How location based experiences build community and brand loyalty

This article first appeared in Advertising Week written by, Maura Gaudio, Head of Partnerships and Zoe Zelken, Strategist at Imagination The Americas.

Experiences are moving at the speed of culture.

Right now, life is chaotic. People are increasingly overwhelmed, burnt out and are yearning for meaningful connections. In fact, one shocking statistic details that 30% of Americans between the ages of 18-35 are experiencing loneliness. And given the ongoing socio-economic climate, consumers are looking for light-hearted activities that enable them to forget about the real world, even just for a little while.

And with the Qualtrics 2023 Consumer Trends Report revealing that consumers increasingly want human connections with brands, there’s no surprise then that the location based experience industry is booming. When executed well, these experiences can directly meet these aforementioned needs of connection and escapism.

As a result of these human truths, we are beginning to see a trend of some of the coolest brands showing up meaningfully in this space – taking charge, while adding value to the lives of their consumers by finding ways to leverage their own brand fandoms to combat these issues And some of the smartest brands in the world right now are using this statistic and their I.P. to create incredible multi-generational experiences. You just have to look at what Airbnb is doing with its Icons programme to see this in action. Airbnb has exceeded consumer expectations by turning their product into unbelievable licensed experiential builds giving fans a chance to deep dive into their favourite entertainment properties in a never seen before way. Be it music artists, films or otherwise, they’re winning with their experiential approach. Their recent launch for Inside Out 2 in Las Vegas where fans could engage in a scavenger hunt to “unpack some literal emotional baggage” or play air hockey while eating pizza from a “special pizza delivery menu brought the magic directly to the people, meeting the fans where they are at. Brilliant!

What Airbnb’s Icon series has shown us is the possibility for entertainment and commerce to converge —trailblazing an exciting future for the experiential world. People gravitate toward brands that combine exploration and foster community into their experiences. Effectively this provides added value for people beyond just buying the product, or partaking in the service at hand. When done authentically and effectively, like the Icon series was – building on Airbnb’s purpose to bring groups of people together under one roof, brands have the opportunity to tap into their own fandoms, or the fandoms of the other entities they are collaborating with, to provide experiences that will increase loyalty, trust and affinity in the long run.

Another brand that has filled a void that we can’t take our eyes off is CAMP. Following their partnership with Marriott Bonvoy to reimagine family vacationing through immersive Camp Club experiences, they have recently announced a partnership with RWS Global. And watch this space – we expect to continue to see explosive growth from the brand as they build more and more location based immersive experiences servicing families and children.

And of course Netflix is another one to watch. The Netflix Bites experience in Los Angeles was majorly successful – by creating a space for Netflix culinary legends to show off their speciality creations, Netflix brought their fans from screen to table. We will always be obsessed with experiences that leverage the senses to bring people inside the world of their favourite TV shows and movies. They make the fantasy real which enables fans to feel like they are ambassadors to their all-time favourite stories. As Netflix builds their Netflix Houses it will be really interesting to see how they are breaking out of the ‘large-scale’ theme park experience and instead meeting the consumer in their home towns.

All of these examples also demonstrate clearly one of the beauties of location based experiences – their ability, if required, to bring together multigenerational audiences in one space. A luxury that most other marketing platforms don’t offer. This is an exciting avenue for brands to play in. In this space, there is also a direct return on investment. Location based experiences take experiential up a notch and are becoming massive revenue drivers.

No matter the brand experience there is one truth that will never go out of fashion. Fans seek out authentic experiences over fleeting trends. They want to feel like experiences extend and complement who they are, not fight and take away from their identity.