Experiential marketing introduces the brand to the target demographic in an innovative manner, solidifying its presence in the market. Through this marketing strategy, consumers get a closer look at the brand’s goods and services.
In fact, studies show that 9 out of 10 consumers love experiencing a product firsthand, proving that companies that invest in experiential marketing are more likely to attract consumers and build long-lasting relationships with them.
In this guide, we will look at 25 amazing experiential marketing campaigns of brands that redefined the experience for customers, to inspire you to kickstart your experiential marketing journey! that have provided new branded experiences to customers.
What is Experiential Marketing?
Experiential marketing is a unique marketing strategy that provides an immersive pre-sale experience of a product or service to its prospective customers. It is also known as engagement marketing, often involving a physical experience that aids in building an emotional connection with potential customers.
The fact is experiential marketing creates an environment where consumers can touch, feel, and experience the brand’s products and services in a memorable way. The live marketing campaigns actively engage the audience, encourage them to participate in a brand experience event, and give unforgettable movements in a live and interactive setting.
25 Innovative and Modern-Day Examples of Experiential Marketing
1. Red Bull (Stratos: The Edge of Space Jump)
In 2012, Red Bull organized one of the most staggering experiential marketing campaigns ever. They launched the “Stratos” campaign in which Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped from about 24 miles above the earth’s surface and became the first person to break the sound barrier outside of an aircraft. Together, they made the highest freefall jump in history from the stratospheric altitude of 1,28,000 feet.
This event was a massive publicity stunt for Red Bull which streamed online on YouTube with more than eight million viewers watching. The resulting media coverage helped to solidify Red Bull as a premier brand in the energy drink category.
2. Microsoft: Inner Circle Event:
Microsoft hosted an interactive experiential event in New York to demonstrate the capabilities of “Cortana“, their new digital personal assistant for smartphones.
Cortana was launched as a key component of Microsoft’s planned “makeover” of future operating systems for Windows Phone and Windows. This interactive event named ‘Inner Circle’ offered tailored experiences to around 150 attendees.
3. Nike: React Infinity Run Challenge
In 2020, Nike launched an experiential marketing campaign called the “Nike React Infinity Run Challenge“. This campaign aimed to promote Nike’s latest running shoes and provide customers with a thrilling and enjoyable experience. The unique event generated a lot of buzz on social media and became a successful event.
4. Lipton Ice Tea
One of the greatest examples of experiential marketing is Lipton’s campaign which prompts shoppers and students to enjoy a refreshing experience at the push of a button. This campaign offered a refreshing spray of water mist to cool people down in the scorching heat. This kind of experiential advertising efficiently engages consumers, raises brand awareness, encourages word-of-mouth, and boosts sales.
5. Live Angry Birds
T-Mobile created a live-action Angry Birds environment in Barcelona, Spain, allowing people to interact and enjoy the game in real life. This campaign aimed to create a buzz among gaming fans and promote T-Mobile’s brand. When this game played on Android smartphones was played live, people flocked to the spot to watch and play it (pun intended!).
6. Yogurt Wars: Yoplait
Yoplait launched a pop-up shop in New York’s SoHo area to promote its Yoplait Greek yogurt, dubbed “Yogurt Wars,” and invited customers to blind taste test each brand’s blueberry yogurt. For the taste test, customers were given two unlabeled cups of yogurt, one with Yoplait Greek Blueberry and the other with Chobani Blueberry Fruit on the Bottom.
The event featured the hashtag #TasteOff and guests were encouraged to share their thoughts on the tasting experience via social media. On one screen relevant shared posts were seen live on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
7. Reebok Store Launch: Laser Maze Challenge
Reebok organized a unique experiential marketing activation called “Laser Maze Challenge” for Reebok’s new store launch at Ambience Mall, Delhi. Reebok launched the Laser Maze Challenge to generate excitement about the brand and interact with its product in an innovative way.
They had set up a tunnel filled with laser light and challenged the audience to go inside & collect as many Reebok tags as possible. Participants with the most Reebok tags were offered a special gift. Overall, this was an effective experiential marketing event to launch their new store, giving the audience a thrilling experience, and creating a lasting impression of their brand.
8. 1000 Nescafe Red Mugs
Nescafe is a globally recognized coffee brand owned by Nestlé. They decided to develop an activation initiative that connects and brings Nescafe lovers closer. In this innovative experiential marketing campaign, thousands of red mugs were locked on bridges, benches, and fences with four-digit bicycle codes in around two major Croatian cities.
Later, this event was promoted on social media and people were encouraged to unlock the mug using the Facebook app. Once a person has unlocked a particular mug, they could head over to a booth stand to redeem the mug and have warm coffee to share a cup of Nescafé with a friend.
9. Androidland
Androidland is an Android-themed pop-up store that launched in December 2011 in Bourke Street, Melbourne, Australia. Carrier Telstra created this innovative retail experience in collaboration with Google.
