Experiential Marketing Events: What, Types, Tips, Examples

Is your brand facing a challenge in capturing the attention of your audience and fostering engagement? Well, you are not alone in this race. Traditional marketing methods need to catch up regarding interaction and attention-grabbing. 

This is where experiential marketing events step in. Experiential marketing is not just any kind of marketing but has proven to take your customer engagement to the next level. This blog post will dive into experiential marketing ideas, types, and examples and why brands use them to strengthen customer relationships.

We will also share some tips and tricks on using it in your next marketing event. So, without further ado, let’s get started:

What is an Experiential Event?

An experiential marketing event is a marketing approach that invites the audience to interact with a business in a real-world situation. In other words, this type of marketing uses hands-on activities to build customer connections and focuses on creating a memorable and lasting impression.

These events don’t sell a product but rather shape a positive brand image, which is essential to building trust. Although experiential marketing events sound like event marketing, they are not always event-focused. It is less related to concerts, festivals, conferences, etc., and more related to building brand and customer connections.

Why are Experiential Events Effective?

52% of respondents believe experiential marketing events drive more value into businesses than other marketing channels. Let’s look at some of the benefits of experiential marketing in detail:

1. Foster Engagement and Interaction

Attendees participate, touch, and feel during experiential marketing events rather than simply observe. This level of engagement helps build interactive audience engagement and attract new customers on the go! 

2. Boost Brand Awareness

Creating a lasting impression in customers’ eyes can raise your brand awareness and establish a good brand value. This strategy also helps you stand out from the crowd and outperform the competition in your space. 

3. Improved Brand Loyalty

A step beyond brand awareness is nurturing positive brand loyalty. If the consumer is loyal to your brand, he will make repeat purchases. You can boost brand loyalty by creating a memorable and emotional experience with your brand through experiential marketing. 

4. Community Building  

Experiential events bring people together, fostering a sense of community and belonging. This will also help build a loyal customer base. Help your customers build a positive emotional connection with your brand that they will never forget and return for more.

Types of Experiential Events

Following are the types of Experiential Events that you can utilize in your next event:

1.Brand Activation

Experiential brand activation involves any interaction that allows your customers to engage directly with your brand. It is an experience-centered approach to marketing that is high-touch, event-based, and engagement-focused. 

2. Guerilla Marketing

Guerilla marketing is advertising that uses unconventional strategies to surprise customers. In short, it aims to shock customers uniquely and engagingly. Examples include flash mobs and street graffiti. 

3. In-House Experiences

This type of marketing involves brands using brick-and-mortar locations to engage their target audience with fun, offers, and experiences. The main goal is to focus on the buyer’s enjoyment and create a positive feeling towards the brand.

4. Product Demos

This type of marketing invites people to their retail stores and encourages them to participate in product testing. Appealing to customers to test their products helps the brand recognize how others like them and provide room for improvement. You can even use social media walls to display your product demos using Social Walls.

5. Event Marketing

Event marketing is a strategy marketers use to promote their brand, product, or service through in-person or real-time engagement. It aims for long-term impact by fostering brand loyalty and affinity by creating memorable experiences.

Best Experiential Marketing Examples

Experiential marketing is about creating a memorable customer experience that will create brand awareness and loyalty. Here are some of the best experiential marketing examples to inspire you to make your next event fun and memorable.

1. Warner Bros Pictures: Barbie Movie Selfie Generator

Warner Bros Pictures Barbie movie selfie generator indicates how marketers are creating a buzz and using means to capture the audience’s attention. This movie has been targeting its fans through its unique tailors and generative AI that lets you generate your own Barbie doll cover. 

When users visit the website, they are greeted with the message, “ Welcome to Barbie land, where you can be a Barbie. Click below to become an instant icon!”

This is a great experiential marketing example as it gives fans of all ages a real-life Barbie fantasy experience that kids love to play with. 

