Using experiential marketing on Instagram: forget trend following and be a trendsetter!

Retail is swarmed with challenges in the 21st century: social media is booming and so is an evergrowing and ever more connected community of “millennials”. Stores must strengthen their impact and stay relevant when interacting with these young people who love their shopping and taking selfies. It’s crucial to trigger as many reactions from them as possible: they must like, share, add hashtags to their posts and be influencers for brands. One thing is clear when you’re looking at current marketing trends: stores and brands must be—or become—instagrammable.

How do beauty, fashion or food stores manage to create interactive experiences to turn their online community into offline visitors and shoppers? How do they manage to put on a global show and use visual markers to incite loyalty and surprise customers? We’ll offer answers to these questions alongside four different brands who have used everything viral and short-lived to bolster their marketing strategy.