Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
How national CPG campaigns can connect community experiences with knowledgeable staffing, practical field planning and measurable follow-up.
On September 24, 2026, The Drum published coverage of Spiro’s Experiential Marketing Impact Report. The coverage described research involving 2,000 B2B and B2C live-event attendees and reported findings about knowledgeable staff and purchase intent.
For CPG teams bringing national campaigns into community settings, that puts a practical issue on the planning agenda: the person delivering the experience deserves attention alongside the creative concept. Makai’s reading is straightforward. A national message needs a local operating plan that connects human interaction with a defined business outcome.
According to The Drum’s coverage of Spiro’s research, 43% of attendees said knowledgeable staff increased their brand trust. Among deeply engaged attendees, 85% said they were more likely to purchase.
The distinction between those findings matters. One concerns the contribution attendees associated with staff knowledge. The other concerns reported purchase likelihood among a deeply engaged group. Neither figure describes a completed sale.
These are agency-reported findings, and the available coverage provides limited methodological detail. They should not be treated as universal effects or evidence that community relevance causes sales growth. The useful planning implication is narrower: give staff knowledge and meaningful participation a deliberate place in the activation brief.
For a national campaign, we believe the operational response should be to define what a useful local interaction looks like. That definition belongs beside the campaign message rather than being left to the crew after the footprint is built.
At Makai, we believe community activations should feel welcoming without becoming commercially vague. Aloha means making room for a genuine human connection. Discipline means knowing what that connection is intended to accomplish.
We have been connecting brands with people through live experiences and retail programs since 1995. Our work spans national activations as well as local consumer interactions. That combination shapes our view: consistency should protect the brand’s promise without stripping the experience of its human character.
For food and beverage marketers, a hands-on moment gives the campaign something concrete to organize around. The product can become part of the interaction rather than remaining an image on a backdrop. Our experiential marketing work is built around that emotional connection and the opportunity to turn customers into ambassadors.
The commercial ambition also needs a clear definition. A consumer trial and a qualified retail buyer conversation are different outcomes. We believe each deserves an appropriate next action rather than being combined into one broad engagement total.
Our measurement approach tracks awareness, engagement and conversion. We report on reach, trials, leads and sales to guide campaign optimization. That is the standard we bring to this discussion: participation matters, but the reporting needs to explain what happened beyond participation.
The September findings offer a reason to examine execution rather than simply add another interaction to the creative brief. Our operational recommendation is to connect staffing and site planning with the intended outcome before the campaign reaches the field.
Staffing should begin with the conversation the activation is meant to support. Product knowledge belongs in that discussion because it is the staff characteristic addressed in Spiro’s reported trust finding.
Makai’s retail demonstrations use trained brand ambassadors to support product trials through real conversations. Our engagement programs turn audiences into participants. Those capabilities put the interaction itself at the center of the staffing question rather than treating personnel as a finishing detail.
For a national campaign with local stops, we believe the brief should distinguish welcoming someone from helping that person understand the product. Both can belong in the experience. The team should know which outcome the interaction is intended to serve.
We run programs coast to coast with local crews and coordinated logistics. Our national execution capabilities support consistency across regions. Local delivery and national consistency should be planned together rather than treated as competing priorities.
A national creative idea should not be mistaken for a complete local execution plan. The proposed experience still needs to fit its location and the work required to operate there.
Makai’s capabilities include permit expertise and end-to-end coordination. We believe those responsibilities belong in the campaign discussion while the experience is taking shape. They should not be separated from decisions about how people will participate.
Our storage and logistics service covers sampling product and event gear through nationwide shipping and delivery coordination. For a community activation, those physical requirements belong in the same operating picture as staffing and the footprint.
The practical recommendation is to plan the idea and its delivery together. A local moment should have an execution plan attached to it, not just a place on the national campaign calendar.
Footprint planning should reflect the type of interaction the brand wants. A product trial and a retail buyer discussion ask different things of the space. We believe the design brief should acknowledge that distinction rather than treating every visitor as the same kind of prospect.
Our trade show work focuses on spaces that attract attention and start conversations. For CPG marketers, that makes the desired conversation a useful starting point for design. The experience needs a clear purpose beyond drawing people toward the brand.
Our perspective on planning for trials and buyer discussions addresses that connection between participation and commercial intent. The same planning question applies when a national campaign takes a smaller local form: what should the space help people do?
That is a design question before it becomes a reporting question. We believe the intended action should be visible in the brief rather than inferred from crowd size afterward.
A community activation should have a defined next action. That action needs to match the interaction rather than defaulting to the same treatment for every participant.
Makai’s positioning connects face-to-face marketing with measurable sales pipeline. Our integrated services extend from permitting to CRM reporting. For us, that makes post-event follow-up part of the operating discussion rather than a separate administrative task.
We recommend defining the intended business outcome before execution. For teams seeking qualified leads, the brief should identify what makes a conversation useful and how it connects with follow-up. For retail-focused programs, the measurement discussion should address the relevant product and store scope.
This is where clearer lead capture and routing belongs in the planning process. The recommendation is not to make every interaction a sales conversation. It is to give commercially relevant interactions a destination.
The measurement plan should be explicit before the activation begins. The research packet supports a practical planning recommendation with these elements:
For Makai, reach and trials belong alongside leads and sales in the reporting discussion. These measures describe different parts of the experience. We believe they should remain distinct so the campaign can be evaluated against its stated objective.
A Return on Investment discussion also needs a clearly defined outcome. Our position is that a report should answer the business question set in the brief rather than select the most flattering activity measure after the event.
That approach gives the national campaign and its community execution a shared basis for review. The creative idea can retain its human appeal while the operating plan stays accountable to a defined purpose.
The September report directs attention toward knowledgeable staff and meaningful engagement. Our response is to make those considerations part of an operating plan that also accounts for the site and the next action.
The national idea sets the direction. We believe the local brief should explain how that idea becomes a useful interaction and how the team will evaluate it afterward.
As a CMO or VP acting on September’s findings, will your next community activation connect that knowledgeable human conversation to an owned follow-up and a measurable business outcome?
Field marketing managers carry the local activation brief; when Makai runs the experiential work, the focus is hands-on brand moments that connect emotionally and turn customers into ambassadors. For CPG marketers dealing with inefficient post-event follow-up and CRM routing, Makai develops campaigns designed to turn brief consumer interactions into qualified leads.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
