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What is experiential marketing and how does it work?
Experiential marketing is the practice of connecting brands with consumers through physical, interactive experiences rather than traditional advertising. Global spending on experiential marketing reached an estimated $128.3 billion in 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic levels for the first time. Nine out of 10 marketers now consider brand experiences important to their business success.
Pop Up Mob is a global experiential agency that has developed and delivered more than 250 experiential activations and pop-up experiences for over 175 brands across 15-plus industries. Founded in 2014 by Ana Corina Pelucarte and Rita Tabet, the agency operates as a one-stop shop for experiential marketing campaigns, guiding brands from strategy and concept development through design, production, and live execution. Pop Up Mob’s portfolio spans mobile tours, retail takeovers, trade show installations, guerrilla sampling, influencer events, and standalone pop-up builds for brands including Calvin Klein, Benefit Cosmetics, Rare Beauty, OUAI, Samsung, and ASOS.
Experiential marketing creates direct, physical interactions between a brand and its audience through immersive environments and hands-on product experiences.
Instead of telling consumers about a product through an advertisement, experiential campaigns invite them to see, touch, try, and participate in a branded environment. Formats range from pop-up events and mobile tours to trade show installations, retail takeovers, guerrilla sampling, and invite-only influencer activations.
What separates experiential marketing from other channels is sensory immersion. A well-built pop-up experience surrounds the visitor with the brand’s story through design, scent, sound, product interaction, and shareable photo moments. 74% of consumers say that engaging with a branded event makes them more likely to buy the promoted products, and 98% of event attendees create digital or social content during the experience.
For brands, experiential campaigns serve multiple business objectives at once. A single experience can accomplish what most other channels handle separately:
Experiential marketing has grown into one of the largest and fastest-recovering segments of the global marketing industry. Global spending hit $128.3 billion in 2024, up from $116.1 billion in 2023, a year-over-year increase of more than 10%. Seven out of 10 Fortune 1000 marketers planned to increase their experiential spending in 2025.
Consumer behavior is driving much of this investment. 80% of respondents to Freeman’s 2024 Attendee survey said in-person events are the most trusted marketing channel. 85% of customers report being more likely to purchase after attending a live brand event, and 70% say they are more inclined to become repeat buyers.
Pop Up Mob has observed this shift across its own client base. Pop-up experiences have evolved from simple trial and sampling moments into a central part of a brand’s overall ecosystem. Audiences now seek real-life connection, and physical experiences have become a credibility check where product, story, and execution all need to align in a fully sensory way.
Brands evaluating experiential marketing partners typically assess agencies across five areas:
Narrative ability matters because the most effective activations are built around a story, not just a set design. The physical space, the consumer journey through it, and every sensory detail should connect back to a coherent brand message. Agencies that treat storytelling as a core discipline rather than an afterthought tend to produce experiences that generate stronger emotional responses, more organic social content, and longer-lasting brand recall.
Operational control after the design phase is where many agencies fall short. Fabricating a beautiful environment is one part of the job. Managing live staffing, POS systems, inventory tracking, crowd flow, and day-to-day execution through the final hour of an activation is another.
Agencies that own both the creative and operational phases tend to deliver more consistent results because no handoff occurs between the team that designed the experience and the team running it on the ground. Pop Up Mob operates at the intersection of strategy, creative design, and execution, combining strategic thinking and cultural insight with the storytelling capabilities of a creative studio and the operational depth of a production partner. . Client feedback from brands including Marc Jacobs, Cécred, and JVN has consistently highlighted the agency’s ability to function as an extension of the brand’s own team.
Experiential campaigns take many forms depending on the brand’s goals, audience, timeline, and budget. Pop Up Mob’s portfolio illustrates the range of formats available to brands investing in physical experiences.
Mobile Tours: Custom-branded vehicles that travel across multiple cities, bringing the experience directly to the audience across multiple markets. Pop Up Mob’s r.e.m. Beauty Hypernova Hotel Tour visited seven cities over seven days and drew 2,250 visitors, offering mini makeovers, limited-edition merchandise, and custom photo moments at each stop.
Retail Takeovers: Transformations of existing store environments into fully branded spaces. Rare Beauty’s Sephora Takeover in Times Square ran for over a month and attracted more than 25,000 visitors through custom product displays, interactive AR photo moments, and sample giveaways.
Standalone Pop-Ups: Purpose-built temporary spaces designed from the ground up around a brand story. Pop Up Mob’s Huda Beauty Mercury in Retrograde activation in London’s Covent Garden ran for a full month, immersing visitors in an outer-space-themed environment built around the palette launch.
