Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
EMMA’s new measurement guide offers a starting point for shared event metrics while leaving staffing and local execution decisions in view.
On November 4, 2026, the Event Marketing Measurement Association (EMMA) announced its “Core Event Metrics and Survey Standards” guide, according to Event Marketer. Described as the association’s first public release, the guide proposes a shared measurement framework for the event and experiential marketing industry.
The announcement gives multi-market marketing leaders a concrete development to assess: proposed common measures and survey questions. The operational question is how to bring that shared vocabulary into programs that still depend on local people and physical spaces.
EMMA’s guide proposes three core event metrics:
According to Event Marketer, the guide also provides survey questions and guidance on Net Promoter Score and Event Net Promoter Score. That makes it a potential starting point for aligning the language used in campaign briefs and post-event research.
EMMA founder and president Dax Callner argues that measurement standards must be usable. He connects simple, universal standards with the prospect of global event benchmarks.
The change is the availability of a proposed public framework, not demonstrated industry-wide adoption. Shared questions also do not make different audiences or venues equivalent. The guide does not replace operational measures such as sample counts or store-level sales.
For a national program, the useful distinction is between agreeing on what to measure and assuming every market should produce the same result. A common vocabulary supports comparison. Context still belongs beside the numbers.
That is a narrower development than a new operating rule, but it gives leaders something practical to work with before the next brief reaches the field.
Makai’s stance is straightforward: welcome people warmly and keep the operating purpose precise. A local team should have room to connect with its audience without having to invent what success means.
We run experiential and engagement programs coast to coast through local crews, coordinated logistics and permit expertise. Across our history, we have delivered more than 1,000 campaigns in all 50 states for more than 200 brands. That experience informs our view that consistent execution should not mean identical conversations.
For food and beverage brands, product trial is a human interaction with a commercial purpose. Our retail demonstrations use trained brand ambassadors to drive in-store sales through real conversations and product trials. The measurement approach should respect that interaction rather than compete with it.
We believe the national brief should hold the intended outcome steady while giving local teams room to deliver the experience naturally. That is the useful balance between brand discipline and aloha-style hospitality.
EMMA’s framework offers a way to discuss audience response. It should sit alongside the commercial evidence a brand needs to evaluate Return on Investment. Anticipated behavior should remain distinct from a completed purchase or a qualified sales opportunity.
Our approach to giving local teams useful flexibility addresses the same management tension. The purpose is not freedom without boundaries. It is a clear shared purpose with enough room for a real conversation.
The announcement does not require a new staffing model or booth layout. Our operational reading is that adopting shared measures creates decisions about how those measures fit into the experience. Those decisions belong in planning rather than being left to ambassadors to resolve on-site.
A product conversation and a survey invitation serve different purposes. A field brief should make both purposes understandable without turning the interaction into a string of disconnected tasks.
The research offers a useful caution here. In an October 29, 2026 ANA item, Makers president Roma Ahi argues for evaluating activations against clear objectives rather than cost efficiency. He also warns that over-engineered data capture can alienate consumers and undermine the experience.
That is practitioner commentary rather than a tested capture threshold. The practical guidance is to choose data collection around the objective and weigh each additional request against the experience it interrupts.
For us, an ambassador’s ability to have a useful product conversation deserves attention alongside the reporting requirement. A measurement framework should help clarify the assignment, not become the entire assignment.
That puts ambassador preparation around consistent experiences into the same planning conversation as the survey. A shared definition of audience value means little if the team cannot connect it to the interaction it is there to deliver.
Measurement consistency and permission to operate are separate planning concerns. A national reporting framework is not a substitute for understanding the location where an activation will take place.
Makai’s nationwide execution capabilities include local crews and permit expertise. We also store sampling products and event gear, then coordinate shipping and delivery nationwide. Those capabilities address the physical side of a program that a survey framework does not cover.
Our view is that a shared brief should keep operational readiness visible alongside measurement. Product and equipment still have to reach the activation. The team still needs a workable assignment for that setting.
The research supports common measurement definitions and adaptable local execution. It does not provide a national permit checklist or new approval requirements. For planning purposes, those matters should remain location-specific rather than being inferred from the measurement announcement.
For trade shows, our priority is a space that attracts attention and supports useful conversations. Makai plans and manages trade show environments with the goal of converting visitors into customers.
Adding a shared survey framework creates a design question: how will measurement fit into that purpose? Our position is that data capture should support the exchange rather than become the organizing idea of the entire footprint.
A brief can define the intended audience response without prescribing an identical interaction in every physical setting. This is where the difference between a standard and a script becomes practical.
The same distinction applies to reporting. Distribution counts describe activity. EMMA’s proposed metrics describe audience response. Neither should be casually relabeled as qualified pipeline.
For marketing leaders, the task is to keep those categories readable together. Otherwise, a report can look consistent while leaving the business question unresolved.
An agency-reported example shows how a shared concept can coexist with local delivery. In partner content published by Event Marketer, Tara Wilson Agency describes Nike and DICK’S Sporting Goods’ “Never Miss a Monday.” The five-week Nike Hybrid RN program ran across Austin, Baton Rouge and Columbus.
The account describes a common product focus supported by local trainers and college ambassadors. It also included school outreach and market-specific placements alongside in-store marketing and on-site experiences.
The agency’s account is promotional and does not report quantified sales or conversion outcomes. It documents execution choices rather than proving that localization improved performance.
The useful lesson is therefore structural: the campaign premise stayed shared while outreach and talent reflected the markets. For a CPG program, our view is that local flexibility should serve the agreed purpose rather than quietly replace it.
That is also the distinction behind separating repeatable systems from local choices. Local relevance does not require a different definition of success in every city. Consistency does not require every ambassador to sound alike.
EMMA’s announcement makes this a useful moment to review the boundary between shared standards and local judgment. The practical starting point is the measurement vocabulary: audience value, anticipated behavior and brand perception.
From there, the brief can distinguish the common campaign purpose from the outreach and delivery choices available to local teams. Ahi’s caution adds another filter: the value of collecting information should be weighed against the quality of the live interaction.
For us, a disciplined program leaves room for both accountability and warmth. The brief should make the work clearer without making the person in front of the ambassador feel like a reporting requirement.
As a CMO or VP planning your next multi-market program, will your teams share a clear definition of success while still having room to make the experience belong where it happens?
Multi-market retail programs must balance consistent brand representation with enough room for a genuine shopper conversation in each location. Makai uses trained brand ambassadors for retail demonstrations built around product trials and real conversations that drive in-store sales for CPG marketers and food and beverage brands.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
