Adweek's 2022 Experiential Awards

Last year, it was a bit of a struggle to honor innovative and breakthrough IRL campaigns, given that the world was still largely hunkered down during the pandemic. But for our fourth annual Experiential Awards, there was no shortage of outstanding activations to highlight as consumers began to adapt to the new normal—and were champing at the bit to once again embrace out-of-home offerings. This year's impressive roster of winners includes everything from a pizza shop that simulated the effects of gerrymandering to shoelaces that smelled like cooked bacon to an interactive AR version of Pac-Man on pizza boxes. Here are the brands and campaigns that more than met the challenge of making their mark in a forever-changed world. Best Activation in Support of Sustainability The Agave Bar Brand: Jose Cuervo TradicionalAgency: ACHE From the brand that introduced the world to tequila, a vision of sustainability and celebration emerged. Using the agave hearts, thorns, leaves and flowers, Jose Cuervo reimagined a fully sustainable bar where not only the structure was made from agave, but so were the staff uniforms. Launching in Los Angeles over the summer, the activation exploded, with more than 1,256 attendees during opening week; more than 56,000 unique website visits; coverage in 92 publications, including the Los Angeles Times; and most importantly, more than 5,415 tequila cocktails served. —Kennyatta Collins Best Cause-Related Experiential Activation Two honorees were named in this category. The Bookcase for Tolerance Brand: Anne Frank HouseAgency: Media.Monks Continuing to honor its namesake, Anne Frank House partnered with Media.Monks to transform Anne Frank's story—and others' accounts from the time—into an immersive experience. Using AR technology, the Bookcase for Tolerance took visitors though different rooms of those who have faced discrimination while allowing the visitors to interact with various folders, images and items as well as listen to their stories. This was all thanks to photogrammetry, which creates 3D models based off photos. The app brought the experience to more than 100 countries and into classrooms across Europe, providing a new tool for educating empathy to the current generation. —K.C. Gerry’s Partisan Pizza Brand: RepresentUsAgency: Mischief @ No Fixed Address Too often, gerrymandering has impacted the lives of citizens across the U.S. While the political topic can prove difficult in holding people's interest, pizza has no such problem. Using the popular food as an outlet for political action, grassroots organization RepresentUs opened Gerry’s Partisan Pizza, a pizza shop that simulated the effects of gerrymandering by exclusively delivering free pizza to people within carved out voting districts from Texas to Wisconsin. Making national news in every city they stopped in, Gerry’s Pizza earned more than 350 million media impressions and led 35% of participants to call their senators, turning the activation into real political action. —K.C. Best Community-Focused Experiential Activation Tough Turban Brand: Tough TurbanAgency: Zulu Alpha Kilo Harley-Davidson’s decision to innovate around a cultural practice to promote helmet safety earned it coverage in more than 254 media outlets worldwide. After the Ontario government exempted Sikh men from helmet laws in 2018, the motorcycle manufacturer used a 3D-printed carbon fiber take on chain mail, and foam that hardens on impact, to create the Tough Turban. Designed for safety while respecting the requirements of Sikh faith, these turbans brought visibility to riders who didn’t often see themselves in the image of the Harley-Davidson. This led to an 87% increase in brand favorability and an 85% increase in likeliness to buy a Harley. —K.C. This campaign also won in the Experiential Activation by Auto Brand category. Best Consumer Activation Seltzer Launch Brand: Miller Genuine DraftAgency: Mischief @ No Fixed Address Michelle Obama famously said, “When they go low, we go high.” But for Miller Genuine Draft, that meant: “When they go seltzer, we strap it to a rocket and launch it into space.” Choosing to double down on its dedication to beer, the brand created Seltzer Launch, which sent a bold statement that it does not want to be part of the growing hard seltzer trend within the beverage category. After livestreaming the seltzer launch to more than 1 million viewers—complete with a countdown, commentators and launch crew—Miller saw its highest awareness lift of 26.7%. The activation spread across social platforms, raking in more than half a billion impressions. —K.C. Best Event in Support of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Two honorees were named in this category. Wash Day Brand: Refinery29's Unbothered and EmergeAgency: Vice Media Group The millennial brand and its podcast franchise brought the physical world of salons, hair care rituals and mental health needs by and for Black women to the digital world through their Wash Day experience. Four virtual sessions featuring influencers, mental health experts and Black women public figures