We encourage all of our clients to plan highly creative experiential marketing activations. Shoot for the stars, we tell them. Take consumers to the moon and back.

We mean the latter in a metaphorical sense, of course, but it got us thinking – are there some recent experiential marketing activations that have capitalized on the human fascination with outer space to draw consumers’ attention? We found five fantastic examples. Stop your stargazing, turn off that alien invasion movie, put down that article about space tourism. Let Factory 360 take you on a quick journey to outer space instead.

LG Helps Chilean Consumers Stargaze – Or Not

One of the downsides to living in the big city is that it’s hard to see stars and galaxies. LG offered consumers in a major Chilean urban center a rare chance to view the heavens by gazing through a high-powered telescope.

City-dwellers were delighted by the stunning view available by using the telescope. But they were in for a big shock when a shooting star started behaving in a very unusual manner. Some were quite startled when an alien suddenly appeared in their view.

LG quickly revealed the secret: Consumers weren’t really looking at the night sky. They were watching an image of the night sky on an LG HDTV. The view on the screen was so realistic that people through they really were staring at stars and planets.

We don’t typically recommend playing practical jokes on consumers. But this one seems so well-executed and low-stakes that we’re willing to bet consumers got a good laugh – and a favorable. lasting impression of LG’s televisions and other high-tech products.

The “Truth” About UFOs Revealed in Los Angeles

The return of the popular television show The X Files was a big news story in 2015 and early 2016. To help promote the show, FOX came up with a very memorable experiential marketing activation. They created a replica of a giant UFO and made it appear as if the flying saucer had crash-landed into the lawn of The Grove, a popular Los Angeles mall.

FOX installed the flying saucer overnight, so mall visitors were treated to the following scene when they arrived to go shopping the following morning: A 26-foot wide UFO perched at a angle on a scorched piece of lawn. Two men in hazmat suit walked around the object spraying fog to extinguish any remaining “flames” from the crash. It was surely an eerie sight – until consumers encountered signs promoting the show.

Anyone was welcome to walk around the display throughout the day. At the noon hour, show created Chris Carter made an appearance at the crash site and allowed fans to take photographs with him. FOX representatives gave several attendees tickets to attend a screening of the television show at a local cinema. And you can guess everyone who saw the activation looked twice when they saw something moving in the sky for the next few days.

Aliens “Steal” Your Beer in Turkey

Music festivals are famous for extremely interactive high-tech activations, and this offering from beer maker Miller didn’t disappoint. The brand gave consumers a chance to try their hand at conquering an alien invasion by playing a human-sized video game.

Miller called the activation “Aliens Stole My Beer,” and it was extremely popular with festival-goers. The video game was set up in a large booth with a tall, mono-colored screen (think those green monitors that came with Apple computers in the early days). Each player wore a special headset that allowed them to move a shuttle every time they moved their body. The shuttle shot bullets at alien spaceships overhead (if you ever played Breakout on an early video game systems, it’s a similar concept).

At the end of each game, consumers got this message: “Game over. It’s Miller time. Go grab a cold one.” It was a clear – but not overwhelming – reminder of who gave consumers this memorable experience and what they should do once it was over.

London Warehouse Becomes Mock Spaceship

You’ve heard of fans who show up at screenings of Harry Potter or The Hunger Games dressed as their favorite character, or consumers who go to The Rocky Horror Picture Show ready to act out the various scenes. What if you could do both?

That’s what happens at ultra-immersive screenings of popular films in London. Take this example: When the sci-fi movie Prometheus debuted in 2012, the group Secret Cinema recreated the spaceship from the movie inside a warehouse. Fans were told to show up dressed as particular characters for a chance to act out that character’s part on the set. The company was able to procure some props from the film to make the whole experience seem more realistic. Later on, fans were treated to screenings of the movie.

Who could forget the chance to “act” in a popular film before watching it? There’s no doubt sci-fi fans will remember this experience for years (if not decades) to come.

Kids Head to Space Camp

There’s a lot of talk about marketing to Generation Z, but let’s face it: It’s hard to reach young consumers. Today’s kids and their parents are extremely media savvy, and they’re not going to react to run-of-the-mill advertising or marketing schemes. The younger kids are, the harder it is to break past their parents.

That’s what makes this space-themed experiential marketing activation from Sprout, a television channel geared toward preschooler-aged youngsters, stand out. To promote a new television show called Astroblast!, the network provided fun and meaningful opportunities for kids and their parents to play together. The network’s Space Camp, which was held in seven major cities across the United States, included Astroblast!-themed activities such as a zero gravity bungee bounce, bounce castles and an arts and crafts area. Attendees also had plenty of opportunities to learn why they should check out the new television show.

Are you ready to shoot your experiential marketing events to a new and higher orbit? You need the experts at Factory 360. Our agency brings an outside perspective that’s similar to an astronaut gazing at the Earth from the moon. We look at the complete picture of your campaign and advise you on all aspects, from setting goals to providing details analytics after the event is over. Don’t wait until the next lunar eclipse. Reach out to Factory 360 today to learn more about how we can help.