The news: A new report from ANA and The Harris Poll indicates that future marketing success will require delivering offline experiences. Brands will need to recalibrate budgets to accommodate this hybrid landscape of high-touch engagement blended with AI-driven discovery.

High-touch or experiential marketing is nascent, with 35% of B2B marketers still in the exploratory phase, 35% working on development, and only 20% in the established stage, per CMI. 

This gap gives brands a head start to stand out—those building distinctive real-world moments now can lock in loyalty before experiential marketing becomes table stakes.

Why it’s worth watching: Digital saturation fuels the demand for tangible interactions, particularly among online natives. Seven in 10 marketers plan increased investment in physical touchpoints, per ANA and The Harris Poll. Here are some examples:

• Experiential retail: 77% of Gen Zers and millennials plan travel around specific store visits; 73% view pop-ups as cultural participation.
• Tangible media: 79% of millennials anticipate print catalogs; 64% of Gen Zers utilize them as decorations.
• Social signaling: Physical encounters generate brand stories and organic content on social media, serving as amplifiers for digital storytelling.

The authenticity deficit: Digital fatigue could be a reaction to the deluge of algorithmic content and automated engagement, placing a premium on authenticity, where the value of a brand interaction is measured by its perceived “human” reality.

While 54% of Gen Zers are fine with letting AI agents handle routine discovery, per Salesforce, they save their attention for brands that deliver offline emotional or cultural relevance.

What marketers should do: Stop treating offline and online as separate channels. Use AI to handle low-touch decisions, then reinvest the time and trust gained into high-touch offline experiences and brand activations like pop-up shops or store takeovers. Those create meaning that will help brands stay visible and valued.