showed hair care routines as a catalyst for social commentary. The Facebook Live experience came with at-home kits, custom AR filters and follow-along prompts to immerse the audience in the event. Wash Day boasted three times the Refinery29 benchmark for Facebook Live engagement while also earning more than 1.3 million social media impressions across all platforms. —K.C. Reventón de Verano Brand: Anheuser-BuschAgency: Mosaic North America During the pandemic, Anheuser-Busch and its family of brands came together to reconnect the Hispanic and Latinx communities through an interactive hybrid experience filled with performances by some of the biggest Latinx artists from around the world. Driving home the immersive celebration, audiences online were able to shop brand products live on the site. The hybrid concert brought a small live crowd together alongside 14 million online viewers, and 2,400 listeners tuned in on local stations. This multifaceted experience surpassed goals, with more than 146 million digital and social impressions, 51,000 social mentions and 125.5 million PR impressions. —K.C. Best International Experiential Activation Two honorees were named in this category. Soundstorm Music Festival Brand: MDLBeastAgency: productionglue With the MDLBeast Soundstorm music festival, MDLBeast transformed a remote landscape in Saudi Arabia into a concert village that broke two Guinness world records: the tallest stage and the largest LED screen with the most LEDs on display. Creating this groundbreaking festival meant featuring more than 200 artists across four days on seven stages, each accommodating tens of thousands of people. The festival not only broke global festival numbers, with more than 732,000 visitors, but the experience was also featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s Bazaar, Bloomberg, Cosmopolitan and Condé Nast publications for pulling off a never-before-seen immersive experience of this scale. —K.C. Nissan’s All New Pathfinder and 70th Anniversary Patrol Launch at Dubai Expo Brand: NissanAgency: George P. Johnson Experience Marketing Celebrating its roots as a heritage brand in the Middle East, Nissan celebrated the landmark 70th anniversary of the Nissan Patrol at the Dubai World Expo 2021, where it revealed the 2022 Pathfinder. Along with GPJ and Spinifex Group, Nissan came together and used the Al Wasl Plaza to showcase an immersive story of the brand across 252 projectors and 27 speakers for immersive 360-degree sound. The aerial display of imagery and storyline rewarded the 750 guests in attendance and the virtual global audience, who tuned in via livestream with the entire timeline of the Nissan brand, highlighting its dedicated vehicles. —K.C. Best Sports-Related Experiential Activation Golden Grounds Brand: Lay’s ChipsAgency: TBWA/Chiat/Day NY Leveraging iconic NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice and the fandom that comes with the NFL season, Lay’s Chips’ Golden Grounds activation brought the NFL field to chip lovers around the U.S. Taking the actual NFL stadiums and home ground soil from specific teams and growing potatoes from them brought new depths to the way fans were able to show their support and allegiance. Despite zero investment in broadcast media, the campaign was immediately picked up by national and local TV channels, featured in more than 107 news broadcasts while receiving 1.9 billion impressions and breaking Lay's Twitter engagement record. —K.C. This campaign also won in the Best Use of Partnership in an Experiential Activation and Experiential Activation by a Packaged Goods Brand categories. Best Use of Celebrity in an Experiential Activation The Matrix Resurrections Brand: Warner Bros.Agency: DIVE Networks To celebrate fans who’ve supported the announcement of the newest Matrix film, The Matrix Resurrections, Warner Bros. partnered with Twitter and DIVE Networks to put Neo on billboards in Times Square to summon tweets from lucky fans. The activation was featured in select cities in the U.S., Mexico and Japan. To further tailor the experience for audiences, each billboard was located near movie theaters and showed a different set of tweets from fans who lived in that market. Throughout the campaign, tweets were constantly refreshed to maintain a real-time feel and incentivize audiences to tweet in hopes of being featured. —K.C. Best Use of Data Insights in an Experiential Activation Chickenflation Brand: Alpha FoodsAgency: Mischief @ No Fixed Address Using data from the USDA, Alpha Foods was able to inspire chicken lovers to ditch the overpriced bird and try its plant-based alternative. How? By slashing prices to match the rate of increase for its meat counterpart. Their fight against Chickenflation was also an awareness campaign to poultry-based economics, so the brand also created a real-time digital price tracker for the Nasdaq board in Times Square. The campaign was so successful that it earned the brand 16 million media impressions and a 141% increase in website traffic. Additionally, 51% of purchases during that time period were from new customers. —K.C. Best Use