In summer 2026, global attention will centre around a handful of shared, high-profile moments. But few brands are ready for what that really means. It’s no longer enough to simply target audiences: brands need to show up with intent in the moments that matter most.
For the next few months, live sporting events – the FIFA World Cup, Wimbledon, the Grand Prix – sit alongside festivals and cultural moments to create something bigger: millions of people watching, reacting in real time, and feeling part of something shared.
Many brands still plan for these moments in the same way they always have, through reach, impressions and visibility. But this is where traditional planning falls short. Because the World Cup isn’t just a media moment, it’s a behavioural one.
Strata’s Executive Creative Director, Matt Cole, explains: “Data, and the numbers, will only get you so far when planning for something like the World Cup, because your die-hard fan’s connection to the sport on the best of days is pure, almost irrational, passion.
Yes, they’ll tell you it’s all about the stats & tactics, but at the end of the day they’re in it for the heart pounding, emotional rollercoaster and the tribal connection of supporting their team.”
And what also makes these events unique is that they’re not just for the hardcore fans, they’re for the people turning up for the occasion. That opens the door for brands to reach new audiences, not through targeting, but by being part of something people already care about. It’s the shared build-up, the atmosphere, and the simple pull of wanting to be there that creates the opportunity.
THE VALUE OF EXPERIENCE DOESN’T LIE IN REACH ALONE
Events and live experiences create moments where behaviour shifts at scale. Emotion increases cognitive encoding making messages more memorable, while shared moments reinforce meaning through social connection from colleagues and friends to wider communities and online platforms.
That’s what makes global events like the World Cup and Glastonbury such powerful engagement opportunities. There is urgency, anticipation and unpredictability built in. While some brands still rely on metrics such as impressions and reach, others are creating something far more effective.
Cole continues, “When it comes to the World Cup, when you add in the rest of the punters, most of whom only watch the footie once every 4 years, it becomes something even more primal, the unmitigated joy of connecting with the entire country to crack open a beverage of choice and scream in union at the telly for 90 minutes. To remind ourselves that we can all believe in the same thing for a moment despite our differences.
As brands, you can’t rationalise that, you can’t even ask ChatGPT how to connect with this audience, you need to feel it. And the great thing is, as human beings, we can all do that, can’t we?
Strategic emotional resonance though? That might be another ball game.”
THE CLEAR STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITY FOR BRANDS
Mass-reach events like the World Cup are a rare opportunity for brands; an environment where behaviour, emotion and attention align at scale. That alignment presents the opportunity, but only if approached deliberately.
To get the most out of these moments, brands need to think about the full build-up, not just the moment itself. It’s about creating a sense of anticipation, using content, social and storytelling to get people interested and involved early. The brand needs to be positioned as part of the upcoming experience whether it’s the small intimate events in your local pub or mass activations by the biggest brands in the world. Timing is key.
When the moment is happening, the role of the brand is to become part of it. For example, the energy doesn’t sit alone inside the tennis court during Wimbledon, it spills out onto Henman Hill, into fan zones, city spaces, and shared viewing experiences where people come together. The brands that stand out are the ones that create places and moments people want to be part of.
Afterwards, the opportunity is to carry that feeling forward. What the World Cup does well is keep people talking with the best moments replayed, shared, and built on long after the final whistle. Brands can take the same approach with their own events: bring people back together, create follow-on moments, and deepen the connections that started there. Sometimes that’s broad and social, other times it’s more focused smaller groups, communities, or conversations that keep the experience alive in a more meaningful way. Success isn’t just about how many people showed up, but what stayed with them and what they chose to do with it afterwards.
Part of what makes these moments so powerful is that they’re not always easy or instant. From queuing for Wimbledon tickets to waiting for a spot in a fan zone, there’s a sense that you’ve earned your place in it. That anticipation, the build-up, and that afterglow all add to the value of the experience. Being part of something shared feels more meaningful when people have actively chosen to be there, and that’s what makes it memorable.
Cole concludes, “Whether it’s The World Cup or any other cultural milestone, to engage with fans brands have to behave like fans, share the love and bring something meaningful to the party. Demonstrate that your brand isn’t just a badge, it’s a facilitator of the experiences they live for and can make the moments they love even better.”
