“The first ever” – Creative implementation of an escape room as a tool for supporting brand positioning: A research of international brands adopting the layout of escape rooms

Experiential marketing is a well-established marketing technique that enjoyed the attention of international marketers and brands for the last past years. It is an effective method that helps brands to achieve multiple goals by delivering memorable experiences to consumers open to enjoy them. Escape room is a popular and internationally known game format of entertainment. Its demand grew exponentially in a short period of time, and various and numerous brands acknowledged it as a marketing opportunity. Therefore, it is relevant to study the way brands adopted the escape rooms as a marketing tool. By analyzing brands’ communication, this thesis empirically investigates how brands made use of a successful game format in order to support their position. Online articles and videos that contain the voice of the brand, serve to research the implemented marketing strategies by well-known organizations. A thematic analysis method was applied to analyze the collected data. The findings indicated that three main strategies are implemented in order to achieve the goal. First, organizations frequently communicated their points of differentiation in order to be viewed as unique. Second, a relationship between brands and its customers was attempted to be established. Finally, the researched brands creatively implemented an escape in order to support raising brand awareness.