Consumers today expect a more personalized, relevant customer experience from the brands they support, making the creation of a more memorable CX a top priority for many brands in 2023. A brand’s CX begins with its very first touch point with a potential customer, and exceptional experiences are key at every stage of the marketing funnel—from building brand awareness to converting prospects and fostering loyalty.
The most popular experience-based marketing tactics evolve from year to year, and approaches to engaging target consumers will vary according to the type of business, with some being better suited to sparking interest in certain industries than others. Below, 15 members of Forbes Agency Council each share a real or hypothetical example of great experiential marketing within a specific industry or space and explain what makes this approach so effective.
Members pictured from left to right.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.1. Pop-Up Restaurants In The Food Industry
An example of effective experiential marketing within the food industry is the creation of a pop-up restaurant. This approach immerses customers in the brand experience, creating a memorable moment that is unique and engaging. It also allows customers to connect with the brand in a meaningful way, creating an emotional bond that can last beyond the event. - Justin Kline, Markerly Inc.
2. Automotive Test Drives In Various Environments
An automotive brand creates a test drive experience that allows customers to test drive the car in a variety of different environments and scenarios, such as city driving, off-roading and highway driving. This approach is effective because it allows customers to experience the car’s capabilities and performance in a way that is more engaging and memorable than a traditional test drive. - Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day
3. Custom-Designed, Interactive Spaces For Trade Shows
Why go to a trade show if you are just going to have a table with print materials and a retractable banner? To encourage visitors to experience the brand, we worked with a client on a custom-designed shipping container that was plopped in the middle of the trade show floor. The container literally brought the showroom floor to visitors and created three interactive spaces with hands-on activities. - Nate Reusser, Reusser Design
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4. Afterparties For Cannabis Conference Attendees
We recently attended MJBizCon. It’s an incredible event, but the main floor can get too overwhelming to effectively focus on business. My company hosted one of the event afterparties, where past, current and future clients could socialize in a less hectic environment. Carving out this time was incredibly effective in helping us market and connect more personally with new clients. - Evan Nison, NisonCo
5. ‘Cocktail Labs’ For Community-Oriented Brands
Experiential marketing events—such as a “cocktail lab” where attendees can create their own custom cocktails—can be effective because they allow people to have a personal and interactive experience with a brand. It builds a sense of community and creates a positive, memorable experience that attendees are more likely to share with others. This can help create buzz and drive word-of-mouth marketing. - David Phan, PHANERS
6. Customizable AR Opportunities At Car Shows
Incorporating augmented reality at car shows by offering attendees the opportunity to customize, build and drive concept cars can showcase the innovation, design language and vision of a car manufacturer to get attendees excited about the brand. Making the content shareable will extend the concept beyond car enthusiasts to build recognition and anticipation among the general public. - Larry Gurreri, Sosemo LLC
7. VR Migraine Experiences For Caregivers In Healthcare
Many clinicians don’t fully understand the deleterious impact of migraines on people’s everyday lives. This is, in part, due to the stigma migraines carry as being “a dramatic version of headaches”; thus, there’s low urgency on the part of clinicians to provide treatment. GlaxoSmithKline created a virtual reality experience featuring the full spectrum of effects from a migraine for healthcare providers. Afterward, they reported feeling more empathy and taking more aggressive treatment approaches for patients. - Natanya Wachtel, New Solutions Network
8. Live, Interactive Versions Of Games Coming To Market
Experiential marketers could host an event or party featuring a live, interactive version of a game coming to market. Turn the meeting room for future players into a little “Comic-Con corner,” where all the organizers are dressed up as the game’s characters and the room’s space corresponds to the game’s setting. No small talk or tedious presentations—just a real opportunity to dive headfirst into the game. - Dmitrii Kustov, Regex SEO
9. A Mobile Food Truck To Promote Tourism And Health
Wyman’s Blueberries in Maine has “Bee Wild Mobile,” a food truck that goes to events and serves people samples of wild blueberries as a tourism experience. The idea is to give people a sample of this delicious fruit and educate them about the health benefits of wild blueberries and the role of bees as pollinators. This is a big part of the brand’s overall mission to help the world eat more fruit. - Nancy Marshall, Marshall Communications
10. Virtual Real Estate In The Metaverse For CBD Clients
We’ve started buying virtual real estate in the metaverse and are experimenting with ways to create a brand presence for our cannabis and CBD clients. These are realistic 3D buildings with immersive experiences online users can interact with and make purchases from. We’re also setting up billboard space in high-traffic areas. The ideal demographic is literally walking around looking for things to do. - Michael Chagala, Rank Harvest SEO
11. Immersive VR City Experiences In The Travel Industry
In the tourism and travel industry, sometimes you have to bring your destination to your potential visitors before they will visit your destination. One experiential marketing technique we created was a full VR immersion in other cities around the country so that people could experience the wonder of Arizona, for example, without leaving home. - Roger Hurni, Off Madison Ave
12. Livestreaming Integrations In The E-Commerce Space
I absolutely love the integration between livestreaming and e-commerce as a part of experiential marketing. You can now see an uptick in the number of brands that are using livestreams as a way to engage their audience on a deeper level and nudge them to make purchases while they get a look at and feel for the product. Adding filters that make it easy to virtually try products on can make it even better! - Vanhishikha Bhargava, Contensify
13. A ‘Wishing Wall’ To Promote A Fitter New Year
The NYE Wishing Wall was great experiential marketing. You could visit the website and add a wish for the new year. Scrolling through other people’s wishes was both humbling and inspiring. All wishes were printed and turned into confetti for the Times Square New Year’s Eve event. Sponsored by Planet Fitness, it had high visibility but no “ask” or call to action, allowing everyone to be part of the collective experience. - Marc Hardgrove, The HOTH
14. Personal, Printable, Shareable Comic Strips At A Marvel Conference
In 2022, I attended a conference where Marvel was presenting photo booths that put people in their own personal, printable comic strip. Beyond this, the one-page comic story could also be shared to your social profiles. You can’t beat putting prospective clients into a live experience that locks your brand in their brains. Even at a massive conference, this made the experience a personal one. - Bernard May, National Positions
15. A Burlap Glove To Promote Eczema Awareness
In healthcare communications, it is often difficult for someone who is not affected to understand the burden of a disease, and equally hard for the media to appreciate why promoting awareness is necessary. A campaign about a common but life-altering skin disease called eczema sent members of the media a glove made of rough burlap material to help them feel the extreme itch and scratch associated with the disease. - Carol Levine, energi PR Inc
