What Gradient Experience does

Gradient Experience is an independently owned, New York-headquartered experiential marketing agency serving global enterprise brands across spirits, beauty, luxury, automotive, media, and corporate verticals. The firm designs and executes brand activations, product launches, retail experiences, summits, and large-scale events through project-fee and retainer engagements anchored in its proprietary IMPACT architecture, a methodology that ties physical activations to measurable commercial outcomes including brand equity, content amplification, and first-party data capture.

The agency's core technology stack consists of three integrated proprietary platforms: Impulse, an SMS/WhatsApp-based event content and first-party data capture tool; Quant, a measurement dashboard combining foot traffic, dwell time, and campaign performance; and Ground Control, a broadcast-production platform for livestream and hybrid events. These products differentiate Gradient from pure creative agencies by enabling clients to defend experiential budgets with finance-grade metrics, and the company is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework to support GDPR-compliant cross-border data handling under its Impulse sub-brand.

Gradient operates from four offices (New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris) and targets enterprise clients through relationship-based business development, competitive pitches, and a thought-leadership content engine built on annual IMPACT Reports and industry award recognition. Multi-year contracts for national campaigns span $1M to over $2M in spirits and beauty; localized activations begin around $50K. Notable enterprise clients include LVMH-affiliated brands (Veuve Clicquot, Dom Pérignon, Glenfiddich, Louis XIII), L'Oréal-affiliated brands (Kérastase, Maybelline, La Roche-Posay, YSL Beauty, Garnier), Suntory-owned spirits (Hendrick's, House of Suntory, Jim Beam, Basil Hayden's), and luxury houses (Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Audemars Piguet, TAG Heuer, Prada), alongside media and corporate engagements such as the Wall Street Journal's WSJ Invest Live conference.

Name

Gradient Experience

Legal name

Gradient Experience

Website

https://gradientexperience.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Gradient Experience is an independently owned, New York-headquartered experiential marketing agency serving global enterprise brands in spirits, beauty, luxury, automotive, and media with proprietary measurement (Quant), data-capture (Impulse), and broadcast (Ground Control) platforms under its IMPACT framework.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Experiential Marketing Services

NAICS

Indoor and Outdoor Display Advertising (54185), Graphic Design Services (541430)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311), Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Brand Activations & Experiential Campaign Design (MPAAAGAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Event Strategy & Experience Design (BPAFAGAA), Activation/Experiential Creative Agencies (MPAAAAAO), Brand Activations & Pop-Ups (Retail/Street/Guerrilla) (BPAFAGAF), Product Launches & Brand Activations (Experiential Marketing) (MPAGAHAD)

Keywords

• Experiential marketing agency
• Brand activation services
• Live event production
• Experiential strategy consulting
• Event content capture

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Experiential Marketing Services: Full-service experiential marketing agency providing brand activations, product launches, retail experiences, motivational summits, and large-scale events. Revenue generated through project fees, production costs, and creative service retainers for enterprise clients.
2. Technology Products (Impulse, Quant, Ground Control): Proprietary software platforms offered as part of experiential programs or potentially as standalone products. Quant measures activation performance, Impulse captures first-party data, Ground Control handles livestream production.
3. Strategic Experiential Consulting: Consulting engagements helping organizations develop experiential strategies aligned with commercial outcomes, including audience insights and experiential roadmaps.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Gradient Experience is a New York-based experiential marketing agency that designs and executes brand activations, product launches, retail experiences, motivational summits, and large-scale events for enterprise brands. Its offering pairs creative strategy and production services with three proprietary technology platforms — Impulse (event photo and first-party data capture via SMS/WhatsApp), Quant (experiential measurement and ROI dashboard), and Ground Control (broadcast production for livestream and hybrid events) — integrated through the proprietary IMPACT architecture that ties physical activations to measurable commercial outcomes.

Product overview

Gradient Experience is an experiential marketing agency that offers a portfolio of proprietary technology products alongside its agency services. The core product suite includes three integrated platforms: Impulse (event content and first-party data capture via SMS/WhatsApp photo sharing), Quant (experiential measurement platform combining foot traffic, dwell time, and campaign performance metrics), and Ground Control (broadcast production platform for livestream and hybrid events). The IMPACT architecture is Gradient's proprietary methodology that integrates these products and services, bridging experience design with measurable commercial outcomes.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Impulse: Event content and first-party data capture platform. Instantly shares event photos with guests via SMS/WhatsApp and turns event photos into social reach.
• Quant
• Ground Control