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If there’s one clear takeaway from Strata’s latest Making Moments Matter live event (April 23rd, 2026), it’s that the experience economy is booming. Spotlight speaker Oliver Murray, Sales Director at Future Stores, opened by highlighting that 74% of Fortune 100 marketers are increasing their experiential budgets1, and consumers are now twice as likely2 to spend on experiences as they are on things.
With attention spans shrinking – now just 8 seconds, down from 12 in 2002 – consumers are skipping ads and actively seeking out more relevant, immersive moments. Experiences are no longer just a ‘nice to have’; they’re a critical part of the marketing mix.
Here are our key takeaways from ‘Beyond the Event: How Brands Build and Measure High-Performing Experiences’, with Giles Cattle (CGO, Strata), Oli Murray (Future Stores), and Phil Staines (CCO, Strata) making up our panel.
Oli opened the session by introducing Future Stores and their ‘flagship-on-demand’ model, framing a challenge many brands face today: trust. In a crowded and often noisy selling environment, brands might be able to reach audiences, but that doesn’t mean they’re earning attention, let alone moving people from awareness to consideration and conversion.
Consumers want reassurance. They want to feel that the brands they engage with genuinely align with their values and understand their needs. This is where experiences play a vital role. They create space for meaningful, personal interaction – moments where brands can guide customers through a considered journey, rather than relying on fleeting impressions.
Well-designed experiences turn attention into engagement, and engagement into trust.
A key question discussed on stage was how brands break cycles of experiences that look and feel the same as they always have. As events move out of the shadow of media and digital – channels, particularly digital, long backed by data and measurement – they need to continue to prove their value across the funnel.
That starts with strategy. Experiences need clear intent before, during, and after the moment itself. What are you trying to change? Perception, behaviour? Without that clarity, it’s impossible to measure success meaningfully.
Event teams need to challenge the comfort of “this is how we’ve always done it” and push for creative, strategic experiences that stand out and justify their place in the marketing mix.
Measurement doesn’t start when doors open. Insight-led planning is the foundation of a high-performing experience. Audience behaviour, brand objectives, and success metrics should all shape the build from the beginning.
Future Stores spoke about designing for the full lifecycle. Before the event, brands need to be clear on who they want to attract and why. Whether it’s a product launch, brand-building, or community engagement. During the event, live data such as dwell time, footfall patterns, and social listening allow teams to adjust in real time. Why did more people gravitate towards one product over another? What’s resonating in the moment?
Afterwards, performance data should flow into an omnichannel follow-up strategy. Understanding real behaviour, not just attendance, allows brands to focus on genuine interest, measure sentiment, and prioritise quality engagement over noise.
The most effective experiences are built around how people actually behave, not how we expect them or want them to.
That means understanding natural movement and decision-making, from how people enter a space to where they pause, browse, or interact. Small design choices can have a big impact on engagement; a clear takeaway following Future Stores’ decision to build two entrances in their store “as consumers want choice.”
It also requires a mindset shift. Events aren’t just about communicating to an audience; they’re about creating opportunities for connection. While leadership presentations have their place, the real value often sits in conversation: peer-to-peer interaction, breakout sessions, round tables, and informal networking moments.
As Giles shared, no one wants a 90-minute presentation when a shorter, sharper session would deliver more impact. Phil echoed this with a real-world example: as one event he worked on previously grew in size, satisfaction dropped. Bigger wasn’t better; it diluted the core purpose.
The takeaway? Audit your audience, ask better questions, involve advisors early, and treat events as part of a broader, curated customer journey, not isolated moments.
For years, success was reported upwards using simple metrics: attendee numbers, impressions, footfall. That’s no longer enough.
Brands need to lay the foundations for measurement now. They must set clear objectives and map data directly back to strategy, so they can demonstrate how experiences actually shift sentiment. How are people talking about the brand afterwards? What actions are they taking online? Which parts of the experience mattered most?
When these insights feed directly into CRM, brands can qualify leads properly, personalise follow-up, and build longer-term relationships. Participation turns into perception, and perception can finally be measured as performance.
In closing, Giles asked the room how many people currently measure performance post-event. Only a handful of hands went up. But that will change. Performance is fast becoming the baseline, not attendance.
