You’re Measuring the Wrong Thing

Brand marketers often call it Brand Love. We call it Brand Gravity™.

Different language, but with the same ambition: Create experiences people don’t just attend, but choose to come back to.

Our industry has become incredibly good at measuring attention; attendance, impressions, reach, views, engagement. And those metrics matter, as they tell us whether people noticed. But at Spiro, we’ve spent the last few years asking whether we’re measuring the outcome, or simply the activity. Because attention doesn’t tell us whether anyone cared…or if trust increased…or perceptions shifted…or if someone walked away feeling differently about a brand versus when they arrived.

And when we look at the work that creates the strongest business impact, there’s usually something deeper happening outside of attention alone. People feel involved, they feel part of something.

Over the last year, we’ve been exploring that very notion through Spiro’s Experiential Marketing Impact Report (EMIR) and our Experiential Intelligence framework. Not because we wanted to prove events work; as industry veterans and experiential champions, we know they do. What we wanted to understand, was why certain experiences stayed with people long after they’re over vs others that were so incredibly forgettable.

The patterns have been remarkably consistent. People don’t build relationships with brands because they’re exposed to them, they build relationships because they participated with them.

Our latest EMIR findings showed that:

• 93% of participants reported stronger purchase intent following a memorable brand experience
• 90% percent reported increased trust after engaging with a brand in a live environment
• More than 80% said the experience accelerated or confirmed a purchase decision

But what surprised us wasn’t that experiences influence behaviour. Again, we expected that. What stood out was the role participation actually played. When people described an experience as memorable, transparent, or personally valuable, purchase likelihood nearly tripled.

What’s even more interesting is that we’re seeing those patterns regardless of audience, geography, or format. Whether someone is attending a leadership event, moving through a tradeshow, or engaging with a pop up, the same principle continues to emerge: people value experiences that invite them in rather than market at them.

That feels particularly relevant right now because experiential is evolving far beyond the traditional event. Today, brands are building relationships through live events, immersive experiences, and always-on engagement ecosystems that connect physical and digital interactions over an extended period of time. Sure, the format may change, but the human behaviour doesn’t.

We’ve seen it in our sold-out Radio City Music Hall with J.P. Morgan and Acquired. We’ve seen it producing the LEGO^® Festival across seven global LEGOLAND^® Resorts. Different audiences and different objectives, but the same underlying principle: participation creates connection.

This year, we’re expanding EMIR to dive deeper into the drivers of attraction, participation, trust, and advocacy, so we can continue to design for participation. Because attention gets someone to look, but connection gives them a reason to stay. And that’s where the real opportunity for experiential begins.

 

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Carley Faircloth Kilmurray
Global Chief Marketing, Strategy, & Brand Experiences
Spiro
hello@thisisspiro.com
+44 (0) 781 546 4885
spiro.com