Sample promotion campaigns
In this post, we'll be taking a deep dive into what experiential marketing is and share 14 of the coolest campaigns that break down how this strategy effectively works. By examining these campaigns, you'll be able to apply the lessons learned to your own business to get the most out of your advertising efforts.
Experiential marketing, also called 'engagement marketing', is a marketing strategy that invites an audience to interact with a business in a real-world situation.
Using participatory, hands-on, and tangible branding material, the business can show its customers not just what the company offers, but what it stands for.
Experiential marketing also known as xm marketing, engagement marketing, event marketing, on the ground marketing, live marketing, or participation marketing , might sound a bit like event marketing, which makes sense — experiential campaigns do tend to be event-centric.
But there are also times when they have nothing to do with a specific event, as you'll see from the examples we picked. When an engagement marketing campaign is event-centric, it's dedicated less to the type of event — like a concert, festival, conference, etc.
If you already have an event in the works, check out this guide to adding experiential elements to it. Drive business growth with strategic marketing campaigns. This template includes sections for:.
An experiential marketer is in charge of creating and executing on the strategy for a client's live, interactive marketing campaigns or in-person events. An experiential marketer's role is similar to a brand ambassador, event planner, or brand manager, and typically involves the following duties:.
According to Forbes , experiential marketing can bolster a lasting connection between customers and a brand. It can also allow you to collect vital data about participating consumers, which can then help you improve your strategy. These campaigns can take an integrated approach. The primary purpose is to experience a brand in a tangible, offline way, but you'll still want an online dialogue around it.
A branded hashtag , for example, can get people talking about the experience. The highly anticipated film, Barbie, has been creatively marketed to fans of all ages and backgrounds — through unique trailers and immersive generative AI that let you become your own Barbie doll cover.
By visiting the website BarbieSelfie. ai , users were greeted with the message, "Welcome to Barbie Land, where you can be Barbie or Ken. Click below to become an instant icon! Greta Gerwig's interpretation of Barbie supposedly leans into all the diverse and rare releases of Mattel toys, and their marketing team built on that idea by making an AI tool that allows users to identify as professionals in different fields, personalities, and color stories.
This marketing campaign is a good example of an experiential marketing campaign as it makes moviegoers feel good to see themselves represented in the coming Barbie movie and makes them feel as though they're a part of the Barbie fantasy experience that kids and now adults feel when they play with Barbie products.
It also serves as movie promotion between friends, family, and followers as those who post the photos spread the movie release date as every image has its premiere date, July 21st, , on every image generated. Red Bull has been at the forefront of extreme sports coverage for almost as long as the brand has existed.
But the company brought its content marketing to new heights — a world-record height, actually. Affectionately named Stratos, Red Bull's superterrestrial marketing campaign featured Felix Baumgartner, a skydiver from Austria who partnered with Red Bull to set the world record for highest skydive.
To pull off this amazing stunt, Red Bull housed Felix in a small communication capsule and sent him up to the stratosphere using a large helium-filled balloon.
And what's truly remarkable is that his ascent and preparation to jump, alone, allowed him to break another record before landing safely back on Earth spoiler alert : Red Bull streamed the entire event online, and saw the highest viewing traffic of any live stream ever broadcast on YouTube — at just over 8 million viewers.
Want to see that experience again? Check out Red Bull's recap video below. I won't lie, I indulged in a rewatching as I wrote this article. The rooms are designed and created with brand partners, who range from personalities like artists and musicians, to consumer-facing companies like Dunkin' Donuts, Dyson, and Cadillac.
Each year, 29Rooms has a different theme, with this year's being "Turn It Into Art. A truly hands-on experience, indeed. It's disconcerting how many commercials today tell women to change something about themselves.
Sitting on the couch and watching TV for just two minutes, I had already lost count of the number of times that message came up. That's why it's so refreshing to see brands like Lean Cuisine, whose marketing used to center solely on weight loss, stray from diet-centric messaging. And its WeighThis campaign is a great example of just that.
As part of the campaign, Lean Cuisine curated a gallery of "scales" in New York's Grand Central Station, and invited women to "weigh in. And rather than focusing on their weight in pounds — or anything pertaining to body image — the women opted to be measured by things like being back in college at 55, caring for homeless children each day, or being the sole provider to four sons.
What's particularly cool about this experience is that none of the participants actually interact with a Lean Cuisine product. No one was interrupted, asked to sample something, or stopped to answer questions.
In fact, no one was really asked to do anything — the display itself was enough to make people stop, observe, and then voluntarily interact. Lean Cuisine figured out what message it wanted to send: "Sure, we make stuff that fits into a healthy lifestyle.
But don't forget about your accomplishments. That matters more than the number on the scale. Still, the experience was clearly branded, to make sure people associated it with Lean Cuisine. The company's Twitter handle and a branded hashtag were featured on the display in large text, which made it easy for people to share the experience on social media.
The experience included "flavor rooms", which were each complete with decor and fragrances unique to a certain flavor. In today's digital-first world, a good experience doesn't have to be in-person. But traditionally, consumers still want to test out new makeup products before purchasing — which created a challenge for Benefit Cosmetics during the worldwide pandemic, in which most retail locations were closed.
To draw attention to its new Magnet Extreme Lengthening Mascara, Benefit, working with Because Creative Experiences , chose to create an immersive experience in which users could collect tokens and exchange those tokens for discounts, mascaras, or virtual beauty consultations on Benefit's website.
