A Deep Dive into Event & Experiential Marketing
No one goes about their day without seeing at least one ad. With that much digital marketing competing for attention, how are your target audiences supposed to remember you?
In reality, they remember experiences more than ads.
Brands winning today are leaning into event and experiential marketing. Many businesses are already seeing this shift. In fact, seven out of 10 Fortune 1000 marketers have increased their marketing budget in 2025. On top of that, the majority of B2B companies spent an estimated $38 billion on experiential marketing in 2024 alone.
So the real question is simple: are you willing to get left behind?
What Is Event & Experiential Marketing?
While often used interchangeably, event marketing and experiential marketing serve different but complementary roles.
Event Marketing is about bringing people together at a specific place and time. It involves a multi-step process to create events to promote your brand and connect with your audiences. People behind this service are responsible for planning trade shows, conferences, pop-up events, roadshows, product launches, and sponsored activations.
On the other hand, experiential marketing is about what happens within that event. This is how you connect with your audience through hands-on and immersive experiences. That might involve interactive displays, live demos, sensory elements, or personalized takeaways.
You can think of event marketing as the stage—it sets the time, place, and audience. Experiential marketing is the performance. It's how people engage once they're there and what they remember when they leave.
Does It Still Work?
Yes, it still works because it aligns with how people actually make decisions.
Consumers are exposed to countless brand messages every day, and most are forgotten immediately. Events and experiences help you stand out by creating real interaction. When people can see, touch, and engage with a brand, the connection becomes personal. This affects their buying behavior.
For 91% of consumers, they feel more positively about a brand after participating in an experiential activation. The exact number also reports being more inclined to buy from the brand afterward. These experiences not only increase brand awareness but also strengthen emotional connection and build long-term loyalty.
Common Event Marketing Services
Event and experiential marketing cover a wide range of services, and enough providers are offering them. Regardless of who's involved, every successful event has one thing in common — an event marketing plan.
An event marketing plan defines the event's purpose before any assets are produced. It outlines the goals, target audience, key messages, timeline, and how success will be measured. With an event marketing plan, you are confident that every service is working towards the same goal or outcome. We've explored this in greater detail in Do You Really Need an Event Marketing Plan?
After the plan, a combination of the following services helps bring the events to life:
- Creative concepting and brand storytelling
- Booths, displays, signage, and large-format graphics
- Experiential design and interactive elements
- Event logistics, shipping, and installation
- On-site support and teardown
- Post-event asset management and follow-up
The Before, During, and After
Just like any other campaigns, events, and experiential marketing don't happen overnight. They're built upon multiple steps and phases with a specific purpose and outcome.
Before the event, brands focus on alignment and readiness. This phase often begins weeks or even months in advance. Normally, this includes tasks like defining clear objectives, identifying the right audience, and locking in key messages early. Creative direction, logistics, and staffing are planned here as well. At the same time, promotion becomes critical. Pre-event outreach will help you build anticipation and drive registrations.
During the event, execution and engagement take priority. The goal is no longer just attendance, but meaningful interaction. On-site experiences should be easy to navigate, visually compelling, and designed to encourage participation. Teams should be prepared to guide conversations, demonstrate value, and capture attention. This is also the best time to collect content and insights that can be used well beyond the event itself.
After the event, the real impact begins to take shape. Follow-ups turn conversations into opportunities, while post-event touchpoints help reinforce the experience. Qualified leads are nurtured, content is repurposed, and experiential elements can extend the brand connection.
Extend Brand Experience With Influencer Kits
The impact of a strong event doesn't end when the doors close. Brands that continue to see results even after conferences and trade shows end have also mastered influencer kits. Rather than relying only on in-person attendance, brands use influencer kits to expand reach and spark conversations.
Influencer kits can be used before events to build anticipation, during events to amplify live coverage, and after events to maintain momentum. When executed well, a strong influencer kit:
- Tells a story that's easy to share
- Looks intentional on camera and in photos
- Connects directly to the event or activation
- Encourages authentic content, not scripted promotion
When influencer kits are aligned with the event's creative direction and messaging, they become a natural extension of the experience—not a standalone tactic. The result is greater visibility, longer-lasting impact, and brand moments that continue to resonate well after the event is over.
Choosing The Right Event Support Partner
Having creative and unique ideas matters in experiential marketing. However, without the right systems, coordination, and follow-through, even the strongest concepts can fall short. Hence, the need to choose the right partner.
At Roundhouse, event and experiential marketing are approached as a connected end-to-end experience. Creative, production, logistics, fulfillment, and post-event support are handled under one roof, allowing every piece of the experience to move in the same direction. That means fewer handoffs, faster execution, and a more consistent brand presence from start to finish.
More importantly, Roundhouse operates as an extension of your team. From early planning through on-site execution and post-event follow-up, the focus stays on alignment, efficiency, and results. Whether it's a trade show, product launch, influencer kit, or sampling program, we can help you turn your ideas into experiences that perform.
Have an event concept in mind? Let's connect and turn it into an experience your audience actually remembers.