The media industry is turning to Experiential Marketing shops to help them win.

1. MEDIA TAGS IN EXPERIENTIAL
TO WIN THE MATCH

2. A NEW KIND OF MEDIA BUY IS HAPPENING
1
In March 2017, Conde Nast bought Pop2Life.
We all know Conde Nast as a magazine
company. I’m sure people at Conde Nast
would likely correct us that their business is
“sharing and celebrating lifestyles” (or some
such thing), and I’ll grant them that point as
any fool sailing the magazine seas realized
years ago that they were on a sinking vessel.
So they branched out into digital, content
creation and … events.

3. ONE EXPERIENTIAL AGENCY
1
Enter: Pop2Life. I assume you don’t know
Pop2Life like you do Conde Nast, if at all.
I barely know them other than the awards
and case studies I have seen of their work in
the experiential industry over the years. They
are really, really good. From what I can tell,
they come up with cool ideas for big
consumer experiences on behalf of their
clients and then they put together awesome
productions.

4. CONSUMERS WANT EXPERIENCES
1
Conde Nast is a media company who bought
an experiential agency in order to offer both
their clients and consumers what they really
want: experiences.
We hear it again and again: consumers want
experiences. They don’t want an ad in their
magazine, on their radio or on the TV. They
want to attend a food festival, go to a show
at SXSW or enter a fun run.

5. BIG MEDIA BUYING EXPERIENTIAL
1
Media companies are getting their ass kicked
in the ring these days. And there is a tag
team partner they are looking to for help:
experiential agencies.
Some samples of other major media
companies tagging in an experiential group:
New York Times – Fake Love
Lagadere – Rooftop2

6. AGENCY HOLDING COMPANIES GET INVOLVED
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Then there are the big agency holding
companies that relied upon media services
who are expanding their portfolios with
experiential company purchases:
WMEIMG - Fusion Marketing
GroupM – Engine Shop
And many media companies have tried to
make their own experiential divisions like the
Boston Globe’s “BGM Experiential.”

7. OLD AND OUT OF SHAPE
1
It’s interesting to see the old school media
companies chase after experiential shops in
hopes of becoming more appealing to
marketers. It makes total sense. They are the
out-of-shape, ex-champs with thinning hair
and bloating guts realizing their old moves
needs a major refresher. They have
abandoned the solo game and picked up a
partner. A company like Conde Nast has the
name, sales force, and rolodex to get media
packaged with big experiential ideas in front
of major marketers.

8. EXPERIENTIAL GETS TAGGED IN
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So props to Pop2Life. I assume Conde Nast has
proprietary events you will take to the next level.
I assume experiential offerings will become
more fun for their sales reps to showcase than
boring CPM rate card and circ numbers. I
assume they will tag you into this match and
hope you can show off some of those cool
moves they heard all about.
This trend is Not going away anytime soon. Big
media needs little experiential in a major way.
Time to climb into the ring.

9. PATRICK WEST
patrick@themachinenyc.com
646.380.9467 or 914.216.8948
“BeTheMachineNYC” social handles