What is experiential marketing?

No testimonials, just an idea!

Marketers looking to embark on an experiential marketing campaign establish a particular, revolutionary and disruptive idea, to convey corporate values directly and by surpassing the rules of classic communication.

In certain types of experiences, the customer identifies with the brand and will likely remember that specific situation in the long term, associating it with the product.

Striking examples of experiential marketing 

Sprite, 2011, in Rio de Janeiro. Heat, desire for fun and refreshment: what does Sprite do? It installs mega showers shaped like the product dispenser. Fun and innovative.

If Sprite's attempt is just a fun way to break the mold, Virgin Atlantic (a British airline) launches a real marketing campaign with a full-fledged slogan: "No ordinary park bench fly in the face of ordinary".

The experience is sensational: a sort of candid camera where unsuspecting bystanders resting on a Manhattan bench find themselves overwhelmed by the Virgin Atlantic experience.

A lot happens: first, the bench turns into an airplane seat complete with a cocktail service, movie from a tablet, and snacks; then, the company goes overboard with actual action movie sketches like some kind of flash mob, which starts when the viewer chooses the film on the tablet.

Here we are at a next level compared to Sprite: immersive and shocking experience, corporate values that merge with the everyday and wonder. This is really the keyword!

The user experience is made excessive and super engaging.

Another very successful example of experiential marketing is KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (German flight company): Bonding Christmas Buffet.

We're in the holiday season, everyone is stressed because we have to buy Christmas gifts. Suddenly we see a table laden right in the center of the airport.

There's one problem: it's 5 meters high.

The only way to make it come down is to sit. But not just your seat, all the other seats must be taken as well.

In this way, people interested in the banquet are almost compelled to sit down together, side by side, until the number of seats needed to lower the laden table is reached.

It's really brilliant!

It actually works: people who usually avoid even making eye contact with strangers start joking, talking and eating together. This is what the Christmas spirit is all about!

Halfway through the experience, hostesses with the company logo come to make sure that everything was to their liking. Then comes the catchy slogan: "Bringing people together for Christmas!"

Here, the company truly breaks down all barriers: it's thanks to KLM Royal AirLine that an experience of sociability, joy, and amazement is lived.

Let's make another example.

SNCF is a French railway service that has decided to install interactive doors on the streets of Paris, connected, also through webcams, to other European cities.

People who open the door interact with actors who draw their portraits, dance with them, simulate a bike race, etc. In short, the borders between country and country are eliminated in a fun and innovative way.

SNCF - Europe Is Just Next Door

A variation on the theme is made by Carlsberg. Indeed, here the product is at the center of the flash mob. Only the victims are real spectators who go to the cinema, in the prank room in Brussels.

The rest of the audience are huge bikers with tattoos and mustaches. Obviously, the victims are a bit perplexed, some leave, others manage to find a seat. At this point the stroke of genius: the light turns on the victims and the nearest biker offers a Carlsberg amidst the laughter and enjoyment of the entire room.

There could be hundreds of examples, but the common thread in all described experiences is transcending from the product and giving a true experience to the viewer who lives through a situation and ties it to the brand forever!