Recently, it has been demonstrated that a vibro-impact type nonlinear energy sink (VI-NES) can be used efficiently to mitigate vibration of a linear oscillator (LO) under transient loading. The objective of this paper is to investigate theoretically and experimentally the potential of a VI-NES to mitigate vibrations of a LO subjected to a harmonic excitation (nevertheless, the presentation of an optimal VI-NES is beyond the scope of this paper). Due to the small mass ratio between the LO and the flying mass of the NES, the obtained equation of motion are analyzed using the method of multiple scales in the case of 1 : 1 resonance. It is shown that in addition to periodic response, system with VI-NES can exhibit strongly modulated response (SMR). Experimentally, the whole system is embedded on an electrodynamic shaker. The VI-NES is realized with a ball which is free to move in a cavity with a predesigned gap. The mass of the ball is less than 1% of the mass of the LO. The experiment confirms the existence of periodic and SMR response regimes. A good agreement between theoretical and experimental results is observed.