FIVE THINGS TO KNOW THIS WEEK
This week’s hot takes on hot topics in experiential marketing cover ice festivals, true crime spas and Big Rings.
THE CAST OF ‘SEVERANCE’ WORKS OVERTIME WITH A GRAND CENTRAL POP-UP
Unless you were living under a rock, you likely saw that Apple TV+ stole headlines last week with a surprise “Severance” pop-up that teased the series’ second season and sent fans into a frenzy. On Jan. 14, the brand dropped a glass-encased office in NYC’s Grand Central Terminal, then brought Lumon Industries to life with help from the actual stars of the show.
After a cast of unknown Lumon employees initially roamed about the office, members of the cast showed up to take their place. Remaining in character, Adam Scott, Britt Lower and Zach Cherry drifted around, while Tramell Tillman and Patricia Arquette kept a watchful eye on their staff. The employees did everything from throwing paper planes at one another to sweeping the floor to taking orders from their superiors, all as fans gawked from the outside and scanned the setting for season-two clues.
To boot, on the perimeter of the installation, “Severance” creator Dan Erickson observed the spectacle, while executive producer Ben Stiller participated in interviews and captured content from the stunt. By the way, do yourself a favor—check out Lumon Industries’ very own LinkedIn page.
THE RAVENS GIVE FAN EVENTS A FROSTY MAKEOVER WITH A POP-UP ICE FESTIVAL
In the leadup to the Baltimore Ravens’ divisional playoff game in New York on Sunday, the team invited fans to “conquer the cold” from Jan. 16-17 at the first-ever Ravens Pop-Up Ice Festival. Hosted on its home turf at M&T Bank Stadium, the all-ages event gave traditional fan fests an icy makeover.
With Bud Light and Safeway serving as Ice Festival sponsors, the Ravens offered an array of activities. Touchpoints spanned live ice sculpture-carving; family-friendly ice-themed activities like “iced” golf; photo ops; iced tailgating games; an Ice Bar presented by Bud Light where drinks came in ice-molded cups; food trucks; meet-and-greets with the Ravens Cheerleaders, the Marching Ravens and mascots; car stenciling presented by Safeway; and various sponsor giveaways distributed on-site. Oh, and the Ravens made it (artificially) snow each day.
Photo: Courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens
THIS TECH BRAND SNIFFED OUT A NEW WAY TO DISTRIBUTE SCENT
Estée Lauder Companies is poised to shake up the luxury home fragrance game thanks to new scent technology—and the implications for the experiential marketing world look promising.
The beauty brand has invested in new “Soliqaire” technology from Exuud, which promises to bypass the “olfactory blindness” that humans experience. Simply put, we’ve evolved to stop detecting intense scents within seconds to prevent overstimulation, but Exuud’s fragrance delivery system will allow users to “program a more efficacious, consistent and personalized fragrance experience, including for the intensity, duration and frequency of the fragrance.”
While Estée Lauder plans to dominate the multibillion-dollar global home fragrance industry with Soliqaire, we’d wager that event marketers won’t be far behind on leveraging the tool in their multisensory experiences. What’s more, with Exuud developing an app to automate how its tech functions, users will eventually have the ability to program scents to be released at specific times, or change the intensity of the fragrance with a few taps. Smells pretty captivating to us.
Image: Courtesy of Estée Lauder
ESPN SUPERSIZES CFP’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RINGS
ESPN’s “MegaCast” production of the College Football Playoff National Championship in Atlanta wasn’t the only mega aspect of tournament weekend, held Jan. 18-20. After social content around “ESPN Big Rings” (larger-than-life championship rings) garnered 2.8 million social impressions in 2024, the network revived the initiative for 2025, this time celebrating the tourney’s new, expanded 12-team playoff format.
The seven carefully crafted championship-ring replicas are just what they sound like. Each giant piece of jewelry features a dozen crest stones on behalf of each playoff team, and 133 stones representing each Football Bowl Subdivision team, except for the championship winner, (Ohio State clinched the title), which is represented by the diamond in the center.
The rings were available for fans to interact with at ESPN’s activation at Playoff Fan Central within the Georgia World Congress Center, other fan events hosted throughout the weekend, during media days, and were integrated into studio shows. Plus, following the game, the Big Rings were displayed by the Buckeyes on-field, where players interacted with the items and captured content for social. (Agencies: Arts & Letters Creative Co., experiential; Raven Lake Studios and The MRKT Co., production/fabrication)
Photos: Courtesy of ESPN Images and College Football Playoff
FANS GET SOME R&R AT PEACOCK’S ‘CRIME AND UNWIND’ POP-UP SPA
Murder and wellness? Yep, Peacock is on the case. Some (disturbing) research revealed that 56 percent of true crime fans find the genre “relaxing,” and that 68 percent of them use true crime shows as part of their nightly routine, watching before or while in bed. In response, the brand opened up the Crime and Unwind spa pop-up at Remedy Place in NYC.
The December activation featured a series of innovative wellness treatments for true crime fans to indulge in while simultaneously channeling their inner investigator. The Airtight Alibi, a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, provided high-pressure healing, while a Hot Pursuit infrared sauna warmed up participants and broke down toxins (“like a suspect in the hot seat”).
There was additionally a Cold Case Plunge designed to build resilience that encompassed an ice bath and breath work, as well as a Knot Guilty AI Massage during which AI “hunted down” muscle tension. Plus, in between treatments, attendees could chill in a lounge and watch series from Peacock’s extensive true crime collection, including Dateline and Based on a True Story.
The only crime here is that we weren’t on the guest list. (Agency: Jack Morton)
Photo credit: Cindy Ord for Peacock
