Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
Forbes JAPAN’s connected-experience argument gives CPG leaders a reason to rethink staffing, booth flow, logistics and post-event follow-up.
On October 12, 2026, Forbes JAPAN published Alvin Stafford’s contributor article “How Brands Can Create Impact Through Experiential Marketing.” Stafford argues that experiential marketing belongs inside the broader marketing strategy rather than being treated as an isolated pop-up or launch event.
His proposal connects physical experiences with product and media, social and digital, people and culture. For U.S. food and beverage marketers, that argument raises an operational issue: a live activation needs a defined role in the customer journey beyond its opening hours.
The change Stafford proposes is in the scope of the brief. In his Forbes JAPAN article, he argues that experiential should enter planning early rather than arrive as the final executional step. The physical event becomes one chapter within a broader experience.
His central illustration is “Here. For L.A.,” a community-engagement platform he says was developed through work with Cedars-Sinai. According to Stafford, it connected neighborhood experiences and community partnerships with storytelling. Social content and digital resources were part of the same ecosystem.
Stafford describes the platform’s purpose as making Cedars-Sinai’s community investment more visible and accessible. It was also intended to support relationships beyond a single activation. The relevant planning idea is coordination: the local experience and its surrounding resources belong to the same program.
He frames the journey around anticipation before attendance, conversations during the activation and memories or content afterward. That moves the planning boundary beyond the venue. Attendance is part of the experience rather than its full definition.
A separate report on Business Insider’s markets site cites Freeman/Harris Poll research. It reports that 56% of consumers who had attended a brand event trusted that brand, compared with 11% of those who had not attended one.
The Forbes JAPAN article is a strategic contribution rather than an independent campaign evaluation, and it provides no quantified outcomes or operating model for “Here. For L.A.” The Freeman/Harris Poll comparison is observational as presented, and the available report does not provide the full methodology. Neither source establishes that a connected platform improves CPG sales or Return on Investment.
At Makai, we agree with the continuity principle. Our experiential work creates hands-on brand moments designed to connect emotionally and turn customers into ambassadors. Our positioning also puts measurable sales pipeline at the center of carefully executed face-to-face experiences.
Those priorities belong together. A welcoming conversation gives someone room to engage with the product. Disciplined planning gives that interaction a place in the larger campaign. Our view is that neither warmth nor accountability should become an excuse to neglect the other.
We connect physical and digital experiences through QR codes, mobile technology and real-world activations across retail programs and events as well as tours. These tools are a layer within the experience rather than a separate service. In our view, their value should be judged by the connection they create between participation and the next relevant interaction.
That is a different brief from adding a code to a display and calling the campaign connected. The planning implication is to define what the digital touchpoint contributes. It might provide useful content or support follow-up, but its role should be clear within the shared campaign plan.
We also build festival zones, premieres and pop-ups that turn viewers into fans and fans into advocates. Our crews manage execution and track reach and response metrics. That experience informs our stance: emotional connection deserves an operational structure that respects what happens after the live moment.
For CPG and beverage teams, this means keeping product trial close to the commercial objective. Sampling can be the participation moment. Qualified engagement or retail sell-through can be the intended outcome. The connection between them needs to be defined rather than assumed.
Our operational reading of Stafford’s argument is straightforward: connected elements need connected responsibilities. A platform label does not assign staff or coordinate a partner. It does not move product to the venue or establish ownership of post-event follow-up.
Stafford’s description includes conversations, content and digital resources. Applied to CPG execution, those elements put different responsibilities into the staffing discussion. Product trial and the brand conversation remain central, while content capture and digital access need clear ownership if they are part of the program.
This is not an argument for adding headcount to every activation. It is an argument for making the responsibilities visible. A staffing brief should reflect the experience the campaign intends to deliver rather than describe only the hours when the booth is open.
Makai’s retail demonstrations use trained brand ambassadors to drive in-store sales through real conversations and product trials. That first-party capability provides a useful anchor for our perspective: the person delivering the live interaction should not become an afterthought in a digitally connected plan.
The Cedars-Sinai illustration brings community partnerships into the same program as local experiences. Stafford’s argument therefore invites a practical planning decision about who owns coordination across those elements.
For Makai, the creative idea and local execution belong in the same conversation. We run experiential and engagement programs coast to coast with local crews, smart logistics and permit expertise. Our nationwide infrastructure supports activation in major metros and smaller markets.
The planning recommendation is to assign ownership for partner coordination and permitting alongside the other campaign responsibilities. Local execution across markets remains physical work even when the strategy includes content and digital resources. A connected concept still needs an executable local footprint.
Makai plans and manages trade show spaces designed to attract attention, start conversations and convert visitors into customers. Applied to Stafford’s continuity principle, our view is that booth flow should reflect the intended journey rather than serve as a collection of separate attractions.
A product trial, a meaningful conversation and a connected digital touchpoint each need a clear role. The planning task is to decide how those interactions relate within the available space. More touchpoints are not automatically a better experience.
For trade show coordinators, this makes the footprint discussion part of campaign strategy. The space should support the kind of engagement the program intends to generate. Creative elements and follow-up ambitions need to fit the physical experience being offered.
Makai stores sampling product and event gear, then ships and tracks deliveries while coordinating nationwide execution. That capability sits behind the live experience rather than outside it. Our view is that logistical planning deserves the same attention as the visible parts of a connected campaign.
Stafford’s platform argument does not make the product trial less physical. It places that trial within a wider journey. For operators, the useful response is to keep product availability and equipment delivery connected to the activation plan instead of treating them as background details.
The research brief’s practical implication is to define commercial and brand measures before deployment. For CPG teams, those measures can include trial, qualified engagement, retail sell-through or follow-up behavior. The choice should reflect what the campaign is meant to accomplish.
Makai’s integrated capabilities extend from permitting to CRM reporting. We also address inefficient post-event follow-up and CRM routing. Those first-party facts inform our stance that the campaign brief should identify who owns the continuation of a useful live interaction.
A qualified conversation and its follow-up are connected responsibilities. In our view, the handoff deserves attention while the activation is being planned. Otherwise, the campaign can describe an ambitious journey without assigning responsibility for its final chapters.
For retail programs, connecting trial to measurable engagement keeps that discussion grounded in the intended outcome. For trade shows, qualified pipeline provides a different focus. The planning principle is the same: define the purpose of participation and the responsibility that follows it.
The useful response to Stafford’s argument is not to attach every available channel to the next activation. It is to define a coherent experience and give its connected parts clear ownership. That keeps the platform idea practical rather than turning it into another layer of campaign language.
The Forbes JAPAN publication put the argument on the page. The next activation brief is where a marketing team can translate it into decisions about staffing and partnerships, physical flow and logistics, measurement and follow-up.
As a CMO or VP of Marketing, will your next activation brief turn Forbes JAPAN’s platform argument into clear ownership of the journey before attendance and after teardown?
Expanding the brief beyond the live event is where Makai brings hands-on experiential marketing into execution. For CPG marketers facing inefficient post-event follow-up and CRM routing, Makai addresses those gaps through emotionally engaging campaigns designed to generate qualified leads and turn customers into ambassadors.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
