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 20002 – 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.
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.
