Brand X Challenge 2020 Winners: The Next Generation of Experiential Marketing

This year’s top 10 winners of the Brand X Challenge student experience design competition were announced by our sister pub Event Marketer this week. This talented group of undergrads, chosen from 630 teams from more than 150 schools, powered through COVID-19 to complete their projects—even when their universities had closed and forced them to work in remote teams. The results are nothing short of inspiring.

The mock experiential campaigns centered around a real-life event program by Sephora detailed in a creative brief that challenged students to use their knowledge of experience design to create a new campaign from the ground up complete with activation touchpoints, social media posts, influencer tie-ins, communication strategies, event apps and much more. Ideas ranged from an immersive hotel activation to a bathroom-themed pop-up to a fitness-inspired event series.

With the guidance and mentorship from MAS Event + Design and communications from the Event Marketer team, these campaigns feature a glimpse of what the next generation of experiential marketers have to offer. Plus, a Q&A with Sephora, MAS and some of the winners touches on how experience design will be affected by COVID-19. Read about the campaigns here.