This month, Swedish furniture giant IKEA launched an interesting campaign in Paris. Using four high traffic metro stations as their venue, they displayed furniture collections on the subway platforms. The subway walls were also lined with prints showcasing interiors of IKEA’s showrooms transforming the stations into living rooms. This interesting, interactive campaign gave potential customers a chance to interact directly with the brand and try out products in a memorable atmosphere where commuters can comfortably wait for their train in style. Sure, this campaign is risky with the extremely high possibility of vandalism and damage done to the furniture and wouldn’t work in every subway station but this experiential marketing campaign will no doubt be talked and tweeted about long after it has ended.
Experiential marketing, utilizing unique marketing tactics giving consumers the opportunity to engage and interact with brands to create an emotional connection based on a branded experience, continues to evolve, finding new approaches to connect with consumers. One of the most interesting is the latest campaign from Pepsi’s Tropicana brand. In January, Tropicana traveled to the northern Canadian town of Inuvik, which experiences weeks of constant darkness during the winter, to brighten their day. Knowing the adverse effects of 31 days without sunshine they decided to bring them the sun. This seemingly impossible task was accomplished by constructing an inflatable electric powered artificial sun that was raised high above the town. While the locals gathered to watch the sunrise they were given bottles of Tropicana. Not a bad way to market your brand when you want to be associated with morning sunshine. The best part of video was the people’s reactions as they gathered to bask in the “sunshine” with an astonished look on their face. Instead of simply distributing product samples, Tropicana made it an event that will not be soon forgotten. This experiential campaign was especially effective because of the strong emotional connection they made with customers with the unique experience, they will always remember how Tropicana came to their town and did the impossible. They managed to give them an unforgettable experience that is impossible to duplicate at the perfect time and were able to center the whole experience on their brand.
As experiential and guerilla marketing techniques are used more frequently to make a stronger connection between the consumer and the brand I predict we will see more campaigns like this. After all providing customers with an experience centered on your brand is the best way to make an emotional connection and foster a strong brand relationship that will last long after the campaign is over.