And measurement isn’t just about reporting. It shapes how experiences are designed, optimised, and delivered. From content and format to flow, coffee, and conversation, these details influence human behaviour, build trust, and create experiences that truly matter.
At Strata, we design experiences with performance in mind – from strategy and audience insight through to live optimisation and post-event measurement. If you’d like to explore how measurement can work harder for your experiences, we’d love to talk.
Sources:
Our Head of Pharma Growth, Vicky Fraser, shares her insights from PharmaForum in Boston, MA.
Having been home from PharmaForum (Boston, MA) for a few weeks, I’ve had time to reflect on my experiences, and one thing is clear: the role of events is being re-examined by the pharmaceutical industry. It’s something I heard consistently in my conversations with leaders across meetings, events and procurement: there is now a far greater focus on impact, defensibility and value when planning events.
Events are being judged on impact, not activity. Across multiple sessions at PharmaForum, I saw clear pressure on teams to justify the purpose and outcome of events. Return on investment (ROI), engagement and memory are now considered more important than size, scale or production value. Events are being evaluated as investments, rather than outputs.
Procurement is shaping decisions earlier. Another recurring theme at PharmaForum was the earlier and stronger influence of procurement in event planning. Conversations have moved beyond cost to include value, defensibility and risk. Pharma wants to work with partners who understand the broader context around compliance, industry uncertainty and pressure on teams.
Uncertainty is driving smarter choices. Many attendees expressed to me that they feel they’re operating in a high-uncertainty environment. Tighter budgets, rising costs, shorter lead times and external pressures such as travel inflation and geopolitics all contribute to the pressure, and teams are being forced to make more intentional decisions around destination, duration and where investment in experience design truly matters.
Healthcare professionals’ expectations have shifted. I heard repeatedly that while HCPs’ appetite for medical education is still strong, they are very time-poor. Solutions discussed include smaller meetings, optional virtual access, and formats that build community and relevance. HCPs value the quality of the experience and the educational outcomes more than frequency or scale.
Creativity and AI can work together, alongside compliance. There is growing openness to experience-led events that respect compliance considerations, particularly when they support learning and understanding rather than spectacle for its own sake. AI was, as always, a hot topic, but it has moved beyond being considered a competitive advantage and now is an efficiency baseline for many teams. Governance, data quality and human judgement are still front-of-mind.
Finally, events are now an enterprise asset. Something I noticed at the forum was the way meetings and events are now viewed as portfolio-level assets, not isolated tick-box activities. There is an increasing emphasis on data, forecasting and intelligence that enables better decisions over time and strategic improvement of event design, rather than the retrospective reporting that has always been done.
I found that PharmaForum reinforced what I’ve been hearing from clients and KOLs: events are now about doing what is defensible, effective and genuinely valuable. The opportunity now is to do what Strata does best: support our clients in their mission, by designing meetings and events that are easier to justify internally, harder to challenge externally and more meaningful for attendees. I can’t wait to attend the next event!
Vicky Fraser is Head of Pharma Growth at Strata Creative Communications. She’s a pharma and healthcare events strategist with more than 20 years of sector experience and is passionate about strategic scientific storytelling that connects.
After his win at the German Haus Tech Start-Up Battle at SXBW in Austin, Texas, Strata Group Chief Executive Simon Hambley shares his takeaways, and why Sherbet’s simplicity makes it uniquely poised to seize the moment and make a profound impact in the rewards and incentives space.
When I attended South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, I wasn’t planning on presenting anything. A lifelong events and entertainment professional, I was ready just to soak in the atmosphere, represent the Strata Group and see the best the industry has to offer.
Then I had the opportunity to pitch Sherbet at the German Haus Tech Start-up Battle. I took it. And won.
The whole thing felt like a metaphor for Sherbet itself. If you’re not familiar, Sherbet is a rewards and recognition platform designed to boost employee engagement through gamification, real-time data and automated, portable incentives. In sales-driven industries, rewards and commission are often essential for motivation, team building and performance, but historically juggling commissions and incentives has been expensive and inaccurate.
A complex problem that wastes money is an opportunity, not unlike the opportunity to stand up and pitch at a global event like SXSW. And, like the judge’s feedback on Sherbet says, the solution is… simple.
