Best Experiential Marketing Examples You Can Always Refer To

Time and again, we generally come across a few movies, articles, books, series, and other things that are quite compelling. These few pieces of entertainment or information leave us touched, and we carry them within us. The authors and artists use words, dialogues, and graphics in such a way that the attendees feel connected with the brand. It is because the audience will prefer a brand or name more if they feel connected to it. 

One such term is Experiential Marketing; it enables the brands to develop an emotional and personal connection with the audience. Many event organizers want to connect with their attendees emotionally and deliver immersive and memorable experiences. It is because, as we said, the organizers plan to connect with the audience emotionally. As the audience prefers the brands to who they can relate. 

Keeping that in mind and making you understand more about experiential marketing, we have shared some of the best examples where the brands created immersive experiences and delivered out-of-the-box experiences to the audience. 

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  Facebook Messenger’s “That Close”: 

With its “That Close” campaign, Facebook wanted to promote its messenger as a universal way to connect with people across the world. For this, they created a virtual experience and hosted a musical fest featuring some of the Top DJs. The DJ recorded the concert at his home, which was later made available to the public via Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and Facebook Watch. Here, Facebook allowed the attendees to hang out at the artist’s house while he recorded his set. Not only this, but Facebook also provided the audience with two soundmojis, allowing them to send short sound clips in the messenger. 

While physical events come with several restrictions, there is no such boundary in the case of virtual events. There were many takeaways from this particular event. Some of them are:

1. Facebook allowed the attendees to literally hang out at the artist’s house, virtually. Would it even be possible in case of physical events? This virtual home concert gave a more personalized feeling than a regular physical concert. 
2. With this experiment, Facebook created the most suitable environment to launch a new product and test it in a closed and restricted space. It gained people’s attention, as they get to try a new product and experience something unlikely and out-of-the-box. 
3. One of the biggest takeaways from this experiment was that the recording of your event can help you expand the reach of your brand manifolds. It also allowed the audience to watch the content at their convenience and share it with their friends and family. 

• Ariana Grande and Fortnite Rift Tour: 

The next popular example of experiential marketing is when Ariana Grande and Fortnite collaborated to create a virtual musical concert. A step ahead of virtual events, this concert was held in the metaverse and later emerged as a prime example of how the Meta world is endless. 

This concert covered the following factors: 

1. Since the pop singer was performing after a long time, it created enough hype among the audience and gained extreme popularity. 
2. Hosted in the metaverse, the attendees joined the concert with their musical avatars and logged into the popular gaming channel, Fortnite, at fixed timings, just like an in-person event. 
3. This concert also included several gaming options, where the attendees could play mini-games during the virtual concert. 
4. The metaverse allowed the organizers to bridge the gap between the singer and the attendees and gave them a larger-than-life feel. 

This concert was one of its kind, something that was never experienced before. Here are the top key takeaways from this virtual concert: 

1. With time, the priorities of the audience have also shifted to virtual events. People now do not prefer attending in-person events anymore. It is due to the fact that self-managed virtual event platforms allow the organizers to deliver lifelike experiences to the attendees. Not only this, but they also allow the organizers to reach a wider audience. At this concert, millions of people enjoyed Ariana’s performance without traveling anywhere. 
2. This experiment opened new doors of opportunity for the brands. It is because this concert allowed the audience of Fortnite and Ariana’s fan base to come together. Similarly, virtual events enable the brands to collaborate with several other brands and expand their reach. 

• “Scoops Ahoy” by Netflix and Baskin-Robbins: 

The world’s two leading companies, Netflix and Baskin-Robbins came together and created a memorable experience for the Stranger Things fans. If you have watched Stranger Things, you must know that one of the most famous characters from Stranger Things worked at an ice cream parlor called Scoops Ahoy. This campaign created by both the brands revolved around this name only. 

Both these campaigns brought this ice cream parlor to life with five segments. Those segments are: 

1. In the first segment, Baskin Robbins transformed several stores in cities like Toronto, Ontario, etc. into Scoops Ahoy ice cream parlors. 
2. They run a TV ad that was made to look like straight from the 1980s. This ad was based on the theme of Stranger Things and promoted a famous ice cream flavor from the show. 
3. In this segment, several morse code puzzles were hidden in the Baskin-Robbins products and commercials. People who solved it got a phone number, which invited them to solve a mysterious AR mystery. 
4. Here, they distributed branded merchandise including magnets, t-shirts, and stickers to the audience. 

This campaign from Netflix and Baskin-Robbins gained immense popularity. The most popular takeaways from this experiment were:

• This campaign, Scoop Ahoy, was run on several media and channels, expanding its reach multiple times. The intent was to not restrict the campaign to one particular channel and spread its reach across various dimensions. 
• The codes and puzzles given to the audience helped in building a connection with the show. 

There is no denying that marketing plays a crucial role in today’s scenario. If you want your brand to survive and emerge as an industry leader, you need to put in some effort and leverage marketing techniques that draw the audience’s attention. The intent behind this blog was to help you know how several brands are strategizing their marketing and what you can learn from them.