74% of Fortune 1000 Marketers to Increase Experiential Spending in 2025

ROCKVILLE, Md., November 6, 2024 (Newswire.com) - Brands across the Fortune 1000 are leaning into experiential marketing for 2025, according to Event Marketer Magazine's EventTrack—the largest, most comprehensive, multi-audience annual research report on experiential marketing.

Created by the analysts at Event Marketer and underwritten by leading global experiential agency Sparks, EventTrack surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. corporate consumer event marketers, B-to-B event marketers and corporate exhibitors—plus attendees at consumer events, B-to-B events and trade shows. A snapshot of more than 500 datapoints revealed:

• Event Budgets are on the Rise. 74% of Fortune 1000 marketers expect to increase experiential marketing spending in 2025.
• Event Attendees are all-in on Events. 56% of attendees will show up at more consumer events, B-to-B meetings/conferences and trade shows in 2025 than they did in 2024.
• Experiences Drive Brand Affinity. Two-thirds (66%) of event attendees say they feel more positive about a brand after interacting with it at a live event.
• Sustainability is a Hot Topic, Slow Mover. Although transitioning to eco-friendly experiences remains a priority, 76% of experiential marketers have no sustainability policy in place–despite it being noticed by 81% of attendees.

“The effectiveness of experiential marketing continues to grow across Corporate America,” says Event Marketer founder Kerry Smith. “Live experiences are becoming larger anchor tenants in the marketing mix–and are, more and more, leading integrated campaigns.” 

Regarded as the experiential marketing industry’s most respected annual research report, this marks the first EventTrack created since the pandemic. From 2004-2019, the report was the industry’s most downloaded annual barometer on event and experiential marketing. EventTrack 2025 builds on that data legacy. 

EventTrack 2025 benchmarks, forecasts and projections dig into:

• B-to-C Events, B-to-B Meetings/Conferences and Trade Shows. From spending intent to event volume to investments by type of event and insights into both strategies and measurement, EventTrack offers topline and deep insights into the evolution of experiences at the world’s greatest brands.
• Consumer, B-to-B and Trade Show Attendees. From attendance to dwell time to purchase intent and which parts of experiences best connect them to brands, EventTrack surveyed attendees at every type of event to understand what gets into their hearts, minds and wallets.

“Clearly, there is continued momentum for experiential marketing. We see it. Our clients see it. And we’re thrilled that third-party industry research can benchmark it,” says Sparks CEO David Sudjian.

Download the Executive Summary, get 50 slide-ready charts and request the full report right here. To schedule analyst interviews, email lschreur@accessintel.com.

ABOUT EVENT MARKETER. Event Marketer is the world's largest information resource on experiential marketing, serving an audience of 100,000 corporate marketers. The Event Marketer portfolio spans the global Experiential Marketing Summit executive conference, the Ex Awards and Experience Design Awards worldwide recognition programs, the Event Agency Forum, expansive industry coverage at eventmarketer.com and a corporate training/research division. Event Marketer is part of Access Intelligence’s Chief Marketer Network, which provides insights to 1.6 million marketers. Learn more at eventmarketer.com.

ABOUT SPARKS. Sparks, a Freeman company, is a leading global brand experience agency known for driving meaningful connections between companies and their audiences. With 20+ locations worldwide, we offer comprehensive experiential marketing solutions, from strategy, creative and fabrication, to event production, management and measurement. Our in-house capabilities include everything experiential, making us the go-to partner for brands looking for transformative results. Discover more at wearesparks.com.

Source: Event Marketer Magazine