As part of A Season of Strategy, Giles Cattle (Chief Growth Officer at Strata) and Lea Karam (Founder and CEO at Mindscope) discuss what makes experiences memorable, and why that recall is so valuable to brands.
Live moments act as modern rituals. They bring people into a shared emotional context, creating a level of connection that fragmented digital channels struggle to replicate. At their best, live experiences don’t just capture attention; they stay with people. They impact how we think, what we recall, and what we carry forward. Now more than ever a strategic shift is necessary: away from attention, towards memory.
Shared emotional peaks
Live events create emotional peaks; moments that stand out because of their intensity. What makes these moments valuable to brands isn’t just how they are felt, it’s how they are shared, both in the moment and afterwards.
“Too many experiences are designed for the moment and forgotten soon after,” says Giles Cattle, Chief Growth Officer at Strata. “If a moment isn’t remembered, it hasn’t delivered its full value. The focus now needs to shift from capturing attention to creating something that lasts.”
Memory is stronger when it’s social
Memory is not formed in isolation: it’s reinforced through social interaction. What we talk about afterwards, what we revisit, what we debate; these are the mechanisms that strengthen recall. They also shape perception and meaning over time.
Equally important is how ideas spread. People are more prone to adopt behaviours through imitation than instruction; no one is taught the latest slang, yet it is gradually folded into our collective lexicon through imitation. Live environments accelerate this because behaviour is visible, shared and repeatable in real time. When you don’t know a football chant in the stands, you listen, learn, and imitate. And at the next game, you remember.
“When people recall a powerful experience, they can recreate the emotional state of being there,” says Lea Karam, Founder and CEO at Mindscope. This principle underpins The Experience Lab, a collaboration between Mindscope and Strata exploring how live moments can be designed to be not just impactful in the moment, but remembered long after.
“Experiences that are social, time-bound and emotionally intense are far more likely to stay with us and we need to be designing experiences for that,” explains Karam. Live sporting events include all three: whether in the stands or watching at home, people remember for a lifetime the moment their team was victorious.
The intense emotion around experiences like the World Cup is felt before, during and after. Brands see excellent results from campaigns that strategically add to the maelstrom of feelings, from referencing childhood memories to deliberately building on – and aligning with – the sense of excitement. This year, Adidas’ ‘Backyard Legends’ campaign was focused on street football and 90s nostalgia, with de-aged versions of icons like David Beckham, capturing social memory by referencing the beloved football of childhood rather than just sleek corporate inspiration.1
Making identity tangible
Live experiences also have the power to make abstract identities feel real. Whether it’s national identity, brand affiliation or belonging to a cause, these ideas only become meaningful when they are experienced. Events turn them into something tangible, through atmosphere, shared language and collective participation.
In doing so, they allow people to see themselves as part of something larger; not just as individuals but as members of a group with a shared understanding. Identities that exist in the abstract – being English, being a music-lover, supporting women’s sports – are suddenly tangible and real during the peak moments of events. The audience in the stands of the football arena, in the crowd at Glastonbury, watching the finals of the women’s singles at Wimbledon… they are all part of a community that is experiencing something simultaneously, and that feeling will be remembered.
The recent turnout of around 1million people – double predicted numbers – at the parade celebrating Arsenal’s first Premier League win since 2004 shows how many people consider themselves aligned not just with the sport, but specifically with Arsenal as a club, as a community and as a brand.2
The value happens after the event
The impact of live experience extends well beyond the moment itself. Highlights are replayed. Conversations continue. Opinions form and evolve. Teams reference moments internally. Audiences share and reinterpret what they experienced.
This after-effect is not incidental; it’s where value compounds. Experiences that are talked about, retold and revisited become embedded in memory and culture. That unbelievable goal, that ‘you had to be there’ moment at a gig – these are the experiences people are keen to discuss and bond over and therefore are far more likely to remember. Conversations can happen in-person or online; user-generated content like memes, reviews and online discussion is an incredibly powerful tool for raising campaign visibility and ensuring it makes a real impact.
“Memory is not individual, it is social,” Karam adds. “The things we talk about and revisit together are the things that endure. The real impact of an experience often happens after the audience has left.”
Big brands are rightly focused on user generated content and the power of memes; when the moment is replayed over and over, shared and recalled, it is remembered with clarity.
A unifying force in a fragmented world
In a fragmented, on-demand landscape, live experiences offer something increasingly rare: unity. They create shared reference points. They align audiences quickly. And they give brands a way to make strategy tangible, particularly at high-stakes moments such as launches or repositioning.
“Experiential has a strategic role to play when the stakes are high,” Cattle says. “It’s not just about communication. It’s about creating shared understanding and building trust quickly.”
As digital channels become more crowded, the brands that stand out will be those that move beyond short-term engagement and focus on what people remember… and what they share.
“Content is everywhere,” Cattle concludes. “Experiences that are memorable are rarer, and therefore more powerful. The opportunity is in creating something people carry forward, together.”
