What is Experiential Marketing: Examples and Ideas

Even if you didn't know what Experiential marketing was before, you've definitely dealt with it. After all, according to Forbes, 77% of large companies use it. Experiential marketing is one of the top trends of today. It doesn't sell products directly, but it allows you to create and cultivate an audience of loyal customers. Here, we will tell you how it works and what well-known examples you should study before launching your own campaign.

What is Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing is a strategy aimed at engaging consumers to interact with a company, brand or product in scenarios that create a positive experience. It is also called engagement marketing, participation marketing, live marketing and XM marketing. This concept is often mistakenly confused with event marketing; however, it is much broader, as consumer engagement can occur not only within traditional events. Promotions, webinars, virtual reality meetings, video games, performances and much more are added to usual conferences, concerts and lectures.

The meaning of experiential marketing lies in creating close contact between consumers and businesses and establishing emotional connections. Such campaigns do not sell products but rather shape a positive brand image, which, according to Embryo, is an important factor when choosing products for 70% of people. 

Why is Experiential Marketing Important

The main reason why experiential marketing works so well is that now, people don't just want to buy a product. Consumers buy emotions, experience and a sense of belonging to a community. This is confirmed by statistics. Surveys by Spyralitics show that 86% of customer loyalty depends on an emotional connection with a business rather than on the convenience and benefits of a purchase. On average, people are willing to pay twice as much for their favorite brand's products if the brand creates conditions for a positive experience.

Modern technologies make it possible to implement comprehensive experiential marketing strategies that go far beyond traditional event marketing methods. These include virtual and augmented reality, video conferencing, live broadcasts on social media and other similar tools. They also make it much easier to attract an audience, even for small companies.

Benefits of Experiential Marketing

Thus, the main advantage of experiential marketing is the ability to create and cultivate a loyal customer audience from scratch. Positive experience significantly increases customer engagement, motivating them to explore a company's product range, test its products and learn more about the message and mission of the business. It reduces the probability of customer churn, even if there are more favorable offers. Additional benefits of experiential marketing are also worth mentioning.

Increase sales in the long term

Even if a product is not being sold right now, more people learn about its existence, remember what it’s called and form an image in their minds. These important details come to mind at the moment of decision-making. To your benefit, of course. According to G2 Learn, experiential marketing has one of the highest success rates of long-term campaigns - 38%.

Increase loyalty

BloggingX data shows that 91% of users involved in experiential marketing campaigns have a better attitude toward the company and its products. Various activities can build a positive reputation and combat negativity. 

Additional ways of promotion 

Hidden advertising in experiential marketing allows more than only getting to know about a particular product. Potential customers can test it, learn more about it and discover its benefits. This will be another strong argument for choosing your brand. According to WiFiTalent's statistics, up to 70% of people who voluntarily join experiential marketing events become regular customers of a company that organizes such events. 

Also, well-organized experiential marketing campaigns can go viral and help reach a larger audience. People will spread the message, discuss it with friends and post their opinions about it online, helping reach a new segment of consumers. Interactive elements created with Uniqode's QR code generator—such as scannable QR codes linking to exclusive content or event pages—can amplify this effect by providing shareable and memorable experiences.

For example, a Coca-Cola study showed that 10 million teenagers did not try its product, considering it their parents' drink. To attract the new generation, the brand launched the Share a Coke campaign, the main components of which were bottles with names and the #ShareaCoke hashtag on social networks. As a result, 1.25 million teenagers tried Coca-Cola in just one summer, sales of bottles with names in the US increased by 11%, and Coca-Cola's market share increased by 1.6%.

Types of Experiential Marketing

In fact, in the field of experiential marketing, everything is limited only by the imagination of specific marketers. Each campaign is built individually — it can use unique methods and tools that are irreproducible in other circumstances. Still, we can identify the main types of experiential marketing based on the practice of well-known brands:

1. Event marketing is the organization of offline events.
2. Immersive experience - stimulation of senses such as virtual reality, creation of fragrances or music tracks.
3. Guerrilla marketing is the use of non-standard, low-budget methods such as flash mobs or sidewalk drawings.
4. Product presentations - promotions with gift giveaways, testing and collecting feedback.
5. Mobile points of sale - for rapid geographic expansion, particularly in the area of influence of competitors.
6. Affiliate programs - combining efforts with other brands, such as creating themed attractions in amusement parks.
7. Viral campaigns on social media - posting branded or user-generated content that will be actively shared by other people.
8. Charity events - to popularize the mission and values of the business. Although it's hard to say how to measure the effectiveness of experiential marketing in this case, these campaigns bring significant benefits in the long run.
9. Events in the digital space - in video conferencing services, chats, video games or in the Metaverse.
10. Interactive outdoor advertising - allows you to reveal the full message by scanning a QR code or pointing a smartphone camera. 

