In Experiential Marketing, is it Riskier to Include or Exclude Environmental Sustainability?

Sponsored by GMR

By Fran Sutter, Head of Sustainability at GMR Marketing

Every brand experience involves choices: what to build, where to invest, how to engage audiences, and how to measure success. As marketers balance shifting technologies, fragmented audiences and tighter budgets, environmental impact can feel like one more demand on an already crowded brief. But it is also an area where thoughtful decisions can strengthen the experience rather than compromise it.

At GMR Marketing our work is centered on our proprietary data practice called SOLE Science^TM, a human motivation framework that decodes why people act, enabling strategies grounded in real behavioral drivers, not assumptions.

The foundational data is based on nearly ten years of direct, in-person measurements of what brands are doing across the experiential landscape, and how effective those efforts are at driving memorability.  Earlier this year we analyzed 12+ months of data to understand how environmental sustainability shapes the memorability and effectiveness of brand experiences. What we found reveals a significant blind spot with an even bigger opportunity.

Only 6% of the 1,331 brand experiences we audited demonstrated any environmental factors at all. And yet, we know that 73% of event attendees notice and care about environmental sustainability at events. The gap between what audiences want and what brands deliver is staggering.

Some of you may be thinking: Isn’t it risky to highlight environmental efforts when we know it’s imperfect? Won’t we get called out for greenwashing? That fear is real. And it’s also exactly why so many brands stay quiet. But the real risk isn’t trying and being imperfect. It’s doing nothing while your competitors learn, adapt, and build credibility.

Let’s move from theory to a real-world example of why this matters.

With the Olympic and Paralympic Games coming to Los Angeles in 2028, LA28’s strategic objectives of radical reuse, resilience, and natural resource stewardship creates a spotlight; sponsors and brands activating around the Games must significantly raise their own standards or risk reputational damage. Silence will be a statement heard loud and clear. Is the legacy of inaction the one you want your brand to be known for?

So why the gap? We’ve heard three common explanations from brand leaders. Each contains some truth. None tells the full story.

1. Sustainability is seen as a checklist, often applied at the end, when it should be designed into the solution from the beginning, where it can enhance consumer experience, operational efficiency, and partnership value.
2. Budgets are stretched to their limits, and the assumption is sustainability will just cost more, which it often does when managed in isolation, late in the game and with substitutions instead of innovation. If baked in from the get-go, these perceived extra costs cease to be a problem.
3. Greenwashing anxiety overshadows the desire to seize a competitive advantage.

These sound reasonable, and they’re not totally wrong. But they reveal something more important: brands recognize sustainability is worth addressing but haven’t reorganized their thinking and resources to make it happen.

Getting sustainability right in experiential marketing requires a deliberate shift in thinking.

We believe that four things need to change.

1. From a checklist at the end to an embedded differentiator that strengthens consumer experience, brand value, and the business case.
2. From using marquee events as moments in time to opportunities to drive industry-wide change.
3. From a “more budget” reflex to better planning, shared ownership and smarter collaboration.
4. From simple waste reduction to reuse, legacy and measurable impact that lasts long after the event.

The brands that move on these four shifts before LA28 won’t just reduce their environmental footprint, they’ll own a competitive advantage in memorability, consumer loyalty, and cultural relevance that lasts well beyond the Games.

The question isn’t whether sustainability matters in experiential marketing anymore. The question is whether your sponsorship, marketing, and activation teams have the clarity and courage to lead on it.

Attending Advertising Week NY 2026? Hear more on this topic from Erik Distler, SVP Sustainability at AEG and Rob McQueen, Global VP Sponsorships at CISCO in a panel discussion Not a Cost. Not a Compromise. Sustainability as Your Superpower. Tuesday, October 6^th at 3:10pm on the Innovation Stage.

About the Author

Fran Sutter is Head of Sustainability at GMR Marketing, a global brand experience agency crafting data-driven experiences that turn stories into lasting memories. SOLE Science™ is our proprietary human motivation framework that decodes why people act, enabling strategies grounded in real behavioral drivers, not assumptions.