Image Source – Prohibitionpr

Takeaways for Marketers

• Marketers can use generative AI’s excellent image-generation capabilities to make their next campaign fun and engaging.
• The key is the target audience. This event gamification idea targeted a young audience and gave a fantastic experience to all age groups, building remarkable hype and image.

2. Red Bull: Stratos

Red Bull Stratos was a high-altitude skydiving experiential marketing campaign in 2012 that partnered with skydiver Felix Baumgartner. This campaign aimed to surpass records by orchestrating the highest-altitude jump ever attempted.

This fantastic stunt by Red Bull takes their marketing to the next level. Red Bull streamed the entire event online and gained the highest viewing traffic of any live stream broadcast on YouTube — at just over 8 million viewers.

Takeaways for Marketers

• Try to build suspense around your audience. Giving something new and unique to your audience, like Red Bull did, is always a game-changer strategy. 
• Red Bull’s “Stratos” Event activation idea underlines the power of video branding in capturing attention, generating excitement, and reinforcing brand identity.

3. Refinery29: 29Rooms

Refinery 29 is a lifestyle brand that has hosted 29 Rooms experiential marketing campaign. It contained 20 themed rooms with interactive arts and installations partnered with brands ranging from personalities like artists and musicians to consumer-facing companies like Dunkin’ Donuts, Dyson, and Cadillac.

Each year, 29Rooms has a different theme, and attendees are encouraged to enter the room and use the surroundings to create something fun and unique. 

Takeaways for Marketers

• While hosting any campaign, remember your brand’s core essence. This will help customers remember your brand and connect easily. 
• Collaborate with influencers in your niche to attract more attention and an increased audience.

4. Lean Cuisine: #WeighThis

Lean Cuisine is a brand of frozen entrees and dinners sold by Nestle in the United States. It is a brand for health-conscious who can eat whatever they want with their product without worrying about the taste and stay healthy.

The #WeighThis unique marketing campaign by Lean Cuisine is an experiential marketing campaign that asks women to ‘weigh in’ on what they think matters most in their lives instead of their body weight. 

Lean Cusine curated a gallery of ‘Scales’ in New York’s Grand Central Station and invited the women to weigh in, where they could write down how they wanted to be weighed other than in pounds. 

The women opted for things like pride with my imperfections, caring for 200 homeless children, being the sole provider of the family, etc.  Lean Cuisine wanted to convey this experiential marketing example through this campaign:

“Sure, we make stuff that fits into a healthy lifestyle. But don’t forget about your accomplishments. That matters more than the number on the scale.” 

Image Source – Jessicagioglio

Takeaways for Marketers

• Understand what moves and motivates your customers. Instead of solely focusing on the product, try thinking outside the box. 
• Offer different ways to connect and build a strong community.

5. M&M: Flavor Rooms

The M&M Flavor Rooms experiential marketing campaign was a great experiential event in New York City that let consumers vote for their next favorite flavor. This community event included ‘flavor rooms,’ decorated with fragrances unique to the flavor.

It also included snack and drink lounges with M&M-themed cocktails. Overall, the aim was to make the event fun, engaging, and customer-centric. 

Image Source – Trendhunter

 Takeaways for Marketers

• Don’t miss out on that ‘fun’ factor. Remember that capturing the audience’s attention is easy when you have that fun factor in your marketing campaign. 
• Consider your audience first. It is essential to get their opinion before launching any products.

6. Benefit Cosmetics: ‘A Lashtastic Virtual-Media Campaign’ 

The brand Benefit Cosmetics Lashtastic virtual media experiential marketing example was created to launch the new Magnet Extreme Lengthening Mascara. This unique marketing campaign was launched because the brand wants to test its product in the market but is facing a challenge due to COVID-19. 

Benefit started this campaign to create an immersive experience for its users. Users could collect tokens and exchange them for discounts, mascaras, or virtual beauty consultations on Benefit’s website. They used Augmented Reality to create a fun experience for their users. 

Image Source – Medium

Takeaways for Marketers

• To create a fun experience, you can use various event gamification ideas to interact with your audience. 
• Use Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to make your audience feel the product in the real world.