Best of all, they used Augmented Reality to create a fun, unique experience for their users. Here's how it worked: Once users signed into Benefit's Virtual Reality platform, they were asked to drop their location.
Next, thanks to Augmented Reality, the prospects could use their phones to find tokens in their physical space. I mage Source.
Tough to remember, right? We're kind of a species of "mindless swipers" — globally, an estimated billion non-cash transactions are made each year. And knowing how often we whip out our cards, German relief NGO Misereor decided to put our bad habit to good use with its charitable giving billboard.
It was what they called SocialSwipe. Set up in airports, these digital posters would display images of some problems that Misereor works to resolve — hunger was depicted with a loaf of bread, for example. Even cooler? Needless to say, this experience required a lot of coordination — with banks, airports, and a mobile payment platform.
Because of that, the experience couldn't just be a one-time occurrence. Referral programs use cashback and other rewards to encourage existing customers, also known as advocates, to refer their friends.
Referral programs are proven to be one of the most effective mechanisms for sourcing new customers. This applies to both the cost and quality of new customers they bring in.
Find out all you need to know about referral programs in our definitive referral program playbook. Many promotion marketing mechanisms are also great for increasing brand loyalty. It should come as no surprise that loyalty programs are the most popular promotion mechanism for increasing customer loyalty.
Loyalty programs offer customers rewards and other incentives depending on how often they shop or how much they spend. But most other promotion mechanisms can help increase brand loyalty too. The more a brand offers its customers in the way of rewards and incentives, the more likely they are to continue shopping with that brand in the future.
Different types of loyalty programs and promotions help you generate granular data , i. The more granular your data is, the better you'll be able to identify and target the right customers.
A major benefit of granular data for businesses is the ability to leverage specific items, or item categories in their promotion campaigns.
Through a combination of all the business objectives mentioned above, promotion marketing can also help brands establish a presence in new markets. For example, a series of promotions specifically targeted toward customers in a new market can help a brand stand out from local competitors.
This concept allows you to classify all marketing-related activities into four distinct categories - Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Promotion marketing is an essential part of the marketing mix, and it has an important influence over many aspects of Product, Price, and Place.
It plays a role in everything, from how you merchandise your products, to positioning against competitors and even where you sell. Different promotion marketing mechanisms are used to target different segments of the 4 Ps.
For example, geofencing lets you choose precisely where you want certain products to be promoted. Meanwhile, product bundles act more specifically on your product offering and discounts allow you to directly alter your price positioning.
As an online business, improving customer engagement, driving ROI, winning new customers, and increasing revenue while maintaining low promotion costs is no easy task.
To achieve your promotion goals, you need a well-executed promotion marketing strategy to effectively incentivize customers. Optimizing your digital marketing strategy with target promotions is a smart investment for any business looking to scale, reduce customer acquisition costs and increase revenue.
The following statistics demonstrate the significant value of promotion marketing:. To get started, we recommend building your strategy with the following core promotions: coupons, discounts, referral rewards, loyalty programs, and product bundling. Promotion Ideas: 8 amazing email promotions you actually open.
Promotion Ideas: 8 great coupon campaigns you need right now. Promotion Ideas: Referral marketing: 4 easy ways to get more customers. Promotion Strategy: If a customer makes 5 purchases, offer them a special VIP discount for a partner service e. restaurant gift card, shopping center voucher, movie tickets.
Promotion Ideas: Talon. Promotion Ideas: Product bundling - How to get it right. If you want to see just how effective promotion marketing can be, simply look at some of our hand-picked star promotion campaigns from well-known brands. Most of the brands you shop and interact with every day will have their own promotion marketing campaigns.
These brands can give you ideas for your own promotions, and they also offer valuable insights into Best Practices. Uber is well known for its referral program which offers riders and drivers bonuses when they refer new users.
KFC received a cold reception when it first set foot in the Japanese market. At least not until KFC started promoting it as a traditional dish that American families enjoyed at Christmas.
KFC is now the most popular fast food brand in Japan, feeding 3. Some common promotion marketing mechanisms can be set up without any digital infrastructure whatsoever, i. in-store discounts. But setting up digital promotions for your business requires significant investment if you decide to build your own solution in-house.
To avoid additional costs and time constraints, many brands opt for a third-party promotion solution instead. This includes referral programs, loyalty programs, geofenced promotions, coupons, discounts, and much more.
To launch these types of campaigns, your business should ensure it has a flexible and secure promotion infrastructure in place to power a variety of use cases. With a Promotion Engine like Talon. One, you can create, manage and track all your discounts, coupons, referral campaigns, and loyalty programs in one holistic solution.
Once you have a Promotion Engine integrated, you can effectively scale your promotions to achieve your business goals.
You can then monitor, analyze and adjust your campaigns in real-time to fit specific customer segments and market conditions. Promotions help businesses work towards all sorts of objectives, including brand awareness, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, increasing sales, and increasing customer base.
Promotion marketing plays an integral role in all corners of the marketing mix and can help businesses with each of the 4 Ps Product, Price, Place, Promotion.
These examples of great marketing campaigns will inspire you to create your own winning campaign and ads 20+ Successful Marketing Campaign Examples That'll Inspire You · 1. Coca-Cola's Share a Coke Campaign · 2. Dove's Real Beauty Campaign · 3 Learn from some of the best email marketing campaigns we've seen, plus tips and an email planning template to help you get started on your