Experiential Marketing at the Oscars

The 86th annual Academy Awards took place last night and with no surprise created a buzz all over social media. Companies and marketers pounced on the Oscars to advertise and promote themselves. The commercials featured corporate juggernauts such as General Motors, AARP, Coldwell Banker, and Unilever. In addition, a long list of companies put on events in Los Angeles as a part of a growing trend, experiential marketing. Experiential marketing offers consumers tangible ways to connect with brands, in a belief that such engagement is more likely to stimulate positive word of mouth and discussion in social media. Companies that participated in experiential marketing at the Oscars include Fiat Chrysler, Banana Republic, Grey Goose, Chobani, L’Oréal, and Stella Artois. Marketers of these companies stated that the experiential marketing events can help "bring brands to life." Vanity Fair magazine and its sponsors created the Vanity Fair Social Club, which provides work spaces for bloggers and news reports with amenities such as a media wall, faux food truck, and vending machines powered by Twitter. Sponsors gave away merchandise in exchange for posts that use their hashtags and handles. The Oscars is considered the Super Bowl of Vanity Fair, and the magazine company's marketers believe that setting up a HQ for bloggers and reporters will enable them to create good content. 

The social-planning website Evite also participated in experiential marketing; Evite encouraged consumers to host in-home and virtual viewing parties for the Oscars, and asked consumers to post recipes, party tips, videos, and to dress as their favorite actors/actresses. 

The experiential marketing is certainly a different, unconventional way of marketing, but it is also drawing huge success. It enables companies to engage its brand with consumers in a refreshing way and generate revenue.