Recognizing the value that your employees bring to the table is vital in attracting and retaining top talent. By leaving employees feeling valued, appreciated, and satisfied, work productivity increases, and a positive company culture is created.

After 16 months of temperature checks, disposable face masks and social distancing floor stickers, our industry is finally healing. Whether you’re a B2B, B2C, agency or in-house event producer, MAG has compiled 21 event tips for 2021 that are sure to inspire your experiential strategy.

We did it! We made it to 2021, we can’t say it didn’t come without roadblocks, detours, and a few flat tires. It was a journey of a year that stretched us but as we take a collective breath, we realize it didn’t break us. If anything, it made us even stronger as an industry.

Introducing CELEBRATE 2020, a slate of offerings designed to empower yo in producing year-end virtual celebrations in a safe and user-friendly digital environment.

Humans feel most comfortable when we’re connected, and the younger generation of consumers craves experiences above all else. Experiential marketing is a strategy that engages consumers using live branded experiences, but many in-person events have been put on hold due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, with the right partner on your team, it’s possible to replicate in-person experiences in an online-only world.

Through years of supporting clients around the globe, we’ve developed a few best practices for video conferencing.

Our collective focus is business as usual. We’re simply working within a new climate in the short term and here is a toolkit to help us navigate it together.

Given this outbreak do we cancel these conferences and events we’ve all worked so hard to produce? My guess we weren’t the first agency to confer with our livestream partner this week on how to pivot to a virtual conference.

Because every blog loves a list, here are my top 5 ways to help improve the flow of communication and cooperation in the workplace.

At MAG we pride ourselves in offering in-house staffing services. We have a back-end database filled without thousands of actors and promotional models from around the country, and can easily identify and enlist these individuals sometimes at a moment’s notice (though we would kindly request a minimum of two weeks lead time, please and thank you).

A little over 10 years ago we had the opportunity to work with Wiley Publishing to author Guerilla Marketing For Dummies. I must admit writing a book was never on my “to do” list, simply finishing reading one was more my thing. However, the process was quite the experience and I couldn’t be happier to count it as one of my professional achievements.

Michael DeRienzo is an Account Director at MAG. Want to crash a wedding with Mikey Mozzarella? We think you do. Read on!

The jackets are out, leaves are changing colors, and Starbucks is pumpin’ the pumpkin like it’s going out of style. Let’s take a look at some experiential activations that we’ve seen draw great crowds and great press this time of year.

Addy Gorham is an Account Executive at MAG. Think you know yourself? Well Addy just might know you better than YOU do. Freaked out? Read on.

As kids return to school this month it got me thinking. How do professionals (no matter the industry) educate themselves and stay ahead of the latest learnings and trends within their respective careers? So, whether you’re a prospective graduate or a seasoned executive, I’ve outlined my top six resources for “getting schooled.”

I read an article recently suggesting Experiential Marketing may have hit its peak.  Personally I think we’re just getting started.  While the various methods we use to execute Experiential may alter and adapt, the media itself, and the benefits it holds, seem as strong as ever.

While we are an experiential agency at heart, we’re increasingly tasked by our clients to help produce their internal events as well. Here are some tried and true practices we believe help make employees and attendees walk away feeling even more proud of what they do and where they do it.

Rachel Jenkins is an Account Manager here at MAG. Want to know how many countries she plans to visit before hitting the big 3-0? Hint: It's 30, but keep reading anyway.

As a brand looking to spread awareness, the heat of a city summer can sometimes be a deterrence. But not to worry, we've got you covered like SPF 50.

Devendra Singh is one of MAG's resident visual designers. Player 1: START.

Julia Keenan is this summer's MAG intern. How many concerts has she attended? She might have you beat.

For CNN’s “The Movies”, we were fortunate that our client recently relocated their offices to Hudson Yards, so deciding where to execute the event was a snap.

MAG President and CEO Jonathan Margolis discusses the benefits of the company's move uptown to 52nd Street. Sure, moving isn't easy but as he puts it, moving means growth and MAG is on the MOVE!

At EventTech 2017, we saw the nation’s leading experiential marketing specialists offer their insights into how the new year — 2018 — will change the industry. Naturally, our own Erin Mills was a featured speaker.

