In 2023, McDonald’s Corp. tried something new. The ubiquitous fast-food chain created a nostalgic marketing campaign focused on Grimace, a purple company mascot. The company introduced a viral purple milkshake, unveiled a side-scrolling video game featuring the character and held Grimace’s birthday party at the Worcester Palladium, where hundreds of people – including Ronald McDonald – attended.
Following the campaign, McDonald’s saw in-store sales spike by 12%.
“It quickly became one of our most socially engaging campaigns of all time with millions of reactions on our social media posts, a true demonstration of how the power of our brand emerges in organic and creative ways in our fans,” Ian Borden, the company’s chief financial officer, said during an earnings call in 2023.
“It contributed to the strong double-digit comparable sales growth for the quarter in the U.S.”
Grimace’s birthday party is one of many ways big brands are looking to breathe new life into their IP through live events. Though social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed in-person experiences for a few years, the live events industry is expected to do better than ever. A 2024 report from Allied Market Research projected the events industry to be valued at $2.5 trillion by 2035, a 241% increase from the sector’s value in 2021. As it stands, the live experiences industry has raised $5.9 billion so far in 2026, according to PitchBook, setting a new record for the sector.
Companies are taking note. Beverly Hills-based Live Nation Entertainment Inc. designs corporate and brand events alongside its more mainstream in-person entertainment. Cosm Inc., a Playa Vista-based immersive venue startup, leverages technology to create a new kind of viewing experience. Breakaway, the Santa Monica-based live entertainment company that hosted Grimace’s birthday party, has worked with several other brands to create in-person events.
“The digital marketing space is so crowded, and with artificial intelligence and just the mass amount of content that young consumers are seeing and engaging with, it’s really hard to get their attention on the internet or on their phones,” said Adam Lynn, co-founder and chief executive of Breakaway. “I think a lot of brands are really pivoting to opportunities to be in front of consumers, to connect one-on-one with them, to invite them to experiences.”
Finding the opportunities
When Lynn and Zach Ruben were in college, they were like two ships passing in the night– Lynn attended University of Michigan while Ruben went to University of Wisconsin. Nonetheless, both students were hell-bent on bringing some of the biggest names in music (like Steve Aoki) to their Midwest college campuses, and the two eventually joined forces to manage music tours, comedy shows and other live events.
Fast forward 10 years, and the pair now operate one of the biggest live entertainment companies in the U.S.: Breakaway. The company, based in Santa Monica, has raised around $50 million in venture-backed funding.
Breakaway is, at its core, a music and entertainment organization. The company spends most of its time putting on festivals and concerts. But as Breakaway’s influence grew, more brands were clamoring to work with them. The company created Breakaway 360, a division that produces brand events that are culturally relevant for the likes of Celsius Holdings Inc. and Anheuser-Busch Cos.
“You’re now seeing a lot more brands that are rethinking their budgets and their strategies around marketing a little bit away from digital,” Lynn said. “Or (we’re seeing) how they tie digital and influencers and creators to live moments.”
Creating long-term fans
festivals as part of its offerings. (Photo courtesy of BREAKAWAY/KURSZA)
Indeed, post-pandemic events share a somewhat hybrid reality, where an experience exists both online and in person to satisfy loyal fans.
Take Gorgazma, a Westlake Village media vertical centered around horror and monsters.
The company was started by four longtime cardholders of the entertainment industry where they led creative strategy and practical effects design for various movie and television and has worked with various studios, companies and musicians to conceptualize one-of-a-kind digital creepy crawlers.
But co-founder Austin Reading thinks a lot about how to turn these pixelated creations into real-life experiences – complete with practical effects and puppetry – that people grow fond of and want to interact with. There is Monsterpalooza, a fan convention for horror and fantasy aficionados to discuss film and television. There is Universal Horror Nights, a Universal City Studios production in which monsters come to life.
“We keep thinking, where do these characters go after this?” Reading said. “It really is finding a new way to monetize. And that comes in a lot of ways.”
At Scopely Inc., the Culver City-based digital gaming startup’s bread and butter comes from creating enduring fans who play one of their games – whichever one they’re most loyal to – every single week. The company acquired Pokémon Go maker Niantic Inc.’s gaming division in 2025 for $3.5 billion, welcoming another long-term fanbase into its suite.
“With the acquisition of Pokémon Go, one of the things that’s really unique about that is that it brings people together in both digital and physical worlds,” Scopely co-founder and co-chief executive Walter Driver told the Business Journal in October. “So, there were hundreds of thousands of people that came in person to Pokémon Go Fest. At the same time, there’s a lot that happens in the digital realm there, and we are trying to continue to innovate around how people’s experiences can kind of cross digital and physical boundaries.”
Upping the ante
More big-name IP holders are looking to utilize iconic characters by merging the digital world they live in with the real world of their fans. Sony Pictures Entertainment, which holds the keys to the likes of Ghostbusters, Jumanji and Marvel superhero Spider-Man, made a $100 million strategic investment in Cosm in late June.
“Cosm sits at the intersection of several trends shaping the future of entertainment,” Ravi Ahuja, Sony Pictures Entertainment chair and chief executive, said in a statement. “We’ve followed Cosm since before launch and have been impressed with the quality of the experience and the enthusiasm it’s generating with audiences.”
Cosm, which creates entertainment venues that combine restaurants with theaters, bills itself as a technology company. The company operates a handful of venues – two of which are in Los Angeles – that leverage large, floor-to-ceiling curved LED screens that democratize the viewing experience. The company screens movies, sport games and concerts and has experimented with augmented and virtual reality.
Cosm, which received a $1 billion valuation in 2024, is one of several entertainment companies looking to turn the digital world into fever-dream-worthy in-person experiences that drive customers from their couch to the venue.
“There’s the wow factor of being in it as opposed to just watching it,” Reading said. “And I think the experiences are just going to get bigger and bigger because we have the same access to everything now.
