Experiential Marketing Campaigns: We’re Lovin’ It
In recent years, mega brands like Coca Cola, Red Bull, and Budweiser have been filtering more and more money into their experiential budgets. As more money has been piped in, we’ve seen these experiential marketing campaigns become more creative, more adventurous, more bold, and more extravagant. However, on March 24th, McDonalds took things to a whole new level: 24 different experiences in 24 different cities. All in 24 hours. These experiences ran the gamut from a giant ball pit, to giving out oversized straws at the drive thru, to a life-sized maze, to a pajama party. Each of these experiential marketing campaigns: We’re Lovin’ It was designed to “give the gift of joy” to the people who were apart of them.
Why is McDonalds, a brand that spends billions on TV commercials, print ads, and social media campaigns, funneling so much money into experiential?
Because they know the power of creating an emotional connection. By giving people the “gift of joy”, McDonald’s reached outside of the TV screen, printed page, and radio waves and actually touched someone’s life – made them feel something. These strong pleasurable feelings become associations with the McDonald’s brand, and lead to an incredible response from consumers. During the course of the day, McDonald’s saw over 40,000 total mentions of #imlovinit – 850 times more mentions than on an average day.
At this point, you may be thinking: “that’s all well and good for a mega-giant brand like McDonald’s, but we just can’t afford an experiential component to our marketing strategy.” Good news: you’re wrong. Unlike traditional media like print, TV, or radio advertising where you pay for an audience, experiential creates your own audience and increases reach by spreading virally via social media. With the right idea, you can still make huge waves with your customers without a Big Mac Mcbudget.