In her presentation, Erin demonstrated that experiential marketing firms are going to spend 2018 leveraging new and developing technologies to generate B-to-B conference and event content that’s more democratic and more responsive than it’s ever been before.

Here’s how…

So every year around this time I get a friendly email from my digital designer reminding me that my Thanksgiving blog article is due in a week.

Her gentle nudge also pushes me to perhaps reflect deeper than I normally would on a Monday morning.

But I love it, I really do.

I love thinking about all the good in this world, and, more importantly, the good that’s around me.

Ah, yes, Generation X.

Born between 1965 and 1984, this crew came of age through two great economic disasters, the housing crash, the death of job security, and the rise of divorce. They grew up during America’s longest war and, in their adulthood, have seen the emergence of an even longer one. Sandwiched between the black-and-white Baby Boomers and Millennials, Gen X is a wash of gray — neither hippies nor hipsters, neither tech natives nor old fogies. The Boomer worldview was defined by the end of WWII; the Millennial worldview by 9/11 and the digital revolution. But what defined Gen X?

“Your campaign should tell a story.”

If you work at a marketing firm or had a marketing firm pitch you, you’ve probably heard this phrase before.

This is bad advice. It’s fundamentally incorrect. And it’s attitudes like this one that are responsible for bad pitches, activations, and campaigns.

We celebrated Spectrum NY1 network anchor, Pat Kiernan’s 20th anniversary on air with free breakfast food trucks.

We hosted a scavenger hunt around NYC to celebrate The Presidents Cup kickoff and generated excitement amongst golf fans.

We partnered with AGT International to launch FUSO’s eco-friendly box truck the eCanter.

We provided an engaging experience for fans on behalf of VH1 at RuPaul’s DragCon.

We created an interactive NYCFC experience for the fans by way of an immersive, pop-up shop and event space.

We partnered with CNN to promote the premiere of the network's latest docuseries, The Nineties.

Back in March, we talked about the how and why of data capture for experiential marketing agencies. We explored the importance of things like generating leads and demonstrating ROI while we also discussed particular data collecting strategies that we’ve developed over time. Now we’re back, as promised, to share of a few of our favorite experiential marketing technologies that will help you capture data from pre-game to post so that you can deliver better experiences to consumers and better results to clients.

We raised awareness of the third annual Red Nose Day in the United States, a cause benefitting children in poverty.

We celebrated Dear Evan Hansen surrounding the 2017 Tony Awards Season.

We reinvented MobileIron’s Annual User Conference, creating an event unlike any MobileIron had produced previously.

We delivered an on-brand experience to media teams across NYC during the 2017 Upfront Season.

The Michael Alan Group is a pretty cool place. But even we at MAG aren’t too cool to tell our mothers we love them. So as a tribute to all the MAG moms and all the moms of MAGsters, we’re going to bring you ten of our favorite Mother’s Day marketing campaigns.

We produced DataDisrupt, a two-day conference which included keynote speakers and fireside chats from financial services and data analytics companies for over (400) attendees.

Hello, and welcome back to our three-part series on building a brainstorm. Our mission: to explore time-tested strategies for generating top-shelf experiential marketing ideas. Last time, we kicked off the trilogy with an in-depth look at how experiential agencies can elevate their RFP research process. Now we'll be investigating the best ways to prepare a brainstorm, get the team warmed up, and deliver the briefing.

There’s a lie that people have been telling for a long time. A devastating, pernicious lie. A lie that betrays youth and deeply detracts from the happiness of adults.

That it’s wrong to play with your food.

After much internal debating, we at MAG have decided to come clean, and tell the world the truth about playing with your food. That it’s fun. That it’s delicious. And that people will love you for letting them do it.

We raised awareness for NBC Boston’s owned & operated channel, which launched January 1st, 2017.

Welcome to our three part series on pitch ideation. During this trilogy, we’ll walk through the ways in which experiential marketers can work as a team to cook up inventive solutions to client challenges. Later on, we’ll explore techniques for brainstorming, but before we get to that, we’ll begin with the prep. Here are our top 10 steps for researching an incoming RFP.