One platform, built into the sales journey from purchase through to incentive. Tracked accurately, giving insights into sales behaviour – and, critically, behaviour changes. Has your incentive offer actually motivated sales? Have you successfully rewarded your employees for changing up their approach, for modernising, for hustling? Sherbet displays clear answers for everyone involved.
There is an opportunity within the world of sales incentives that Sherbet pitches to. And, as we’ve seen time and again, it wins.
I had a fantastic time at SXSW and I’m already looking forward to next year’s event. Here’s to many more opportunities seized by Sherbet and the rest of the wider Strata Group.
Simon Hambley is Chief Executive of the Strata Group. An experienced events and marketing communications specialist, Simon is an entrepreneur and business manager with a track record of start-up success, managing fast growth, business transition and change management.
Strata sits down with Head of Pharma Growth, Vicky Fraser, to talk industry changes and opportunities for creative, insight-led engagement in a sector led by compliance concerns
With the rise of generative AI, I’m seeing a lot more appetite for authenticity and creativity led by real humans, and luckily, that’s exactly what we do at Strata! I think the industry has woken up to how ‘noisy’ the digital space can be, and how healthcare professionals (HCPs) are increasingly selective with their time and attention. At Strata we have the benefit of cross-industry experience, and I’d say the trend across the board with high-value audiences is that they need better storytelling, whether in the content they’re consuming or at in-person events.
We’re lucky at Strata to have over 20 members of staff working specifically to support healthcare industry clients. We have a deep sector fluency and understanding of compliance concerns, so both are baked into our approach from the very beginning. Once we know what the story is, and why the s audience(s) should be interested, we’re able to really dive into the creative process.
One key benefit to all our experience across other industries – such as tech, automotive and professional services – is that we can draw on examples of creative approaches that have provably achieved their goals and look at them through a ‘healthcare lens’. This enables us to come up with concepts for healthcare clients that can truly cut through the noise and connect with their audiences.
The structure of The Strata Group means that our clients benefit from both a wide pool of capabilities and a real depth of knowledge – we’re able to deliver at speed globally across multiple facets of brand engagement through maximising resources through the Group. Across the Group we have a team of experts within the healthcare sector with a deep understanding of compliance and governance, but the single touchpoint of Strata ensures brand guardianship, reduces silos and provides a single trusted partner. We’re able to give our clients a senior-led, bespoke service.
From a purely practical standpoint, the Group gives us stronger negotiation powers and allows us to offer clients cost efficiencies across areas such as event space bookings and logistics.
It’s because we’re in a digital world that they do! People – HCPs included – are really eager for opportunities to make in-person connections and have authentic offline experiences. We’re also so inundated by information online that messages communicated during in-person events just hit different – it’s something we hear again and again from event attendees. The quality of engagement is better at in-person events, too – we find that HCPs in particular take on more key information and appreciate the opportunity to interact with key opinion leaders and their peers.
Conference burn-out is real, though, which is why our clients see the best return on investment when they’re willing to get creative and dedicate resources to ensuring their event attendees have the best experience, make valuable professional connections, and take home the most important messages.
Events are now one of the most provably powerful accelerators of business growth, but it takes a lot of insight and experience to make them deliver their full potential. At Strata, we like to provide clients with innovative proof of performance: we produce work that inspires audiences to act differently, accelerates pipelines and strengthens relationships.
It’s no longer just about isolated KPIs – data has evolved into a narrative that shapes KOL engagement, informs strategy and elevates experiences. I’m a big believer that stronger measurement can unlock optimisation opportunities and strategic value. If you’re interested in specifics reach out – I’d love to give you some examples.
Vicky Fraser is Head of Pharma Growth at Strata Creative Communications. She’s a pharma and healthcare events strategist with more than 20 years of sector experience and is passionate about strategic scientific storytelling that connects.
We bought together heads of events and senior marketeers to examine how brands can creatively reinvent event experiences that not only resonate with diverse audiences but also transcend global markets and create moments that matter: Reimagining Global Event Programmes
Here are the key takeaways from this session:
Global programmes succeed when they place equal weight on employee and customer experience. But what drives loyalty in one market may not resonate in another. By combining a consistent global framework with localised delivery, brands can create experiences that feel both unified and personal.
