Coffee orders got kicked up a notch at Coachella with the International Delight Cold Foam House, a multisensory activation designed to get revelers sampling the brand’s three new creamer flavors.

In honor of National Financial Literacy month and amidst the backdrop of soaring women’s workforce participation hitting an all-time high of 77.8% in 2023, the conversation around financial independence and retirement planning takes on new significance. Young women are highly invested in saving and planning for life’s major milestones such as buying a home, new automobile, and planning for retirement. And although they may be savings savvy, researchers at Yale found that single women see significantly lower returns from buying and selling real estate than single men — paying 2% more and selling for 2% less, on average! Plus, when it comes to retirement, Goldman Sachs found that women are historically impacted by the wage gap, taking time off to raise children, plus having to retire early for health reasons.

After years of leaning into performance marketing, the landscape is once again shifting to in-person experiences. According to 2023 Forrester research, more than three-quarters of marketing executives are returning to experiential marketing to educate, engage, and build trust with consumers.

Music festivals, such as Coachella and Lollapalooza, and food experiences, like the New York City Wine & Food Festival, are a natural fit for brands and prime opportunities to build brand love.

Here, we look at how consumers feel about events and the impact that participation has on brands.

Emerging brands are thrust into a competitive marketplace full of established brands often with nothing but a scrappy attitude, a dream, and a tight budget. But all three, when combined with a tailored marketing strategy, are sometimes all you need to create brand awareness with consumers.

Produced by Inspira Marketing in partnership with The New Republic, the "Banned Books Tour 2023" is set to tour cities across the country from October 1st to October 7th. The tour will promote free speech and expression in the cities that need it most. 

There’s a story about wine, one rounded to anonymous legend, that goes like this: “A man, fallen on hard times, sold his art collection but kept his wine cellar. When asked why he did not sell his wine, he said, ‘A man can live without art, but not without culture.’”

Inflation is hitting all of us hard, which means marketing departments have to do more with less. This is exactly why mobile tours are a great method of experiential marketing, one that reuses assets, hits a wide audience, and forms a personal connection with consumers all across your route.

Brand ambassadors are the face of not only your current marketing campaign or activation, but of your brand, your company. And while many ambassadors may only be working for you for a single event, the impression they leave on potential consumers lasts forever.

Inspira CEO Jeff Snyder talks to TotalRetail, sharing how retailers can leverage brand experiences to connect with customers on a deeper level.

Okay, we’re not going to lie to you: January and February were the perfect months to start planning for a summer brand activation. But, as the saying goes, we can’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good.” It’s still possible to create successful summer events if you start now.