As important as it is to knock the socks off consumers, it’s all the more important to knock the socks off your clients. And the quickest way to your client’s socks is often with the delivery of data. Today we’re going to explore the five reasons why your experiential marketing event needs data collection and the five best ways to pull it off.

We created social media vignettes to promote the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ show, Out of This World.

We raised awareness for the launch of Rachael Ray’s premium dog treats at South Beach Food & Wine’s Annual Yappie Hour Event, hosted by Rachael Ray.

Welcome to installment number two in our series exploring event marketing upgrades, where we focus on small changes that make big gains. In this edition, we’re diving into the world of promotional products and highlighting the go-to swag consumers love.

Some love to hate it and some hate to love it, but Valentine’s Day is nevertheless upon us again. While many couples are off to smooch over a fancy meal (as some singles are eyeing the next day’s discounted chocolate), we’re here to celebrate the center of it all: L-O-V-E, love.

It sounds oxymoronic to describe live events as being accessible anywhere at anytime by anyone, but, with live streaming, they really are.

Products like Facebook Live, Youtube Live, and Periscope make it possible to grow event audiences exponentially via web promotion. By streaming video live, they empower us to maintain of-the-moment urgency, and, by incorporating feedback features, they enable us to interact with absent audiences as immediately as we interact with in-person attendees.

There are two new people in the world! We are thrilled to congratulate our very own Erin Mills on the birth of her twins. Oakley and Sawyer came into the world on Thursday, January 26. To celebrate their cuteness (pictured below), we figured we’d take a moment to look at our favorite campaigns — MAG-produced and otherwise […]

Empirically proven: the Empire State's 10 best spots to activate.

We love New York and we’re proud of it — clichés be damned! It’s the city that has everything — a concrete jungle where anything (and just about everything) goes. Here, work, play, and people come together from every demographic. The city’s variety, diversity, and unparalleled cultural cache converge to make it one of the world’s best locations for brand promotion.

To welcome in the New Year, we’ve put together our predictions for all the ways that experiential marketing is going to evolve in 2017.

Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality technologies are quickly gaining technical and popular momentum, as is 360° Video. And while the law of accelerating returns would suggest that ubiquity can’t be far off, these technologies still have the novelty to attract and wow consumers.

So if a brand wants to draw focus, align itself with innovation, and give consumers first-hand experiences that literally defy reality, they need to begin by picking the right alternate reality to work with.

What better way to round up a year at the michael alan group than to ping the crew and find out their favorite moments. Without further ado, here are 2016's top moments, straight from the team.

We assisted with driving traffic to the Flatiron District during the 2016 Holiday Season.

We’ve been planning and executing productions and events for over 15 years. This is the first installment in our series on Small Changes, Big Gains, where we explore simple ways to elevate your event.

We produced the 2016 annual holiday party for international law firm, White & Case.

The holidays have arrived! We're ecstatic about the music, the lights and, most certainly, the food, but shopping for presents can sometimes be a bit of a stress. While we can't exactly compile gift ideas for your friends and family, we're quite the experts on what to gift event professionals! We're positive you'll find something perfect in this guide for any event prof in your life.

While we should of course aim to be thankful throughout the year, the holidays are almost like an outlook meeting reminder in case we find ourselves slacking. This holiday season brings an unusually profound reminder as MAG celebrates 15 years in business. As I look back on these remarkable 15 years, here's what I’m particularly thankful for.

In honor of Veterans Day, we are flashing back to our 2009 promotion for the launch of WE tv’s Wedding Sunday programming with a military wedding in Times Square.

We helped raise awareness for the launch of Rachael Ray’s premium dog food, Dish.

We celebrated Shape Magazine's 2016 Beauty Awards, an annual event recognizing the best beauty products over the past year.

We produced a pop-up blow dry bar with InStyle Magazine featuring Dyson’s new Supersonic Blow Dryer Styled by GlamSquad.

We reinforced Bounty’s partnership with 3-time gold medal winner, Allyson Felix, with The Quicker Picker Upper Games.

We raised awareness for Union Square Partnership and drive traffic to the park with a 9-week community program, Summer in the Square.

We promoted travel to Curacao and the tourism board’s many sponsor hoteliers with a custom batido food truck.

