The Experience Economy's Success Problem

Now, of course, over the last few years we've become remarkably good at creating experiences. But that doesn't automatically make them matter. It's a strange position for our industry to find itself in. For years, experiential marketing operated in survival mode. Every budget cycle felt like another fight for legitimacy. The ad, social and PR agencies feasting while the experiential agency was called in to mop up the crumbs after everyone else had eaten. Every boardroom conversation became another opportunity to prove why experience deserved a place alongside more established communications channels. We became exceptionally good at defending the discipline because, for a long time, we had no choice. But perhaps it's time to acknowledge something. We're not fighting for a seat at the table anymore.

Fortunately for us, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has tracked marketing spend for over 25 years, giving us one of the clearest indicators of where confidence sits across the industry. And the picture painted by its Bellwether data is far more interesting than the simple post-pandemic rebound we’re all familiar with.

Events were among the hardest-hit categories in the marketing mix, collapsing from a net balance of -15.9% in Q1 2020 to -76.6% just one quarter later as restrictions brought in-person activity to a standstill. What followed wasn't merely recovery. By 2022, events had become the strongest-performing category in the report. More tellingly, they didn't relapse once the initial surge of pent-up demand had passed. Most recently, events topped the rankings in both Q1 and Q2 2026, with net balances of +14.7% and +11.0% respectively. Yet much of the category still behaves as though it is fighting for survival.

We've won the battle but kept the survival instinct. Like someone safely back on shore still thrashing as though they're drowning. We've spent years learning how to survive. Now it's time to learn how to thrive.

Success Has a Funny Habit of Creating New Problems

Just look at how far we've come. We spent years arguing for experience. Now we're arguing over the tools that sit inside it. From AI and XR to personalisation and creator ecosystems, the conversation has moved from whether experience works to how sophisticated we can make it.

In many ways, that's progress. But the category has become so focused on proving its value that it risks mistaking the measures of success for success itself. Perhaps that's why experiential thinking is experiencing the hangover of communications thinking. Virality, buzz and reach now routinely shape the brief. Those outcomes aren't wrong, I'd argue they're vital, but they still tell us what an experience does for a brand, not necessarily what it does for the people inside it. Advertising creates awareness, content creates connection and experience brings people closer to a story they want to be part of. That's why the experiences people remember are rarely the ones with the longest reach or highest number of impressions. They're the ones that leave something behind. A stronger connection. A new perspective. A memory worth carrying forward.

As capability becomes more accessible, it becomes easier to mistake the mechanism for the meaning. We fixate on what experiences can do rather than what they are for. Any old experience won't do anymore. The value has shifted from the bells and whistles to the thinking behind them. Which brings us to what might be the most important question facing experience design today.

Immersion? For What Purpose?

Perhaps in response to the intravenous digital soup we've been fed for the past 20 years, the experience industry has become increasingly preoccupied with depth, which of course, shouldn't be surprising.

For years, we were promised connection at a scale previously unimaginable. More people. More conversations. More access. The metaverse was probably the purest expression of that idea: a world free from geography, friction and limitation, where we could be whoever we wanted, connect with whoever we wanted and participate in whatever we wanted. The reality didn't play out as smoothly as the theory. Digital connection created extraordinary opportunities, but more connection didn't necessarily create more fulfilment. And who said unlimited connection was the goal anyway?

At some point on the journey, quantity became confused with quality. We optimised for access, availability and participation, only to discover that being connected to everything is not the same as feeling connected to something.

Perhaps that shouldn't surprise us. We have more opportunities to connect than ever before, but only so much time, attention and emotional energy to give them. In many ways, the growth of experience can be understood as a reaction to that.

People aren't necessarily looking for more connection. In many cases, they're looking for less of it. You can see it in the rise of no-phone experiences, digital detox retreats and entire formats organised around the simple promise of being present.

Faced with an increasingly fragmented world, our industry's answer has been depth. More immersion. More interaction. More participation… But to what end?

A branded world isn't meaningful simply because it is immersive, just as technology isn't meaningful simply because it is innovative.

At their best, experiences help people get closer to something that matters, leaving people with more than they arrived with. Perhaps a few too many brands enter these moments looking at what they can take from them: attention, relevance and cultural credibility, without truly considering what they offer in return, above the lazy answer of their product or service. The richer opportunity lies in helping people deepen a passion, solve a problem or explore a new possibility. That's where the opportunity for brands lies too. Not in extracting value from a moment, but in contributing to it. That's the lifeblood of the exchange: the relationship between the people, time and place, and the role the brand can play in making that relationship richer than it was before.

That's why we believe brands ought to tell stories people want to be part of. People are already living stories of their own. The role of experience isn't to interrupt those stories. It's to enrich them.

Conclusion

Meaningful experiences aren't defined by how immersive they are, how much content they generate or how much buzz they create. They’re defined by the emotional texture of what people leave with.

The next chapter for our industry isn't about proving experience works. It's about doing what only experience can: bringing people closer to the things they love.