And consumers are voting with their wallets. Millennials and gen Z consistently choose experiences over possessions, even amid economic uncertainty. That’s not a trend. That’s a truth. And it should shake the foundation of how brands think about performance.

Because here’s the reality: when your experiences are at the heart of your brand, every other marketing channel performs better. And when they’re not, you leave value on the table.

Not just garnish

Experiential marketing isn’t new. It’s just finally being recognized for what it truly is: the backbone of connection with your most ardent fans – and the ones you haven’t yet met.

Historically side lined as campaign garnish – parties, pop-ups, trade shows, ‘activations’ – experiential is now leading from the centre. The convergence of technology, data, and creative ambition has elevated it from a feel-good tactic to a foundational channel with real power.

Experiential lifts every other channel in the mix. It fuels social, multiplies earned media, supercharges content, and informs product and loyalty strategies. Brands including McDonald’s and Google are already doing this well, blurring the lines between physical, digital, and emotional engagement to turn experience into a competitive advantage.

Fully measurable

To fully claim its place in the marketing hierarchy, experiential must speak the language of CMOs and CFOs. That means tying experiences to bottom-line results and building business cases with the same precision applied to media or martech investments. At Jack Morton, we’ve built the models to do just that – and we’re helping clients turn experience into performance.

Today, thanks to smart tech, such as real-time analytics, CRM integration, sensor tracking, and attribution modelling, experiential can be measured with the same rigor as digital or media. Footfall. Dwell time. Sentiment. Leads. Sales. Loyalty. It’s all measurable now – and it matters. Brands that invest in the right measurement infrastructure can track, analyse, and prove experiential’s impact in hard business terms.

First, you must invest in the measurement infrastructure to do just that. For example, we tie experience design directly to KPIs, such as brand health, net promoter score (NPS), and purchase intent to bring credibility to the boardroom and confidence to the C-suite.

Last year, we worked with Cadillac at the US Open and partnered with shoe designer Surgeon to create the ‘Electrify Your Sole’ showroom. It attracted 158,000 visitors with a remarkable 950,000 minutes of engagement time, resulting in the collection of over 13,000 leads, including 86% from owners of competitive vehicles. The overall Cadillac US Open experience also produced a power shift in brand perception, generating double-digit lifts in opinion consideration and Cadillac as the ‘brand for me.’

Shaping culture

Metrics matter, but they’re only part of the story. What makes experiential marketing irreplaceable is its emotional impact. We know the most potent forces in anyone’s life are the cultures they belong to. Understanding this earns trust. It builds belief. It creates memories that become advocacy.

In a world of fractured attention and eroding loyalty, belief is the most valuable currency your brand can earn, and experience is how you earn it. No matter what kind of culture you want to reach, you can create an experience that drives the excitement of the most popular consumer fan fest.

It’s also how you manifest culture. Because the brands that win today aren’t just responding to what’s happening in the lives of their most committed communities, they’re shaping it. They’re meeting people with real-world experiences that reflect their values and invite participation.

Proving purpose

Experiential doesn’t live on the edges. It powers from the inside out.

The best brand experiences don’t stand alone. They multiply the performance of every other channel. They generate more engaging content, inspire more human PR narratives, shape more authentic influencer campaigns, and bring loyalty programs to life. They’re not touchpoints. They’re ignition points.

Experiential gives brands a stage to demonstrate purpose. To show, not just say, what they stand for. Whether that’s through sustainability, inclusion, innovation, or community, experience is how you make values feel real.

For example, 88% of women in the Middle East don’t feel comfortable swimming in public. To help change that, Adidas launched ‘The Liquid Billboard’, the world’s first swimmable billboard, inviting every woman to confidently get back into the water with their new inclusive swimwear collection. The experience reached 350m people, earned $6m in media across over 60 countries, and drove a 70% sell-through rate in just four weeks at flagship stores.

Building belief

Experiential has always been the soul of brand-building. Now, it’s the spine – holding together strategy, creativity, data, and connection.

It’s not the centre because it’s new; it’s the centre because it’s foundational. It’s where belief is built, value is proven, and performance takes off.

The question is no longer if experiential belongs in the mix. The question is: what’s it costing you not to lead with it?