of Delivery and Merchandise Bacon Scented Shoelaces Brand: The Kraft Heinz CompanyAgency: VMLY&R Known for its sensational merch ideas and activations, Oscar Mayer stole the show on Nike's Air Max Day with shoelaces that smelled like cooked bacon. After 17 years, Nike rereleased its Air Max 90 Bacon shoe—which was designed to look like the meat—on Air Max Day, causing sneakerheads around the world to come out in celebration. In an attempt to capitalize on the announcement from Nike, Oscar Mayer created the world’s first cold smoked bacon-scented shoelaces. Leveraging the strength of UGC on that day, the brand turned getting a pair of laces into an interactive Twitter experience that earned them more than 643 million impressions while also elevating the experience of getting the new sneakers. —K.C. Best Use of Drive-Up Experience Invincible Drive-In Brand: Prime VideoAgency: Thinkingbox In collaboration with Thinkingbox and Street Food Cinema, Prime Video debuted the first two episodes of the animated series Invincible's first season in a large-scale 4D drive-thru experience at the Rose Bowl. Over a two-day span, the socially distanced drive-thru was designed to highlight memorable moments from the Amazon show, performances from Invincible characters, the perfect combo from the show's fast food chain “Burger Mart,” and as much “blood” as you’d expect from the gory series. After its reservations sold out within a half hour, the drive-thru was visited by 252 cars and more than 1,000 attendees. —K.C. Best Use of Experiential Activation to Launch a Brand/Product Fenty Eau de Parfum Ghost Stores Launch Brand: Fenty BeautyAgency: Barbarian To release its latest fragrance and drive sales, Fenty Beauty could have relied on its celebrity founder, Rihanna, for success. Instead, the brand went a step further by turning a typical product launch into an interactive ecommerce experience built on top of Google Maps API. Despite fans not being able to smell the scent before purchasing, the activation set up five secret ghost stores in locations central to the scents found in the fragrance. With a goal of elevating its DTC presence, Fenty Beauty saw email signups increase by more than 800%, with growth that has continued long after the launch. —K.C. Best Use of Influencers in an Experiential Activation Blood Red Sky: Red Carpet Hijack Brand: NetflixAgency: Tommy During the pandemic, Netflix decided to bring the horrors of its new film, Blood Red Sky: Red Carpet Hijack, to life at a self-constructed airport in Berlin. Using the same plane from the film, Netflix lured influencers into the experience under the guise of seeing the film before anyone else. What they didn’t know was that they were being livestreamed to Twitch, where more than 100,000 fans got to “hijack” the plane with real scenarios that would scare the attendees, including alarms going off, oxygen masks dropping and vampires attacking. This interactive horror experience generated more than 150 pieces of content and more than 3 million views in three hours. —K.C. This campaign also won in the Best Use of Social Media in an Experiential Activation category. Best Use of Mobile in an Experiential Activation WebAR Pac-Man Box Brand: Pizza HutAgency: GSD&M Pizza lovers have options on how they spend their time and also which pizza brand to order from, so what made them log 11,260 hours of playing time with Pizza Hut? Known for its dine-in experience, Pizza Hut brought the nostalgia to customers' homes by creating an interactive AR version of Pac-Man on pizza boxes. The game was designed with three levels of difficulty for gamers, with a global leaderboard that allowed customers to track scores. Outselling popular consoles, the pizza box generated 741 million media impressions and 10.6 million boxes of pizza sold. —K.C. Best Use of Music/Audio in an Experiential Activation Two honorees were named in this category. Notes IPA Brand: SingleCut BeersmithsAgency: Zulu Alpha Kilo Fans may not be able to play as well as Angus Young from AC/DC, but with Notes IPA they’ll be able to learn the chords he uses, all while gripping a beer. The latest brew by SingleCut Beersmiths, Notes IPA was crafted to teach customers to play the foundational guitar chords—C, D, G and E minor—by gripping the can as if they were holding a guitar fret. Combined with a Snapchat code on the label to unlock an AR guitar lesson, the Notes IPA AR lens performed 500% above average engagement rates for Snapchat while doubling average time spent on the platform. —K.C. Sound FX Brand: FXAgency: Creative Riff Harnessing the power of functional design and interactivity, FX partnered with Creative Riff to spread awareness of FX’s library of content on Hulu through a never before heard soundscape across three different cities. Reconstructing sound effects from FX through interactive sculptures from artists Emilie Baltz, Vita Motus and SOFTlab, attendees in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles were able to play various sound effects and become more immersed in the audio with every step of the activation. The Sound FX experience also