It is talked about a lot and it is one of the liveliest areas of marketing. But what exactly is experiential marketing, and what does an experiential marketing agency actually do? And why is sport, with its Grands Prix, its hospitality and its fan zones, one of the most fertile grounds for this kind of strategy?

Updated September 2026.

In short: according to the American Marketing Association’s definition, experiential marketing is an approach that directly engages consumers and invites them to take part in a branded experience, and among its examples the AMA cites sponsorship itself. An experiential marketing agency designs these experiences to measure: events, local activations, product trials, hospitality. In sport, experiential marketing finds an audience that is already passionate, which is why it works particularly well.

Why companies choose experiential marketing

Companies have a huge range of tools to communicate with their customers, and the choice depends on strategy, audience, budget and markets. On one side there is classic advertising in the mass media: television, press, radio, billboards, web and social media. On the other there are the activities the jargon calls below the line: events, sponsorships, licensing and co-branding programmes, special collaborations, promotions.

Every day we receive an enormous number of messages: social media notifications as soon as we wake up, commercials during the news, the cereal box at breakfast, the radio in the car, billboards in the street, ads while we play on a tablet. Of all these messages, how many do we really remember?

Being remembered is getting harder

In general we remember something for one of two reasons: because we need it at that moment, or because it moved us.

Take an example. If I am about to buy an air fryer, I look for information, compare brands and read reviews, and in those days I notice every air fryer ad. Once I have bought it, my interest fades. Now imagine instead that an air fryer brand invites me to an aperitif where a chef prepares tasters with the latest model, and the guest of the evening is a sports champion talking about how they eat. The evening is pleasant, the topic engages me, I taste something I could make at home. I will remember that brand when the time comes to buy.

This is where experiential marketing agencies come in: their job is to put consumers in direct contact with the brand through live experiences that are different and unique, and that create an emotional bond. That bond means that, at the moment of purchase, the customer prefers that brand to an equivalent product with which they have no relationship.

The data confirm the intuition. According to the Freeman Trust Report 2025, conducted with Harris Poll in the United States, 95% of attendees trust a brand more after meeting it at an in-person event and 85% are more likely to buy after the event. The EventTrack 2026 study by Event Marketer finds that 61% of consumers are more inclined to purchase after attending an event.

What an experiential marketing agency offers

The world of experiential marketing agencies is very varied and there is no standard format: every project is built to measure, around the client’s goals, audience and budget. The most common activities include:

• promotional stands and booths in busy places, such as squares, stations, shopping centres and shops, where people can try products or join games with prizes;
• guided product trials, from running shoes to driving simulators;
• consumer events with music, entertainment and live sports activities;
• personalised experiences, such as the make-up sessions with famous make-up artists that cosmetics brands use to present new collections;
• hybrid experiences, partly physical and partly digital.

Brands such as Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Heineken, Nike and Adidas have made these activities a pillar of their communication.

Why sport is the ideal ground

Sport is passion, and it involves billions of people. Any experience linked to a team, a rider or driver or a big event starts with a huge advantage in terms of interest. Some recent figures:

• according to FIFA, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar engaged 5 billion people and the final between Argentina and France reached 1.42 billion viewers, the highest ever;
• Formula 1 ended 2025 with 6.7 million spectators at the circuits, an all-time record, and 827 million fans worldwide;
• MotoGP welcomed 3.6 million spectators over its 2025 race weekends, also a record.

An experiential activity linked to these events reaches an audience that is already willing to listen. It is a theme we also explore in our articles on experiential sports marketing and on the experiential level of sponsorship.

A sports marketing agency can create experiences

The clearest example is hospitality at major sporting events. Watching a Grand Prix or a final from a reserved area is an experience that stays with you, and companies use it as a prize for competitions, incentive programmes or client relations. There are different levels, depending on budget and guests: in MotoGP, for instance, the VIP Village also offers private spaces branded with the company’s name for groups of 40 people or more, designed for networking and making new contacts. The same goes for the hospitality areas of Formula 1, football and tennis.

Sometimes the experience is even more personal: meeting your champion for an autograph or a photo creates a memory that the fan will always associate with the company that made it possible. We have organised, for example, a snow weekend for a company’s clients with a skiing champion, who spent the days on the slopes with the guests, and real tennis clinics with a well-known tennis player. In both cases the bond with the host brand could not have been stronger.

Then there are the activities aimed at the general public during sporting events, where sponsors run areas with games, product trials and meetings with the protagonists:

• under the agreement of November 2025, the Formula 1 Fan Zone becomes “presented by Heineken 0.0”, with live installations planned at every race weekend;
• at Mugello, at the Italian Grand Prix named after Brembo, the 2025 fan zone offered meetings with the riders and a track invasion to watch the Sunday podium;
• at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the FIFA Fan Festivals drew more than 9 million people in 13 cities, with 113 activation spaces for commercial partners.

The Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, which recorded a record 229,879 spectators in 2025, also show how naturally a major sporting event becomes a platform for brand experiences.

How to choose the right agency

If you want to engage your audience actively, rely on an agency that knows the ground you want to play on. You do not necessarily need the biggest experiential marketing agency: you need the one best suited to your goals. If the experience grows out of an entertainment event, it may also help to read about the difference between an entertainment marketing agency and a sports marketing agency and our guide to what an event marketing company does. If sport is your ground, let’s talk.

Sources: American Marketing Association, experiential marketing; Freeman, Trust Report 2025; Trade Show Executive, the Freeman Trust Report data; Event Marketer, EventTrack 2026; FIFA, Qatar 2022 audiences; Formula 1, the 2025 season in numbers; MotoGP, the 2025 review; MotoGP, VIP Village for companies; Formula 1, the Heineken partnership; MotoGP, the 2025 Mugello fan zone; FIFA, the 2026 World Cup Fan Festivals; ATP, the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.