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Xathon: promoting diversity in the tech industry

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For Nussenbaum, the only reliable way to tell whether a brand is really blowing up is to go check out the connection with its community. “We want to find the brand builders and agents of change that know how to create and engage communities – and do a lot with very little”, he explains. “The best way to do that is to follow the queue”.
“Go outside, find the queue that stretches around the block and join it. English people love queuing and, you know what? So do we.”
He reveals that, at Felix Capital, investors attend the world’s culture-defining events to see which brands are making an impact there. “A teammate recently went to the Burning Man Ultramarathon in California because we knew the next generation of brands focused on Your Better Self would be there,” he says. 
“We also went to the Wimbledon of Padel because that’s now the fastest-growing sport worldwide. We identify new trends, shift in behaviours, and then we go deep. It’s this curiosity that drives us.”

Curiosity drives us

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Exciting companies use real-world events to engage with fans and create impactful moments. Some of these are small scale, says Nussenbaum, but tiny can still be mighty.
“Look at local running clubs or meetups that are created by niche brands”, he explains. “If you can create a sense of community and build a loyal audience, that’s really powerful.”
Some events are more ambitious such as the recent collaboration between cosmetics icon MAC and Felix Capital-backed Lick, the DIY brand and paint maker. “We activated this collaboration across MAC’s physical stores, including the global flagship on Carnaby Street”, says Nussenbaum.
“Lick is an innovative brand – we did a colour version of Heinz Ketchup! We saw that MAC consumers – young professionals, first-time buyers, fashion-conscious women – could be Lick customers and this launch was a great way to test the thesis and bring together two culturally relevant brands.&#8221;
Felix Capital is an investor in Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop. Every year, Goop runs a wellness summit that attracts hundreds or even thousands of fans. “These events are core to Gwyneth’s proposition”, explains Nussenbaum.
“Yes, Goop is a polarizing brand but there is a massive community of people who love Gwyneth. They want to meet and exchange ideas on health and family health. The physical events are a great way to bring that community together.”

Impactful moments with people who matter

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From small-scale clubs to blockbuster events, every party, concert, launch and conference has a part to play.
“We want to find the brands driving a real cultural shift, relevant to modern consumers, shaping the way they want to take care of themselves, eat, exercise, travel, work, and so on..” Nussenbaum explains.
“For these companies, events remain a part of the brand building mix. It might come first, as you test a product and take the pulse of the market, or it may come later after to complement existing channels or activate a new market”
According to Nussenbaum, investing and business building is all about people &#8211; and events bring people together.  “Events, gatherings, authentic moments, these are all relevant&#8221;, he says. &#8220;Maybe I’m a romantic, but I hope we never lose the in-person interaction in our lives.”

Use events to 'take the pulse'

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Challenging law industry norms with Taylor Wessing

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A Bespoke 10 Year Anniversary Festival on the Isle of Wight

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Antoine Nussenbaum: "Brits love a queue - and so do VCs"

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.

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.

Work.

We cross cultures, continents and disciplines.

Articles.

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.