The theme of the store was largely green, with several Android “green robot” sculptures. In-store, Telstra provided visitors with an interactive spaceship zone and also included a giant screen on which visitors could play Angry Birds. It also features scented areas with gingerbread and grass scents. The purpose of creating Androidland was to create a retail environment that helps them answer customer questions in a fun, interactive way.
10. Macy’s Magic Fitting Room
Macy’s Magic Fitting Room was designed to give customers a virtualized changing room experience and enhance the overall shopping experience in Macy’s flagship store in New York City. Their idea was to enable customers to try on clothes digitally without the need to physically change outfits.
Macy’s shoppers were looking at their appearance in a “magic mirror” in the fitting room via a touchscreen. After selecting an item, customers had the option to share their new outfits on the Facebook wall. Macy’s Magic Fitting Room demonstrated how technology can provide customers with an engaging, convenient, and memorable shopping experience, driving brand loyalty and sales.
11. Nissan Innovation Station
The Nissan Innovation Station was a one-of-a-kind experiential marketing initiative designed to engage customers and interactively showcase Nissan’s innovative technologies and vehicles, particularly the “Nissan Leaf”. Over three years, it attracted nearly a million visitors and generated 30,000 qualified leads in its first year. This innovation station was recognized as one of Time Out London’s top ten free attractions and received the FMBE Gold Award.
12. Sprite: Giant Shower Machine
This entire event was part of a 2012 outdoor media campaign used by The Coca-Cola Company to promote Sprite. They set up a 30-ft tall giant soda dispenser in one of the most crowded beaches in Brazil and invited people to have a cold, refreshing shower during the Brazilian summer.
The amazing thing about this campaign is that while the shower dispensed plain water for people to cool down, they also installed huge contraptions that allowed people to enjoy and sip on Sprite. The campaign is still a craze among people and is often talked about fondly.
13. Coca-Cola Hug Machine
In 2012, a Coke vending machine was installed overnight at the National University of Singapore, in the brand’s typical iconic red and white colors. The idea behind this campaign was that users would approach the machine, hug it, and in return, they would receive a complimentary can of Coke. This playful interaction transforms the typical vending machine experience into a memorable event.
Coca-Cola’s “Hug Me” campaign came across as a playful and loving reminder of the power of human touch. A vending machine that effectively transformed itself from a cold, mechanical dispenser into a point of warmth and engagement. This event exemplifies how experiential marketing can effectively engage consumers, create memorable brand interactions, and foster emotional connections.
14. ASICS Run With Ryan
ASICS launched a compelling experiential marketing campaign called “Run with Ryan” in the lead-up to the New York City Marathon. The campaign featured a 60-foot video wall installed in a subway station, allowing commuters to race against Ryan Hall, a famous American marathoner. ASICS wanted fans to truly experience a time with Olympic marathoner Ryan Hall.
The “Run with Ryan” campaign is a great example of experiential marketing, where consumers connected with the ASICS brand on a personal level and experienced a fun and competitive environment.
15. McDonald’s Save the Sundae Cone
This innovative campaign titled ‘Save the Sundae Cone‘ was launched in Malaysia in January 2014 by McDonald’s. The objective of this campaign was to create an emotional connection between customers and the McDonald’s brand.
In the heart of Kuala Lumpur’s most famous shopping district, Bukit Bintang, they put up a giant billboard, displaying the sundae cone in all its glory.
That day, the event took social media by storm, with a total of 256 Sundae Cones saved and over 1500 free Sundae Cones given away. McDonald’s successfully created an enviable brand impression among its people with this campaign.
16. Ariel Fashion Shoot
A commercial campaign titled ‘Fashion Shoot‘ was released in Sweden, in 2011, in a collaboration between MSL, Saatchi, and Saatchi, Stockholm. This unique campaign combined elements of live interaction, and social media engagement to give consumers a reason to engage in the laundry category outside of washing. It was one of the coolest campaigns held by Ariel to capture the attention of consumers.
17. Samsung Galaxy S4
In 2013, the Samsung smartphone company launched the “All Eyes on the S4” campaign to promote their new phone “Samsung Galaxy S4”. The event was held in Zurich, Switzerland, and was broadcast live globally to attract a large international audience. People were challenged to stare at the Galaxy S4 continuously for 60 minutes. Anyone who stayed connected for at least one minute received a Galaxy S4. If anyone blinks in the middle, the challenge and game are over. Samsung created a cool experience for its new smartphone, increasing its brand awareness on multiple levels.
18. Volvic Juiced
Volvic “Juiced” launched an interactive billboard game at Blue Water Shopping Centre in Kent, encouraging shoppers to get juice and win refreshing prizes. A big interactive touch-screen was set up for shoppers to squash the fruit on-screen. The challenge was to squash as many falling apples as possible in 60 seconds and fill a virtual bottle with its juice.
The main aim of this game was to fill the bottle in the given timeframe. The brand ambassadors were sitting on the side to reward the winners with a refreshing water of Volvic juice. Over the two weeks of the campaign, more than 6000 games were played, and thousands of prizes were given away.
