What is experiential marketing: The 2025 guide

Everyone from Disney to Red Bull to your local theater company is trying to create immersive experiences. This style of experiential marketing, or engagement marketing, is all about getting folks to step outside their day-to-day lives and form core memories with your brand.

Effective experiential marketing sometimes feels like it’s reserved for mega-corporations with tons of money backing them. However, this isn’t true. At their core, these events are about meeting your customers where they are and making something for them to talk about.

If you understand what experiential marketing is, you can start to use it right away.

What is experiential marketing?

Experiential marketing can range from live events and pop-up shops to virtual reality demonstrations and interactive online campaigns. Rather than focusing entirely on the product you’re selling, your goal is to help customers experience your brand’s values, personality, and offerings in a new way.

While creating something in-person is an easy way to make it more experiential and immersive, it isn’t the only way. Video content enhances the experience in several ways. Integrate video into your event by:

• Live streaming
• Producing behind-the-scenes footage
• Sharing user-generated content
• Creating fully virtual immersive experiences

When you capture and convey the essence of these events, you can extend their reach and create an impression that lasts. For example, watching the races from Red Bull’s Crashed Ice gives a similar rush of excitement and association as attending the event live.

The benefits of experiential marketing

This style of marketing is often lauded as an ultra-effective way to build brand loyalty and connect with new customers. Experiential marketing allows you to build:

• Memorable interactions – Create a lasting impression that follows your brand into the future
• Two-way communication – Facilitate real-time dialogue between you and your customers
• Strong brand connections – Foster deep emotional connections to your brand with personal experiences
• Increased visibility – People want to share immersive experiences with the world, generating buzz for your brand online and offline
• Immediate impact – Engaging experiences can prompt instant buying decisions
• Informed purchases – If you give opportunities for folks to try before they buy, they are less likely to hesitate with your product in their carts
• Brand loyalty – Create positive memories and associations with your company
• Community building – Cultivate a loyal community with shared experiences

Creating memorable experiences is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of immersive marketing. There’s no question as to why so many companies try to harness this powerful tool.

Types of experiential marketing campaigns

Effective experiential marketing demands creativity. You want to provide an experience unlike anything your users can find with other brands. This means the types of campaigns that have happened in the past are vast and varied.

Some of the most effective styles of engagement marketing include:

• Pop-ups – A temporary store or interactive event set up in a high-traffic area. Consider offering exclusive products and experiences to generate urgency, exclusivity, and word-of-mouth promotion
• Product sampling – Offer free samples of your product in a new environment so customers can experience it firsthand
• Branded installations – Create a large-scale, artistic installation that captures attention and creates positive brand associations. It should be highly shareable on social media, encourage photos, and generate a lot of buzz
• Live events – Host a live event such as a concert, festival, or workshop that aligns with your brand values and allows customers to experience your brand in a fun and interactive way
• Influencer partnerships – Partner with popular influencers or celebrities to showcase your brand as aspirational
• Digital experiences – Utilize virtual reality, augmented reality, or other digital technologies to create immersive experiences. This makes the fun accessible to anyone and resents your company as a cutting-edge brand
• Guerrilla marketing – Use unconventional and unexpected tactics, such as flash mobs, street stunts, or creative packaging, to catch people’s attention and make a lasting impression
• Interactive social media campaigns – Engage with customers through social media channels by creating interactive experiences, user-generated content, and contests that encourage sharing and participation
• Personalized experiences – Tailor the experience to each individual customer through data-driven technology and personalized messages that make them feel special and valued by your brand

Savvy marketers will use these examples as a jumping-off point to create something unique for your brand and customers.

Key elements of an experiential marketing campaign

Even though the scope of engagement marketing is so broad, certain components tie every experience together. These elements contribute to the effectiveness of immersive campaigns, and help answer the question of “What is experiential marketing?”

Clear objectives

Without a distinct goal such as brand awareness, engagement, or lead generation, your event risks simply being an expensive, interesting blip on customers’ radars.

Audience insight

The most effective immersive marketing campaigns will make your target audience say “That was made for me.” Consider your ideal customer’s preferences, habits, and pain points when choosing an event.

