5 Must-Have Capabilities for Today's Experience Agencies

The Experience Economy is red-hot and evolving. Are agencies keeping up?

According to Bain & Company, projected spending on the Experience Economy is set to reach $8 trillion by 2030. So how can experience agencies reinvigorate themselves for the world's growing appetite for experiences, conferences and branded activations?

Here are 5 areas of investment and growth that I think are needed now to prepare for the future:

Proprietary IP

In a marketplace that has democratized creativity and commoditized execution, what is it that will set your agency apart? To answer this question, one look beyond the agency’s positioning statement or tagline. The agency must have a strong and distinguishable USP. Back in the day, TBWA promulgated “disruption” as its IP and built an ownable and defendable position in the market. RGA reinvents itself every five years for ever-evolving digital space. Edelman publishes the Trust Barometer, Interbrand has its Best Global Brands. GMR Marketing recently released its Brand Experience Index. Find your niche and lean into it. Create IP that not only lifts your business above the competition, it lifts the entire industry as well.

Measurement

As experience creators, how can we really know how people feel about the work we do? After all, marketers have long known that focus groups and surveys aren’t accurate; when it comes to self-reporting, people aren’t reliable. But neuroscience is.

Recent advances in measuring oxytocin and dopamine release through wearable technology like an Apple Watch can now provide a definitive response to the likeability and memorability of the experience. This technology can begin to redefine ROI in experiential marketing. A company called Immersion Neuroscience can objectively measure people’s experiences beyond sentiment or impressions. Using Immersion to measure experiential marketing opens doors for massive customer insights, iterative experience improvement, and an ability to clearly communicate the successes of brand experiences in our industry.

Amplification Allies

For years, experience agencies would tout the power of social media as an amplification tool for the events, activations, pop-ups and experiences they produced. In our current cultural noise of always-on content creation for multiple incohesive social media platforms, experience makers need ever-increasing ways to amplify their experiences. Large ad agencies have their holding company-owned media agencies to lean on. Experiential agencies are less streamlined when it comes to amplification. These agencies need to create partnerships and alliances. Partnering with influencers to participate in experiences, for instance, is a tried-and-true way of garnering earned media. Creating alliances with independent media shops or content creator networks on TikTok become viable avenues for experience amplification. It’s no wonder that CAA and WME – agencies that have direct relationships with content creators and influencers – have founded or acquired thriving experience agencies. Independent media shop Horizon launched Horizon Sport and Experiences to capitalize on creating media IP around experience, and vice versus.

Insights Stack

The advent of web3 operability, tech leaps in AR/VR, a cultural appetite for paid “immersive experiences,” the increasing need for brands to reward loyalty, the reinvention of retail and retail spaces…all these massive shifts are opening the door for experience agencies to compete on strategy, creativity and breakthrough applications of technology. But experiential agencies are risking becoming vendors and producers rather than owners of the brand experience. In order to be more integral to the CMO, experiential agencies must consistently deliver more customer or cultural insights. These agencies would do well to start investing in listening dashboards, neuro-immersive measurement and AI-powered platforms to bolster their current insight stack.

A ”Why” Culture

Too many experience agency teams eagerly jump into the “how” or “what” of the experience they are creating. Few ask themselves “why would anyone give a shit about it?” Even fewer still ask “why does this experience matter?” Answering these questions honestly can fundamentally impact the other areas on this list. Figuring out the “why” of the work unlocks the kind of IP that positions and motivates the agency. Figuring out the “why” of the audience mandates much deeper insights; understanding the “why” of the client makes empirical measurement instrumental. A “how” culture can enhance innovation but a “why” cultures establishes the intention for it.

I see incredible opportunities ahead for experience agencies. But these opportunities await those who are pivoting into new models, technology stacks and talent pools. The time is now. The world awaits.