Blog

In 2004, the creators of the popular web comic Penny Arcade launched PAX to bring together the gaming community and celebrate game culture. After years of growth, PAX expanded from Washington to several cities around the world, and PAX East was established in 2010 as the event’s East Coast branch. We headed up to Boston for this year’s PAX East event, held March 26-29 at the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center, where attendees experienced new releases from major game publishers and...

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW THIS WEEK This week’s hot takes on hot topics in experiential marketing cover Y2K house parties, chocolate heists and “Ride the Ranch.”   FIRE UP YOUR GAME BOY AND SHAKE YOUR MAGIC 8 BALL—IT’S A Y2K HOUSE PARTY Gen Z’s utter fascination with Y2K-era fashion and culture continues to sashay its way into brand activations. And as elder millennials, we can confirm that Owl’s Brew got it right with its Y2K house party-themed launch event in NYC. On March 26, the ready-to-drink brand,...

Oh, Barbie. We wanted to go party. Alas, we spent a lot more time scratching our heads at Barbie Dream Fest 2026 than enjoying the experience. Hosted March 27-29 in Fort Lauderdale, FL, the cost of tickets to the inaugural convention ranged from roughly $70 for a day pass to $450 for a VIP weekend package, so we signed up to attend on day one to see what it was all about. (After all, Barbie-themed experiences had a banner year in 2023.) Dream Fest was billed as the “ultimate” fan event for Barbie...

From street signs and lights to curbs and crosswalks, experience builders are borrowing inspiration from the rhythms of movement in real life within activations and trade show exhibits, creating a sense of place and an intentional journey. Let’s stop and look both ways at this accelerating design tactic. First, a look at the “why” of how streetscapes work with some behavioral science. Urban sociologist and professor Ray Oldenburg, who coined the phrase “third place” in his 1989 book, “The Great Good...

Ask and they shall receive. When Sony Electronics’ user community expressed FOMO over the launch of the Alpha 7 V hybrid camera, the brand turned to what it does best—listening—and took a creator showcase held annually in New York City on tour, popping up in the local markets of its most fervent users. The 10-city Creative Space On the Road tour, featuring signature Sony experiences, kicked off Feb. 26 in San Diego, and will wrap April 30 in Boston. Stops include Albuquerque, NM; Savannah, GA; and...

With the news cycle in flux and doomscrolling becoming a daily norm, leisure isn’t necessarily top of mind for consumers, but Cîroc is looking to change that with the Cîroc Athletic Club. The vodka brand’s new experiential platform brings together sports, fashion and culinary culture to create a country club-inspired space of “luxury leisure.” Since launching at the 2025 US Open, the social club has activated around Super Bowl LX, the Nexo Dallas Open and the Desert Smash charity celebrity tennis...

As b-to-b audiences become increasingly international, and brands prioritize accessibility and inclusivity, real-time AI language translation is becoming a powerful addition to the event marketer’s toolkit. From traditional, large-scale conferences to sales kickoffs and beyond, companies are investing in AI-powered translation tools and platforms designed to enhance engagement on-site, and save time and resources behind the scenes. And for some audiences, it’s becoming an expectation. “If it’s an...

The largest annual gathering of residential construction and design industry professionals, Design & Construction Week (DCW), took over both the North/South and West exhibit buildings at the Orange County Convention Center, Feb. 17-19. It marked one of the biggest trade shows we’ve covered in Orlando, but the roving chapter for this show is coming to a close. Starting in 2027, the 14th DCW—which features the co-location of the NAHB International Builders’ Show (IBS) and the NKBA Kitchen &...

How the Team USA sponsor harnessed hockey fever across watch parties, exhibitions and a ‘Run Back the Miracle’ showcase   For passionate sports fans, the past is as important as the present. That storytelling opportunity inspired an Olympic Winter Games experiential campaign here on home turf for sponsor Michelob ULTRA, which featured custom content, nostalgic venues and watch parties, capped by a fortuitous gold medal win. But more on that in a moment. One month before the U.S. men’s national hockey...

The sponsorship is an extension of the brand’s canine-centric ‘Gold Squad’ platform The concept of “stress-free travel” may sound like a distant fantasy, but Hertz is on a mission to alleviate travel anxieties through its Gold Plus Rewards loyalty program—and a pack of friendly golden retrievers known as the Gold Squad. First introduced last summer to help airport travelers decompress, the brand’s highly trained group of pups has since begun infiltrating select Hertz locations, where the company...