Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
EMARKETER’s real-life marketing discussion makes the case for earlier planning. Makai examines the implications for staffing, event flow, and measurement.
On October 26, 2026, EMARKETER published the Behind the Numbers episode “The Next Marketing Battleground Is Real Life.” Host Marcus Johnson spoke with Lindsay Sutton of Atmosphere TV and Melissa Levy of Sparks about giving physical experiences a more deliberate role in marketing plans. Their argument was about earlier planning and stronger connections across channels, not abandoning digital marketing.
Sutton and Levy described experiential marketing as an established option, not a newly invented channel. Levy connected renewed attention to people returning to in-person gatherings and to media fragmentation. She also argued that trade shows and product launches have not always received a place in the core marketing budget.
For a CPG marketing leader, the proposed change is where the experience enters the decision process. In EMARKETER’s discussion, Levy argued for allocating strategy, budget, and measurement before an activation becomes a late campaign addition. Sutton described a shift away from isolated channel budgets toward planning around the consumer.
That puts a different brief in front of the field team. Instead of receiving only an event format to execute, the team needs an audience and a purpose for participation. This is our operational reading of the conversation: the experience should have a defined job before production becomes the dominant discussion.
Related EMARKETER coverage adds retail context. A 2026 Harris Poll survey commissioned by Quad surveyed 2,004 U.S. adults. It found that 80% wanted real-world experiences that do not rely on screens. The same survey reported that 79% said touching and feeling products was crucial to purchase decisions.
Keep the evidence in its proper lane. The episode is practitioner commentary made possible by Atmosphere TV, whose marketing executive appears as a guest. Sutton cautioned that real-world activity is not right for every brand or campaign. The survey reports attitudes rather than proven sales effects; the episode supplies no sales lift or Return on Investment (ROI) results for its examples.
At Makai, we believe a warm welcome and a disciplined commercial purpose belong together. A brand can invite real participation without treating every interaction as a sale. For CPG and beverage marketers, the useful question is what the physical experience contributes to the campaign’s business objective.
We design consumer events that bring brands and people together through interaction, emotion, and engagement. Our experiential programs combine creativity with strategy and data. That experience shapes our view of this discussion: human connection deserves thoughtful design, while commercial claims still need evidence.
Our team creates experiences that engage all five senses. For us, that makes participation a design decision rather than decoration. A consumer event should give the product a meaningful role in what people try or do, consistent with the episode’s focus on value exchange.
Our retail demonstrations use trained brand ambassadors for product trials and real conversations that support in-store sales. That is a different assignment from counting everyone who passed an event. We see connecting product engagement to a retail objective as a planning choice, not something a crowded space proves on its own.
Sutton’s cross-channel argument fits another part of our experience. We integrate QR codes and mobile technology into retail, event, and tour activations to connect physical and digital experiences. In our view, a digital touchpoint should serve the consumer interaction rather than compete with it.
Our operational read starts with alignment. If participation is part of the campaign strategy, staffing and the physical space need to support that purpose. Makai’s work spans consumer events, retail demonstrations, trade show planning, and storage and logistics.
These capabilities matter here because the discussion is not simply about buying more event exposure. It is about defining what happens when a person meets the brand.
Levy’s emphasis on participation gives the staffing brief a practical starting point: the activity people will take part in. For product-trial programs, Makai’s trained brand ambassadors support real product conversations. For consumer events, our focus is interaction and engagement.
The operational distinction is between staffing for presence and staffing for a defined exchange. A brief centered on trial calls for attention to the product conversation. A brief centered on qualified interest calls for a clear connection between that conversation and the intended follow-up.
That makes the ambassador’s assignment part of the strategy discussion. In our view, the field team should not have to infer the commercial purpose from the event’s appearance alone.
Makai plans and manages trade show spaces to attract attention and start conversations that can convert visitors into customers. Our view is that the participation concept should inform the space, rather than be fitted around a finished display.
In practical terms, product trial and a substantive conversation are different activities from walking past a logo. The plan should make clear which interaction the footprint is meant to support. A busy area is an observation; it is not the same thing as a qualified lead.
That same principle applies across markets. Our national execution experience informs the importance we place on matching execution to regional venue realities. We believe the strategic objective can stay consistent without assuming every physical setting should use an identical format.
Makai stores sampling products and event gear and coordinates shipping, tracking, and delivery nationwide. Those services put a concrete operational dimension around an otherwise broad conversation about connection.
For us, the product and the experience cannot be planned as unrelated subjects. If the intended interaction involves trying the product, logistics is part of the participation discussion. The event’s purpose gives the logistics brief something more useful than a general request to create brand presence.
This is where the aloha-meets-discipline view becomes practical. We believe the invitation to participate deserves as much operational thought as the creative concept that attracts attention.
Levy argued that brands should decide what an experience is meant to accomplish and how to measure it. Makai’s integrated services extend from permitting to CRM reporting. We see that connection as a reason to discuss the desired business outcome alongside the creative idea.
The reporting distinctions are straightforward:
For marketing leaders evaluating ROI beyond foot traffic, those distinctions matter. Participation can be worth measuring without being labeled pipeline. Observed sales can be reported without claiming the event caused every purchase.
Our position is that emotional connection and commercial accountability should remain connected without becoming interchangeable. The purpose of the experience guides what deserves measurement. The evidence then determines what the team can honestly report.
The next planning conversation is the opportunity to decide whether a live experience has a job that the rest of the campaign can support. A useful brief names that job before the production concept becomes the decision.
Keep the welcome warm and the brief precise.
CMOs and VPs, which part of your next campaign would change if the live experience had to earn its role before channel budgets and production decisions were set?
Early campaign planning leaves a practical trade-off: a live event needs its own participation goal while staying connected to the wider strategy. Makai designs consumer events for CPG and beverage marketers around memorable interactions and emotional engagement that connect brands with people.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
