Organizers of location-based events are experimenting with new configurations to give their fans something of the original real-life experience in a safe way during the pandemic. Typically this has meant taking the event virtual in some form. But several marketers have gone the physical route recently, by boxing up real-life experiences and shipping them to their fans. Some recent examples:
- Stadium in a box. Heineken paired with Major League Soccer for a sweepstakes where fans have a chance to win an “at-home stadium experience” that includes a real stadium seat from their favorite MLS team, stadium food, and a Heineken 0.0 beverage refrigerator, all of which give them a stadium-like experience while cheering on their club on television. Fans in some markets will receive a free six-pack of alcohol-free Heineken 0.0 for entering.
- Vacation in a box. IKEA in the United Arab Emirates created in-home travel kits for Paris, Tokyo, Turkey, and the Maldives. Each included IKEA home goods such as glassware, rugs, pillows, and decorative accessories that are inspired by the destination in question, along with a downloadable booklet with recommendations for recipes, movies, activities, and music that help set the scene. Each had a theme, such as teatime in Tokyo or a romantic date in Paris. The boxes were available for purchase in store and online.
- Tailgate in a box. Pepsi’s initiative, like Heineken’s, took the form of a sweepstakes, this one aimed at football fans. The super-sized 16-square foot box, with an estimated value of almost $5,000, included an outdoor projector for the big game, a range of Pepsi products, and customized cornhole sets. One couple won a 1,500-square-foot parking lot paved into their front yard, along with lighting, a grill, a painted end zone, and more; the two fans of the NFL’s New York Jets were featured in Pepsi’s social media feeds.
- After-school in a box. The YMCA offers a box full of educational enrichment supplies on topics such as STEM, music, dinosaurs, comic books, Spanish, and physics, distributed as part of its weekly virtual after-school enrichment programs. The Y also offered a camp in a box last summer, available for pick-up by families who normally would have enrolled in the group’s live camps. (Several licensors and other marketers created virtual camps.)
- Oktoberfest in a box. Giant Jones Brewing Company, a women-owned organic craft brewer in Madison, Wisconsin, offered German Fest kits for Oktoberfest in late September and early October, featuring a six-pack of beer, bratwurst, sauerkraut, and beer mustard. A number of other breweries and pretzel companies offered similar kits. Lone Star Brewing gave away five deluxe beer-garden boxes for the holiday that included décor appropriate for a beer garden, video guides for pretzel and cocktail making, and recipe ingredients, as well as supplies for flunkyball, a German drinking game that is something like beer pong.
So far the corporate world seems to have taken to this strategy more than any other sector, often with sights set on the marketing benefits rather than revenue generation. But there would seem to be opportunities for similar initiatives tied to licensed properties of all types, as long as they logically lend themselves to some sort of specific experience.
FYI: Raugust Communications is providing coverage of the Festival of Licensing, being held virtually throughout October. This week focuses on the Americas; observations from the Europe and Asia weeks earlier this month have already been posted and can be found here.
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