Engaging storytelling

Our brains are hardwired to engage with and remember stories. Craft a compelling narrative that aligns with your brand values and message, ensuring the audience can easily connect with it.

Interactive elements

One of the biggest draws for immersive marketing is the chance to interact with a brand in a new way. Don’t forget to incorporate hands-on activities or interactive technology (e.g., VR, AR, gamification) to draw folks in.

Multisensory engagement

If you want customers to remember an experience for a long time, engage multiple senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste). The more of these you include in your experience, the more likely people are to recall your brand.

Location and timing

Every element of an event comes together to make an impact. This is why you must choose locations and times that maximize visibility and participation.

Social media integration

The people physically attending an experience are only a fraction of the target audience. These events grow your reach exponentially when they are shareable online through hashtags, contests, or live-streaming.

Brand consistency

Ultimately, an experiential marketing campaign tells people “This is our brand, and what we stand for.” You have to be able to stand by that statement and know what associations you’re making for attendees. Ensure the experience aligns with your overall branding and values for a cohesive brand image.

Examples of experiential marketing campaigns

Over the years, companies have created a language for immersive campaigns. While these events are always exciting and fresh, customers still have a baseline for what they expect from a pop-up or branded experience.

If you want to create something new or build upon the existing cannon, it’s important to understand the campaigns that have worked in the past. These are some of the most effective real-world examples of experiential marketing.

Red Bull Extreme Sports

I already mentioned Red Bull’s long-standing Crushed Ice event, but this brand has presented extreme sports of all kinds since its inception. By sponsoring events and organizing these adrenaline-pumping experiences, Red Bull creates a lasting impression on athletes and fans alike.

This model is so effective that users can watch events from anywhere and still feel like part of the action. For example, in 2012 they sponsored Felix Baumgartner’s world record skydive from the stratosphere. This event broke viewing records and had everyone talking about Red Bull for weeks.

Even though the closest most viewers got was watching a live stream, the experience of seeing a world record broken in real-time was an ultra-memorable one.

29Rooms

Refinery29 struck gold when they pioneered this interactive art exhibition. They invite attendees to explore 29 rooms filled with unique installations and experiences.

By collaborating with musicians and artists, Refinery29 ensures each room is completely unique. These partnerships let them gain social proof along the way.

However, it isn’t all an immersive stunt. Several of the rooms include product demos and workshops to give hands-on experiences with their products. This combination of art, entertainment, and branding makes for a memorable experience that lights up people’s feeds for days.

#LikeAGirl

Always wanted to create a campaign that gave people hands-on experiences and fought for a cause they cared about. #LikeAGirl did just that. This interactive experience allowed women to show off how tough they could be and prove stereotypes wrong.

By taking a stance on this hot-button issue, they were able to show off their brand values. The campaign was talked about in the media, reaching a huge audience. This made positive connections with folks, even if they couldn’t attend in person.

Guinness Storehouse

Rather than betting everything on a single event, Guinness has given customers an immersive experience with their product for decades.

The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin is a place for visitors to learn about the history and brewing process of this iconic Irish beer. They can also interact with exhibits, taste various beers, and even learn how to pour the perfect pint.

This has become a must-see for tourists in Dublin, meaning folks from all over the world get to experience what makes Guinness so special. It’s an evergreen experience that never stops making an impact.

Take the experience global with Kaltura

At Kaltura, we understand the impact of dynamic, engaging video content in bringing experiential marketing to life. Companies can create, manage, and distribute high-quality video content with us. Not only does this capture the essence of your events, but it also spreads the love to a wider audience.

Kaltura allows you to:

• Easily turn any event into an immersive experience with our suite of engagement tools
• Get virtual attendees involved with breakout rooms, emoji reactions, polls, chat, etc.
• Enable in-person attendees to scan a QR code to access a video hub that highlights key moments of the event
• Track and measure the reach and impact of your event to optimize future experiences
• … and much more.

Don’t just tell people about your events – show them. Let Kaltura bring your experiential marketing to life with the power of video.