Oscar Mayer & Kraft Heinz at the Indianapolis 500

When one of America's most recognized sporting events brings together hundreds of thousands of racing fans, every sponsor is competing for attention. But grabbing attention is only the beginning. The real challenge is giving people a reason to stop, stay, participate, and remember your brand long after race day.

That's exactly what Oscar Mayer and Kraft Heinz set out to accomplish through an unforgettable experiential marketing activation designed to create meaningful fan engagement, encourage interaction, and generate lasting brand awareness.

Working alongside the activation team, Big Round Wheel Amusements brought our Water Gun Fun interactive midway attraction to the event, transforming a branded space into a high-energy fan zone where guests didn't simply see the brands—they interacted with them. The attraction became the centerpiece of a successful brand activation, encouraging friendly competition, increasing dwell time, and creating authentic moments guests naturally shared across social media.

Sometimes the most memorable marketing doesn't feel like marketing at all.
It feels like fun.

Project Overview

Bringing Brand Engagement to One of America's Biggest Sporting Events The Indianapolis 500 is one of those events where the energy is impossible to ignore. Everywhere you look there are fans, entertainment, sponsor experiences, and constant movement.

In an environment like that, standing out takes more than colorful signage.

Oscar Mayer and Kraft Heinz needed something that would naturally bring people together.

• They wanted them to stop.
• Play.
• Laugh.
• Bring their friends over.
• And leave with a positive memory connected to the brand.

Big Round Wheel helped make that happen by providing our Water Gun Fun attraction as the centerpiece of the sponsor activation. Throughout race weekend, guests lined up to compete while spectators gathered around to cheer, watch, and capture the excitement. The attraction quickly became one of the busiest gathering places within the sponsor village, creating continuous guest interaction and significantly increasing time spent inside the branded environment.

Rather than simply walking through the display, visitors actively participated in an experience that blended sports marketing, entertainment, and experiential event design into one memorable activation.

Throughout race weekend, guests lined up to compete while spectators gathered around to cheer, watch, and capture the excitement. The attraction became a natural gathering place, keeping people engaged far longer than a traditional display ever could.

The Challenge

Creating an Activation Guests Couldn't Walk Past

At an event the size of the Indianapolis 500, every brand is working to capture attention.

Guests are constantly moving, conversations are happening everywhere, and there's no shortage of things to see. Sponsors only have a few moments to make an impression before visitors move on to the next attraction.

The goal wasn't simply to entertain people.

It was to create an interactive attraction that naturally encouraged guests to stop, participate, and spend meaningful time inside the branded environment.

Every extra minute mattered because every additional interaction created another opportunity for brand messaging, sponsor engagement, and memorable experiences that traditional displays simply cannot deliver.

The Solution

Interactive Entertainment That Naturally Creates Crowds

At the center of the activation was our Water Gun Fun racing attraction, an interactive midway game specifically designed to support experiential marketing, fan engagement, and large-scale event marketing.

The attraction invited guests to compete head-to-head while family, friends, and complete strangers gathered around to cheer them on. Within minutes, spectators became participants, participants invited others to play, and the activation developed its own momentum.

What started as a game quickly became one of the busiest attractions inside the sponsor footprint.

Because guests actively participated instead of simply walking through the activation, they spent considerably more time within the branded environment while creating memorable experiences associated with Oscar Mayer and Kraft Heinz.

Why It Worked

Great Experiential Marketing Creates Experiences

One of the biggest advantages of interactive attractions is their ability to create emotional engagement.

Guests weren't simply looking at sponsor graphics or promotional displays.

They were:

Those moments create positive brand associations that traditional displays simply cannot achieve.

Attraction Highlights

Water Gun Fun Interactive Midway Game

The Water Gun Fun attraction provided:

• Multi-player competition
• Continuous guest participation
• Bright, colorful visual appeal
• Natural crowd attraction
• Family-friendly entertainment
• Seamless integration into the sponsor footprint
• Professional operation by the Big Round Wheel team

The attraction complemented the overall brand activation while allowing Oscar Mayer and Kraft Heinz messaging to remain the focus. The result was an engaging experiential marketing attraction that continuously generated crowds, conversations, photographs, and social media content throughout race weekend.

Agency-Friendly Collaboration

Working Together for Successful Experiential Marketing Activations

Large-scale experiential marketing campaigns rarely involve just one company.

There are agencies developing creative concepts, production teams coordinating logistics, sponsors managing brand standards, and event organizers keeping everything on schedule.

Big Round Wheel’s role is to make the attraction feel like it has always belonged there.

We work closely with agencies and production partners to ensure every attraction fits seamlessly into the overall vision while our experienced operators handle setup, safety, guest interaction, and day-to-day operations.

It's a collaborative process, and that's exactly how we like it.

We regularly collaborate with:

Our goal is to become a trusted attraction partner who helps agencies, production companies, sports marketers, and corporate brand teams transform creative concepts into unforgettable guest experiences.

Looking Beyond the Indianapolis 500

Interactive Attractions for Events Nationwide

While this activation took place during one of the world's premier motorsports events, the same strategy works for nearly every live event where brands want to connect with people through memorable experiences.

Wherever brands want to create genuine interaction instead of passive exposure, interactive attractions deliver experiences that naturally bring people together.

Why Brands Choose Big Round Wheel

Organizations choose Big Round Wheel because we deliver more than amusement attractions.

We provide:

Our team understands how attractions integrate into larger experiential marketing campaigns, sports marketing activations, corporate hospitality experiences, and live event productions. We work alongside agencies, event producers, production companies, and corporate marketing teams to create seamless guest experiences that support sponsor objectives.

Great Experiences Don't Happen by Accident

They're carefully planned, professionally executed, and built around moments people genuinely enjoy.

Whether you're planning a brand activation, fan zone, sponsor village, product launch, sports marketing activation, or another large-scale experiential marketing event, Big Round Wheel helps transform ordinary spaces into unforgettable guest experiences.

Long after the event ends, people won't remember every banner or booth they passed.
They'll remember the experience.
Let's create that experience together.