The live experience is no longer a marketing add-on. It is the product.
Leah Davis, CMO of SailGP, argues in Adweek that emotions, atmosphere, and cultural layers have gone from being a nice-to-have to becoming part of the core offering for brands. Global sporting attendance has surpassed pre-pandemic demand, she notes, driving the shift toward live experiences. Brands are no longer selling a thing. They are selling the feeling of being there.
The operational complexity of these activations reveals just how deep the investment goes. Kathryn Lundstrom, ADWEEK’s commerce and sustainability editor, reports on the unexpected challenges of a Cannes beach takeover: overheated iPads, lifeguards, changing tides. Activations from Canva, Pinterest, and Stagwell’s Sport Beach have become staples of the Cannes Lions festival. Bringing a brand to life at that scale requires more than deep pockets. It requires logistics, local knowledge, and a production network that can handle the chaos.
That is where the gap opens. Brands need operators who can execute a live experience. Agencies and platforms are racing to fill that role. But in MENA, creators have a structural advantage if they move fast enough.
Infrastructure without ownership
Gulf states are building the hardware for the experience economy. Saudi Seasons is a major government-led initiative investing in live events and entertainment as part of the country’s economic diversification. Expo City Dubai is a purpose-built district for live events and exhibitions, reflecting the UAE’s commitment to the sector. The venues, the permits, the security, the catering — all of it is being built at state scale.
Yet creators remain hired talent in these spaces. They are brought in to perform, to post, to generate buzz. They are not equity partners. They do not own the venue relationship, the audience data, or the brand integration deal. The disconnect between government investment in event infrastructure and the lack of creator ownership is stark. It is also an opportunity.
A creator who can walk into a Saudi Seasons venue and say “I will bring the audience, I will design the experience, and I will integrate the brand” is offering something no agency can replicate: direct, trusted access to a specific community. The infrastructure is there. The question is who controls the layer on top of it.
The platform threat
The window to claim that layer is narrowing. Platforms are moving to centralize the sponsorship and data infrastructure of live events.
Social Media Today reported that Meta introduced new subscription add-ons and AI packages. The full scope of the announcement was not accessible, but the direction is clear. If platforms own the data layer — who attended, what they engaged with, what they bought — they become the indispensable intermediary between brands and audiences. A creator who relies on a platform’s event tools and sponsorship marketplace loses the direct relationship with the brand. The creator becomes a distribution node, not a partner.
The risk is not hypothetical. In every other corner of the creator economy, platforms have moved to capture the value creators generate. The same playbook is coming for live experiences. The only defense is ownership of the audience relationship and the physical production.
Structuring the deal
MENA creators can structure experiential deals that give them control over three things: venue, audience, and brand integration.
The venue piece is the easiest. With initiatives like Saudi Seasons and Expo City Dubai already in place, the physical spaces exist. A creator does not need to build a venue. They need to negotiate access. That means building relationships with the operators of these spaces — not as a performer, but as a producer who can fill the calendar with events that attract a specific demographic.
The audience piece is the creator’s native advantage. A creator with 50,000 engaged followers in Riyadh can guarantee a certain footfall. That guarantee is worth something to a venue operator. It is worth something to a brand. The creator should not give it away for a flat fee.
The brand integration piece is where the real money lives. Instead of taking a sponsorship fee to post about an event, the creator can negotiate a deal where they produce the event, own the ticketing relationship, and sell brand integrations into the experience itself. The creator controls the format, the timing, and the measurement.
The creator who controls venue, audience, and brand integration is not a hired talent. They are a media company.
This model already works in other markets. Pop-up markets, ticketed meetups, and brand-sponsored workshops are standard in the US creator economy. The difference in MENA is that the infrastructure is being built now, by governments, at a scale that makes the economics work for mid-tier creators, not just the top 1 percent. A creator in Dubai can rent a space at Expo City, sell 200 tickets at a modest price, and bring in a brand to cover the production cost. The math works because the venue cost is subsidized by state investment.
A durable shift
The experience economy is not a trend. Leah Davis of SailGP frames it as a structural shift in how brands operate. The post-pandemic surge in attendance is not a spike. It is a new baseline. Brands that invested in live experiences during the recovery are not pulling back. They are scaling up.
MENA’s demographic tailwind makes the opportunity regionally durable. The Gulf has one of the youngest populations in the world. Young people want to attend things. They want to be seen at things. They want content from things. A creator who builds a recurring live event — a monthly market, a quarterly workshop, an annual festival — is building an asset that compounds. Each event generates content, data, and brand relationships that make the next event more valuable.
The platforms will come for this market. They always do. But in MENA, the infrastructure is being built by governments, not by Meta or TikTok. That gives creators a window. The window is not infinite. It is measured in months, not years.
The race is not about who builds the best event. It is about who owns the relationship between the audience and the brand. The creator who controls that relationship will not need to ask for a seat at the table. They will own the table.