As retailers and brands continue to invest heavily in retail media networks (RMNs), much of the industry’s focus has centered on sponsored product search, display advertising, offsite media and in store media. But Keri Saline believes one of the most valuable media channels has been there all along: the physical store.
“Retailers already own one of the most powerful marketing assets in the world, their physical footprint,” says Saline, vice president of client service at experiential marketing agency X-FCTR. “The opportunity isn’t building something new. It’s activating the space they already have in a way that creates value for shoppers, retailers and brands.”
At its core, X-FCTR is an experiential marketing agency. The company built its reputation creating large-scale brand experiences, cultural moments and live events. Since 2021, the agency has been activating in store and at scale.
“Our X factor is the ability to take everything we’ve poured into experiential campaigns and translate it into retail at scale,” says Saline. “We’re bringing the power of experiential –emotion, human connection, and storytelling into the place where purchase decisions are made.”
Bringing experiential to every store
Experiential marketing is having a resurgence as brands look for meaningful ways to connect with consumers beyond traditional advertising. From pop ups and national tours to immersive brand experiences, companies are investing in moments that create genuine human connection.
“Experiential creates emotion,” says Saline. “Our opportunity was figuring out how to take that same emotion, storytelling and human connection and bring it into the retail environment at a scale that very few agencies have been able to solve. That’s where we found our niche.”
Rather than starting with an activation, X-FCTR starts with the story. The agency works with brands to define what they want consumers to feel, then builds an experience around that objective, whether it’s a flagship event, a national tour or a program that reaches thousands of retail locations.
“Every great experiential program starts with a story,” says Saline. “Once we know what we want consumers to feel, we can build the experience around it.”
The goal isn’t to shrink a big idea. It’s to preserve what makes it memorable while adapting it for the environment, audience and objective.
“Scale should never come at the expense of creativity,” says Saline. “Our job is to make sure every shopper, regardless of where they are, has an experience that feels authentic to the brand and meaningful to them.”
Making that possible requires operational expertise alongside creative thinking. X-FCTR develops turnkey activation kits, execution playbooks and operational systems that allow store teams to consistently deliver experiences across hundreds or even thousands of locations.
“Creativity gets people excited. Operations are what make it real,” says Saline. “Our ability to bring those two together is what allows us to execute at scale without compromising the experience.”
Measuring What Matters
One of the biggest challenges in traditional experiential marketing has always been proving business impact beyond impressions or brand awareness. Retail changes that equation.
Because activations happen at the point of purchase, brands and retailers can directly measure traffic, conversion and sales lift, creating a much clearer picture of return on investment.
“One of the biggest misconceptions about experiential is that it’s difficult to measure,” says Saline. “When you’re activating inside a retail environment, it’s one of the easiest places to prove impact, because the customer journey doesn’t stop with the experience. It ends at the register.”
Retail also makes experimentation easier. Brands can pilot a concept in a select group of stores, measure the business impact and confidently expand what works.
“The biggest advantage retail gives us isn’t scale. It’s certainty,” says Saline. “We can test ideas, measure the business impact and then confidently expand what works.”
The results have consistently reinforced the model.
“We’ve consistently seen meaningful sales lift when brands pair a compelling story with a well executed in store experience,” says Saline. “When you create an emotional connection at the exact moment someone is making a purchase decision, it changes behavior.”
The next evolution of retail media
As retail media networks continue to mature, Saline believes experiential represents one of the industry’s greatest untapped opportunities.
Today’s retail media investments are largely focused on sponsored product search, display advertising, offsite media and in store media. While those channels all play an important role, Saline believes experiential deserves a seat at the table as another core media channel.
“There’s a tremendous amount of white space,” says Saline. “Retailers have built incredibly sophisticated media businesses, but very few are thinking about experiential as a core part of that ecosystem.”
For brands, the opportunity is to create stronger emotional connections with consumers. For retailers, it’s an opportunity to elevate the shopping experience while creating an entirely new value proposition within their retail media networks.
“Experiential shouldn’t be viewed as a one off event,” says Saline. “It should be viewed as another media channel, one that creates human connection at the exact moment a shopper is deciding what goes into their cart.”
That future, Saline believes, belongs to agencies that can combine creativity, strategy and operational excellence.
“It takes creativity to tell the right story, strategy to connect it to business objectives and operational excellence to bring it to life across hundreds or thousands of locations,” says Saline. “When those three things come together, experiential becomes much more than a great idea. It becomes a scalable business solution.”
