Experiential Marketing Isn’t a Moment. It’s a Media Channel.

By Steve NottinghamChief Executive Officer, RSM&September 2026 · 3 min read

I have a bold belief about the future of marketing. For decades, media has been the most sophisticated, measurable, and trusted line item in the marketing mix. Experiential, despite being one of the most powerful ways brands connect with people, has lagged behind. That’s changing.

Technology is finally enabling marketers to invest in experiential the same way they invest in media, transitioning it from an opaque, abstract practice into a measurable discipline. And the timing is right.

Digital fatigue is real. People are exhausted by feeds and screens, fueling a desire for IRL experiences and real connections. Meanwhile, brands and retailers are scrambling to stand out. For years, the industry poured resources into e-commerce, chasing growth online almost single-mindedly. But the overwhelming majority of retail still happens in person. That gap is where experiential comes in. It’s a way for retailers to innovate beyond racks and shelves and create the kinds of experiences consumers now expect.

We’ve watched this story play out before. Digital and out-of-home started as largely unmeasured, relationship-driven categories. Then someone figured out how to plan, target, and prove what they delivered. Entire categories evolved. I know because I was there when it happened. Now, it’s experiential’s moment. And I’m thrilled to be at the helm of one of the companies taking us there.

Let me introduce RSM&.

RSM& is a fresh take on a business that has been at the forefront of experiential for nearly 30 years, built on work with brands like EOS, La Roche-Posay, Colgate, Celsius, and Chobani, and retailers like Walmart, Kroger, Family Dollar, and Sam’s Club.

Experiential is, in many ways, the oldest marketing channel there is. It lives in real spaces, with real people, where real things happen.

What’s new is our ability to plan, target, and prove it like every other channel in the mix. We’re curious builders at heart, and the “&” is what excites me most. RSM built its name on the biggest moments in sports, activations, and in-store programs. The “&” builds on that with the infrastructure, data, and strategy to turn a single store-floor moment into a scalable program for every industry, not just sports. So what does that mean?

RSM& wants to mediafy experiential.

Choose a target audience where they actually are. Build a moment. Measure what it delivered. Use that intelligence to make the next one sharper. “We did an activation” becomes “we ran a channel.” With the same rigor, accountability, and seat at the table as TV, digital, or anything else in the plan. I come to this from the media side, not the experiential side. And that’s the point.

I’ve worked across nearly every category and discipline: media, data, content, production. That’s the lens I’m bringing to experiential now. And that’s what RSM& is built for. Not because experiential needs to become more like media, but because brands and retailers need the power of IRL at scale.

Mediafying experiences through intelligence, metrics, and technology gives marketers what they’ve been missing: the ability to invest with confidence, scale them with purpose, and prove their impact. Because experiential doesn’t need to prove that it belongs in the marketing mix. It needs to prove what it can deliver.

That’s the future of experiential: because experiential doesn’t need to prove that it belongs in the marketing mix. It needs to prove what it can deliver.

About the author

Steve NottinghamChief Executive Officer, RSM&Continue the conversation: steve.nottingham@rsmand.live