GRADIENT Experiential is an award-winning experiential marketing agency based in New York City. The creative agency was founded on the belief that strong emotions generated during an experience create longer-lasting connections between humans and brands. From livestream to IRL (in real life) experiences and all the content that supports them, GRADIENT empowers marketers to thrive in a world that constantly evolves.
What is Experiential Marketing?
Also called engagement marketing, experiential marketing is a marketing strategy that immerses customers within the brand. In short, experiential marketing enables consumers to not just buy from a brand, but to actually experience the brand. Emotional connections between the brand and the consumer are created through memorable and unique experiences.
According to recent studies in EventTrack, “91 percent of consumers say they have more positive feelings about brands after attending events or experiences.” While another study found that “9 out of 10 marketers agree that brand experiences deliver more compelling engagement.”
Experiential marketing is no longer a trendy buzzword, it’s a proven strategy and the smartest brands are taking advantage of it. But it isn’t easy -- it requires a lot of inspiration.
Why use Experiential Marketing?
For us, it’s about creating direct, personal connections with people, whether they occur in the physical space of a pop-up, or digitally. We don’t create our client’s message—what we do is create the engagement to actually make their message true. The content we can then create while capturing that true engagement is so much more powerful!
We also believe that whatever the generation - but especially for the post-pandemic youth, human contact is key, and it's coming back at us faster than we have time to say it. For this reason, we consider advertising and e-commerce as secondary tools to a first purpose: connecting people in a meaningful way. Essentially, traditional forms of advertising are putting today’s content cart before the essential human connection horse.
Gradient’s approach to Experiential Marketing
GRADIENT is a NYC-based creative collective delivering full-bodied marketing strategies thanks to what we refer to as “whole brain integration”—which is another way to say creativity paired with strategy—quantifiable metrics and thoughtful social amplification. Coupling the shock and awe of exceptional experiential with the savviness of digital strategy, we work with brands to help them build increasingly personal connections with consumers, which translates into more eyes and more sales… and happier brands, as well.
We believe that the human connections we create are becoming the new media, the real content. User experience is needed in the real world, too, and we’re here to provide quantifiable results that help brands bring out strong, original platforms and campaigns. From this work, retail becomes the new media, experiences are the new luxury, and digitally native brands can't live without creating physical worlds.
GRADIENT’s in-house experts include producers, designers, strategists and innovators, that work together with this whole-brain approach to guide our clients towards the extraordinary.
