Mehr als ein Event: Die Rolle von Erlebnismarketing für Markenbindung in der Action-Sport-Szene

Abstract

In times of increasing brand diversity and decreasing attention spans, staged brand experiences are becoming increasingly important as an instrument of customer loyalty - especially in culturally characterized scenes such as snowboarding, surfing and skateboarding. Traditional marketing instruments quickly reach their limits here, as target groups are strongly value-coded and expect emotional and social connectivity. Against this backdrop, experience marketing is increasingly becoming the focus of corporate strategies. This bachelor’s thesis examines the role of experiential marketing in the snow, surf and skate scene with regard to brand perception and loyalty. The focus was on the question of which factors, from a practical perspective, are decisive for ensuring that brand experiences have a lasting effect and can generate emotional loyalty. Based on five guided interviews with experts from event marketing in the retail sector, a structuring qualitative content analysis according to Mayring was carried out. The interviewees covered different perspectives within event marketing, from the conception and realization of external events to internal brand positioning measures. All companies were active in the action sports sector and served customers from the snow, surf and skate scene. The results show that experiential marketing is particularly effective when it is not understood in isolation but as part of a holistic brand presence. Authenticity, proximity to the scene, emotional design and digital additions prove to be key success factors. The choice of event format does not prove to be the decisive factor - rather, it depends on the customized design in the respective social and cultural context. The work provides practical insights into the central impact factors of experiential marketing and shows which requirements need to be taken into particular consideration in a scene-specific context.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	German (Austria)
Supervisor	Markus Moser (Supervisor)