FMCG: 5 great experiential marketing campaigns in Asia Pacific

With the rapid growth of online marketing and an increase in content posted daily, it’s getting harder and harder for brands to stand out amongst all the noise. How can you ensure your company connects with your audience and makes an impact?

One strategy showing great promise is experiential marketing. If you haven’t heard of this tactic, it’s when you create interactive experiences for your target audience so they are actively involved with your brand. But do they really work? 

According to the Event Track report 2016, about 72% of consumers appreciate the brands that provide them positive experiences and event opportunities. Furthermore, about 74% of consumers are likely to buy the products being promoted through event marketing. Well, that answers that question! 

Let’s look at 5 great examples of experiential marketing campaigns driven by FMCG brands in Asia Pacific to get some inspiration.  

1. DeLonghi – Coffee Machine

DeLonghi is a coffee machine brand that launched a fully automatic machine (the PrimaDonna Elite) to their target market in Australia. It is claimed to make barista-quality coffee by offering several customizable options. They also have a corresponding app you can use to operate the machine from an iPhone or Android device.

The company partnered with Magnum & Co. and Our Friends Electric to create a multi-channel marketing campaign focused on letting consumers discover the coffee’s taste for themselves. To do so, they set up pop-ups in locations such as Sydney and Melbourne for three-day periods. During that time, customers could order their coffee from the app and then go pick it up for free.

The hashtag #baristalesscafe was used and the event was supported by the media, social media, and digital marketing campaigns. This free offering created awareness among the target market about the brand and the quality of coffee they could get right at home. By letting people try it themselves, they created advocates for their product.

2. Unilever – Dove challenges women to choose ‘beautiful’

Dove is well-known for their high-impact marketing which is a bit controversial and they didn’t disappoint with this campaign. With the title ‘Choose Beautiful’, they created a video challenging the perceptions of beauty that women hold for themselves. It was aimed at inspiring their audience, raising brand awareness, and increasing engagement with their audience.

In the said campaign, Dove set up two signs above side-by-side doors in five cities around the world; London, Delhi, San Francisco, Shanghai and Sao Paolo. One of the signs read, ‘Average’ while the other read ‘Beautiful’. Cameramen recorded the reactions of women passing through the doors and interviewed them after about the choices they made. Many walked through the average door, while some did choose the beautiful door. Afterwards, when discussing the choice and what factors were considered in the process of choosing, many women felt they should of chose beautiful and would if they had to choose again.

The message from Dove is to not let the world tell you that you are average but to choose to be beautiful and empowered. While very simple, it was a powerful campaign that focused on the consumers rather than the product. This was in line with their real beauty theme which has been consistent over the past decade.

The video gained over 5 million views on YouTube, coverage from hundreds of media outlets, and over a million Google entries for the keywords “Dove choose beautiful”.

3. Nudie – The 50% campaign

Nudie is a juice brand that launched a new product called Nudie and Soda which contained 50% real fruit juice. The brand identified that although a large portion of their audience drank soda, they felt guilty about it. In response, they brought forth a soda that was half fruit juice.

They partnered with experiential marketing company Mango to create a campaign to promote the new offering. The campaign involved a special vending machine that was taken for a tour of the eastern seaboard of Australia. Now the catch was instead of paying, you interact with the vending machine by answering a series of 50/50 questions. If you answer two questions correctly, you get an ice cold Nudie and Soda. The best element of the whole campaign was when the ‘Big Brother 2013’ winner and Nudie brand ambassador; Tim Dormer showed up and surprised people.

This interactive and fun concept reflects the brand’s personality and resulted in a memorable and successful campaign. It garnered huge attention from the crowd with the distribution of 50,000 samples in total, 215,000 direct impressions, and 38 pieces of PR coverage across various digital media. The total audience reach went on to touch the mark of 10,560,551.

4. Carlsberg Malaysia: Beer taster 

Carlsberg, known for the creative and successful marketing, is a beer brand who launched a ‘beer taster’ campaign in 2015. In their campaign, the goal was to hire two people so they posted a job vacancy for #probably the best job in the world, the Beer Tasters. They interviewed individuals in an effort to appoint the perfect people.

All you needed to have was the passion for Carlsberg; 25 people were shortlisted out of the 18,000 applications received and only 2 made the cut. This smart and unique concept was supported by two videos and got a huge response on social media. Carlsberg, yet again, demonstrated a creative way to get their audience involved with their brand.

5. Lay’s Asia – Taiwan – Human claw machine 

Last but not least, in a popular spin-off of everyone’s favorite childhood game (especially in Taiwan), Lay’s recreated the claw game as part of its experiential marketing endeavors in Taiwan. The only difference was that the metal claw was replaced with a child that could go down and try to grab as many packets of chips as possible.

Other than bringing nostalgic memories, this fun-filled campaign attracted huge public attention and social media mentions. The videos went viral and it had a direct impact on the sales figures.

Bring Your Brand to Life with Experiential Campaigns

These five campaigns are great examples of how you can get creative and connect with your audience. A product or service is just another offering without the right marketing. By bringing it to life for your audience, you will get noticed and remembered.

If you would like to consult with a professional in experiential marketing, drop us a line today (info@whycatalyst.com / +852 2815 6121).