Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
Makai examines ANA’s EMIR findings and their implications for staff readiness, hands-on participation, event flow, and qualified follow-up.
On October 20, 2026, the ANA published a member-exclusive article on the 2026 Experiential Marketing Impact Report (EMIR). It summarized findings from research involving 2,000 live-event attendees fielded with Qualtrics.
The ANA’s summary says hands-on participation “nearly doubled” purchase intent. For CPG and beverage marketing leaders, the operational question is how that finding should change the brief that reaches the field team before an activation opens.
The ANA’s public summary identifies staff readiness, participation design, and memorable moments as factors linked to stronger experience outcomes. The immediate development is a new research input for planning live experiences. It is not a staffing mandate or a permitting rule.
The public ANA page does not provide the underlying comparison or full methodology behind “nearly doubled.” Its reported purchase-intent finding does not establish incremental sales, retail sell-through, or realized Return on Investment (ROI). The useful reading is an association between participation and stated purchase likelihood, not a guaranteed commercial return.
Separate reporting adds a business-planning perspective. In its account of Canva’s in-person activation, eMarketer described event briefs developed around financial leadership’s definition of value. Measures varied with the event’s purpose and included pipeline alongside marketing-qualified leads and revenue contribution.
The same eMarketer article reported that an agency survey found no standardized method for calculating experiential ROI. Taken together, these sources support a practical planning direction: define the intended attendee action and business outcome before choosing the experience format.
For a sampling program, that means making the role of product trial explicit. For a trade show, it means deciding what qualifies a conversation for follow-up. Those are planning recommendations drawn from the research and Makai’s positioning, not additional study findings.
Makai’s stance is straightforward: a warm welcome and a disciplined operating plan belong together. Participation deserves more than a creative concept. It needs prepared people and a clear purpose that the attendee can understand.
We create experiential marketing programs built to connect emotion with action. Our process blends creativity with strategy and data. We craft experiences that engage all five senses so people can feel a brand rather than only see it.
The ANA findings matter to that work because physical marketing asks people to give their time and attention. For us, the experience should give something useful back. In food and beverage, product trial and a knowledgeable conversation are directly relevant to that exchange.
Our retail demonstrations use trained brand ambassadors to drive in-store sales through real conversations and product trials. Our consumer events bring brands and people together through interaction and engagement. These capabilities put the person delivering the experience alongside the creative idea at the center of execution.
Our interpretation is not that every activation needs more activity. It is that the activity should serve a defined purpose. A memorable moment belongs in the brief with its intended next action, whether that is trial or a qualified conversation.
That distinction matters for leaders responsible for pipeline. A participation mechanic can be attractive without producing the kind of interest a sales team needs. We believe creative ambition and commercial intent should be discussed together before the field team receives its assignment.
The downstream implications touch staffing and footprint flow first. They also reach the handoff after the event. Our reading of the research is that participation should be treated as an operating responsibility rather than something the audience will work out alone.
Staff readiness belongs in the brief as an execution variable worth planning and evaluating. The research supports that focus. Makai’s own retail demonstration model also puts trained ambassadors and real product conversations at the center of the encounter.
The practical implication is to connect staff preparation with the interaction the experience asks people to complete. A product conversation and an open-ended consumer experience create different demands. The staffing discussion should address those demands rather than stop at whether the schedule has been filled.
For CPG teams, that means giving product knowledge and participation support a place in the planning conversation. The person welcoming an attendee should understand the experience’s purpose. The person handling a qualified conversation should understand what the brand hopes happens next.
This is why field-team quality belongs in the operating brief. In our view, staffing is part of the experience design. It should not become a separate purchase made after the creative decisions are finished.
Participation design also changes how a footprint should be evaluated. The relevant question is not only whether the space attracts attention. It is whether the intended interaction has a clear place within it and whether people can understand what they are being invited to do.
For a sampling footprint, the product trial is the activity around which the interaction is planned. For a trade show space, participation may sit alongside a more detailed conversation. The operating brief should make that relationship visible rather than treat every person in the footprint as the same kind of visitor.
Makai plans and manages trade show spaces designed to attract attention and start conversations. That positioning informs our view of flow: the experience and the conversation should support each other. Neither should be treated as an afterthought to the visual presentation.
We also build festival zones and pop-ups that turn viewers into fans and fans into advocates. Our crews manage execution and track reach and response metrics. The relevant lesson here is that an invitation to participate comes with real delivery work behind it.
The research supports tracking whether attendees actually take part. A clear participation objective gives the field team something more specific to evaluate than general activity around the space. It also gives the post-event review a defined behavior to examine.
The publication does not change the nature of the event into a new regulatory category. Permitting and logistics remain execution responsibilities. For Makai, those responsibilities sit within integrated services that extend from permitting to CRM reporting.
The planning implication is to keep the desired experience connected to the work needed to deliver it. A participation idea should not be evaluated only as a creative asset. It also belongs in discussions about the event footprint and the movement of product and gear.
Makai stores sampling product and event equipment, then coordinates shipping and delivery nationwide. That capability is relevant because a hands-on concept still depends on physical materials reaching the activation. We believe the creative brief and the logistics brief should describe the same intended experience.
The next operational issue is ownership after participation. The eMarketer account supports defining value before the event and selecting measures that fit its purpose. For CPG leaders, our recommendation is to make the intended next action as explicit as the experience itself.
A useful planning distinction separates three kinds of records:
We provide reporting on reach, trials, leads, and sales to guide campaign optimization. Our measurement approach tracks awareness alongside engagement and conversion. The operational value is a clearer view of which part of the program needs attention next.
That view also gives follow-up a place in the event plan. Makai addresses inefficient post-event follow-up and CRM routing as part of its positioning. For us, the attendee experience and the subsequent business conversation should not be managed as unrelated assignments.
A clear reporting approach helps preserve those distinctions. An operational review focused on what to change gives the next activation a practical starting point. The purpose is not a more flattering recap. It is a better-informed brief for the next field team.
When the ANA’s participation finding moves from a research headline into your next activation brief, will you as CMO or VP of Marketing see both a plan for hands-on engagement and a clear owner for qualified follow-up?
Field marketing leads own the connection between event participation and follow-up; with Makai managing consumer events, the experience is built around interaction, emotion, and engagement. Makai addresses inefficient post-event follow-up and CRM routing through experiential campaigns and trade show activations designed to turn brief consumer interactions into qualified leads for premium CPG brands.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