We created an onsite gaming area at the Brooklyn Comedy Festival completely branded for IFC’s Comedy Road Show and their sponsor, Hershey’s Ice Breakers.

We produced the 12th Annual U.S Trust GROW! Awards, which brings together 130+ Silicon Valley CEOs.

We assisted with planning and hosting Pivot’s 2016 Upfront Events.

The 411 on our favorite places to activate in the 310 & 818. While we are toughing out winter over here in NYC, our hearts & minds are in the warmth of the (310). Los Angeles. Sighhhhh. As an experiential marketing mecca for many lifestyle & entertainment brands, LA is our home away from home. […]

I have an admission to make. I was once an anti female-bossian. For those already confused, this is a (potentially grammatically incorrect) term I’ve coined for people who are opposed to female bosses. Based on a paltry two experiences at former companies, I had decided that female bosses are mercurial, illogical and (in some instances) […]

Aaron Fischer is MAG's New Business Coordinator. Naturally, you are wondering if he has ever lived in a castle. If so, for how long? Answers await you.

“Fresh & Profesh” is one of those lesser known mantras, but one you can hear often in the halls of MAG. We do experiential marketing, which means we are challenged to consistently be creative…or “fresh,” if you will. We have to be on the cutting edge, leveraging the newest emerging technologies, and consistently conjuring up […]

When people think of event design, technology is not typically one of the first words that come to mind. Rather, the focus is placed on the physical design of the space (my personal favorite part of the process!), ensuring the event runs smoothly and creating a positive attendee experience. While these aspects are critical considerations, […]

Similar to Buddy the Elf, the michael alan group is a big fan of celebrating the holiday season. Throughout the years, the MAG team has found this time of year to be exciting and special for targeting consumers. There seems to be an extra bit of jingle and happiness in the air making activations and […]

We produced USOC’s 2015 Team USA Awards honoring exceptional Olympic and Paralympic Athletes from the past year.

We partnered with Northwell Health to promote their name change (formerly North Shore-LIJ Health System) to internal employees.

…plus a look at other brands who have thrived by giving back! Next year the michael alan group will be celebrating its 15 year anniversary. When we started the company there were just 3 of us, subletting a corner of an office, bartering our services for all of our start-up needs, everything from our logo […]

The M word. In today’s marketing landscape, everyone is trying to crack the code to reach the coveted millennial audience, a group that comprises ¼ of our entire US population. Millennials continue to mystify brand marketers and agencies alike as they defy conventional consumer behaviors of preceding generations. Their media consumption habits (aka cord cutting!) […]

We celebrated the 10th Anniversary of Rachael Ray Every Day Magazine by activating a Food Truck & producing a VIP Party.

Elizabeth Walker is MAG's VP and Rising Star Award Recipient. Uncover her true feelings about peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets. The answer may surprise you.

At MAG, our Account Execs plan extraordinary activations; often juggling multiple campaigns at a time. Our design team doodles endlessly, bringing ideas to life daily. And Dug, the office dog, may soon master “Rollover.” But none of this work would be worth a dime without our remarkable crew of Brand Ambassadors. From facing early mornings […]

What you may be surprised to learn is just how many companies are turning to experiential for their B2B marketing objectives. Companies are really valuing its role in introducing, strengthening or repositioning a brand among their clients (retailers, media buyers, distributors, etc) not just their consumer base. In looking at the evolution of experiential marketing, […]

We worked with TraceLink to bring innovative engagement and networking opportunities to the life sciences industry at their 2-day conference, NEXUS '15.

We partnered with Duane Reade & Walgreens to raise awareness for the United States’ inaugural Red Nose Day, a cause benefiting children in poverty.

We created a unique presence for Nickelodeon’s new Ninja Turtle Series at New York Comic Con.

We promoted the Season 2 Premiere of HISTORY's Mountain Men by producing an all day "City Trek" in NYC's Union Square.

We celebrated the launch of Summer Camp, USA network's first reality competition series, with gourmet s'mores.

We celebrated the 25th Anniversary of Scholastic's The Magic School Bus with a custom bus stop, Miss Frizzle, and a trip down the Hudson.

If you screen it, they will come. Crowds of tween fans descended on locations across the country for the opportunity to watch the season premiere of Degrassi before it aired.