Experience is Life
It's the 2nd half of 2025. The cultural landscape is as shaky as my millennial butt has ever seen. So is marketing still a thing? Is it relevant? The answer to both is a big fat NO (read: Marketing is Dead).
So while we ride into the sunset carrying on with our post-capitalistic momentum, let's take a look and see what everyday brands can actually do in this ever-changing horizon (hint: not your silly ads).
In this brave new world, people are more mistrusting than ever and only care about what they can connect with and experience themselves. We are in the age of experiences.
We’ve been hearing for years that millennials prefer experiences over possessions. Gen Z? They’re ten steps ahead. They’re not waiting for anyone to create it for them. They’re already building it themselves—out of nothing, out of vibes, out of pure will.
Post-COVID, we all crave human connection, and social clubs are popping up faster than US tariffs. That’s because we just want to have something real in front of us for a change. Something we can touch, feel, and remember.
There’s a reason Vogue Business wrote a whole piece about how community event leaders are becoming the new influencers. They’re not curating content. They’re curating moments. They’re hosting run clubs and sauna circles and dinner parties—and in doing so, they’re doing what advertising hasn’t been able to do in years: make people care.
Putting it another way: if I were a brand trying to “market” something… well, I wouldn’t. I’d focus on connecting instead. And in 2025, connection only really happens two ways:
In person
Vicariously in person
The first is obvious. It’s why 74% of brands plan to increase their experiential marketing budgets. Because when people feel something IRL, they remember it. They talk about it. It builds real affinity.
The second is trickier, but arguably just as powerful. It started with influencers showing off aspirational lifestyles. Now, it’s shifted into something closer to live streaming—people aren’t just watching, they’re experiencing through others. TikTok is full of creators broadcasting their moments in real time, turning brunches, thrift runs, and solo beach walks into content that feels like you’re there. It’s not branded entertainment. It’s experience broadcasting. And it’s exploding. Live shopping is on a meteoric rise, and livestreamed moments are becoming a mainstream format.
But let’s be clear: I’m not suggesting brands go all-in on TikTok. I’m biased. I believe in real-life connection. Always have. No matter how much screen time we get (or how “immersive” digital experiences become), it’s never going to fill that very human need for being seen, felt, heard, and hugged. The need to laugh and cry, and sing together.
So what does this mean for things like experiential marketing? It means we need to stop focusing on entertaining or trying to impress people and start focusing on creating lifestyle-centric environments that facilitate actual human connection. This could mean partnering with the new event leaders and empowering their mission, or carving out your own audience-specific spaces where people can connect, empowered by your brand and the lifestyle it represents ...And please, think beyond pickleball.
I'm a marketer, yet I’ve always believed the saying that “marketing ruins everything.” And I challenge anyone to tell me it isn’t true. What gets me excited, though, is the thought that—in these nebulous times—marketing might actually have a unique opportunity to do some good. To bring something of value. To scale the fun and memory-making potential of social events, clubs, and whatever form in-person experience takes next.
Wouldn’t that be something good? You're welcome.