allowed guests to dive deeper into the brand with an FXIdentity Quiz, providing a personalized FX viewing experience on Hulu's platform. —K.C. Best Use of Out-of-Home Media in an Experiential Activation Wienermobile Lyft Brand: Oscar Mayer Agency: VMLY&R With its “Wienermobile Lyft” campaign, Oscar Mayer delivered joy through a 27-foot wiener-on-wheels rideshare experience. The brand made the nostalgic dream of seeing the Wienermobile a modern-day reality through a full-scale integration with the Lyft app, allowing consumers to request an XL ride in the Wienermobile during peak hours.With the Wienermobile Lyft, Oscar Mayer not only took consumers back to their childhoods with a ride and celebration upon arrival, but the experience also delivered hundreds of rides across four major U.S. cities, and generated more than 1.16 billion earned impressions and coverage across major media outlets. —K.C. Best Use of Partnership in an Experiential Activation Two honorees were named in this category. Bud Light Seltzer Sessions Brand: Anheuser-BuschAgency: WINK As part of an initiative to bring awareness to its latest seltzer offering, Bud Light brought its Bud Light Seltzer Sessions' virtual experience to the real world at massive music festivals to connect with audiences in their element. Bud Light Seltzer Sessions created its own stage and environments that saw more than 900,000 fans, 30 live performances from artists like Machine Gun Kelly, bespoke merchandise stations and, of course, lots of Bud Light Seltzer. To date, the activation has received more than 192 million PR impressions while delivering over $11,000 in net sales with a 144% lift in its seltzer category. —Sara Century Best Use of Video in Experiential Activation Oakley Kato Launch AR Experience Brand: Oakley Inc.Agency: Kamp Grizzly In celebration of the release of Kato, an advanced eyewear line that would feel at home among the sci-fi inventions of the Marvel Universe, Oakley teamed with Kamp Grizzly to create a mixed media campaign tapping into the cutting-edge nature of the product. A minimalist black cardboard box was delivered to a select audience of influencers, including NFL players Patrick Mahomes and JuJu Smith-Schuster and motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi. Inside was a pod activated by a QR code that utilized Instagram’s native AR tech and allowed mobile cameras to view product-focused digital animation detailing Oakley’s history of pioneering design, asking its audience to “channel your inner superhero.” —S.C. Best Use of Virtual Event Technology McDonald’s Hall of Zodiacs: 2022 Lunar New Year by Humberto Leon Brand: McDonald’sAgency: IW Group Teaming up with IW Group for its first national broadcast commercial celebrating an Asian holiday, McDonald’s rang in the Lunar New Year for 2022 in style. Collaborating with fashion trailblazer Humberto Leon, the project saw the deployment of 12 zodiac symbols brought to life through VR in honor of the Year of the Tiger. Featuring both in-person and VR experiences, the platform offered an apparel collection featuring red hoodies and T-shirts and red envelopes bearing the tiger design. The activation included downloadable horoscopes and interactive projects for fans, including a digital prosperity wall, paper lanterns, red hoodie and the ability to wish others a happy new year. —S.C. Best Virtual Event Pivot Mondogenius 2021: Interactive Livestream Experience Brand: MonclerAgency: Media.Monks The world of fashion is known for innovation and, particularly during Covid-19 lockdowns, a willingness to experiment with new methods of reaching consumers kept the industry thriving. When it came time to create a show that packed in all the excitement and fun of being there in person, Moncler teamed up with Media.Monks to create Mondogenius 2021. This first-of-its-kind experience revolved around 11 designers from five fashion hubs including Milan, New York, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo. The result was a livestream experience with fashion, dance, art installations and virtual destinations that encouraged interactions through polls, mini games and hashtag triggers, all hosted by performers Alicia Keys and Victoria Song. —S.C. Experiential Activation by a Beverage Brand Movement Live: Michelob Ultra Brand: Anheuser-Busch/Michelob UltraAgency: Mosaic North America Fitness events aren’t always known for their lighthearted fun, which was something that Michelob Ultra hoped to change. The hybrid concert and cycling Movement Live experience challenged preconceived notions around exercise and extended the event to millions by making it available digitally. Since its debut, it has transformed into a monetized content platform focusing on workout incentives such as post-workout beer specials. The content hub allows consumers to customize their experiences regardless of level or ability. A major touchstone of Michelob Ultra's brand message is its tagline “It’s only worth it if you enjoy it,” a sentiment embodied by Movement Live's combination of fun and fitness. —S.C. Experiential Activation by a Media Brand Finding