Thanks to the help of social media and things “going viral,” companies are hopping on the experiential marketing bandwagon like no other. Experiential marketing is a type of advertising that aims to get consumers to physically participate and interact with a brand.
We’re sure you’ve seen them before; a coffee shop nightmare to promote Carrie, Lean Cuisine’s #WeighThis campaign in New York City, and so much more. However, we think Netflix just blew it out of the water and won the experiential marketing award for all time with its latest Gilmore Girls inspired effort.
We have a confession to make. Many of us Bean Teamers are fans of Gilmore Girls, but we swear this is marketing related, so stay with us!
In early October, Netflix transformed 200 coffee shops around the country into Luke’s Diner, the favorite eatery of the Gilmores, for a day. There was at least one in each state (even in Nebraska!) and the coffee shops were adorned with the famous Luke’s logo, a “No Cell Phones” sign, and gave out free coffee.
They did all this to celebrate 16 years of Gilmore Girls and the new revival episodes coming out Black Friday, November 25.
And boy did the Gilmore Girls fans flock.
There were lines out the door and around the block at almost every location. Actors from the show even showed up at the pop-up shops and it turned into a social media frenzy! So what can we as marketers take away from this?
Face to Face Interaction Can Make an Impact For Your Brand
Due to social media and the digital age, consumers are interacting less and less with brands in a physical space. People are shopping online and commenting on Instagram posts to get free branded swag, but less common is seeing a brand come to life﹣ which is part of the appeal of experiential marketing. When you’re able to make an event out of your brand, participants are exposed to your message in a whole new way. With this Netflix example, many fans’ dreams of going to Luke’s Diner came to life. There will be no confusion that new Gilmore Girl episodes will soon be on Netflix; everyone knows about it now, largely thanks to this event.
Let Your Target Audience Speak For You
Companies can push out advertisements and social media posts until they’re blue in the face, but when your audience can speak for you in a positive way, that’s the cream of the crop! The thousands of fans that went were quick to brag about their free Luke’s Coffee on social media. As evidence, the hashtag #HappyBirthdayGilmore was used almost 15,000 times on Instagram alone. Even folks who couldn’t make it out to these pop-up shops were using these hashtags to lament how sad they were to miss out. Case in point, tens of thousands of people saw these hashtags and pictures of the Gilmore Girls coffee cups. A benefit to Netflix is that it was free promotion; they didn’t need to directly pay for that advertising. People were more than excited to share these branded photos and this is precisely what happens when people are connecting with your brand IRL.
Experiential Marketing Does Not Work for Everyone
Although this recent experiential marketing idea worked marvelously for Netflix and the Gilmore Girls brand, it will not work for everybody. First off, it can take a bit of up-front cost to pull together a marketing event like this. Netflix had to pay for all the promotional materials and pay for thousands of cups of coffee. With other experiential marketing examples, brands have had to pay for expensive technology development. Not all companies have that to spend, especially when there’s no guarantee the experience will be effective.
It may also not work for your brand if there isn’t already a devoted audience base or an emotional connection to your brand. In this case, Gilmore Girls is a popular show that has a cult following so, of course, this would be successful for them. But not every brand has an intense fan base or an emotional appeal they can use to catch people’s attention in real life. It’s always best to think of your audience first and where you will be able to find and connect with them. If you can connect with your audience through an experiential marketing campaign, fantastic. But realize not everyone can.
It will be exciting to see how brands utilize this type of marketing in the future, especially as it becomes more common and audiences become used to these tactics. If you’re unfamiliar with the latest marketing trends and want to improve your business, let the marketing experts help! Contact us for more information on how we can help creative an effective marketing strategy for your business!