Behavioural shifts are not uniform worldwide. Globally, short-term thinking and hybrid working have created disconnection, while locally, attention spans and cultural expectations vary. Programmes need the agility to adapt formats and messaging to each audience, ensuring moments land with impact everywhere.
The future of engagement is belonging – but belonging is expressed differently across cultures. Leadership style, growth opportunities, and psychological safety are universal pillars, yet the right balance of “safety, comfort, and discomfort” depends on cultural context. A global programme must empower local teams to interpret this authentically.
Demographics don’t reveal how audiences behave. Two people with the same age and profile may have entirely different motivations. Using behavioural science, data, and technology allows us to group people meaningfully – then adapt those insights locally to reflect cultural norms, communication styles, and expectations.
Bigger isn’t always better. Engagement is about curating meaningful moments that align to global objectives but allow for local storytelling, creativity, and cultural touchpoints. This balance ensures events are distinctive and relevant wherever they take place.
To justify face-to-face events at scale, each must serve a clear purpose and demonstrate measurable value. What feels essential in one region may be supplementary in another. A well-designed global calendar identifies the flagship events that drive global alignment while giving local markets the autonomy to deliver experiences that matter to their people.
Hybrid events are more than streaming – they’re about creating parity of experience across geographies. A successful hybrid strategy ensures that participants—whether in London, Singapore, or online – leave with the same sense of connection and belonging. Local considerations, such as time zones, languages, and cultural nuances, are key to getting this right.
Reimagining global events isn’t about a one-size-fits-all model. It’s about building a strong global framework, then empowering local markets with the flexibility to adapt, ensuring every audience feels included, understood, and engaged.
In professional services, trust, expertise, and precision are the foundations of your brand. But in a world where attention is scarce and expectations are rising, delivering memorable live experiences requires something more: it requires authentic connection.
At Strata, we’ve spent over a decade helping professional services firms bring their brands to life in ways that are both credible and compelling. And we’ve learned that some of the most effective approaches don’t come from within the sector, but from B2C brands who’ve mastered the art of audience engagement.
This isn’t about flashy gimmicks or sacrificing professionalism. It’s about using the proven principles of B2C experience design to cut through, connect, and stay top of mind.
B2C brands succeed because they put humans at the heart of every interaction. They create experiences that are emotionally engaging, highly tailored, and designed to leave a lasting impression. In a sector like professional services, where differentiation can be difficult, and the buying journey complex, this kind of emotional intelligence can be a powerful advantage.
Here are three principles the professional services sectors can borrow from the B2C approach to audience engagement:
B2C brands don’t start with formats or agendas, they start with how they want people to feel.
Professional services events often fall into routine: formal venues, tight schedules, and traditional formats. But what if your events focused on how clients and prospects experience your brand? That might mean:
B2C brands build their activations around story, not just stats. Whether it’s a product launch or a brand moment, they use narrative to build understanding and loyalty.
Professional services firms have rich stories to tell, about your people, your impact, your values. The most memorable events don’t just communicate what you do, but why it matters, and they bring that story to life through tone, content, and experience design.
We collaborated with a FTSE 100 leader to craft a powerful employer brand experience – so engaging, they rolled it out globally.
The most effective B2C experiences don’t end when the event does, they’re designed as part of a broader campaign. Every moment is intentional, every interaction a content opportunity. This campaign-led mindset ensures that live experiences aren’t isolated touchpoints, but catalysts for deeper engagement.
For professional services firms, this means:
By ensuring your events are part of your wider campaign strategy, you can turn one moment into many, amplifying your message, increasing ROI, and keeping your brand front of mind long after the event ends.
One of the reasons clients choose to work with Strata is because we don’t just operate in professional services. We also deliver experiences for leading tech, pharma, Government and automotive brands, sectors where innovation and emotional engagement are essential.
That means we bring cross-sector insights to every brief. We know what works in high-energy consumer activations and how to translate that into credible, sophisticated experiences for professional audiences. Our broad experience allows us to challenge assumptions, introduce fresh ideas, and apply best practices that elevate your brand, without ever compromising its integrity.
In professional services, trust is non-negotiable, but so is connection. People don’t just buy services; they buy into relationships. And relationships are built on more than credentials, they’re built on meaningful, human experiences.
Whether it’s an executive roundtable, a flagship conference, or a partner retreat, professional services firms have an opportunity to elevate events from informative to unforgettable, by designing them with people, not just process, in mind.
