With all the marketing platforms available today, marketers are always scrambling to find out the best way to let people know about new products, businesses, or services. Numerous options such as digital billboards, pop-up events, and viral videos on social media are some good marketing platforms that can get a lot of attention from potential customers. 
However, if you truly want to provide a memorable and outstanding experience for your target customers, one thing you should definitely get your toes into is experiential marketing. Read on to find out what experiential marketing is and what types of campaigns have already found success in this type of marketing campaign.
Table of Contents
What is Experiential Marketing?
A lot of people often find themselves confused as to what experiential marketing is. Perhaps it is because it is often defined as a something that is live, immersive, and literally experiential. This may seem like a vague explanation, but that’s exactly what experiential marketing is.
Experiential marketing is basically a marketing campaign that enables people to physically take part in the delivery or receipt of the marketing message. Some of the most common ways to explore experiential marketing is through event marketing and ambient marketing.
Event marketing refers to those pop-up events that specifically cater to the promotion of a certain product, service, or business. These pop-up activation events usually last for a day or sometimes more. Pop-up activation events are usually flashy and are meant to go out with one big bang.
Ambient marketing on the other hand usually comes in the form of an interactive and physical advertisement. Unlike event marketing, ambient advertisements blend in with the environment. It is often made to look like it has always been a part of a certain place. Because of so, ambient advertisements usually last longer than experiential marketing events.
Successful Experiential Marketing Examples
Experiential marketing isn’t as new as you’d think it would be. As early as the 2000s marketers have been taking advantage of this type of marketing strategy to capture the attention of their potential customers. Here are five quick examples of experiential marketing campaigns that have gathered the attention of both marketers and customers all over the globe.
1. 29Rooms by Refinery29
Refinery 29 is a lifestyle brand that has perfected the art of experiential marketing. Every year they hold an event wherein attendees can enter twenty-nine different rooms. Each room comes with its own branding. This means every room has a different vibe that showcases the versatility of the Refinery29 lifestyle brand. What’s interesting about Refinery29’s 29 rooms event is how they utilize other brand partners to make the most out of their event. Depending on the theme, some rooms would come with artists, bands, food, and more.
2. Subway Piano Staircase by Volkswagen
Volkswagen’s piano staircase is probably one of the most famous examples of ambient marketing. For this experiential advertising campaign, Volkswagen tried to promote their “The Fun Theory.” For this campaign they were trying to prove that people tend to take part in activities that are fun to do.
To prove their “Fun Theory,” Volkswagen turned a normal subway staircase into an actual working piano. Each step was turned into either a black or white piano key. When people stepped on the stairs, each step made a sound. True enough, people did walk and played on the piano staircase and it became a viral advertisement back in 2009.
3. House of Vans by Vans
Another type of successful pop-up event experiential marketing is Vans’ house of vans event. For this event Vans hosted a pop-up skate park event in major cities around the United States. They used to target New York City and Chicago City so that skateboarders in the urban jungle can get together, skate, and listen to live music from featured artists and musicians.
4. FIFA World Cup VR Experience by Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a prominent player in the world of experiential marketing. One of their most recent experiential marketing campaigns was held in Zurich for the FIFA World Cup. To promote the globally acclaimed sport, Coca-Cola created a Virtual Reality booth where people can stand in front of a camera and see themselves in a big screen together with a FIFA player.
What’s great about Coca-Cola’s VR experience is how they made it into an interactive game where people can play a game of football with their chosen players. It’s a truly immersive advertisement that has effectively showcased what you can expect to experience from the FIFA World Cup.
