There is a moment at every great brand event when the room feels electric. The crowd is in it. The experience is landing. Every detail has been considered. And yet, if that energy stays within those four walls, the event has only done half its job.
The most effective brand events are built for two audiences simultaneously. The first is the room. The second is everyone who will never set foot in it.
The first audience: make them feel it
Your in-room audience is your foundation. They are the people who experience the event as it is intended to be experienced, in full, in real time. Getting this right is non-negotiable. The atmosphere, the talent, the product interaction, the sensory details that no screen can replicate. This is where brand love is built at its deepest level.
But here is the thing about your first audience. They are also your most powerful content creators. When they are genuinely moved by an experience, they share it. When something surprises them, they reach for their phone. When they feel like they are part of something worth talking about, they become your distribution network. The first audience does not just attend the event. They activate the second.
The second audience: build the universe around them
The second audience is larger, more diverse, and increasingly the one that determines whether an event actually moves the dial for a brand. These are the people watching a reel at midnight, seeing a creator’s recap on their commute, reading coverage the following week. They will experience the event through the fragments that escape it.
This is where narrative architecture becomes essential. A brand event needs a story that travels. A platform, a tension, a visual language, a line that sticks. Something that makes sense in a six-second clip and something that rewards longer engagement. The event itself becomes the proof point for a wider universe that extends the reach of everything that happens inside the room.
Think about how the best activations work in practice. A live moment gets clipped and shared. A creator captures something raw and real that outperforms the polished highlight reel. A piece of campaign copy lands in a caption and gets screenshotted. These are not happy accidents. They are the result of events designed with the second audience in mind from the very first brief.
Design for both, from the start
The mistake brands make is treating these two audiences as separate problems. In-room experience on one brief, content strategy on another. The events that truly punch above their weight are the ones where the physical and the social are inseparable from the outset.
Every touchpoint inside the room should be considered for how it lives beyond it. Every moment of genuine emotion is a piece of content waiting to be made. Every brand story told to fifty people in a venue has the potential to reach fifty thousand.
The event is the spark. The universe you build around it is the fire.
About the author
Joe Murgatroyd | Partner & Creative Director
As creative director, Joe is responsible for delivering creative excellence across the agency. With over a decade of experience in the world of PR, specialising in the sport industry, Joe has amassed some enviable experience after working for some of the world’s most recognisable brands.
An alumnus of Sport Industry Group’s prestigious ‘Sports Industry NextGen Leader’ programme, he now shares his wisdom as a frequent contributor to industry publications such as The Drum, PR Week and Creative Moment.
