Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
Kantar’s creator-content findings give CPG teams a lens for reviewing event briefs, product demonstrations and reporting without equating engagement with sales.
On November 3, 2026, Kantar published findings from its analysis of more than 15,000 sponsored creator assets. Kantar reported that engagement aligned with brand and business impact about one-third of the time. Just 6% of the assets achieved both high engagement and high Brand Power.
For CPG marketing leaders, the publication raises a briefing question that reaches beyond the feed: does the interaction make the product and its value clear? Our reading is that consumer events deserve that same scrutiny before creative ambition becomes a staffing plan or a booth footprint.
The immediate issue is creative briefing and measurement. According to Kantar’s analysis, attention alone did not reliably line up with its reported brand and business outcomes. The findings also identify product-focused creative features associated with stronger scores.
Kantar reported these associations:
Brand recognition mattered within the analysis too. Kantar associated distinctive packaging and branding with 14 points more Brand Linkage. An audible brand mention was associated with 22 points more Brand Linkage, yet only 49% of the analyzed assets included the brand name aloud.
The spending context makes the measurement question relevant to budget discussions. In separate reporting on Kantar findings, Marketing-Interactive said 73% of marketers planned to increase creator spending. Only 29% were confident in their ability to measure its impact.
Kantar’s article does not provide a study date or detailed methodology, nor does it define “impact” or its Brand Power and Sales Power measures. The reported lifts are associations rather than proof that a creative feature independently caused an outcome. These findings concern creator assets rather than measured live-event results, so their application to physical marketing is a hypothesis to test rather than a promised lift.
At Makai, our reaction is practical: welcome the attention, then give it a business purpose. Aloha-style warmth belongs in the encounter. Discipline belongs in the brief and the reporting.
We have connected brands with people through live experiences, retail programs and national activations since 1995. Our consumer-event work centers on interaction, emotion and engagement. For us, the useful question is how those qualities support a meaningful product encounter rather than becoming the whole definition of success.
That distinction matters for food and beverage brands relying on physical marketing to generate pipeline. Makai creates face-to-face experiences designed to capture attention and generate measurable sales pipeline. Our view is that an activation brief should explain both the consumer experience and the commercial purpose it serves.
Kantar’s findings offer a focused creative lens: communicate the benefit, put the product into use and make its identity recognizable. Applied to consumer events, that means examining what people will understand during the interaction. It does not mean squeezing a sales script into every conversation.
We believe the strongest interpretation respects both sides of the encounter. Consumers deserve a natural exchange. Marketing leaders need clarity about what the experience is designed to achieve and what evidence will support that judgment.
Our operational reading starts with the brief rather than a larger crew or a larger footprint. Makai’s capabilities span permitting through CRM reporting. That connected scope is why we see product communication as an execution question as well as a creative one.
The practical work is translating the creative idea into an interaction the team can deliver. Staffing, layout and reporting should support the intended encounter rather than operate as separate plans.
Kantar’s product-benefit finding gives teams a useful subject for staff preparation: what should a consumer understand about the product? Its product-use finding adds another: what will the consumer see or experience during the demonstration?
Our retail demonstrations use trained brand ambassadors to support in-store sales through conversations and product trials. From that service perspective, we believe staffing discussions should cover the substance of the exchange. A friendly greeting and an accurate product explanation serve different purposes, and the brief needs room for both.
This is a reason to examine the fit between ambassadors and the work. Rather than treating headcount as the first answer, the planning discussion can establish what each interaction requires. Staffing then has a defined job beyond attracting a crowd.
A product-use idea belongs in the operational conversation before it becomes a finished activation concept. If the idea changes how the product is presented or where people interact with it, the team needs to address those details alongside permitting and logistics.
The research offers creative direction, not a field specification. Makai’s stated scope includes permitting support plus storage and nationwide delivery coordination for sampling products and event gear. Our position is that the product interaction and its delivery requirements should be discussed together.
The useful planning question is not whether the event resembles a creator video. It is whether the proposed benefit demonstration fits the actual activation. A creative reference should help explain the experience without substituting for the operational decisions behind it.
For a trade show or consumer-event space, our interpretation is a connected experience: recognize the brand, understand the benefit and engage with the product. The layout should give those functions a clear place without turning the interaction into a forced sequence.
Kantar’s packaging finding makes recognizable product presentation a reasonable design hypothesis. Its product-use finding makes the demonstration area another. For an event team, this means reviewing whether the brand identity remains apparent where the interaction takes place rather than judging the space only from its outer edge.
These are useful questions when reviewing the details that shape a trade show presence. Makai plans and manages trade show spaces intended to attract attention and start conversations that support customer conversion. We believe the footprint should serve those conversations rather than compete with them.
Keep attention measures distinct from brand and commercial measures. Kantar treats engagement as a signal that content captured attention, not sufficient proof that the brand strengthened or sales improved.
Our reporting covers reach, trials, leads and sales. We also track awareness, engagement and conversion to guide campaign optimization. Those categories give the discussion different subjects rather than requiring every result to stand in for every other result.
For this briefing exercise, the practical implication is to state what each measure actually demonstrates. Participation can describe activity. A recorded lead can describe a captured contact, while a sales claim needs evidence appropriate to that claim.
That distinction belongs in a discussion of Return on Investment before results are presented. Our view is that a useful report should make the next decision clearer, not turn a busy event into an unsupported revenue story.
In Marketing-Interactive’s reporting, Hani is identified as Kantar Indonesia’s creative solutions lead. Hani said:
> “Engagement remains a useful signal, but it is not enough as the sole measure of success. As investment in creators grows, marketers need to understand whether content is genuinely driving brand impact, rather than simply generating activity on the platform.”
That is the distinction we would carry into an activation review. Keep the attention signal. Then examine whether the product interaction and the outcome evidence answer the business question behind the event.
As a CMO or VP of Marketing, will you review your next activation brief today to check that the product benefit and brand identity are clear, the interaction has an operational plan and the reporting distinguishes attention from commercial outcomes?
Consumer events judged only by participation can leave CPG leaders with activity counts rather than a clear view of qualified pipeline. Makai designs live brand experiences centered on interaction, emotion and engagement for food and beverage marketers managing regional or national campaigns, with experiential work designed to turn consumer encounters into qualified leads.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
