GMR Marketing announced today an unprecedented advancement in measuring the impact of how brands and humans interact in the world of live experiences, with its results to be unveiled in an inaugural report released in the first quarter of 2023.
The GMR Brand Experience Index© (GBEI) will rank brands based on the effectiveness of their live event activations across North America in 2022. The ranking will include brands from a wide range of industries, and will cover everything from intimate experiences to mass engagements at events like the Super Bowl, AFROPUNK, South by Southwest, and NYC Pride. The ranking will be based on several factors, including sensory immersion, context, and engagement, and will assess and recognize brands across a range of sectors and industries.
"Human connection is the most powerful tool brands have in a new world shaped by the impacts of the pandemic," said Cameron Parsons, CEO of GMR Marketing. "The GMR Brand Experience Index will deliver the quantitative insights that companies need to build more exciting, emotional and effective experiences."
The GMR Brand Experience Index is the first study GMR will release under the agency’s proprietary "SOLE Science" model. Named after GMR’s "string of lights effect," SOLE Science is a lab and live-tested model designed to measure the effectiveness of brand experiences. Initial results from GMR’s research have shown that when a person is fully engaged in a multisensorial brand experience, they’re almost six times more likely to remember that brand when considering other options.
"Traditionally, experience marketing has been criticized for its perceived inability to demonstrate ROI," said Tyson Webber, president of GMR Marketing. "Many brands still question the value of investing in this space and remain unconvinced that a brand experience, whether physical or digital, could have as much impact on a behavior or the bottom line as other tactics.
"Through SOLE Science, GMR is giving our partners a definitive answer to these questions, providing precise marketing measurements that prove experience marketing is delivering the action-based outcomes brands want when they invest in new ways to reach their audiences."
Additionally, the GMR Brand Experience Index will provide leading brands with concrete and actionable learnings about how they were ranked, why their brand experience performed well (or not) and what impact that experience had or could have on the targeted audience.
Elke Jones, chief strategy officer for GMR Marketing, added, "We’ve spent years honing our formula for making memories, and the integration of SOLE Science into our blend of quantitative and qualitative research and strategic problem solving will offer brands a unique opportunity to reach consumers in new and more unforgettable ways."
For the latest news on the inaugural GMR Brand Experience Index, as well as updates from some of the events GMR will be attending for analysis, visit GMR’s LinkedIn and Instagram pages. For more details on GMR’s behavioral intelligence work and SOLE Science, visit our capabilities page by clicking the button below.
We are the experience agency, built to make stories that become lasting memories. GMR pioneered experience marketing back in 1979, and we're still leading the way. We embed brands into experiences leveraging shared passions. We create experiences that are founded on data, rooted in science, grounded in strategy, designed meticulously, and executed flawlessly. Our passionate global team creates, consults, and activates in more than 70 countries. We're headquartered in the United States and are part of Omnicom Group Inc.