The definition of an experiential event depends upon a brand’s budget and desired exposure:

• Mega Events: Some gatherings focus on attracting celebrities, industry influencers, potential partners, and media exposure. They feature speakers, VIP guests, demos, parties, prizes, and entertainment during events that can last for days or span several different locations. Venues, booths, tents, and tables can create events-within-events that add impactful fun.
• Guerilla Campaigns: Guerilla marketing, or street-level marketing, sends droves of brand ambassadors into the crowd on a mission—typically with free samples, flyers, or some other type of value proposition. These events can be organized in conjunction with a retail partner, a festival, at a park, outside a mass transit station, at a shopping mall, or in night clubs.
• Pop-Up Shops: Pop-ups are all the buzz these days, whether it’s a toy store outside the subway station, a perfume hut in the park, or a food stall erected in a previously vacant spot. Pop-ups allow merchants to demo, educate, “wow” with technology, and sell right on the premises.
• Exclusive Experiences: Rewarding loyal fans with exclusive “invitation only” VIP experiences is another way to express gratitude and stay at the forefront of shoppers’ minds. The gesture can create an incentive for others to reach new spending tiers, whether it’s to receive a few hours of early or late shopping; special hors d’oeuvres and cocktail hours in a VIP lounge; or entertainment at a popular restaurant, theater, or sporting event.

QR Codes

QR codes allow mobile users to interact with a brand seamlessly, without having to download an app or type an address into their web browser. With a quick camera scan interaction, shoppers are instantly redirected to a well-thought-out virtual brand experience. QR codes are ideal for late stages of the buying journey when shoppers may need just a little more information before buying. QR codes on product labels or point of purchase signage can direct users to comparisons with other brands, provide more information on pricing, or explain raw material sourcing.

Location-Based Marketing

Smartphone users are often on their phones frequently ending searches with the phrase “near me.” Linking an experiential campaign to location-based keywords is one way to integrate mobile into experiential marketing events and increase foot traffic. Location-based mobile marketing can also be used to send loyalty members special perks during events. For instance, attendees at Disney’s Coco Live event in LA received exclusive photos of stage performers for sharing on social media. At another event, baseball game participants made themselves into virtual baseball cards or bobbleheads and shared with friends.

Mobile Apps

Mobile apps have become the latest frontier in experiential marketing. Experiential retail doesn’t have to be extreme to be effective. Sometimes simply having the right products in the right place at the right time is enough to meet expectations, while the availability of an app provides the added stimulation needed to make a lasting impression. Brands needn’t have their own app to engage. Shopkick is a well-known shopping app that brands can partner with to create experiential campaigns in-store. Users interact with brands in exchange for rewards points they can redeem on gift cards.

Bomb Pop—the iconic red, white, and blue popsicle brand—partnered with Shopkick to take advantage of the power of mobile in experiential marketing. App users received in-app content encouraging them to add the brand to their grocery lists. Upon arrival at the store, shoppers were greeted with a branded message and received points for scanning and purchasing the product. Shopkick’s scavenger-hunt-link gamification model turned what would have been a mundane shopping trip into a memorable experience. Bomb Pop received over 23 million impressions in two months; 44% of shoppers first learned about the brand through Shopkick, and 68% of purchasers had not been planning to buy prior to engaging in a fun app experience. 

The many types of experiential marketing offer brands a wealth of possibilities. With Shopkick, brands have the opportunity to develop an experiential marketing campaign that makes the right impact in the right place at the right time with the right person. Shopkick is experiential—it creates a fun, unique, and memorable experience by leveraging technology that engages smartphone-wielding customers at home, in-store, and online.