Experiential Marketing Services from Viad Corp. - immersive live events for brands

Reviewed: ad hoc news New Release & Launch desk. Edited and checked on 2026-06-24, 00:29. Details in the imprint.

Experiential Marketing Services from Viad Corp. is where brands swap dull booths for interactive stages, LED walls and the smell of fresh coffee at 8 a.m. as the first visitors wander in. The offering turns classic trade shows into tactile playgrounds for product stories.

What this Viad unit offers

Under the Experiential Marketing Services umbrella, Viad delivers strategy, design, production and on-site operation for trade shows, exhibitions, live events and touring experiences. Clients span automotive, tech, healthcare and finance, often with global roadmaps across several continents.

The business combines Viad’s classic GES exhibition know-how with creative studios and digital teams that build apps, interactive walls and data capture tools for clients. That mix lets a carmaker stage a concept-car reveal one week and a software group host an analyst summit the next.

How a show day actually feels

Arriving before doors open, a marketing manager walks through a half-lit hall as technicians check sound levels and the main screen shows a looping countdown. The GES team leads from Experiential Marketing Services quietly ticks off checklists, from flooring alignment to lead-scanner tablets.

Once visitors enter, the service’s design work becomes tangible: guided demo zones, quiet meeting pods and bold overhead branding that can be seen from across the hall. Chief executive Steve Moster likes to describe these shows as “high-impact experiences”, and on a busy morning the description fits.

Scale, sectors and clients

Viad positions Experiential Marketing Services as a global platform, with hubs in North America, Europe and the Middle East that can support multi-stop exhibit programs. That matters for clients that return to the same trade shows every year with updated concepts.

According to company filings, the unit focused on key verticals such as technology, consumer electronics, healthcare, industrial and financial services in 2025, with many customers signing multi-year agreements for recurring shows.

Digital layers on top of booths

Beyond physical builds, Experiential Marketing Services integrates data-capture tools, registration systems and analytics dashboards that show which zones see the most visitors. For a CMO, that means the floor plan turns into heat maps and lead lists rather than vague impressions.

In its latest presentation, Viad highlighted investments in digital engagement tools that blend mobile apps, interactive kiosks and content management so that messages can be refreshed across a show schedule without rebuilding the stand.

Costs, contracts and timing

Pricing for Experiential Marketing Services projects is highly project-specific, tied to booth size, show duration, custom build level and logistics. Some clients contract Viad on a multi-year basis for recurring flagship events, with additional one-off activations between major shows.

Lead times can stretch from a few months for modest stands to more than a year for complex global exhibition programs. That makes early coordination between the client’s brand team and Viad’s designers central to avoiding last-minute compromises on layout or content.

Where investors fit in

For Viad, Experiential Marketing Services forms one of two main business groups alongside its Pursuit travel-experiences unit. The mix gives the company a combination of event-driven revenue and tourism assets such as attractions and hospitality operations.

Viad Corp shares (ISIN US92922F1057) trade on the New York Stock Exchange in US dollars, and the performance of Experiential Marketing Services is regularly discussed in the company’s quarterly earnings calls.

This article was AI-assisted and editorially reviewed. Product information without guarantee; prices and availability may change at short notice. No investment advice, no buy or sell recommendation. Stock-market transactions involve risks up to total loss.