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Vitro also created the “Support Your Marathoner” experience, positioning giant LED boards along the New York route for Asics. When runners went by, their RFID tags triggered messages of support from family and friends. The agency even turned the mural at New York’s Columbus Circle subway station into a thrilling experience: For the 2011 New York Marathon, Vitro projected a giant video of Mr. Hall performing a sprint, and a countdown invited passersby to run alongside him and beat his time.

A restaurant client also proved an enthusiastic experiential patron. In an effort to increase traffic at PF Changs restaurants, Vitro held a game of “Skyscraper Golf.” It set PF Changs-sponsored golf pro Briny Baird atop the Omni Hotel in downtown San Diego, where he hit balls at a target positioned at Petco Park. If he made it, both the Naval/Marine Relief fund and America scored. The former would get a $25,000 donation from the client, while the latter would get free lettuce wraps (one of the restaurant’s most-popular items). The effort generated $3.2 million in media coverage, 40,000 new Facebook fans and more than 400,000 registrants into PF Chang’s CRM program. Sales also hit $3 million via the program’s coupon-redemption program.

As adrenaline-pumping and PR-friendly as his initiatives may be, Mr. Wilson said it’s crucial that experiential campaigns should not just be a “flash in time.”

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