At Strata, we know how to balance professional credibility with creative edge. We draw on our diverse industry experience to bring ideas that feel fresh, relevant and effective.
We work with some of the biggest names in professional services to design experiences that deliver impact, through creativity, smart strategy, seamless delivery, and emotionally resonant moments.
Your event is one of the few times your audience will physically engage with your brand. Every detail, every touchpoint, shapes how they see you.
So ask yourself: Are you giving them something to remember?
If not, it might be time to think like a B2C brand.
Incentive travel has long been a staple in the toolkit of brands seeking to recognise performance, inspire loyalty, and deepen engagement. But as the economic, cultural, and behavioural contexts shift, so too must our approach. We’re entering a new era, one not defined by location or luxury alone, but by narrative, relevance, and resonance that is redefining incentive travel.
We believe there is a timely opportunity to launch a bold, disruptive offer in this space. By combining the expertise and creative power of brands like Strata and Element, and integrating tools like Sherbet, we can respond to evolving client demands and market dynamics with agility, imagination, and scale.
Despite global economic headwinds, the luxury incentive travel market remains buoyant. Why? Because experiences now matter more than ever. The rise of the experience economy has reshaped consumer and employee expectations: experiences are no longer a perk – they’re a personal investment in identity, connection, and value.
At the same time, post-pandemic shifts in workplace engagement have left a gap. Incentive programmes are no longer just rewards; they’re critical levers for building culture, community, and leadership visibility, especially in hybrid environments where ‘together’ time is precious and productivity can’t be measured by proximity alone.
Incentives today must do more than deliver sun, sand, and status. They must deliver Return on Time. This emerging metric reframes the traditional ROI/ROE lens: if time is the most valuable currency, the experience must be worth the spend, both for those attending and for those commissioning the programme.
This mindset shift is already affecting design and delivery. Audiences want meaningful, brand-aligned experiences. Organisations want measurable outcomes, not just memories. That demands a new approach, one that:
This is where we see the potential to lead the market with a distinctive offer.
By combining our collective capabilities, we can create immersive, story-rich incentive programmes that function as both rewards and campaigns. These aren’t just events, they’re brand experiences that live across channels and touchpoints.
Imagine an offer that is:
This new offer isn’t just aspirational, it’s operational. It’s built to flex across industries, team sizes, and geographies. It lets us meet the demands of today’s market while elevating the standards of what incentive travel can be.
Because when the journey tells a story, it leaves more than just memories. It leaves meaning.
The HCP Engagement Playbook: A framework for pharma leaders to map strategy to execution across omnichannel event touchpoints.
In an age of rapid transformation, pharma companies face a growing imperative: create meaningful, consistent, and customer-centric experiences that span every touchpoint. At the centre of this shift is HCP and audience engagement – not just as a buzzword, but as a business driver.
For commercial leaders tasked with defining enterprise-wide engagement strategies and embedding new capabilities across data, digital, omnichannel, and AI, this playbook provides a practical blueprint for turning ambition into action.
At Strata, we understand the unique complexities of pharma, but we also know that innovation rarely comes from looking inward. Drawing on insights from consumer brands, global sectors, and behavioural science, we believe that pharma can create experiences that are not only compliant and informative but also inspiring and personalised.
This playbook offers a practical framework to help pharma leaders align strategy with execution across the omnichannel event journey – with live events as a cornerstone of the HCP and audience engagement ecosystem.
Pharma companies are no longer just managing isolated events, they are curating continuous experiences that influence perception, loyalty, and outcomes.
Key Insight: McKinsey reports that companies delivering consistent and personalised engagement across channels can see a 10 – 20% improvement in customer satisfaction and up to 15% growth in sales conversion rates.¹
Companies with advanced omnichannel capabilities are seeing 2x the revenue growth compared to less mature peers. ²
In pharma, this means moving from siloed tactical activities to connected brand experiences that align with HCP, patient, and stakeholder needs.
