Charlotte Bunyan, Head of Strategy & Innovation at We Are Collider, dives into why participation is the new competitive advantage for brands, and why a little play can go a long way towards achieving ROI.
In recent years, audiences have shifted away from passive consumption in favour of active participation. With content ubiquitous, just seeing something feels ordinary. People want to co-create, not spectate, and in doing so feel like part of a community.1
In real terms, this trend is driving a shift in what makes an event memorable. This is where elements of ‘play’ are such a valuable addition to an experience. Playful moments feel effortless, not work or obligation, because of our innate sense of curiosity, discovery, competition, and achievement. Done well, gamification can increase conversion by around 50% and boost engagement by 150%2
We know that competition in particular boosts memory, sentiment and advocacy. Gamification has become a buzzword for that reason, but there is a way to bring in elements of play without it seeming like you’re just jumping on the bandwagon. Brands that focus on the core of gamification – on the playfulness – and incorporate it in a way that it authentic to their identity are most likely to see real results.
Start small: find a glimmer
Adults are increasingly seeking tangible, playful experiences, from LEGO’s adult product ranges to the growing popularity of board game cafes. We also know that most grown-ups are keen to accept ‘glimmers’3 when they appear. If you’re unfamiliar, glimmers are the opposite of triggers, which are linked to the body’s stress response; glimmers instead stimulate feelings of joy, calm and safety. These small moments of happiness and surprise are opportunities to coax people to open up, forge connections and relax, and the ability to pause and recognize them when they appear is linked to lower stress and a more positive mental outlook.3
Events don’t need to jump into play or gamification with both feet to invite glimmers into their experience design. Instead, simple mechanics often outperform complex ones in practice. Think quizzes, spin-to-win setups, scavenger hunts and simple rewards mechanics.
At John Lewis Liverpool, our interactive mirror was part of an activation to promote their beauty offering; it chatted to passers-by in a thick Scouse accent, making people laugh and stop what they were doing to accept its cheerful compliments.4
These moments aren’t the headline of people’s day, but they stick with them long after they leave. The question shouldn’t be ‘how can we gamify this experience?’ but instead simply: what would make this more fun? I’d argue that nearly every event could be improved with a little more fun. Play gives everyone an equal opportunity to warm up, loosen up, and gives permission for new relationships to form organically.
The most effective networking mechanics are often simple, and playful: a shared challenge or conversation starter that gives strangers a reason to engage. We’ve seen great results from quizzes, escape room-style tasks or even ‘human experience bingo’, where participants ask each other who speaks the most languages or has eaten the weirdest food. They don’t need to be flashy to be powerful – tap into your audience’s innate sense of curiosity and simulate their competitive instincts, and connections will follow.
Designing play with purpose
So, you’re on board with building some playful glimmers into your event. I encourage you to start with the objective, not the mechanic. Start instead with the behaviour, and business outcome you’re trying to drive, then build gamified elements around interactions that contribute to that goal.
Mechanics should be intuitive and accessible, in every sense. Ease of entry should be the priority, with the option for deeper engagement if appropriate. The right level of friction is a fine line to walk, but aiming for low complication is a good starting point.
Play and gamification should feel authentic to your brand, not forced. Think about your brand values and image before committing to a big giveaway or a virtual reality experience; there will be a way to make it feel like you, and be something you can feel proud of long past the moment itself.
Measuring the impact of playful elements
Measurement is a key element to bake in early. Some of the most valuable indicators to track include:
The real value comes from connecting these signals, rather than viewing them in isolation. While participation figures can tell you what happened, combining behavioural data, engagement patterns and audience feedback provides a much clearer understanding of why it happened and what impact it had on business objectives.
This is where measurement moves beyond reporting and becomes a tool for optimisation. It can help you to benchmark performance, identify what drives engagement and make more informed decisions about where your investment should go in future.
Community often delivers greater long-term value than visibility alone. Visibility creates awareness in the moment; communities create ongoing engagement, advocacy and repeat participation. The result is not just a larger audience, but a more valuable and connected one.
Final thoughts
Gamification may be today’s buzzword, but the most effective experiences are built around participation, discovery and connection. From where I stand, the future of experiential marketing belongs to brands that invite audiences into their story and give them the chance to become the main character.
References:
Charlotte Bunyan is Head of Strategy & Innovation at We Are Collider. She embeds immersive media, AI, gaming, and virtual world storytelling into the agency’s core, as well as shaping IP, forging strategic partnerships, and driving thought leadership at global stages like SXSW. She is focused on unlocking new commercial value, accelerating R&D, and positioning We Are Collider as a bold, future-facing creative force for innovation-led brands, all underpinned by Behavioural Science insights and proprietary AI Tools.
The Strata Group, the leading independent integrated brand experience agency group, has acquired a 100% stake in brand experience agency, We Are Collider; a leading specialist in experience-led marketing for esports, gaming and consumer engagement.