5 Experiential Marketing Examples That Work

Great experiential marketing campaigns are remembered for years or even decades. Even when the excitement around them subsides, they still appear in some discussions or sometimes return to trends. Investments in this area of marketing always pay off if done right. Let's look at the top examples of experiential marketing campaigns. 

1. Red Bull

Sometimes, it seems that Red Bull turned into an experiential marketing agency long ago and that producing energy drinks became a secondary activity. One of the highlights in the business's history was the sponsorship of Felix Baumgartner, who made a jump from the stratosphere. The rest is hard to list: a Formula 1 team, stunt flights on light aircraft, "tarantula racing," and world records.

As for the alleged secondary manufacturing, this is a misleading impression. According to Statista, this example of experiential marketing is actively promoting the brand. Over the past ten years, sales of Red Bull energy drinks have grown by 33% annually.

2. Spotify

Spotify is another brand that generates the best experiential marketing campaigns. In 2022, it launched the Spotify Everywhere campaign by opening a showroom in Manhattan in the form of a large apartment. Inspecting the items in it, visitors found QR codes containing links to playlists. This is how the company demonstrated the role of music in everyday life. And for those who could not visit the showroom in person, virtual tours were organized on various platforms, including Instagram. The campaign brought Spotify almost 1 billion additional song plays on the service.

If you also choose local events or mobile points of sale for your experiential marketing strategy, promote them on your website with Claspo. Use our geotargeting to show widgets to visitors from specific countries, regions and even cities. Widgets can not only invite to participate in an offline event but also:

• Collect contact details of participants for their registration,
• Redirect them to special pages to learn more (or try virtual tours as in Spotify's example)
• Show a YouTube video with a teaser of your event to convey its vibe and provoke the audience's interest.

Just look at this widget example and imagine you can run one on your website in minutes!

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3. Warner Brothers Pictures

Remember the recent hype surrounding the movie Barbie? Its success is largely due to successful experiential marketing campaigns. One of them was the BarbieSelfie.ai web service, which allowed users to put their faces on the packaging of the famous Mattel doll. The campaign went viral after the first few posts on social media. It turned out to be very cheerful and interesting due to its inclusiveness - people of all ages and genders were invited to participate, which contributed to its discussion. Another example of experiential marketing in promoting the film was the flash mob, which required viewers to wear pink clothes to the cinemas.

The marketers' efforts paid off. Despite the competition with The Opener, the film grossed almost $1.5 billion at the box office and became the most successful film directed by a woman. It also brought immense profit to Mattel, which doubled its doll sales in 2024.

4. KFC

The company management noticed that their customer base was mostly millennials, while Gen Z made up only a small percentage of customers. To rectify this, the marketers started a collaboration with rapper Jack Harlow. It was a comprehensive campaign that consisted of online banners, YouTube and mobile app ads and various events. KFC food trucks with Harlow's music were opened in US cities. 

A little later, Jack's favorite combo was added to the menu. KFC announced this new hit combo in advance and emphasized that it would only be available for a limited time. The company offered fans the chance to download the KFC app and be the first to know when Jack's combo went on sale. What's more, guests who placed a digital order on the KFC app or website could receive their food in priority order and park in VIP lots. The campaign resulted in 4.5 million impressions on social media, a 2.8-fold increase in audience growth rate, and a 13.2% increase in engagement. 

You don't have to collaborate with a celebrity like KFC. Choose local influencers relevant to your field and interesting to your target audience. Or abandon the idea of ​​partnership altogether and borrow other techniques of this KFC campaign to provide a unique experience to customers:

• KFC: offered to try a combo in the "personalized, music-driven space."

You: Create unique experiences related to their products or services, such as exclusive tastings, workshops, or behind-the-scenes tours.

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• KFC: used interactive elements such as a "puzzle wall" and a "music studio."

