The Experiential Advantage — the research, and how to use it at events

The research, plainly

Van Boven and Gilovich ran surveys and experiments comparing experiential and material purchases. Experiences won on happiness, resisted buyer's remorse, improved in memory over time, and bonded people to others who shared them. Possessions depreciate; memories appreciate.

The receipt: Van Boven & Gilovich, 2003

What it means for events

This is the category's charter document. Budget spent on shared experience isn't soft spend — it's buying the asset class that gains value in memory and compounds through retelling. Sell events the way the research describes them: as appreciating assets.

Where to run it

Budget defense

The line for the CFO: merchandise depreciates the day it ships; the experience appreciates every time it's retold.

Incentive design

Experiences beat equivalent-value gifts on loyalty and memory — the trip outlasts the bonus it replaced.

Customer marketing

Invest in moments customers tell stories about. The story is distribution the swag never earns.

Seen in the wild

The decade-long shift of consumer spending toward experiences — the 'experience economy' arriving exactly as Van Boven's research predicted — is the macro trend the entire events industry sits on top of.

Related concepts

AweMoments that break your sense of scale make people feel smaller, more connected, and more generous.Collective EffervescenceCrowds can generate a shared electric feeling no individual can reach alone.Misattribution of ArousalExcitement from the moment gets credited to whoever's standing nearby.

All 115 concepts in the Library →

Now use it

Score your own event against principles like this one — or make the whole vocabulary official.

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