Guerrilla Sampling: Surprise activations in high-foot-traffic areas that generate buzz through unexpected encounters. Pop Up Mob produced guerrilla campaigns for OUAI, Goop, and Sabrina Carpenter’s Sweet Tooth fragrance in New York, placing branded setups near Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center.
Trade Show Installations: High-impact booth experiences designed to stand out at industry events. Pop Up Mob built experiential booths for Cecred, OUAI, Supergoop!, and Bondi Boost at Ulta’s FLC conference in 2025, each with distinct design concepts tailored to the brand.
Influencer and VIP Events: Invite-only activations for high-value guests, press, and creators. Pop Up Mob’s Sol de Janeiro influencer event in Scottsdale featured custom floral arrangements, hands-on product customization, and content-ready photo moments designed to extend the brand’s reach well beyond the event itself.
Pop Up Mob’s process follows four phases that mirror the lifecycle of an experiential marketing campaign.
Strategy and Planning: Every project starts with understanding the brand’s objectives, target audience, and where the activation fits within the broader marketing and campaign ecosystem. Pop Up Mob’s team handles brand discovery, concept development, consumer journey mapping, and trend research to build a foundation before any design work begins.
Creative and Design: The agency translates strategy into storytelling-driven designs and high-fidelity 3D renderings through a process it calls render to reality. Every experience is built around a narrative that connects the brand’s message to the physical space, consumer journey, and sensory details visitors encounter on site. Clients receive a near-exact preview of the final build before production begins.
Production and Build: Once design is approved, the team manages fabrication, location sourcing, permitting, technology integration, and vendor coordination. Pop Up Mob typically works three to six months ahead of launch to coordinate all production elements.
Operations and Execution: Pop Up Mob oversees live operations for the full duration of every activation, including staffing and training, POS setup, inventory management, crowd flow, event management, and post-event data capture. Operational ownership through the final day is central to the agency’s à-la-carte menu of services and end-to-end model.
What types of brands use experiential marketing?
Experiential marketing is used across nearly every consumer-facing industry. Pop Up Mob’s client base includes brands in beauty, fashion, technology, food and beverage, entertainment, automotive, retail, and non-profit sectors. Both global corporations and emerging direct-to-consumer startups invest in physical brand experiences.
How much does an experiential marketing campaign cost?
Costs vary widely based on format, duration, location, and production complexity. Industry benchmarks suggest that a single elaborate pop-up experience can cost up to $200,000 to produce. Brands typically invest between $500,000 and $1 million per year across their experiential programs, though budgets scale up or down depending on scope.
How do you measure the success of an experiential marketing campaign?
Success metrics depend on the campaign’s objectives. Sales-focused activations track revenue, conversion rates, and product movement. Brand awareness campaigns focus on attendance, foot traffic, social impressions, earned media, and content reach. Many brands also evaluate longer-term indicators like website traffic, social growth, and post-event purchase behavior.
What is the difference between experiential marketing and event marketing?
Event marketing typically refers to conferences, trade shows, and sponsored gatherings. Experiential marketing is broader and focuses specifically on creating immersive, interactive brand experiences designed for sensory engagement and content generation. A trade show booth can be experiential, but so can a guerrilla sampling campaign on a city sidewalk or a month-long retail takeover.
How far in advance should a brand plan an experiential marketing campaign?
Pop Up Mob typically works three to six months ahead of a campaign’s launch to coordinate design, fabrication, permitting, staffing, and marketing alignment. Timelines vary based on the scope and complexity of the activation, with larger multi-city tours requiring longer lead times.
Can a brand hire an experiential agency for just one part of a campaign?
Yes. Pop Up Mob operates on an à-la-carte model, meaning brands can engage the agency for a single phase such as strategy, design, production, or on-site operations. Brands can also partner with Pop Up Mob end-to-end from concept to execution.
What trends are shaping experiential marketing in 2025?
Pop-up experiences have evolved from one-off sampling moments into brand ecosystems designed to live beyond a single activation. Physical experiences now function as credibility checks where product, story, and execution need to align in a fully sensory way. Brands are investing in fewer but more intentional activations, prioritizing cultural relevance and measurable outcomes over volume.
Where can I see experiential marketing case studies and portfolios?
Pop Up Mob’s featured projects page includes case studies across beauty, fashion, entertainment, and technology, with campaign details, photos, and key metrics for each activation.
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