Products and services

• Experiential Marketing & Brand Activations End-to-end design and execution of pop-ups, product launches, retail experiences, empowering summits, and large-scale events architected around audience journey mapping and measurable conversion points for enterprise brands that need to demonstrate experiential spend turning into pipeline.
• Technology-Driven Immersive Experiences Technology-enabled experiential builds incorporating AR, VR, interactive installations, and projection mapping with built-in real-time content capture and first-party data collection systems designed to generate opt-in engagement, social-first assets, and usable attendee data for brands needing experiential to feed CRM.
• Content Amplification & Social Ecosystems Activation-engineered content systems producing platform-native capture, livestream integration, influencer-ready moments, and social-first edit workflows that deliver usable assets within hours of events for brands seeking cost-per-impression competitive with digital media.
• Strategic Experiential Consulting Outcome-led consulting engagements that start with commercial KPIs and work backward to activation design, mapping touchpoints to trackable KPIs from first-party data capture to brand lift to post-event content performance, for brands needing to defend experiential budgets internally.
• Impulse Proprietary event content and first-party data capture platform that instantly shares event photos with guests via SMS and WhatsApp, turning event photos into social reach and first-party data capture for CRM enrichment and audience insights.
• Quant Proprietary experiential measurement platform that captures the full impact of brand experiences by combining audience engagement data, foot traffic insights, and campaign performance metrics into a single dashboard, turning live experiences into measurable marketing results.
• Ground Control Proprietary broadcast production platform for livestream and hybrid events that delivers technical infrastructure and creative control from studio broadcasts to on-site flypack deployments, including real-time on-site camera connection, cloud-based video/audio balancing, editing, and streaming for high-quality live experiences.

Quantifiable outcome

• Hendrick's Anotherland campaign delivered 1.1B+ impressions, 25% share of voice lift, and $9.3M+ ad value equivalency
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers33 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Related RosscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 February 2026Related Ross served as presenting sponsor for WSJ Invest Live conference produced by Gradient Experience. Related Ross is a major real estate development company behind the West Palm Beach venue hosting the conference.
• OutsiteminorOthersOutsite partnership provides employees with membership to co-working/co-living spaces globally, facilitating remote work and work-cations. Outsite operates spaces in US, South America, Europe, and Asia.
• DIAGEOminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDIAGEO mentioned as industry leader interviewed for Gradient's 2026 Spirits IMPACT Report. Spirits brand portfolio company representing spirits industry perspective in research.
• LVMHminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLVMH mentioned as industry leader interviewed for Gradient's 2026 Spirits IMPACT Report. Luxury goods conglomerate representing high-end spirits perspective.
• EDRINGTON GROUPminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEdrington Group mentioned as industry leader interviewed for Gradient's 2026 Spirits IMPACT Report. Spirits company focused on premium Scotch whisky brands.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• MKG: NYC-based experiential marketing agency of comparable size serving beauty, lifestyle and luxury brands. Closely comparable in scope (brand activations, pop-ups, content amplification) and customer profile to Gradient.
• Sparks: Experiential marketing agency under Omnicom (sister to Sparks & Honey) specializing in large-scale brand experiences and pop-up activations for global brands — direct overlap with Gradient's core offering.
• George P. Johnson Experience Marketing: Large global experiential agency (part of Project Worldwide) producing brand experiences, product launches and conferences for enterprise clients. Comparable in scale, vertical mix and project-based revenue model.
• Jack Morton Worldwide: Global experiential brand experience agency within IPG, serving many of the same Fortune 500 brand owners Gradient targets (luxury, spirits, tech). Closest scaled peer on the agency-network side.
• GMR Marketing: Sports- and entertainment-focused experiential marketing agency serving global brands with activation, hospitality and live-event programs. Comparable delivery model and enterprise client base.
• MKTG (Dentsu): Dentsu's experiential marketing network delivering brand activations, sponsorship and live experiences for global enterprise clients. Direct overlap with Gradient's category, scale and verticals.

Broad incumbents

• Publicis Experience / Publicis Live: Experiential and live-events arm within Publicis Groupe's global creative and media network. Competes for the same enterprise experiential RFPs but offers broader media planning and buying integration.
• Anomaly: Independent creative agency that increasingly builds experiential, content and product-launch programs for enterprise brands (e.g., spirits and consumer goods). Overlaps Gradient in the brand-experience and content-amplification space.
• Havas Events: Events and experiential practice within Havas Creative Network. Competes for enterprise experiential briefs, particularly across European and luxury clients where Gradient's Paris office is also active.

Emerging players

• Optimist: Boutique creative agency with growing experiential and brand-activation practice serving consumer, lifestyle and tech clients. Smaller and earlier-stage than Gradient but competes for similar mid-market experiential briefs.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/gradient-experience

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 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 Gradient Experience