New research on 7,450 Indian event-goers shows what brands actually get from showing up in person — and why most marketers still hesitate.
Key Takeaways
- 59% of live-event attendees recall the brands they engage with on-ground; 55% report higher purchase intent afterwards.
- 78% of Indian consumers say they would rather spend on experiences than products.
- More than half of brands surveyed ran an experiential activation last year, and 88% of them plan to continue in a more structured way.
- The three blockers are expertise (71%), budget (57%) and measurement (43%) — all solvable.
From buying attention to earning participation
For two decades, Indian marketing has largely been a contest for attention: more impressions, more reach, lower cost per thousand. A March 2026 report by EY-Parthenon and BookMyShow, titled Beyond Attention. Into Immersion, argues that the contest is changing. With interruption-led advertising losing effectiveness, the report positions experiential marketing as a full-funnel growth channel rather than a tactical extra [1]. EY-Parthenon’s Raghav Anand put experiential media at roughly 23% of India’s media and entertainment revenues [2].
What the attendees told researchers
The study surveyed 7,450 people after live events. Its headline findings: 59% remembered the brands they interacted with on-ground, 55% said their purchase intent rose after that interaction, 63% felt brands made their event experience better, and 29% said their image of the brand improved — that it felt like a brand for them [1]. Behind this sits a wider shift in priorities: 78% of Indian consumers told researchers they prefer spending on experiences over products [1].
Those numbers matter because they move experiential beyond vanity metrics. Recall and intent are the same measures brand-tracking studies use for TV and digital. A brand that can show a lift in both, inside an audience it chose deliberately, has a far easier conversation with finance.
What marketers are already doing
The CMO side of the same research shows the shift is underway. More than half of brands ran experiential activations in the previous year; 88% of those plan to keep investing in a more structured way; and among active brands that increased experiential spend over three years, 44% reported growth of up to 30% [1]. The stated goals have broadened from awareness (67%) to sampling and trial (56%), sales growth (56%) and brand storytelling (44%) [1].
The report names brands across categories: RuPay and Kotak Mahindra Bank focusing on access and convenience at high-demand shows; H&M, Budweiser 0.0, Nivea and Vicks investing in festival ecosystems for trial and self-expression; Nykaa turning beauty discovery into its own property, Nykaaland, with BookMyShow Live; and Visa, Diageo and Hyundai using experiences to signal premium, youth-forward positioning [1]. The common thread is utility. The best activations fix something for the fan — entry, payment, comfort, a moment worth sharing — rather than shouting at them.
Why the rest are still hesitating
For brands not yet active, the barriers are practical: 71% cite a lack of expertise, 57% budget pressure, and 43% unresolved measurement questions [1]. None of these is a reason to wait. Expertise can be bought through specialist partners; budget can start with a recurring, smaller-capacity property instead of a stadium title deal; and measurement improves sharply when objectives are set before the activation is designed, not after.
A simple playbook
- Pick one job for the activation — trial, data capture, content, or loyalty — and design everything around it.
- Solve a real friction in the venue: faster entry, charging, hydration, cashless payment, a better view, a shuttle home.
- Make it participatory. People remember what they did, not what they saw.
- Run a mix: one marquee moment for scale, and a recurring series (club nights, college circuits, regional festivals) for frequency.
- Measure recall and intent with a short post-event survey, and compare against a non-attendee control group.
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