Experiential Enters Its Renaissance Era

Here’s an invitation to controlled chaos: Grab a baseball bat or crowbar and start wailing on an array of small appliances and culinary staples like toaster ovens and dinner plates, watching metal twist and glass fly. If that’s not cathartic enough, hurl a razor-sharp chef’s knife at a target while Gordon Ramsay’s disembodied voice supplies a tough-love motivational soundtrack. As a promotion for the new season of reality competition show Kitchen Nightmares, the Fox network set up “rage rooms” in five American cities this fall, giving consumers with simmering aggression and a modicum of upper-body strength a safe way to vent. More recently, Netflix kicked off a real-life approximation of its blockbuster South Korean import with “Squid Game: The Trials” in Los Angeles, promising “a series of escalating challenges” to competitors bold enough to face the diabolical Front Man and answer the ominous question, “Would you like to play a game with me?” It’s red light, green light—the nonlethal version. On the opposite end of the spectrum—but no less heart-pumping, if tony merchandise is an adrenaline rush—luxury retailer Neiman Marcus intertwined its famous annual “fantasy gifts” with more bespoke activities than ever. The goal—per the chain’s president, Ryan Ross—was to “create unforgettable moments” that dovetail into one-of-a-kind holiday presents. For example, giftees could sail through Indonesia on a treasure hunt with Pelorus Yachting, become a Disney animated character or design a masterpiece out of Baccarat crystal. These immersive programs serve as noteworthy codas in a year that overflowed with brand-backed activations of every stripe, which helped broaden the definition of experiential marketing in 2023. 'Ambitious and innovative time' While the industry snapped back into action in 2022—finally freed of pandemic-era restrictions—it further blossomed this past year, according to its practitioners. “This is the most ambitious and innovative time I’ve ever seen in experiential,” Laura Mignott, global chief experiential officer at VMLY&R Commerce, told Adweek. “Brands are taking risks, they are showing up in more culturally relevant spaces and are also being smart with their money.” Though experiential as a tactic may still be “undervalued in the marketing mix,” per The Bait Shoppe’s founder, Evan Starkman, its benefits are becoming increasingly obvious to a range of companies. "We do 10 times more experiential than we did five years ago," Jon Cook, global CEO of VMLY&R, which will be rebranded VML in 2024, told Adweek. "And since the return of events, brands are using experiential as a way to reintroduce themselves into the lives of consumers." The move is driven by the potential impact, with Mignott noting a significant “uptick in the amount of legacy brands that are going full force into experiential, I think in large part because it converts and it’s a core element to driving sales, CRM and brand awareness,” she said. “Experiential is a conduit to earned media and a chance to build deeper relationships with consumers.” Post-lockdown demand has surged, with a recent study from Experian finding that 63% of Gen Z and 59% of millennials would rather spend money on “life experiences” like travel and concerts than save for retirement. Overall spending on experiences has jumped by 65% in the U.S. between 2019 and 2023, per a Mastercard Travel Industry Trends Report that showed the strength of the category despite an uncertain economy. Physical activations provide an antidote to today’s ever-present ChatGPT and deepfakes, according to James Robinson, chief creative officer in North America at Momentum Worldwide. “As things on screens become more artificial, a human interaction with a brand that can’t be faked is becoming more important,” said Robinson. 2023's winning trends Against that backdrop, there was no shortage of activations vying for the fifth annual Adweek Experiential Awards. Judges inside and outside the company sifted through scores of entries, cherry-picking winners across a range of categories including Best Use of Video, Best Community-Focused, Best Mobile and Best Use of Partnership. Because of timing, the Kitchen Nightmares smashtacular, “Squid Game: The Trials,” and Neiman Marcus’ high-end bobbles weren’t in the contender group. Keep an eye out, though, because they could end up among next year’s cream of the crop. Several common threads emerged from 2023’s winners, though each project took its own unique route to meeting a brand brief, drawing in participants and producing results. Read on for a peek into the latest trends, and check out write-ups for each winner here. Solving real-world problems, aka showing your humanity Experiential often equates to entertainment, and there’s plenty of demand for pure-fun pop-up installations, whether it’s a creepy “Huluween” haunted house or a re-creation of Graceland’s iconic jungle room outside Elvis’ hometown. Some programs, though, intend to solve a nagging societal or community problem in an inventive way, leading with practicality or heart, or both. Two-time Cannes winner “The Brake Room,” from Chick-fil-A and McCann, wore compassion on its sleeve, developing a comfortable, functional, safe space for