19. Photoshop Live: Street Retouch Prank
This was an innovative and highly engaging campaign held by Adobe to demonstrate the features of Photoshop in a fun and interactive way. The campaign involved a Photoshop wizard who set up some hidden cameras at the bus stop so that he could click photos of people coming and going from the bus stop, showcase the power of Photoshop, and create a humorous situation. The campaign was designed to surprise people, entertain them, and highlight the editing features of Photoshop.
20. Oreo Campaign
Oreo launched a creative out-of-home advertising campaign that caught everyone’s attention. Oreo India took their movement on the road through the “Oreo Togetherness Bus” to bring parents and their children together. They included some fun activities inside the branded bus. This campaign was conducted in multiple cities across India including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, and more, and helped families create fond memories together, thanks to Oreo.
21) Kit Kat: Free No-WiFi Zone
After the arrival of WiFi, people started being online constantly. So to give people a ‘break’ from online connectivity, chocolate brand Kit Kat created a ‘Free No WiFi Zone‘ with benches. They blocked WiFi signals within a radius of 5 meters to prevent people from checking emails, accessing Facebook, and doing other online activities.
This ‘Free No-WiFi Zone’ campaign was launched in the Netherlands in December 2012. It was created by the advertising agency JWT for the brand Kit Kat with the aim of getting people to ‘disconnect’ from their online activities.
They placed a “No free WiFi Zone” sign in some hot spots in Amsterdam so that people could take a short break from digital life. Instead, they would read a newspaper or a nice book, have real conversations with friends, and enjoy a movement—of course, while eating Kit Kats.
This KitKat’s “Free No Wifi Zone” ad demonstrated to people how crucial it is to take a break from online activities and enjoy outdoor things.
22) Boohoo Donut Dispenser
Boohoo is one of the top fast fashion retailers in the UK. To provide a unique shopping experience to the target audience, they came up with the idea of
23) Cadbury Calling Timeout
Chocolate brand “Cadbury” Timeout launched its first major campaign in three decades, ‘Calling Timeout‘, unveiling a delicious chocolate wafer and cup of tea that takes away the frustrations of people’s daily lives. A top experiential agency “Hyperactive” worked with Cabaduri to promote the “Time Out Chocolate Bar” at London Euston Station. This bold campaign ran for 4 weeks across DOOH, OOH, and social channels like Meta, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit. The campaign’s primary goal was to keep people away from their everyday stresses and sell more Timeout chocolate bars.
24) Tropicana: YourBestYou
The “Tropicana” juice brand celebrated its 70th year in Times Square, during the winter. They created a four-day pop-up event called #YourBestYou at New York’s Times Square, offering people a variety of interactive experiences. A domed tent shaped like an orange was created by MKTG where a wooden orange tree was replicated. The tree was decorated with oversized plastic oranges and included two video stations that allowed guests to record and send custom messages to friends and family. Also in the tent, guests were asked to take photos in front of a green screen and those photos were displayed on a Times Square billboard.
25) Heinz Ketchup:
Four years ago, in 2020, Heinz launched a unique marketing campaign called “Heinz Ketchup Puzzle.” With 570 pieces, they created a challenging and fun puzzle experience for people that featured a monochromatic Heinz ketchup bottle design. This contest was held in 170 countries. The campaign was heavily promoted on social media, encouraging people to share their puzzle-solving experiences.
Conclusion
Experiential marketing is all about giving potential customers a unique brand experience. It has emerged as one of the most powerful marketing strategies that businesses of any size can leverage. These highlighted examples of experiential marketing will provide you with a clear understanding of how to plan your next marketing campaign in an engaging and interactive manner.
Experiential marketing campaigns can take many forms and can be used to promote a variety of products and services. By creating unique and engaging experiences that resonate with their target audience, brands can strengthen their brand identity and build long-lasting customer relationships with customers.
FAQ
Experiential marketing helps you put up an incredible show that your audience has never seen or experienced before. It gives the audience a sense of wonder, novelty, and amazement. Additionally, experiential marketing leaves a long-lasting memory that keeps the brand on top of customer’s minds for a long time.
Benefits of experiential marketing include:
- Builds strong brand awareness
- Helps achieve brand’s goals
- Builds an emotional connection with customers
- Generates buzz on social media
- Boosts word-of-mouth marketing
- Engages consumers in a unique way
- Increases brand loyalty
- Cultivates a positive brand image
- Increases sales and conversions
Absolutely. any business can run experiential marketing campaigns to give their audience an extensive, interactive, and unforgettable experience with their products or services, thereby building a deeper connection with them.
Experiential marketing focuses on creating memorable experiences that engage customers emotionally and personally with the brand and its products and services. That is achieved through events, workshops, pop-up shops, or virtual reality experiences. On the other hand, traditional marketing relies on TV ads, radio, print media, and billboards to reach a broader audience. It creates brand awareness through one-way communication. The customer does not get to engage with the brand directly as is the case with experiential marketing.
Small to medium-sized experiential marketing events will cost anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000, and large campaigns can easily exceed $1,000,000. However, the cost of experiential marketing can vary widely depending on factors such as event location, production, design, staffing, marketing, technology, and logistics.