Yellowstone Brand: Paramount NetworkAgency: The Bait Shoppe Yellowstone is one of the most watched shows from the last several years. Still, leading into its fourth season, Paramount Network was thinking of new ways of increasing buzz around its premiere. Teaming up with The Bait Shoppe, the network conceived the Finding Yellowstone Scavenger Hunt. With physical landmarks located in cities across the country like San Antonio, Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and Columbus, Ohio, the contest teased clues on social media each day during the week leading up to the season premiere. With a chance to win a trip to the real-life Dutton Ranch, the stakes were high, and the resulting engagement fueled a monumental premiere audience. —S.C. Experiential Activation by a Spirits or Alcohol Beverage Brand Vax Card-igan Brand: Blue MoonAgency: Mischief @ No Fixed Address With bars nationwide requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination to enter, Blue Moon teamed with Mischief @ No Fixed Address to turn its status as a beer consumed primarily onsite at bars and restaurants into an advantage with its Vax Card-igan. This festive, brand-themed holiday sweater featured a front pocket shaped to hold a vaccine card, making it visible to bar staff. In a nod to a year that brought so much change to how people socialized, the sweaters were priced at $20.21 and sold out within hours of launching. All proceeds were donated to the U.S. Bartenders' Guild. —S.C. Experiential Activation by a Travel Brand 30 Stays, 300 Days Launch Brand: Marriott BonvoyAgency: Ballantines Public Relations As travel restrictions eased in 2021, Marriott Bonvoy eschewed standard travel advertising and leaned into creating once-in-a-lifetime experiences to welcome travelers back to the fold. Teaming with Ballantines Public Relations, the brand created its 30 Stays, 300 Days activation, leveraging TikTok to find three lucky adventurers to enjoy its 30 hotel brands over the course of 300 days. The contest’s hashtag went viral on social media, asking applicants, “How has travel shaped you?” A continuation of the brand’s Power of Travel platform that leaned into the transformative qualities of travel, the initiative created a unique agenda that was logged by select travelers on TikTok. —S.C. Experiential Activation by an Entertainment Brand Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience Brand: Warner Bros. Themed EntertainmentAgency: Thinkwell Group Inspired by the Forbidden Forest in the Harry Potter franchise and set in the woodland at Arley Hall and Gardens in Cheshire, U.K., this experience offered fans an opportunity to stroll along an interactive light trail with creatures from the series and in-universe references along the way. Set pieces, lighting effects and integrated projections combined to bring the forest to life, running nightly from Oct. 16, 2021-Jan. 16, 2022 and selling more than 200,000 tickets. Not stopping there, the team behind the project worked to create plans for future events, with six new locations set to debut in France, Germany, England and the U.S. in 2022. —S.C. Experiential Activation by a Retail Brand Two honorees were named in this category. Green Screen Shirt Brand: Harry RosenAgency: Zulu Alpha Kilo Luxury menswear chain Harry Rosen was at an impasse when the sharp rise in working from home during the Covid-19 lockdown led to a decrease in needing to dress nicely for work. Embracing a more casual dress code, the brand launched its Green Screen Shirt. Tailored for a digital workplace, the shirt was manufactured in the precise shade of a green screen, allowing wearers to change their shirt to any design while on Zoom calls. Launching as a contest through Instagram, a video displaying the shirt’s versatility introduced a number of eye-catching patterns, inviting consumers to tag two people and like the post to enter to win their own shirt. —S.C. Uno’s 50th Anniversary Brand: MattelAgency: TH Experiential Fifty years of card game Uno is a pretty big deal, and to celebrate, the brand went big with its first-ever championship series. Created in partnership with TH Experiential and powered by Mobil 1, the commemorative competition allowed players worldwide the opportunity to become the first-ever Uno world champion, with a grand prize of $50,000 to up the stakes. The event sported a custom interactive wall featuring Uno cards, spotlighted Uno heritage items and even had its own Uno-themed tables. Partnering with TikTok, the event livestreamed a celebrity Uno game along with the final championship of the tournament. —S.C. Experiential Activation by a Technology Brand OMEN Challenge: The Video Game Game Show Brand: HP Inc.Agency: Infinity Marketing Team Expanding from the original market for the esports-centric OMEN device to include the casual gaming market, HP Inc. teamed with Infinity Marketing to create a first-of-its-kind phenomenon with OMEN Challenge: The Video Game Game Show. With comedian Ron Funches as its host, 32 established gamers and influencers competed via four tournament episodes, gauging winners through game show methods