The capital of experience
What halftime games and skincare stunts reveal about loyalty economics.
How does a halftime game or a $3 egg stunt create value? The answer lies in the story. Dave Ahern from School of Investing put it well that strong branding lifts your Return On Invested Capital (ROIC). Stories are what make brand stick.
But this piece is about one expression of brand only: the experience of it, otherwise called the experiential marketing stunt or activation. Brand experiences, even ephemeral ones, are capital. And when done well, they materially impact ROIC.
Reel back to a fun and frivolous expression of brand. Sports activations are a great case study of this because, as playful as they are, a halftime game experience isn’t frivolous at all. Sports leagues carve out moments of attention and sell them like prime real estate. Three minutes, a captive audience, and your brand in the spotlight.
This is brilliant value creation, but it only works when those three minutes are carefully curated to deliver a real, memorable experience. The sports league already carries strong brand equity (that’s why the attending fans are even there). The short moment becomes a product in itself: a slice of emotional equity sold to the highest bidder. Essentially, a sponsorship deal.
The sponsor brand gains opportunities to foster loyalty with a captivated audience, beyond what traditional media buys can offer.
The sports league gains a revenue source.
More than Sponsorship Deals 101; this is the capital of ideas in action.
Value is created from the completely intangible, then becomes both measurable and sought after.
Hence, the power of investing in a strong brand narrative, because stories are what audiences connect with. In experiential marketing, a good experience is a good story, and a good story is sticky.
Experiential moments are the poster child for this. They tap into a cultural craving for realness, connection, and visibility. Their stickiness lies in how memorable they are. Loyalty is more lucrative than indifference.
Beyond the sports fields, more into the fun and not-so-frivolous. We find another source of experiential marketing brilliance in the recent viral moment by skincare brand, the recent viral moment by skincare brand, The Ordinary when it sold eggs for $3.37 in New York City, during a surge in the price of eggs.
Skincare brand selling eggs = a brand story with stickiness.
Why did it work? The Ordinary differentiates through its accessibility of quality, science-backed ingredients at affordable prices. At a time of economy anxiety, it staged an activation which positioned its products as the skincare equivalent of a staple commodity: eggs. Its virality came from how precisely it spoke to a cultural moment, in real time.
(Image: The Ordinary, Instagram @theordinary.)
Far more effective than a billboard. Far more valuable for a differentiated brand.
This same philosophy plays out across branded run clubs, yoga sessions, and cultural pop-ups – experiences that feel more like community rituals than marketing. These moments build affinity. Affinity builds loyalty. And loyalty drives returns.
Strong brand loyalty equals competitive edge, and a better ROIC.
In sports, we see loyalty transferred in engineered moments. In beauty, and lifestyle, we see reactive, culturally timed provocations. But this is beyond stadiums and skincare. Brand experience opportunities are hidden in plain sight.
Take the theatre intermission – that seemingly idle pause during a play, concert, or ballet. It is more than a break. It’s a blank canvas. A chance to engage, inspire, delight – and monetise.
In the hands of a strategic storyteller, even a pause becomes a revenue stream.
This is the capital of experience.
I help brands convert storytelling and experience into measurable value. Learn about what I do in my private consultancy.