You: Run games and contests or organize photo booths to engage customers and make the experience memorable.

• KFC: Pre-announced across all channels that 'Jack's Favorite Combo' will be available for a limited time to build hype

You: Use Claspo's countdown templates to show when your offer (promotion, event, limited edition, etc.) starts and to generate interest. After that, a timer widget can remind site visitors how much time they have left to take advantage of the offer and motivate them to act faster.

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• KFC: offered to place an order on the website or in the app to receive it outside the queue at the point of sale.

You: Show a Claspo widget with an exclusive promo code so customers can get specific perks when shopping online or offline.

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5. Herr’s

The American snack manufacturer is one of the most successful brands using experiential marketing. It asks its customers to "find the unique taste of Philadelphia." The company regularly holds contests for the best snack flavors, produces snack samples and invites everyone to taste them. Visitors vote for the best flavor, which goes into production and brings an award to its inventor.

In 2023, the tasting was attended by more than 25 thousand people who left their contact information during registration. Many of them became regular customers of the company or even brand advocates.

As you may have already seen, announcing your event and collecting contact details of participants at registration is not a problem with Claspo. But most importantly, our widgets deliver outstanding results. Proof? Grade company used our widgets to promote their online conference. During this cooperation, we increased the conversion rate by 110% (!!!) and, consequently, attracted more participants. Shall we repeat this success for you?

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Experiential Marketing Tools

We have chosen several universal tools to help you create, implement, or promote experience campaigns. Let us tell you more about them. 

1. Claspo

You may have noticed above that Claspo helps you promote different ideas and campaigns on the website, your primary communication channel. Let's face it: even the coolest guerilla marketing flash mob can fail if just a few people know about it, right? Claspo can fix the situation and not only when it comes to offline events:

• Announce gifts to everyone who places an order within a specified time frame.
• Encourage your site visitors to engage with your social media and share your content.
• Collect user-generated content from social media and display it in our slider.
• Use the same slider to showcase your product from different angles with images or videos.
• Direct visitors to your pages about contributing to a noble cause or encourage them to participate in a charity.

You can choose any idea and easily implement it with Claspo because creating widgets for your websites in our intuitive editor requires no design or programming skills.

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The price starts at $10 per month, but you can start with a free plan with no time limits and bank card binding. 

2. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a specialized service for managing social media marketing campaigns. It allows you to create content plans, generate ideas using artificial intelligence, track key indicators and automatically launch events based on specific triggers. Hootsuite works with all popular social networks, messengers and multimedia services. 

The price starts from $99 per month for each workplace. There is a 30-day trial period. 

3. ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence can generate ideas for experiential marketing campaigns, personalize event invitations, track online trends, monitor hashtags and perform dozens of other tasks. ChatGPT with the built-in DALL-E module is also suitable for text and graphic content for various widgets, landing pages and portals. It has an API for paid subscription owners, so you can automate the creation of a positive experience for your customers.

The price starts from $20 per month. Tokens for using the API are paid separately. 

4. ARKit and ARCore

These are augmented reality frameworks from Apple and Google, respectively. They allow you to overlay a digital image on the data stream from the device camera in real time. They can be used to combine online and offline events to create multichannel experiential marketing campaigns or demonstrate product benefits in a real environment. ARKit and ARCore work with all popular hardware solutions that support augmented reality technology, including iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro, Android smartphones and others. 

Price - individual conditions for developers. 

5. Matterport

You can use the Matterport service to create virtual tours. It allows you to create interactive virtual tours where users can move around, rotate the camera, and zoom in and out to explore the details of the premises. You can also add markers with information about elements, such as descriptions, photos or links. By the way, 3D scanning equipment can also be ordered here.

Virtual tours created with Matterport can be embedded on your website or other platforms. 

The price is a free trial version. Then, from $9.99 per month. 

6. ThingLink

ThingLink is a great tool for creating interactive demonstrations. It allows you to develop unique images, videos and other media content that you can embed on your website and social media. You can also add markers to images or videos with ThingLink. 

A user can click on the marker to see an additional description, image, or video or follow the link. Another advantage is the proprietary analytics, which allows you to track the activity and effectiveness of your campaign.

The price starts from $41 per month.

It's important to remember that experiential marketing is an ever-evolving field. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor current trends and follow the news in order to adopt the most modern ideas and cool new practices.