How would you define experiential marketing, and could you share a few real-world examples that illustrate its impact?
Experiential marketing isn’t about telling people what a brand stands for it’s about letting them feel it. It turns audiences from passive consumers into active participants. That’s where real brand love begins.
Take Nescafé: A cup handed out in-store wasn’t just a sample it was a pause in someone’s day, a moment of warmth. Or Honor’s mobile demos at mall roadshows consumers didn’t just see features; they experienced the product in motion. Those moments stay with people longer than any billboard ever could.
With brands in the GCC striving to differentiate themselves, how can experiential marketing help them break through the market clutter and leave a lasting impression?
In a region crowded with digital noise and promotional clutter, experiential marketing breaks through with something rare: presence. People remember how a brand made them feel: what they touched, tasted, laughed at, or posted about.
When we launched Whizmo, we didn’t explain how currency exchange worked, we let people try it, live and real-time, using interactive tech that brought the product to life. Or when we created Bioderma’s roadshow at universities, students received tailored skin consultations, building trust, relevance, and affinity. That’s when the brand stopped being a logo and became a relationship.
As AI continues to influence nearly every aspect of marketing, how can it be leveraged to create more targeted and effective experiential campaigns?
AI doesn’t replace creativity, it amplifies it.
From smarter targeting to real-time personalization, AI helps us make faster, think sharper and connect deeper. We have used facial recognition to read crowd sentiment, adjusted digital content mid-event, and built adaptive product journeys based on who is engaging with the screen.
What once took days now takes minutes. What used to feel generic now feels personal, at scale. And maybe that’s the real win: not just better efficiency, but deeper human connections.
Experiential marketing is known to foster a deeper connection with audiences. Can you explain how it resonates on both an emotional and behavioral level?
Emotionally, it creates memories that stick, people remember what they feel. Behaviorally, it drives action through hands-on trial and personalized experiences, gamified moments. These don’t just engage, they convert. When consumers participate in something like customizing their own skincare regime during a live consultation or trying out a product in a playful, gamified setup they are far more likely to talk about it, trust it, and ultimately, buy into the brand. It’s not just marketing, it’s relationship-building in real time.
FLC Marketing has had a strong presence in the region for several years. Could you share a few examples to showcase how the agency has supported brands in driving measurable growth through your strategies and campaigns?
At FLC, every campaign starts with one question: what does success look like?
For some brands, it’s shifting perception. For others, driving awareness, for some it’s footfall, trial, or sales. We have helped iconic brands like Lacoste drive record-breaking engagement through interactive beach activations and mall roadshows.
For Hisense during FIFA, we turned brand association into brand love by recreating the energy of the stadium boosting offline and digital brand imagery by over 40%.
Even new-age brands like Seres (EV by Green Motors) trusted us to lead a full-funnel journey: we led with awareness, created need, and turned interest into conversion by understanding what truly moved their audience.
What ties it all together? Insight-led strategy, cross-channel storytelling, and a deep respect for ROI. Experiential is our stage, but business growth is our goal.