New York’s food delivery workers to rest between gigs. The project, which became a media phenomenon with 1.8 billion impressions, may repeat in the cold winter months ahead. Far from being proprietary about the project, the agency’s team hopes the idea is widely copycatted by brands, entities and local governments. “Inspiring others was very much the point,” Larry Platt, executive vice president and global executive creative director, told Adweek. “We wanted it to be an example of what’s possible.” “It was a purpose-led activation,” Danny Rodriguez, evp and global ecd, added. “It wasn’t in service of a product or selling anything—it was a way for the brand to reflect its values out in the world.” Other winners that focused on problem-solving included "Scrolling Therapy,” a mobile app from Eurofarma and Dentsu Creative that gives people with Parkinson’s disease an intuitive tool for life-enhancing facial exercises, and Corona’s “Protect Our Beaches,” an education and sustainability program from Legacy Marketing that let bar patrons turn their empty beer bottles into sand within minutes, recycling more than 231,000 pounds of glass. And in a rare treat for Los Angeles commuters—suffering with pump prices that regularly topped $6 a gallon—NBCUniversal and GDX Studios created a time-traveling promo to hype the reboot of Quantum Leap. Inflation-weary drivers could fill up their tanks for 91 cents a gallon, in honor of the 1985 setting of the original sci-fi series, addressing a major Angeleno pain point at a crucial time. Creating IP Commerce elements are inherent in experiential marketing, but brands have gone beyond mere swag in recent years, creating elevated products that drive the entire experience and intertwine the sensorial with the tangible. In a 2023 twist, marketers are developing their own intellectual property rather than tagging along as sponsors to existing events. The brands then own the IP and can use it for broader campaigns and franchise building. For software maker D2L, a leader in online learning, Toronto-based Zulu Alpha Kilo’s creatives reimagined a rigid piece of classroom equipment as a free-standing, malleable object. The “Unstandardized Desk”—with hinged panels that could be moved around to form different shapes and ways of interacting—allowed students to create their own vision of a desk to reflect how they learn. The industrial design became the unique intellectual property. “The brand believes education should be personalized to meet the needs of each student, so we picked something fixed and standard out of the school environment—a desk that hasn’t changed since our grandparents’ time—and attempted to personalize it,” Brian Murray, the agency’s chief creative officer, told Adweek. “It was a good hook to embody their philosophy—and they own it.” On a musical note, but also built from scratch, Netflix and Doritos staged the first concert “streamed from another dimension” to tout Season 4 of Stranger Things. “Live from the Upside Down” featured ’80s favorite artists like Corey Hart, The Go-Gos and Soft Cell performing amid the special effects-aided trappings of the hit series. For a different tentpole show, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Prime Video brought J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth to life at premiere parties in four global markets. Sets at the elaborate city-takeover events—punctuated by 40-foot-tall Elven towers, mountain scapes and lush forests—could have doubled as theme park attractions as streaming services and other IP owners are considering moves into place-based entertainment. Storytelling through tech The metaverse may not be living up to its early hype, and NFTs have faltered—“I’ve never seen a trend go away so fast,” per Cook—but advanced technology served as the backbone of many of this year’s winning activations. It’s not a strategy on its own, purveyors say, but a means to an end. For example, eos staged a holiday concert with none other than the Christmas queen Mariah Carey on Roblox, aiming squarely at young game-loving demos, while Amazon Music Italia launched a “synesthetic experience” with a haptic interface so consumers could feel and not just listen to singer-songwriter Marco Mengoni’s new album. Rugged outdoor brand Arc’teryx transported the Canadian mountains to urban New York—complete with gusts of arctic wind, whiteout conditions and panoramic views—and Zulu Alpha Kilo made an art installation from Sephora’s data set of 140,000 unique skin tones gathered through its Colour iQ system. The skillful mashup of tech and IRL can be more powerful than either is separately, executives said. “AI is not an idea—the question is how and why are you executing,” said Robinson, whose agency crafted a popular Coca-Cola AI music festival activation. “Tell a story and use the tech to create a more human and uplifting experience—that’s when it can be brilliant.” This story is part of our Experiential Awards special feature. Check out all the stories here.

Experiential Marketing

Experiential Enters Its Renaissance Era as Brands Take Bigger Swings

Activations of every stripe helped broaden the definition of experiential marketing in 2023

T.L. Stanley

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T.L. Stanley