All signs point to better days ahead for the "live event" industry. That said, the experience-making industry is not what it looked like two years ago. And that's a good thing, as much as it has stung for all of us. As some agencies were forced to fold, others found new ways to thrive and take their expertise in understanding human behavior and apply it to virtual, digital and content creation. At FG|PG, that's been part of our success.
We've been crafting experiences of every type and are celebrating our 20th anniversary as a women-owned business. We're one of the lucky ones that made it through the rough patch, adding new skills and clients to our roster. From trade shows to conferences to consumer events and stunts ... we're experts at creating moments that build brand love and earn our clients an unfair share of attention.
So now that we're back to live, what does that mean for our industry?
Two years ago, pre-COVID-19, experiential agencies were often considered just for the "live" event experience brands were looking to bring into the world. Sometimes that included content creation and social extensions, but those were additive elements. As the world shifted due to COVID, so has how brands see us. As they got under the hood to what experiential agencies like ours are really good at, they came to better understand that we are experts at creating consumer journeys and moments centered around human-centric behavior. In turn, now clients are demanding experiences that include content, drive scale, and squeeze more out of their budgets than ever before.
As new RFPs come in, what many live event/experiential agencies like ours have seen is that we're now being tapped as the experts at crafting every type of experience- from live to virtual to content to AR. At FG|PG this trend has enabled us to amplify our holistic approach to experience making for new clients, and our many long-term client partners. As an agency that has a unique offering, we are able to help our clients from strategy to design to fabrication to live production to content creation and execution- all under one roof. This creates less friction from brief to final product, and enables us to value engineer solutions for our clients. Some call it our special sauce. But it's also something we believe the entire industry needs to consider.
We've seen the shift in how live events and experience are seen in the eyes of brand owners and believe it will continue to accelerate. The industry, clients and procurement departments have come to recognize that live events can be smarter, and more powerful than ever before. And drive scale in new ways when looked at more holistically as part of the larger media budget and digital budget, and not just a live event budget.
As we are already planning live experiences for the fall, there's no doubt "live" is back and acting smarter than ever!
