Nowadays, at concerts and music festivals, attendees arrive for the music, but stay immersed in a world of glowing brand pop-ups, lounge spaces, immersive activations and tech-driven photo moments woven across the venue.
Such immersive experiences, where people are not just passive consumers but active participants, are increasingly shaping brand perception. Experiential marketing is not a niche anymore; it is a key differentiator for brands in today’s ever-growing digital world.
From Swiggy Instamart setting up a pani puri stall where water guns replaced traditional serving methods during Holi, to Skoda launching a special body perfume inspired by the Octavia RS, allowing fans to experience the spirit of the car, brands are rethinking traditional formats and introducing innovative ones to elevate their experiential marketing game.
Aparna Tandon, Sr Vice President - Experiential (Events, Cinema, Retail+Rural), dentsu India notes, “From being supplementary to advertising efforts, experiential marketing is fast becoming a key component of growth due to the changing nature of consumer behaviour. No longer satisfied with merely consuming ads passively, consumers now demand active participation and engagement. This has resulted in brands having to deliver proof, rather than promises.”
A recent survey report by BookMyShow-EY-Parthenon backs this observation, stating that 78 per cent of consumers indicate a preference for experiential interactions with brands. In response to this, 88 per cent of surveyed brands report that they have increased their experiential marketing spending.
The new playbook of IMMERSIVE marketing
Experiential marketing has transformed from a spectacle to a strategic necessity as brands look for avenues to meaningfully connect with their consumers.
Sharing why it has become more important than ever for brands to leverage the opportunity, Payal Vaidya, Chief Experience Officer, VML India says, “In a world saturated with digital impressions, brands are fighting for attention at scale, but losing depth in the process. Experiential is the antidote; not because it’s more entertaining, but because it’s more human.”
Consumer-facing categories where products are understood better through demonstration—automobiles, consumer tech, and fashion and beauty retail—stand to benefit more from experiential marketing.
Take Nykaa, which invests heavily in interactive pop-ups and activations, influencer meet-ups and flagship festivals such as Nykaaland and K-Beauty Festival. A Nykaa spokesperson reveals, “Our investment in platforms like Nykaaland is rooted in a clear cultural shift we’ve observed: beauty is no longer purely transactional; it has evolved into a powerful form of identity, self-expression and cultural belonging.”
They add, “This philosophy extends beyond a single platform, with Nykaa embedding itself into the rhythm of the city through co-created experiences across the year—from the Sun Shield summer experience at Carter Road to the interactive Birthday pop-up experience at Bandstand.”
Observing this on a larger scale, Mudit Jain, Founder, Happy & Hungry - The Event Co. says, “Instead of one large diluted event, brands are investing in multiple high-impact experiences that feel tailored. Additionally, physical plus digital is no longer optional. QR journeys, AR layers and interactive touchpoints are now expected.”
Tapping into these trends, brands like Diageo India are building IP ecosystems and delivering experiences through curated activations and events. Ruchira Jaitly, Chief Marketing Officer, Diageo India shares, “Our brands have always been built around occasions, communities and shared moments of celebration. Live experiences allow us to bring those brand worlds to life in a far more immersive way than traditional communication alone can.”
“The objective is always to place brands in environments where they can meaningfully add value. For example, McDowell’s No.1 continues to celebrate friendship and shared moments through experiences such as ‘Yaari Jam’ and culturally-relevant festive activations. And Royal Challenge shows up in passion spaces such as cricket, gaming and youth culture through platforms like ‘Mai Nahi Toh Kaun’ and Comic Con.”
Divay Agarwal, Co-founder, TMV and HorrorCon believes that the value of an experiential IP lies in its ability to turn audiences into participants and brands into storytellers. He elaborates, “For example, at HorrorCon, brands are not just placing logos; they become part of the experience, a part of pop culture—whether through themed installations, interactive zones or co-created content. This allows them to organically integrate into moments that audiences actively choose to engage with.”
