Apple TV elevated experiential marketing to performance art to promote the new season of its hit show Severance. One January afternoon in New York’s Grand Central Terminal, actors Adam Scott, Britt Lower, and Zach Cherry appeared as their Severance characters in a pop-up glass cube resembling an office cubicle. They went about their mundane office tasks while commuters hurried past, creating an eerily dystopian scene that stopped passersby in their tracks. The stunt went viral and demonstrated the power of immersing fans in entertainment off screen. – Brittaney Kiefer
1. McDonald’s | “Take a Trip Through McDonaldland” by Wieden+Kennedy New York
In one of its biggest marketing efforts of the year, McDonald’s revived McDonaldland, a fantasy realm where hamburgers sprout from the ground, apple pies grow on trees, and beloved characters like Ronald McDonald, Grimace, and the Hamburglar hang out.
After being absent from the brand’s advertising for 22 years, McDonaldland took a new shape both digitally and IRL to mix nostalgia with modern marketing techniques. McDonald’s and Wieden+Kennedy approached the revival like a tourism campaign, with an impressive level of detail and craft that welcomed a new generation into the magical world. – Brittaney Kiefer