7. Misereor: Charity Donation Billboard

Misereor, a German Catholic charity organization, launched an award-winning experiential marketing campaign called ‘The Social Swipe’ to make donating interactive. It involves interactive digital signage that allows users to make donations by simply swiping cards. 

They even coordinated with banks to display thank-you notes on their bank statements. They used innovative technologies to increase donations and awareness for the Misereor charitable cause. 

Takeaways for Marketers

• Use innovative technologies to engage with your customers as they help give maximum exposure to the users.
• Use creativity in your brand to attract more customers.

8. Lululemon: Proud & Present

Lululemon Athletica is an athletic apparel company that sells apparel for yoga, running, and other activities. To celebrate Pride Month, it launched a thought-provoking experiential marketing campaign. It asked its employees to reflect on topics related to the LGBTQ+ community and shared their responses through posts and videos on its Instagram page. 

Now, the brand created art installations that reflected those responses. This campaign encouraged passersby to read and reflect on them. Lululemon also collaborated with The Moth, an organization known for its dedication to storytelling, to further celebrate Pride.

Overall, Lululemon’s Proud & Present campaign aimed to inspire and engage individuals during Pride Month by highlighting their employees’ personal stories and experiences.

Image Source – Workingnotworking

Takeaways for Marketers

• Focus beyond your products and services to create brand awareness.
• To engage with your audience, use Social Media. This strategy also attracts new customers.

9. Häagen-Dazs: Strawberries & Cream with Wimbledon

Partnering with Wimbledon, Haagen-Dazs launched a limited-edition Strawberries & Cream ice cream bar. The brand worked with Wonderland to create a GIF photobooth at the tennis championship.

Famous tennis players, models, and influencers were invited to take photos. Naming itself “the official ice cream of Wimbledon,” Häagen-Dazs created a commercial for the limited-edition flavor. 

Image Source – Agencyspace

Takeaways for Marketers

• Create engaging and fun activities for your users to encourage user-generated content for your brand. 
• Collaborate with influencers to attract more engagement and audience.

10. Facebook: Facebook IQ Live

Facebook IQ Live was a unique experiential marketing campaign by Facebook that used consumer research and insights data in a highly visual and engaging way. It was designed to give marketers better insights into targeting their audience and ads. 

Image Source – Workingnotworking

Takeaways for Marketers

• Utilize your curated data in real life to better understand your target audience and consumer behavior. 
• Education-based campaigns help give better results, and users love to learn about their favorite brands.

11. Vans: House of Vans

Vans hosted House of Vans locations at skateparks. This experiential marketing example aims to create a solid skateboarding community. Apart from skateboarding, diverse events involving art, film, music, and street culture are regularly held.

Vans also used these skatepark-based popups to promote the launch of their new shoe line, which honored David Bowie.

Image Source – Designboom

Takeaways for Marketers

• Identify closely your audience and try to capture which community you have the most. Vans knew they had a big skateboarding community, so they crafted an event to honor them.

12. Rick And Morty: Rickmobile

To promote the series’ return, the Rick & Morty cartoon network’s ‘Rickmobile’ experiential marketing campaign was a total success. This campaign aimed to increase brand awareness and promote the product.

Around the country, the Cartoon Network sent a car shaped like “Rick,” a funny grandfather in the show. They used various social media channels to promote their campaign. 

Image Source – Medium

Takeaways for Marketers

• Use different social media platforms to market your campaign, as it creates excitement and anticipation around the audience. 
• Using a fun and eye-catching strategy attracts new customers to your brand even when unfamiliar.

13. Coca-Cola: FIFA World Cup VR Experience

During the FIFA World Cup, Coca-Cola used a VR Experience to attract users. Users could stand in front of the screen and see a famous soccer player, Shaqiri, in front of them. Now, you can practice or complete your mini-soccer tournament.

At the end, the user was prompted to take a photo. They could then enter their details to receive a copy of the photo and a chance to win a FIFA World Cup Official Match Ball.

