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An <a href="https://ipa.co.uk/news/bellwether-report-q1-2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IPA Bellwether Report</a>, a quarterly survey outlining UK companies&#8217; marketing spend intentions released in April of this year, found that event spend has been up for nine consecutive quarters. 32% of marketers reported an increased events budget and the trend is set to continue into 2025 with the report forecasting an annual spend increase of 18.7%. 
On the other side of the pond, a study by US marketing agency <a href="https://www.gradientexperience.com/insights/152-top-retail-marketers-reveal-how-experiential-strategies-are-shaping-the-industry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gradient</a> found that 82% of retail companies have increased their experiential marketing budgets over the last three years and on average, companies now account for 10-30% of their overall marketing spend for experiential campaigns. 
Across the board, as customers are forced to become choosy with how they spend the money amidst the cost of living crisis, brands are having to work harder to win over consumers. Building brands centred on community is proving the most successful route and to do this successfully requires an emotional connection best fostered by event based activations. You only need to look at ASOS’ recent decision to ring fence an additional £30 million just for this purpose to see how valuable this asset can truly be.

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With the digital space so crowded and consumers overwhelmed on a majority of social platforms, creating truly unique and memorable online campaigns is getting harder and more competitive. 
Naturally, the consumer&#8217;s experience mindset is clearly driving demand for experiential marketing, especially amongst some demographics. For instance, an <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/academy/millennials-fueling-experience-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eventbrite</a> survey discovered that roughly 78% of Millennials prefer experiences over products. This demand for IRL experiences is largely a reaction to our always-on world where so much of our days can be spent in front of some sort of screen. For businesses and brands, hosting events is also an excellent way to directly interact with customers – an element of community building that can’t be underrated. 
Simultaneously though, event activations create excellent content opportunities and feed back into the digital world in a refreshing way. Eventbrite’s <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/l/event-trends/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">annual trends report</a> found that 71% of 21-to-35-year-olds and 63% of all attendees share and post videos and images from events via their mobile.

What is driving this?


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In the past, one of the biggest challenges for Marketing Directors has been justifying spend on experiential marketing campaigns which are traditionally harder to measure in terms of ROI. In comparison to data driven online marketing campaigns where stats can show a direct link to sales, experiential marketing’s impact is much subtler. Of course, success of experiential campaigns can be measured but it isn’t often directly based on sales. 
According to <a href="https://www.gradientexperience.com/insights/152-top-retail-marketers-reveal-how-experiential-strategies-are-shaping-the-industry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gradient</a>’s research, 64% of brands focus on earned media value and 51% prioritise social engagement when it comes to success metrics of experiential marketing campaigns. Other options include measuring success by attendance or on the ground feedback. 
While these metrics hold value, here at Marble, the most important outcome for us is sentiment and emotional connection built between customer and brand. We have seen first hand how it’s the businesses who understand the importance of brand and community building and base their budgets on investment in this outcome over anything else who reap the biggest rewards from experiential marketing.

Measuring the success of experiential marketing


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The Experience Era: Why Experiential Marketing Is Thriving

Augmented reality – which means the use of technology to overlay extra information onto the physical world – has been around since the late sixties, when a Harvard-educated computer scientist brought out the first headset. 
It was soon adopted by the military and used in weapons training. But today there are myriad niche use cases: it’s used to help medical students learn how to undertake complex surgeries, furniture retailers use it to help you visualise a new sofa in your home, and cosmetics brands use AR to sell customers the right make-up shades online.
AR is quietly revolutionising industries, such as manufacturing, where digital instructions are overlaid onto machines and systems through a tablet. There are now around a billion mobile augmented reality (AR) users worldwide, according to estimates. 
But this has been evolution, not revolution. Ask most people what AR means to them, and they’ll probably talk about the face filters on Snapchat.

An extra dimension

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In the events industry, futurists forecast a time where augmented reality would be pervasive, turning conferences and celebrations into multi-sensory events with immersive experiences where attendees can interact with content and peers in a different way.
In truth, the impact has been more subtle. Think Canadian pop group The Weeknd, using AR so that TikTok fans could change the video backdrops at live shows, or, at big PGA golf tournaments, onlookers using AR to replay the shots they just watched IRL.
Barriers to AR adoption persist, such as the cost of implementation, which mean that a fully immersive and impressive experience is only accessible to larger brands. In events, which can last just a few hours, this cost may not always feel justified.
Other questions to consider: Do attendees have the right device or the technical ability to really engage with AR? Can you guarantee the tech will work or does a dodgy internet connection threaten to destroy the whole experience. Can you guarantee user privacy, as AR apps snaffle attendee data?
But the elephant in the room is this: if events are all about human connection, does AR threaten to detract from the social interaction? Can you create a lively atmosphere if people are required to stare into their screens?

