I recently spoke with a couple new friends via Twitter about experiential marketing.

@heidibethke posted the following:

“This is what I call EXPERIENTIAL marketing. http://tinyurl.com/cdtum4”

I had seen some version of this video before but decided to retweet and add another version. In short the video is a promotional project that T Mobile did in the middle of central station. As music starts to play in the station, people that seem to be regular passers by begin dancing one at a time until you see about 100 dancers in the middle of a busy day.

The response of the unsuspecting spectators is people talking on their phones, people taking pictures and videos and sending them to other friends on and off site. Ultimately a video of the event ended up on youtube and mentions in various blogs including this one, not to mention regular TV ad broadcasts. While the campaign may not be flawless, it certainly gave people an experience to relate in which their brand is included.

@ksaim responded with positive comments saying:

“agreed that is experiential N nature , but there’s no marketing. this is experiential marketing: deptzero.com”

This led me to an impressive site about some cool experiential events that this company had done. I love it, however it got me to think. Is there truly any marketing in this video or is it absent? Do you have to feel like you are being marketed to like the sales person that knocks on your door to sell you magazines? Can Marketing happen in a way that comes across more as an emotional connection to an experience – without feeling like someone is trying to sell you something? If so, where does marketing happen that we don’t even notice?

Do people always FEEL marketing?

My argument would be that life is an experience, and if you have a product you need to be a part of your consumers life experience. There is a place for traditional marketing, but the product that is able to conveniently fit into someones life experience or desired life experience finds an annuity stream.

www.redwallLIVE.com
Daniel Herndon