such as trivia rounds, audience participation and player elimination. The champion donated 15 OMEN gaming setups to a Boys and Girls Club in their home city, adding an element of generosity to the highly competitive field of online gaming. —S.C. Experiential Activation Less Than $1 Million Sensory Auction Brand: Bombay SapphireAgency: The Experiential Group For International Gin and Tonic Day, Bombay Sapphire teamed with The Experiential Group to democratize art as a continuation of its Stir Creativity platform. In an event hosted by New York’s Lume Studios, the brand tapped into real-time data to measure the engagement of attendees, allowing the purchase of new art by Dan Lam through the highest level of sensory interaction. A custom interface and scoring algorithm working in tandem with EEG headsets to allow on-the-spot biometric data to be pulled onsite. Beyond the auction, the event featured custom video content and visuals displayed via 360-degree projection as well as interactive drink options. —S.C. Experiential Activation Over $1 Million RiotX Arcane Brand: Riot GamesAgency: Redrock Entertainment Riot Games’ Arcane series is a cross-media phenomenon, and the game transformed it into a massively successful animated series as of 2021. Under the banner of RiotX Arcane, Riot Games teamed with Redrock Entertainment to create a way to combine gaming with immersive storytelling throughout the show’s three-week debut. The three-act activation included a globally co-streamed watch party, traveling pop-up expos, live musical performances from artists featured on the Arcane soundtrack and a finale experience that brought players to a replica of the Arcane city Zaun. And it tapped into show talent, influencers and gamers to make a unique experience for fans while rocketing the series to No. 1 on Netflix. —S.C. Experiential Agency of the Year Two honorees were named in this category. Agency: The Bait Shoppe Fostering interaction and partnership, The Bait Shoppe’s scrappy, can-do startup attitude and a willingness to say yes to new ways of thinking made it one of the most-awarded agencies of the year. Celebrated for utilizing emerging technology, creating inventive post-lockdown campaigns and introducing new outdoor and social media initiatives for its clients, The Bait Shoppe worked with brands like Natural Light, T-Mobile, Budweiser and Netflix in 2021. Introducing a sister fabrication agency called Time and Space Scenic and a communications division with Famous Last Words increased its agility tenfold, but it became truly groundbreaking as the first North American agency to be carbon neutral. —S.C. Agency: Momentum Worldwide Many agencies innovated during the Covid-19 lockdown, but some took the extra step to reinvent the role of experiential advertising from the ground up. Reaching past immediate digital alternatives to live events, Momentum built its own virtual experience platform called WhiteBox. Adding virtual and hybrid options to canceled sports and music festival events, the agency’s task force managed to realistically map the impact of the lockdown and provide insight as the worlds of travel and live performance opened up again. Through a monthly virtual town hall, advances in DEI and progress in creating sustainable practices, Momentum found new ways of bringing people together. —S.C. Experiential Brand of the Year Brand: Resy For many, a major part of the joy of a meal is the shared experience it can bring, which is just one reason why the Covid-19 pandemic forced many to rethink the way they interacted with food. For restaurant reservation platform Resy, that reimagining involved its six-person in-house team and AOR Shiraz Creative looking into new ways of providing the dining experiences consumers were craving. Creating a yearlong slate featuring top chefs and moving the events to safer venues like parks, parking lots, fields, hilltops and even a floating barge, the programming centered on meeting consumers where they were during an apprehensive time. —S.C. Experiential Executive of the Year Bruce Starr, CEO, BMF Co-founding the LGBTQ+-owned agency BMF with Brian Feit in 2003 and taking the lead as CEO in 2019, Bruce Starr has been key in shaping experiential marketing over the last two decades. Throughout the uncertainty of the Covid-19 lockdown, Starr guided with confidence, recruiting new team members and opening a fourth outpost in Miami. As in-person events fired up again in 2022, BMF helped clients create impactful returns through events such as Art Basel Miami, SXSW and Coachella. Informed by Starr’s work through nonprofits, the agency continued its foundational aim in giving back to the community through diverse hiring practices and publishing its newsletter, The Pulse, where it offered tips to inspire industrywide innovation. —S.C.

Experiential Marketing

Adweek's 2022 Experiential Awards: Celebrating the Best Innovative Activations

These winners surprised and delighted consumers with their unique initiatives

Kennyatta Collins

Sara Century

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Kennyatta Collins

Sara Century