The way brands build attention has changed over the past 15-odd years. Paid media still has a role, but influencer marketing, creator partnerships, and social content now shape most of the mix for consumer brands, and that shift has changed how live events need to be designed.
Today, an event is experienced by both the people in the room and the audiences following them. It’s photographed, filmed, and turned into social-friendly content, extending the experience far beyond the guest list.
For an events company, that’s an interesting design opportunity: how do you build something that works in the room and through the screen?
Designing for two audiences
When we approach event design, we think about two connected audiences: the guests in the room, and the people experiencing the event through them.
Creators rarely capture only the main stage or the product reveal. Their content gives a snapshot of the whole experience, from arrival to food to gifting, plus the conversations and small details in between. That means every touchpoint has the potential to say something about the brand, and we intentionally design events to leverage this.
Give people something worth capturing
For Durex’s Mutual Climax product launch in Johannesburg, we wanted the shareable moments to feel true to the product and its positioning, not like content opportunities for their own sake. A dual DJ set, featuring a male and female DJ playing in tandem, built the product’s idea of mutual pleasure into the entertainment itself. A statement swing gave guests a playful, physical way to engage with the world Alchemy Group created. Both were expressions of the same product idea, designed to generate energy and conversation. And those are the moments phones come out for.
At Festival of Hair 2026 at The Galleria, we applied the same thinking across a much larger, multi-brand environment for Schwarzkopf. Rather than a single product launch, this was a series of brand worlds inside one event. For Authentic Beauty Concept, we built a custom Cupcake ATM that turned a simple treat into a playful, branded interaction. A light tunnel for Polychrome gave guests another built-for-the-feed photo moment. STMNT ran a mini tattoo bar with real tattoo artists on site, producing a genuinely unexpected, highly shareable activation for a grooming brand. Even the food was considered brand by brand, from tailored food stations to an Aperol Spritz stand, rather than a single generic catering setup for the whole festival.
Across both events, the goal wasn’t to manufacture a post but to create moments worth experiencing and posting.
Let the brand live inside the experience
This matters most for consumer brands.
A well-designed experience gives people a sense of what the brand feels like. Food, gifting, entertainment, interactive installations and product discovery all become ways of communicating brand personality without interrupting the guest experience.
As an events agency, our role is increasingly about understanding the intersection between the in-person experience and digital behaviour, what guests will see and feel in the room, and what they’ll naturally want to capture and share once they leave it.
Designing immersive brand experiences that extend beyond the room
There’s a genuinely symbiotic relationship between brands and the influencers and creators they partner with, and at Alchemy Group we design with enough intention that the brand comes through, whether someone experiences it firsthand or through a 30-second Reel.
Because when every detail has a reason for being there, an event gives people a story worth sharing.