Industry Insight: Veeva reports that 65% of HCP engagements are not synchronised across sales and marketing – a gap that creates missed opportunities and inconsistent experiences. Yet when teams coordinate, marketing effectiveness improves by 23%, and HCPs are 60% more likely to prescribe after visiting a brand site post-rep call.³
Despite this, only 24% of pharma organisations fully consolidate HCP engagement data, and fewer than 20% measure behaviour change or impact, leading to a fragmented engagement landscape.⁴
For leaders shaping a global vision of customer engagement, success depends on orchestrating seamless, relevant interactions across functions, teams, and territories. This requires not only coordination, but cultural change.
PLAN: Create an HCP-Led Engagement Strategy
• Align event goals with customer journey stages
• Prioritise omnichannel planning (digital, hybrid, in-person)
• Use data to segment audiences beyond role and specialty (e.g. behaviour, motivations)
• Integrate your engagement and brand values into every event touchpoint
At Strata, our experience spans multiple sectors – enabling us to bring a customer-first lens to pharma planning. We don’t replicate. We reimagine.
Industry Insight: Veeva’s latest research shows that pre-launch scientific outreach accelerates treatment adoption by 40%, particularly when engaging digitally savvy, early-career HCPs.³
With strategic omnichannel planning, you can turn pre-launch moments into adoption accelerators.
PERSONALISE: Tailor Every Touchpoint
• Use modular content frameworks for scalability and local adaptation
• Embed live feedback mechanisms to adapt in real time
• Leverage behavioural science and UX to enhance emotional connection
• Build pathways that feel personal, not programmatic
We apply lessons from retail, automotive, and tech sectors to create bespoke and human-centric pharma experiences that resonate.
80% of HCPs believe they receive a ‘one size fits all’ experience at pharma events.⁵
HCPs are clear: 67% say tailored engagements improve their understanding of a product, and 80% highly value personalised information over generic content.⁶
PERFORM: Execute with Precision and Insight
• Streamline planning with end-to-end logistics and project management
• Implement feedback loops and analytics across all touchpoints
• Evaluate not just outputs (attendance, NPS) but outcomes (perception shifts, intent)
• Enable agile iteration based on results and changing needs
Too often, global strategies fail at the local level due to poor integration and disconnected delivery partners.
Strata are part of a family of agencies, allowing for bespoke, joined-up integrated solutions across strategy, creative, logistics, production and delivery. Our single touchpoint approach enables cost efficiencies, ensures brand guardianship, and ultimately drives better business outcomes.
As you lead change across the value chain, Strata’s integrated model ensures connected delivery across all customer-facing functions. Our structure eliminates silos, enabling you to act as one company in front of the customer.
This means faster activation, better outcomes, and fewer silos — across regions and business units.
– Live Event Journey Mapping Templates – tailored tools to visualise and align HCP touchpoints from invitation to follow-up, integrated with broader omnichannel journeys.
– Touchpoint Evaluation Matrix – assess and optimise every element of the live experience, from pre-event engagement to onsite interactions and post-event actions.
– Modular Event Content Playbooks – enable personalisation at scale through flexible formats adaptable for local markets, languages, and preferences.
– Live Experience Feedback Dashboards – real-time insight capture and post-event analytics to measure outcomes, sentiment, and actionable next steps.
– Global-to-Local Delivery Framework – ensure consistency in brand, compliance, and logistics across regions, while empowering localisation.
– Engagement Synchronisation Planner – design strategic connections between live event milestones and supporting digital content to increase impact and prescribing behaviour.
IQVIA reports that in-person congresses remain the second-most preferred touchpoint for HCPs (16%), while face-to-face rep visits still make up over 40% of preferred interactions. ⁷
We don’t just deliver events. We architect experiences that drive transformation and authentic audience engagement.
• Multi-sector expertise with a pharma-savvy approach
• Advisory mindset: strategic thinking meets executional excellence
• In-house team of pharma experts and broader sector specialists
• Integrated strategy, creative and delivery under one roof
• Proven results for global pharma and life sciences brands
• A single touchpoint end-to-end solution bespoke to your needs
If your goal is to build a globally scalable, customer-centric model that brings together data, digital, omnichannel, content, and live experiences – Strata is your brand experience agency partner. We act as an extension of your team, to help you drive organisational change.
Ready to evolve your event strategy into an audience engagement engine? Let’s talk.
References
Every brand touchpoint is a moment that matters. A chance to strengthen your message with clarity and relevance. To make your audience feel like they're part of something extraordinary, get in touch.
