Global experiential marketing, including both the consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) sectors, grew 9.7% in 2023 to $116.1 billion, and while this performance left the industry below pre-pandemic spend levels in 2019, experiential marketing will surpass pre-COVID expenditures in 2024. Global experiential marketing spending is expected to grow 10.5% this year to $128.3 billion, per new new research from PQ Media, the world’s leading provider of media econometrics.

STAMFORD, Conn., Oct. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Global experiential marketing, including both the consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) sectors, grew 9.7% in 2023 to $116.14 billion, and while this performance left the industry below the pre-pandemic spending level of $121.87 billion in 2019, experiential marketing will surpass pre-COVID spending this year. Global experiential marketing spending is expected to grow 10.5% in 2024 to $128.35 billion, according to new research from PQ Media.

The new 10th edition of the Global B2C & B2B Experiential Marketing Forecast 2024-2028 will be the first edition to include B2B experiential marketing data and analysis, as well as B2C. Historical spending data for the 2018-2023 period and forecasts for 2024-2028 are broken out by those two major sectors, and the combined six media channels, and 24 industry verticals (see more details below).

B2C experiential marketing is the larger of the two industry sectors, reaching $81.92 billion in 2023, representing a 9% gain compared with 2022, according to the 10th edition of the Global Experiential Marketing Forecast 2024-2028. B2C spending will rise 10.3% in 2024 to $90.32 billion, fueled by spending by the official sponsors of the Paris Summer Olympic teams from each country, as well as rallies for political candidates in 14 of the 20 largest global media markets, particularly in the United States after Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.

B2B experiential marketing, however, grew faster in 2023, rising 11.5% to $34.22 billion, and it’s on pace to increase 11.1% in 2024 to reach $38.03 billion. Fueling B2B experiential growth is an increase in exhibit booth rentals and attendance fees, as companies enlarge booths to add AI demonstrations and companies continue to send more executives to shows following the cratering of attendance at the peak of the pandemic.

Within B2C experiential marketing, consumer event sponsorships was the larger of the two major channels at $42.72 billion in 2023, with sports being the largest category at $28.65 billion, capturing a 67.1% market share. Live consumer events was the fastest growing B2C channel, up 9.6%, with sports & entertainment being the largest category at $16.04 billion.

Within B2B experiential marketing, exhibit space rental fees was the largest channel at $20.93 billion in 2023, and was the fastest growing of the four B2B channels, up 11.8%. Conferences, seminars & virtual shows was the second largest category, while trade show promotions was the second-fastest growing. Attendance fees was the smallest and slowest-growing B2B channel. Entertainment & recreation was the largest of the 13 industry vertical categories at $4.35 billion, a 12.7% market share, with healthcare & medicine; forestry, mining & energy; and media & technology capturing double-digit market shares.

The United States remained the world’s largest market, reaching $52.80 billion in 2023 and commanding 45.5% of global spending on overall experiential marketing. It ranked fourth in growth among the top 20 markets, rising 11.4% in 2023, trailing Poland, India and Taiwan. Due to the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, Russia posted almost flat growth during the year as international brands continue to boycott the country’s B2C and B2B events.

Within the US, B2C experiential marketing was the larger of the two sectors at $39.46 billion in 2023, but B2B experiential marketing grew faster, increasing 13.4%. Event sponsorship was the larger of the two B2C channels at $19.91 billion, while live consumer events grew faster, up 11.1%. Sports was the largest of the six event sponsorship categories at $14.24 billion, while sports & entertainment was the largest of the five live consumer event categories at $7.84 billion. Meanwhile, exhibit space rentals was the largest of the four U.S. B2B channels at $8.05 billion in 2023, as well as the fastest growing, rising 13.8% during the year. Entertainment & recreation was the largest B2B industry vertical category, reaching $1.91 billion in 2023, according to the Global Experiential Marketing Forecast 2024-2028.

“Experiential marketing is becoming a more important part of marketing campaigns because of better metrics and engagement with customers. In the B2C sector, consumer event sponsorship growth is being driven by new venues accepting sponsorship deals, such as those in sports arenas, floor spaces and uniforms, among others. Live consumer event marketing is growing faster than consumer event sponsorships because it gives brands exclusive access to target consumers, particularly younger demographics at malls, college campuses and nightclubs,” said PQ Media CEO Patrick Quinn. “In the B2B sector, many of the gains reported by various industry verticals are directly tied to products at trade show booths and sessions at conferences and seminars that include a artificial intelligence components. Booths are becoming more interactive and engaging using virtual reality demonstrations and related personalized promotional products.”

US experiential spending is on pace to rise 12% in 2024, fueled by sponsors and live events associated with the Summer Olympics. Political campaign rallies during the 2024 election, particularly after VP Harris replaced President Biden as the Democrats’ nominee, forced former President Trump to increase his number of rallies planned for post-Labor Day. PQ Media believes multiple opportunities abound for event marketers, sponsors, and back-end designers in 2026 when the US, Canada and Mexico will tri-host the FIFA World Cup, as well as in 2028 when the Summer Olympics will be held in the Los Angeles area.

About the Report:

PQ Media’s Global B2C & B2B Experiential Marketing Forecast 2024-2028 covers the 2 major experiential marketing sectors (B2C and B2B); 2 B2C and 4 B2B channels; and 11 B2C and 13 B2B experiential marketing categories. Site licenses to the new Forecast include both a PDF Report, delivering 416 slides of datagraphs and analysis covering every country, channel and category, and in-depth profiles of the top 20 global markets; as well as a depp-dive Excel Databook, delivering more than 50 spreadsheet tabs and over 200,000 datapoints covering every major market, channel and category worldwide for the entire 2018-2028 period. Click the report link above to download a FREE Executive Summary and Sample Datasets from the new Forecast.

The new edition for the first time will include data, analysis and datagraphs covering four major B2B media channels: exhibit space rental fees; conferences, seminars & virtual shows; trade show promotions; and attendance fees. Also included are B2B spending by 13 industry verticals, which you can view by downloading the FREE Executive Summary, which includes the full report’s Table of Contents.

This year’s Forecast will also include the most detailed data breakouts and analysis of the B2C sector by its two major experiential marketing channels – consumer event sponsorships and live event marketing – and expanded coverage to include 11 experiential marketing categories.

About PQ Media:

PQ Media delivers strategic intelligence, data and analysis to the world’s leading media, entertainment and technology organizations through annual market intelligence and forecast reports, custom drill-down research and on-demand strategic consulting. PQ Media uses a proprietary econometric methodology to define, segment, size, analyze and project the growth of several hundred traditional, digital, and alternative media by country, platform, channel and demographic, and publishes the annual three-report Global Media Forecast Series 2024-2028.

Media Contact

Patrick Quinn, PQ Media, 1 2039215249, pquinn@pqmedia.com, https://www.pqmedia.com

Leo Kivijarv, PhD, PQ Media, 1 2032737081, lkivijarv@pqmedia.com, https://www.pqmedia.com

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SOURCE PQ Media