional ad ex of Rs 8,483 cr represented by experiential marketing.  

As per a report compiled by Business World and Tstratoo, in partnership with Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA),  between 2014 and 2016 the experiential marketing industry has seen an estimated 16 to 17 per cent growth.

The EY-EEMA report for 2014-2015 assessed the experiential marketing industry size to be worth Rs 6250 cr in terms of revenue out of which Rs 3750 cr represented the organised sector and Rs 2500, the unorganised sector. Estimates for its 2015-2016 report pegs the industry at Rs 7281 cr, showing a growing increase in the representation of the organised sector. It amounted to Rs 4,369 of the total worth in 15-16 financial year.

EY-EEMA predicts sector's growth

Identifying 'experiential' as a whole new media segment in which marketers are investing their media budget, the study further provides an advertisement expenditure break-up.

FICCI-KPMG report predicts India’s total AdEx to reach Rs 54000 cr in the year 2016.  Citing that advertising spend in the experiential marketing sector doesn’t feature in the major industry reports like FICCI-KPMG, GroupM’s TYNY and Pitch Madison, the report takes the liberty to include the estimated Rs 8,483 in the total adex, increasing it to Rs 62,483.

Upon consulting the report with marketing expert and Maxus experiential marketing national direct Vidur Patney, he said, “It is a disorganised and fragmented sector. Not many firms have a process or are part of larger groups to ensure that the quoted figures are spot on to be used in such researches. While I trust EY, the numbers are what companies say, and are seldom validated.”