experiential marketing

i must admit i am getting more and more interested in experiential marketing and in its great potential. maybe due to my background in psychology, i happen to believe quite a lot in the power of building this type of connection between brands and consumers. Bonds which actually get consumers to Sense, Feel, Think, Act and Relate to brands, as Bernd H. Schmitt says in his book. And i would surely like to see more of it in the Romanian landscape, not to mention how much i would like to implement some ideas of the kind myself.

And right now i am thinking about the great initiative of Absolut in London.

Decent Marketing has some really interesting posts on experiential marketing with Katherine Stone - former Director of Experiential Marketing at The Coca-Cola Company - of Engage, Inc. sharing her personal views, observations and experience in the field. And she has quite a fresh and reassuring perspective on things, as it seems from her recent AdPulp interview. I loved the account she gave on gifting experiences (especially since it's Valentine's Day, and i am so sick of monotony and compromise and cliches), as well as her observations on how various activities are inadequately associated with the idea of "experiential marketing", such as sending instant messages to cell phones, for instance. I really can't get enough reading on the matter :). Must be my aspirational trend again...