Harder Better Stronger

What Harder Better Stronger does

Harder Better Stronger is a privately-held brand activation and experiential marketing agency founded in 2004 and operating across the Benelux region, with a headquarters in Amsterdam (Netherlands) and a secondary office in Aartselaar (Belgium). The firm designs, builds, and executes live brand experiences for consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) and FMCG clients — including sampling campaigns at festivals, retail locations, beaches, train stations and city centers, festival experiences and sponsorship activations, and in-store promotions. Documented engagements span portfolios of PepsiCo (Pepsi, Doritos, Lay's Chipperia, 7UP), Unilever (Liquid I.V.), Mondelez (Oreo), Carlsberg, Nespresso, Colgate, Nintendo, ProRail, and ANWB, with named large-scale 2024 deployments such as a Pepsi Zero Sugar campaign reaching 782,000 consumers, a 7UP Zero campaign spanning 105 activations and 451,000 people, and a Rockstar Energy Drink campaign of 80 activations reaching nearly 500,000 consumers.

The company's distinctive technical asset is GeoSpark, a proprietary measurement platform launched in 2024 that captures mobile device IDs within a configurable radius (e.g., 50 meters) at physical activation sites, segments audiences by demographic attributes (age, gender, interest), and triggers hyper-targeted digital follow-up campaigns on Instagram or TikTok within 24–48 hours of the offline event. The platform is positioned as an offline-to-online attribution funnel — connecting the physical sampling or activation touchpoint to measurable digital engagement — and supports integrations with Instagram and TikTok for advertising, and with HelloFresh as a non-traditional sample-distribution channel.

Harder Better Stronger is a project-based professional services business that monetizes through quoting custom engagements per campaign scope; pricing is not publicly disclosed. It holds two legal entities (Harder Better Stronger Nederland in the Netherlands and Harder Better Stronger Belgium in Belgium), is GDPR-compliant in its data-collection practices, and operates as an independent, privately-held company with no disclosed external investors or funding history. Revenue, ownership, and management-team details are not available in the source material.

Name

Harder Better Stronger

Legal name

Harder Better Stronger Nederland

Website

https://harderbetterstronger.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2004

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Harder Better Stronger is a Benelux-based brand activation and experiential marketing agency that designs and executes sampling campaigns, festival experiences, and live brand activations for major CPG clients including PepsiCo, Unilever, Mondelez, Carlsberg, and Nintendo, using a proprietary mobile-ID measurement platform called GeoSpark to deliver offline-to-online attribution.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Braine-le-château

HQ country

Belgium

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Brand Activation Services: Project-based professional services revenue from designing and executing brand activation campaigns, sampling programs, festival experiences, and in-store promotions for consumer brands.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Harder Better Stronger is a Benelux-based brand activation and experiential marketing agency that designs, builds, and executes live brand experiences including large-scale sampling campaigns, festival sponsorships, sponsorship activations, and in-store promotions for enterprise CPG clients. The agency pairs these physical activations with its proprietary GeoSpark measurement platform, which captures mobile IDs at activation sites to enable offline-to-online attribution and hyper-targeted digital follow-up campaigns via Instagram and TikTok.

Product overview

Harder Better Stronger is a brand experience and activation agency founded in 2004, operating across the Benelux. The company offers two integrated capabilities: (1) GeoSpark, a proprietary measurement platform that captures mobile IDs at physical activation locations, segments audiences, and enables hyper-targeted digital follow-up via Instagram and TikTok; and (2) a full suite of live brand activation services encompassing festival and event experiences, large-scale sampling campaigns, and a brand ambassador network. These services work together to create offline experiences that are measured and amplified through online digital conversion funnels.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GeoSpark: A measurement technology for sampling and live brand activations that captures mobile IDs to track offline-to-online conversion and provides demographic segmentation and digital follow-up campaigns

Products and services

• GeoSpark
• Brand Activation Services
• Festival & Event Experiences
• Sampling Campaigns
• Brand Ambassador Program

Quantifiable outcome

• 7UP Zero campaign reached 451,000 people with 105 activations and 492,000 total reach
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers16 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature1 record

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• MKG: MKG is an Amsterdam-based influencer and brand activation agency operating in the Netherlands, with a comparable focus on creator-driven and live brand experiences for CPG/retail clients. Directly competes with HBS for Benelux experiential budgets and shortlists the same regional brand-marketing clients.
• Geometry Global (VMLY&R): Geometry is WPP's dedicated brand experience agency operating globally with a Benelux office. Competes head-to-head with HBS for experiential briefs from the same CPG and FMCG clients across the Netherlands and Belgium.
• Jack Morton Worldwide: Jack Morton is a Deloitte-owned global brand experience agency with multinational CPG clients. Most directly comparable to HBS on experiential campaigns, sampling, and sponsorship activations; competes for the same multinational RFPs HBS targets.
• Sparks: Sparks is the experiential marketing arm within Deloitte Digital, focused on live events, samplings, and experiential design for global brands. Overlaps HBS's core sampling and activation services and competes for the same category of CPG briefs.
• George P. Johnson (GPJ): GPJ is a long-established global experience marketing agency with roots in motorsport, consumer and tech. Competes with HBS on sponsorship activations, festival activations, and large-scale brand experiences for the same enterprises.
• Aardvark: Aardvark is a Netherlands-rooted experiential marketing agency specializing in live brand experiences, samplings, and event design. Direct peer competing in the same Benelux market with similar CPG and FMCG roster.

Broad incumbents

• Dept Agency: Dept is a large Amsterdam-headquartered creative, digital and experience technology agency. While broader in scope, Dept increasingly competes for end-to-end brand activation, sampling and experiential contracts that overlap with HBS's offering.
• TBWA\Neboko: TBWA\Neboko is TBWA's Amsterdam creative agency hub with full service brand and activation capabilities. Their experiential and brand activation practice competes for shared CPG clients in the Benelux market.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@hbsagency6542
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/harder-better-stronger
• Instagraminstagram.com/harderbetterstronger_agency
• TikToktiktok.com/@harderbetterstronger.com
• Facebookfacebook.com/harderbetterstrongeragency

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Harder Better Stronger