Tips from NCM, verb., and Pinterest On Avoiding the ‘Sea of Sameness’ In Experiential Marketing

She continued, “We all remember when it was all about Instagrammable moments, and you just really had to have a flower wall and a backdrop,” said Jones. “Now, consumers are looking for more than that. They’re more sophisticated. They see themselves as content creators. So how are we enabling them to share their story? How are we giving them a space and place to show who they are and find their people? How we design the experiences can enable that—whether that means getting a tattoo, coming for a meeting, having a giveaway, trying out something new—there are ways to build that into the space.”

NCM chief marketing officer Amy Tunick agreed, saying, “If you have a way for people to create FOMO (fear of missing out) and to showcase their interaction with the experience, whatever it might be, that’s really the most powerful connection point for whatever it is.”

Success stories

The panelists shared examples of their favorite experiential marketing campaigns that they were involved with.

Jones mentioned the “Barbie Dream House” initiative with Airbnb, saying that we are “going from these really bold, one-off experiences where very few people were able to experience, and now … we have places that are open for months.”

Tunick noted that NCM client e.l.f. Beauty ran a 15-minute film called Cosmetics Criminals tied with Mean Girls film. As part of the campaign it ran VIP screening events that drove the main KPI for that piece, which was earned media and getting influencers and press in the room, “but the content was the driver of that experience,” she added.

Pinterest caught the music festival vibe, with Lee saying, “This past year was our first year at Coachella, and we activated there because we found that people are the most creative version of themselves at festivals. So, we called our activation ‘The Manifestation,’ because a lot of Generation Z thinks of Pinterest as a manifestation application where they can be their most creative selves.”