We made the 2022 It List presented by Event Marketer!
Shout out to our incredible team, clients and Event Marketer, who made this honor possible for 12 years in a row now. We're working hard towards next year for lucky number 13.
Event Marketer launched the It List to literally figure out how many agencies were serving the growing event industry landscape after fielding calls from brand-side marketers reaching out to ask who they should send their RFPs to. That led their editors to go beyond identifying who was out there, to identifying what they do, and what differentiates one ”full-service” agency from the next. Nearly two decades later, the purpose the report serves hasn’t changed, but event marketing sure has.
Across the industry, agencies are rebuilding and finetuning their capabilities by adding fresh and diverse talent with in-demand skills to their ranks. And with supply chain issues and cost increases wreaking havoc on timelines and budgets, the agency/client relationship has never been as critical. Agencies are creators, they’re trusted advisors, but in this climate, they’re “fixers.”
Many of the shops honored in the 2022 list view today’s challenges as creative opportunities. They’re begging clients to take risks in a risky year, because audiences are, well, taking risks, too. They’re pushing for the industry to lean into the human side of business. Overall, a sense of optimism permeated this year’s pool of applications despite the economic hurdles ahead.
Entrants frequently pointed to the opportunities the adoption of new technologies and capabilities have provided—that experiential principles are helping to bridge the gap between in-person and digital and unifying marketing organizations in the process. Many event marketers are approaching events as enduring connections across platforms, rather than single points in time. One company called it the era of “brand movements.”
Event Marketer has compiled a whole list of movement-makers prepared to lead the charge. Chosen based on a set of criteria surrounding the work, the capabilities, the vision, and the client testimonials, each agency was required to name three specializations to help marketers zero in on what’s relevant to their business. And our editors took it from there.
Congratulations to all 100 of the 2022 top experiential marketing agencies!