Questions remain

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The world’s tech titans, from Apple to Microsoft to Meta, are making big bets on AR. Its impact may have been limited to date but as hardware and accessibility improve, this could lead to a breakthrough.
At Marble, we believe that augmented reality, in the right circumstances, can elevate an event from great to unforgettable. Balancing the use of technology with opportunities to network and exchange ideas is crucial.
This is the same balance we must find in our everyday lives, as technology becomes more pervasive. You can’t shy away from progress but you cannot be consumed by it either.
For most of us, augmented reality is, at best, a novelty. A fun way to enhance a moment. At worst, it is a gimmick. How long until it becomes an entrenched and comfortable part of everyday life? We’ve waited more than half a century for AR to come of age, I guess we can wait a little longer.

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Augmented Reality: The Future or a Failed Technology?

We decided to meet to discuss <a href="https://www.climateweeknyc.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Climate Week</a> because on the surface, it’s an event, and we do events. Like most conversations, it ended with the core premise of all of our most important discussions, ‘how do we make change happen?’ Getting people in the room is generally agreed as the starting point and in his New York diary there are three staple moments. The first, a breakfast to launch the Fin-Erth Climate Awards. 
<a href="https://www.fin-erth.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fin-Erth</a> is the brainchild of Patrick’s co-founder Serena Oppenheim. It had modest beginnings, dinners comprising Lebanese takeout and 10-15 individuals for important conversation at home. Now it&#8217;s a curated community for women in finance, investment, policy, law and innovation who are leading the climate revolution from within. It caught the eye of astute individuals at COP 2023 and suddenly, takeout dinners have been replaced with hundreds of women meeting at COP 2024, and community gatherings year-round everywhere from Azerbaijan to Chicago.

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A dinner with UNICEF Innovation, partners, and 40 women who work at the intersection of climate and finance is the second of his bookings. The Plastic Symposium at NYU follows, an unpacking of the science and links between the chemicals in plastic, health and the fundamental cost to our livelihoods. It sounds quite a lot like this all happens through painstaking strategy, but Patrick’s approach is less one of powerpoints and more one of instinct. Fin-Erth can rightfully have lofty aspirations because once upon a time, so did its established brothers and sisters. ‘What’s the process for this?’ is a question he hates. ‘All great things don’t have an immediate roadmap but a strong sense of self.’ he says, ‘No distinct business plan, it’s just sitting down and figuring it out. The goal is actually simple: get people in a room, build trust, unlock solutions.’
Climate and <a href="/2023/04/17/how-can-we-ensure-sustained-success-for-female-founders">championing women</a> are the common thread within these projects. It’s the potential of the <a href="https://www.fin-erth.com/#climate-awards" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fin-Erth awards</a> that excites him. Women behind the scenes in climate, he explains, get zero PR oxygen. They work in tough verticals that aren’t media polished but who are doing the real heavy lifting in making climate change happen. So these awards are about them, celebrating their achievements and spotlighting the work that doesn’t usually get airtime but needs profiling if it is to win the interest of the world’s key holders.

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This will be Patrick’s third year at New York Climate Week where his main goal is ‘simply’ to help raise the agenda on the challenges posed to the climate, at a week long event that functions to gather the best minds for the task. It’s not that simple really, is it. Big challenges need big motivators and he’s got them: two girls, 8 and 4 years old who are growing up in ‘an unfair world’. A world where ‘the odds are stacked against you as women. And we’ve got to try to do something at least to fix it.’ 
This brings us back to the beginning, how do we make change happen then? People have become desensitised, says Patrick, and organisers forget that the ways to make anyone feel anything is to dial back to the sensory details. How does a room smell, whose voices can be heard, what message is the atmosphere sending? Creating emotion is the fundamental most important thing about an ‘event’ and compelling anyone to care that it happened, to remember it afterwards. ‘I believe in human capital&#8217;. He concludes with:

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One of Patrick&#8217;s many hats is as Chief Content Officer at The Marble Group. To work with <a href="/people/patrick-keogh">Patrick</a> and our team, drop us a line with the project you need help on.

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In conversation with Patrick Keogh on the eve of New York Climate Week

We are a global
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marketing agency.

We’re a global
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marketing agency.

We work with innovators
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and professional services.

We work
with innovators
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Our job is to
turn gatherings
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Our job is to
turn gatherings
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Part of
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Work.

We cross cultures, continents and disciplines.

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Our latest news & insights

We are a global strategic experiential marketing agency.

We’re a global strategicexperiential marketing agency.

We work with innovatorsacross tech, finance and professional services.

We work with innovatorsacross tech, finance &professional services.

Our job is toturn gatheringsinto moments, and moments into legacies.

Our job is toturn gatheringsinto moments, andmoments into legacies.

Part of the world'smost creatively optimisticagency group.

Part ofthe world'smost creativelyoptimistic agency group.

Work.

We cross cultures, continents and disciplines.

Articles.

Our latest news & insights

We are a global
strategic experiential
marketing agency.

We’re a global
strategic
experiential
marketing agency.

We work with innovators
across tech, finance
and professional services.

We work
with innovators
across tech,
finance &
professional
services.

Our job is to
turn gatherings
into moments, and
moments into legacies.

Our job is to
turn gatherings
into moments,
and
moments
into legacies.

Part of the world's
most creatively optimistic
agency group.

Part of
the world's
most creatively
optimistic
agency group.