Experiential Marketing for Gen Z: How to Take Your Brand from Campus to Culture

Gen Z are tired of being advertised to. They're scrolling past your banner ads, tuning out your pre-rolls, and making purchasing decisions with their friends rather than alone. So where does that leave brands? According to one of this year's Pion YMS panels, the answer is simple: show up in real life.

Moderated by Pion's Head of Product Operations, Daniel Eder, the session brought together Thanh Catachanas from JCDecaux UK, Alice Boardman from TREK at Lotus Bakeries, and Molly Mukabi from LOOKFANTASTIC to dig into what makes experiential marketing work — and what makes it fall flat — for today's youth audiences.

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Why In-Person Gen Z Marketing Outperforms Digital Ads

The panel opened with a sharp observation from Thanh Catachanas: experiential isn't just another channel. It's the proof behind a brand promise:

"IRL is the proof behind the brand promise. It creates fame, standout credibility moments, and memories that you can curate offline and online." Thanh Catachanas, Head of Collaboration & Acquisition, JCDecaux

Alice Boardman echoed this from the Lotus Bakeries perspective: 

Rather than chasing influencers or forcing engagement, the brand focuses on creating moments worth sharing — and letting attendees do the rest. At the London Half and 10K earlier this year, attendees who posted about the event had a combined follower count of 10.5 million. All earned, no paid influencers involved.

The reason Gen Z respond so strongly to real-life experiences goes beyond marketing mechanics. As Alice put it, COVID interrupted key developmental years for many in this cohort:

"There is really that yearning for real connections — authentic, lasting ones." Alice Boardman, Marketing Manager (TREK), Lotus Bakeries

Molly Mukabi, speaking as a Gen Z herself, put it plainly: 

"People are so fed up with ads online. Students make better purchasing decisions with their friends than alone." Molly Mukabi, Affiliate & Partnership Marketing Executive, LOOKFANTASTIC

Pion's latest Freshers’ report backs this up. According to the research, students who encounter brands in person respond overwhelmingly positively:

• 99% feel positive about brands they discovered through in-person experiences
• 88% say those experiences made them feel connected and loyal to the brand
• 68% attend events specifically to discover new products and services

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Phygital Brand Experience: Why the Best Campaigns Connect Both Worlds

One of the clearest themes across the session was that the old divide between online and offline marketing no longer holds:

"It's not digital over here or physical over here. The two are becoming one and the same." Alice Boardman, Marketing Manager (TREK), Lotus Bakeries

TREK (Lotus Bakeries)'s London Marathon activation made this integration concrete: runners saw contextual Trek messaging on digital screens at Stratford station on race morning, arrived at the course to find TREK branding throughout, crossed the finish line and received a bar in their moment of triumph — and then posted about it. One experience, multiple touchpoints, a measurable loop.

Younger audiences, Thanh argued, actively want to co-create with brands rather than be spoken at:

"It's feedback loops — people say what they want, and brands take inspiration from that and switch really quickly. It's phygital." Thanh Catachanas, Head of Collaboration & Acquisition, JCDecaux

Trek's upcoming Saracens event is building on exactly this: letting their community vote in advance on challenges, kit and merch.

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Campus Brand Activation: The Student Acquisition Channel Brands Are Sleeping On

For brands targeting students specifically, the panel was clear: campus is where the flywheel begins. Freshers’ in particular represents a concentrated window of openness to new brands that simply doesn't exist at any other point in the year.

Pion's Freshers Report shows that more than 1 in 3 students still shop brands they first discovered at Freshers’— and over half say discounts would drive more frequent purchases from the brands they love. The opportunity isn't just about awareness. It's about getting into a student's routine early enough that the habit sticks.

• 1 in 3+ students still shop brands they first discovered at Freshers
• 85% of students feel loyal to brands they find on discount platforms
• 95% of students are likely to shop via discount platforms

Molly shared LOOKFANTASTIC's experience running a Freshers activation with Student Beans at two student locations. With 1,200+ students through the door, the goal was simple: create a booth where students could grab goodies, try Bare Minerals products, and actually interact.

"Students were asking questions, wanting to try products. It was such great interaction." Molly Mukabi, Affiliate & Partnership Marketing Executive, LOOKFANTASTIC

Revenue uplift followed in November — a direct line from experiential to conversion.

Daniel highlighted how Pion's acquisition of Student Shopping Nights — running exclusive student events across 15 major UK shopping centres — represents exactly this kind of platform: a ready-made environment where brands can create shareable moments at the moments in the student calendar that matter most, from Freshers’ through to Black Friday.

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How to Measure Experiential Marketing Campaigns (Without Obsessing Over Last Click)

A recurring question in the room was around ROI. Experiential has historically been hard to justify on a spreadsheet, but the panel pushed back on last-click obsession:

"There is an obsession with last-click attribution. But the only way to get conversion throughout the funnel is to have credibility and trust. You have to take a holistic view." Thanh Catachanas, Head of Collaboration & Acquisition, JCDecaux

For Lotus Bakeries, that means looking at brand health over an 8–12 month window. A brand uplift study this year showed 28% increased brand awareness among the exposed group versus a control, with twice the consideration rate.

For brands with smaller budgets, the panel offered practical measurement tips:

• Pre and post-event surveys to track awareness and sentiment shifts
• QR codes to create trackable offline-to-online journeys
• Organic search uplift as a proxy for brand interest post-activation
• Partnership data 
• CRM integration — capturing experiential data and using it to drive future personalised outreach

The consensus: imperfect measurement is still measurement. Don't let the absence of a perfect attribution model become an excuse to avoid experiential altogether.

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Takeaways from Lotus Bakeries, LOOKFANTASTIC and JCDecaux

The panel closed with each speaker sharing a single piece of advice for brands yet to take the plunge. Thanh's answer: evoke all the senses: 

"Think about the context of where it is, what you're doing, and if you can touch every sense, go for it." Thanh Catachanas, Head of Collaboration & Acquisition, JCDecaux

She pointed to Magnum's St. Pancras tunnel activation — the smell of chocolate piped through, the sound of the snap, Magnums everywhere — as a gold standard example of multi-sensory experience done right.

Alice's starting point was strategic – know your brand and your tribe before you plan anything else:

"Be really clear on what the brand stands for, who your tribe is — and then put yourself in their shoes. What would give them genuine value? What would they walk away feeling good about? Everything else follows from that." Alice Boardman, Marketing Manager (TREK), Lotus Bakeries

And Molly's advice was operational: get your whole team on board, cross-functionally, before the event. She continued:

"One piece of feedback we got was that it would've been great to have more brand reps there to answer questions. Make it memorable. Hook them with a freebie — not just a discount code." Molly Mukabi, Affiliate & Partnership Marketing Executive, LOOKFANTASTIC

If there's one thread connecting all of it, it's this: experiential works when it's authentic, culturally grounded, and built for the audience rather than the brief. Gen Z aren't passive consumers waiting to be reached — they're active participants looking for brands worth connecting with. The physical world, from campus to shopping centre to finish line, is where those connections are made.

For brands serious about student acquisition, the question isn't whether to invest in experiential. It's how soon you can get started.

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Join the Experiential Masterclass with GottaBe!

We're hosting an exclusive conversation in partnership with GottaBe! Marketing on July 2nd, 4PM BST. This is your chance to learn from senior marketers at Just Eat and Rollover Hotdogs, and Gottabe Marketing on mastering experiential marketing to lock in student loyalty.

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