Image Source – Campaignsoftheworld

Takeaways for Marketers

• Get involved in the significant events around your city and tie up with them. This will help you create a more substantial customer base and give your brand value.

14. Game of Thrones Premiere

HBO transformed Belfast’s International Convention Centre for the European Premiere of Game of Thrones. This experiential marketing example creates an immersive and experiential experience for the users. The event production team created a state-of-the-art cinematic experience that gave the premiere a considerable success. 

Image Source – Iccbelfast

Takeaways for Marketers

• Use state-of-the-art technology to create memorable experiences for the delegates, ensuring that they remember your brand for longer periods of time.

15. IKEA Sleepover Event

IKEA’s Sleepover Event was an experiential marketing campaign that invited customers to spend the night at one of their stores. The unique and fun event gave IKEA excellent brand value and recognition.

They used social media to listen to their consumers, originating from a Facebook group titled ‘I wanna have a sleepover in IKEA. ‘ A random 100 lucky winners were selected and got a chance to enjoy this fun experience. 

Image Source – Davidsonbranding

Takeaways for Marketers

• Hosting content and giveaways is excellent for gaining new followers and customers. Customers who get a chance to win will always be engaged with your brand and come back for more.  
• Try to create a lasting impression in the users’ minds, as they will remember your brand for this.

16. Engage Attract Glow

Engage, Attract, Glow was dedicated to exploring networking and communication opportunities in a hybrid world. Users experience a multi-colored, digital pixel-themed set to create a ‘hybrid wonderland’ that delivers maximum impact.

Takeaways for Marketers

• Create a thrilling experience for your customers by providing an environment of creativity and fun.
• Try to be authentic and genuine in your approach.

17. Stena Sphere

The Stena Sphere campaign is an employer branding initiative that aims to increase the number of women in leadership positions within the Stena network.

They hosted the Stena Sphere Forum and created a unique environment for their delegates, which showcased custom lighting, cardboard trees, and live performances.  

Image Source – Iccbelfast

Takeaways for Marketers

• Give your audience a welcoming ambiance for your delegates to boost interactivity and engagement.

18. Mozart Immersive Yoga

The Mozart Immersive exhibit has captivated visitors at the historic Lighthouse Artspace building. Mozart lovers visit the exhibit and experience the supernatural light and music display that runs through nine scenes with dramatic visuals and several of the renowned composer’s most famous pieces. The yoga event, accompanied by the sound of Mozart’s music, creates an immersive atmosphere.

Image Source – Mozartimmersive

Takeaways for Marketers

• Try to connect with your audience emotionally and evoke strong feelings and memories in them. 
• Create an immersive experience for your audience with appealing visuals and elements.

Tips for Hosting Experiential Events

Here are some tips and tricks to remember when hosting experiential events. 

1.Define your Goals and Objectives

Clearly outline the goals and objectives for your event before making a roadmap. What is your aim for hosting an experiential activation? Having well-defined goals will help you in proper event planning and analyze the success afterward. 

2. Know your audience

Identify your target audience’s demographics, interests, preferences, and pain points. Conduct proper research to determine the experiential activations you want to host. Your event must align with your target audience to be a success. 

3. Innovate and Think Creatively

Embrace innovation and creativity for your experiential activations. Experiment with innovations, ideas, themes, and activities to make your event look unique and different from others. 

4. Use Technology

Technology plays a significant role in experiential events. Use AI-based technology to enhance audience interaction and give them an immersive experience. 

Conclusion

As we close this chapter on experiential event marketing, this event engagement guide has inspired you regarding such events.  Remember, the success of experiential events doesn’t come with numbers, and you have to look at the quality and innovation.

Be it any corporate event or any event idea with a proper plan, it can give you success. You can even display your attendees’ Social Media Walls on big screens using platforms like Social Walls by Tagbox.

Focus on creating memorable experiences for your target audience that resonate with them. Incorporate the uniqueness in your event and see the magic.