As storytelling and technology drive experiential campaigns and brands continue innovating in this space, one thing remains contant: community. Agarwal highlights that if a brand is chasing footfall and virality for their events and campaigns without building a community, they are just renting attention. Community is where the gold mine lies.
Fitness-driven brands like Puma and New Balance have understood the assignment, building communities of runners and trainers in the country. Athleisure brand Blissclub, which hosts intimate fitness events, is also a strong believer of this community-driven approach. Minu Margaret, Founder and CEO, Blissclub says, “Women don’t just want to be marketed to; they want a sense of belonging to a like-minded tribe and to experience brands in a more human, connected way. Whether it is a walk, a stretch session or yoga with puppies, physical in-person experiences transform a brand from something people simply see into something they actively feel part of building.”
Is experiential the new digital?
In recent years, digital mediums have occupied large spaces in marketing budgets. But as the experience economy in India booms, are brands shifting their priorities from digital to physical?
Tandon has observed a shift. “A portion of budgets once reserved only for awareness-led channels is now flowing into experience-led formats that can influence multiple stages of the funnel—awareness, trial, lead generation, sales and even retention,” she elaborates.
But industry experts maintain that marketing priorities are not shifting; rather, there is a strategic rebalancing. Vaidya explains, “Brands are recognising that digital reach and physical depth aren’t competing priorities but complementary ones. Digital is unmatched for scale and targeting. But physical experience provides something digital consistently struggles to: weight. It makes the brand real in a way that a scroll cannot.”
Another consideration here is the measurement of ROI. While digital campaigns are generally assessed through engagement measures, the success of experiential campaigns is more complicated to quantify through metrics.
Vaidya presents a three-fold way of looking at it. While short-term ROI can include on-site conversions, sign-ups, QR scan-to-purchase rates and leads generated, metrics like brand health uplift, sentiment shift and NPS change among people who attended versus those who didn’t can be counted under medium-term. Long-term ROI can include elements like loyalty, advocacy and lifetime value.
Nykaa follows a full-funnel, multi-layered framework while measuring impact. “On-ground, we measure depth through footfall, dwell time, interaction quality, and sampling scale; digitally, through UGC volume, creator participation, reach, impressions, and sentiment; and from a commerce lens, through uplift in app traffic, new user acquisition, and conversions,” the brand spokesperson enlists.
Diageo, too, has adopted a dual approach to measuring ROI. Jaitly reveals, “We evaluate experiential marketing through emotional and commercial lenses. From an engagement perspective, we look at metrics such as participation, dwell time, repeat interaction, advocacy and the volume of organic conversation generated. These signals help us understand whether the experience truly resonated with consumers and if the brand became a meaningful part of the occasion. From a business standpoint, we assess outcomes such as uplift in brand recall, trial, consideration, conversion and post-event performance across relevant consumption channels.”
But the most durable ROI from a great experiential campaign is the person who keeps coming back not because of an offer, but because of how the brand made them feel in that room, observes Vaidya.
Margaret is of the same opinion. She says, “At Blissclub, we care most about the soft metrics. Our WhatsApp groups and community spaces are designed to be safe, joyous spaces for women to share, motivate and discuss. When those conversations happen organically, that tells us the experiential investment is working in a way that’s purposeful and enduring.”
The future of brand-building
The experiential marketing space is continually evolving. VML’s Future 100 Report 2026 highlights that 87 per cent of global consumers now say that the best experiences leave them feeling changed, signalling a shift from just experience to transformation.
As the adoption of experiential marketing scales, brands need to keep reinventing their strategy to have a competitive edge. Understanding campaign objectives and audience behaviour are key for success. As Jain puts it, “If the objective isn’t clearly defined—awareness, engagement or conversion—you end up with confusion, which is expensive. But the biggest mistake brands make is designing for themselves instead of the audience.” Because if the audience doesn’t connect, the experience becomes a very well-designed empty space.