Lea Karam is the multi-award-winning behavioural scientist the world’s biggest brands and platforms call to solve challenges amidst changing cultural and technological landscapes. Through founding Mindscope, she built the behavioural science labs behind their biggest bets. Lea is one of the industry’s most-booked keynote voices, ranging from bespoke brand and corporate events to all the major industry stages, including Cannes Lions, SXSW, MIPCOM, the Royal Television Society and MAD//Fest.
Giles Cattle is Chief Growth Officer at Strata. A Creative Strategist, he uses insights to fuel the creative design of experiences and communications to engage, inspire and persuade audiences.
He brings brands and people closer together, and using every channel, internal or external, to achieve that.
He has extensive experience working with global clients spanning multiple sectors, targeting multiple audiences through multiple channels.
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As part of A Season of Strategy, Michael Wryley-Birch (Strata president and Group managing director, growth and strategy) and Chris Pearson (Client Services Director at Element) discuss how brands can successfully seize culturally significant moments in an authentic way.
“A few years ago, my team ran an interactive window display for a household-name brand at their Oxford Street flagship store,” says Michael Wryley-Birch, Strata president and Group managing director, growth and strategy. “The display encouraged passers-by to dance, and it was equipped with cameras and sensors so that we could track audience participation; at the time, a pretty new and nifty piece of tech.”
When Wryley-Birch’s team sat down to assess the data, the results were surprising. At busy times, vanishingly few people stopped to interact. In fact, the clear and consistent peak time for the display was at 6 in the morning on a weekday.
“The reality was that no one wanted to hold up traffic and participate during peak hours. No one wanted to stop their own mission – shopping, socialising, running errands – to take part in ours,” Wryley-Birch explains. “People were willing to take part when they naturally had down time. They were waiting for the bus to take them to work.”
In 2026, that sort of technology is built into the majority of experiences designed by Strata, and it provides detailed information about our diverse and fascinating audiences.
The message was clear: attention isn’t about volume, it’s about receptivity.
The problem with ‘big moments’
As we head into a summer absolutely packed with big sporting and cultural events – events like the FIFA World Cup, Wimbledon and various music festivals – Wryley-Birch advises brands to think twice about their instinct to show up during the loudest, most crowded moment.
“While it makes sense to link your brand to a moment of heightened awareness, it is near impossible to gain positive attention at the peak of a moment that belongs to someone else,” he explains. “Like Oxford Street on a sunny Saturday afternoon, these moments are saturated, noisy and often intrusive for people who aren’t on the bandwagon.”
Anticipation and afterglow
The solution? Find your own space: your own 6am slot waiting for the bus.
This is where a moment-based approach becomes practical. One agency that forms part of The Strata Group is Element, who work with major brands to provide prizes, incentives and rewards. Chris Pearson, Client Services Director at Element, explains the value of what he calls anticipation and afterglow.
“We work with many brands who offer tickets to these big summer events as prizes,” Pearson says, “and they’re great, but we always advise them not to miss opportunities to make good into great. When we design incentive trips, we don’t just get people to Latitude or Reading Festival. We make sure they have all the camping gear they’ll need – we combine the prize with vouchers for festival essentials like new clothes. We make sure they have travel home, as well.”
Water doesn’t feel valuable – until you’re baking in the sun and someone offers you a cold drink. Holidays are the most memorable either when they’re plagued by travel disasters or rich with bucket-list items.
“My point is that by thinking through these moments that surround the big moment, brands can gain attention in a really authentic way,” Pearson summarises. “There’s something to be said about treating a smaller group to a better experience.”
In the anticipation phase, brands can build excitement. Marketing can be around helping to prepare, plan or feel a part of the event early. In the moment, it’s about avoiding interruption; enhancing, rather than competing.
“It’s after the event that memory and meaning is really formed,” Pearson concludes. “That’s where you have the opportunity for reflection and sharing.”
Design for real human moments
At their best, events and experiences are moments of delight, and whether brands are designing professional congresses or brand activations, the same principles stand. By introducing small moments that solve real friction, events become optimised and memorable, easing the way for the core messages to be received and recalled. Some principles are universal: reduce waiting times, improve the experience of travelling to and from the event, and plan for the post-event lull. When brands chase the biggest moment, especially surrounding these large-scale events like football tournaments or festivals, they miss out on the opportunity to identify and plan for the most meaningful moments. Often, the biggest gains come from the least glamourous fixes: optimising things that others overlook.
“Success comes from understanding mindset, spotting overlooked opportunities, and showing up with relevance and authenticity,” says Wryley-Birch. “I recall watching back footage of sleepy commuters dancing in front of that Oxford Street window, and thinking that it looked like a lot of fun – it was just a moment in their day, but one I’m sure they spoke about when they got to the office later. “
“The brands we remember aren’t usually the ones that shout the loudest; they’re the ones that met us where we were, at exactly the right moment.”
Ready to go further? Follow Strata on LinkedIn for A Season of Strategy, exploring human behaviour, strategic event design and how to build a measurement strategy that goes well beyond ROI.
Want to get in touch? Drop us a line at [email protected]
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.”
Ready to go further? Follow Strata on LinkedIn for A Season of Strategy, exploring human behaviour, strategic event design and how to build a measurement strategy that goes well beyond ROI.
Want to get in touch? Drop us a line at [email protected]
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