The Strata Group’s CEO, Simon Hambley, said: “Bringing We Are Collider into The Strata Group is a significant step in building an experiential network for brands and people on a mission. They deliver more than 70% of their work internationally, strengthening our global delivery capability and complementing the work our teams are already delivering around the world.
Their expertise in AI, innovation and behavioural science through Arq and MARVELs, combined with The Strata Group’s existing tools, accelerates our move into a more intelligent, tech-enabled era of experience. Together, we are creating a fully integrated offering that enables clients to move faster in a rapidly changing world.”
We Are Collider’s Founder and CEO, Anton Jerges, added: “For me, it was the culture fit first. I have known Simon and the team for a while and knew that we had shared values which is always important for me and the team. I also know that The Strata Group share our drive to deliver outstanding work to brilliant clients and I’m excited to turbo charge this, working with Wonderland, Strata and the rest of the group companies. The entire management team and I are super excited about this next step in our evolution.”
The news follows The Strata Group’s January 2026 acquisition of Wonderland – the creative global event agency currently delivering Cannes Lions events for high-profile tech and entertainment brands – and marks the next step in The Strata Group’s mission to unite all live communications and experiential skills under one network.
With other businesses in the group including strategic global experience agency Strata; venue sourcing agency, Trinity; event production company ON; and incentive, rewards and promotions specialists Element and Sherbet; The Strata Group’s aim is to provide clients with a seamless end-to-end audience engagement service that is both faster and more cost efficient.
We Are Collider will operate as a standalone agency from its existing office and will continue to service its clients including Amazon Games, John Lewis and Red Bull. Anton Jerges will remain CEO but will work closely with Strata Group President, Michael Wyrley-Birch, on developing group-wide growth and collaboration.
Summer 2026 proved once again that global attention centres around shared, high-profile moments. But as the dust settles, it’s clear which brands were truly ready. It’s no longer enough to simply target audiences; the real winners were the brands that showed up with intent in the moments that mattered most.
Over the past few months, live sporting events: the FIFA World Cup, Wimbledon, the Grand Prix, sat alongside major festivals and cultural moments to create something massive: millions of people watching, reacting in real time, and feeling part of something collective.
Yet many brands still approached these moments the way they always have: chasing reach, impressions, and visibility. That’s where traditional planning fell short. Because an event like the World Cup isn’t just a media moment; it’s a behavioural one.
We Are Collider’s CEO, Anton Jerges, explains: “Demographic data and reach metrics only tell a fraction of the story, because a die-hard fan’s connection is driven by emotional resonance and social identity. From a behavioural perspective, fans aren’t evaluating a rational value exchange; they’re craving a peak experience, the heart-pounding emotional rollercoaster and the deep tribal sociality of collective belonging.”
What makes these kinds of events unique is that they aren’t just for hardcore fans; they draw in people turning up purely for the occasion or watching from the digital sidelines. This opens the door for brands to reach new audiences, not through cold targeting, but by immersing themselves in something people genuinely cared about. The shared build-up, the atmosphere, and the simple pull of wanting to be part of something bigger created the real opportunity.
THE VALUE OF EXPERIENCE DOESN’T LIE IN REACH ALONE
Live experiences create moments where behavior shifts at scale. Emotion increases cognitive encoding, making messages far more memorable, while shared moments reinforce meaning through social connections; from friends in the pub to online communities.
That’s what made this summer’s lineup of the World Cup or the upcoming Reading Festival such powerful engagement opportunities. Urgency, anticipation, and unpredictability were built into the fabric of these events. While some brands relied solely on surface metrics like impressions, others created something far more enduring.
Jerges continues: “When you add in casual viewers, most of whom tune in once every four years, the primary drivers shift to powerful social proof and emotional contagion.
“It becomes a shared peak experience: the unmitigated joy of country-wide synchrony, cracking open a drink and screaming in unison at the screen. It reminds us that we can all believe in the same thing for a moment, despite our differences.
For brands this isn’t something you can capture on a spreadsheet or ask AI to replicate. We intuitively feel it, but engineering that raw emotion into sustained cognitive encoding and strategic resonance? That’s where the real behavioural design lies.”
THE STRATEGIC LESSON FOR BRANDS
Mass-reach events represent a rare environment where behaviour, emotion, and attention align at scale. But capitalising on that alignment requires a deliberate strategy before, during, and after the event.
In order to stand-out brands should master three distinct phases:
Part of what made these moments so powerful is that they weren’t instant. From queuing for tickets to waiting for a spot in a fan zone, fans earned their place in the moment. That effort makes the experience feel meaningful, memorable, and worth sharing.
Jerges concludes: “Whether it’s the World Cup or any other cultural milestone, for a brand to trigger real behaviour change, it has to align with the audience’s social identity: behave like a fan, share the emotional exchange, and bring genuine value to the narrative. It’s about proving your brand isn’t just passive labelling on a banner, but an authentic facilitator of the peak experiences people store in long-term memory.”
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