Join us Dec. 1-3 in Nashville for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit
If Complex Networks’ ComplexCon has been the paragon of a publisher event, Popsugar’s Play/Ground offers an alternative, more replicable model, especially as companies like Popsugar parent Vox Media ramp up their experiential businesses to span more than 100 in-person events this year.
This year, Popsugar pared down its health- and wellness-centric event from a two-day, 15,000-person festival to a one-day, 600-attendee affair that it hosted on June 2 in Los Angeles, as documented in the video below.
“We decided that the experience in person was better, smaller and more intimate and people just had a better experience here so they could really have conversations and engage with each other, engage with our vendors,” said Tara Reilly, vp of experiential and partnerships at Vox Media.
The event’s attendee count may have been smaller, but its list of activities was packed, from beauty treatments and B12 shots to fitness classes and on-stage sessions.
“I did the sculpt class. I got a B12 vitamin shot. I’ve had food. I got a little eye makeup done. So I’ve just been taking it all in,” said one attendee.
More in Media
The Daily Mail tests GEO with brands ahead of AI visibility product
The Daily Mail is running around a dozen GEO tests to work out what works before turning its AI visibility offering into an official product early next year.
Meta’s new scraping terms galvanize publishers into collective action
Multiple publisher trade bodies have published letters to Meta pushing back on its terms, and urged lawmakers to take action.
Creators say it’s difficult to make money from news — with platform rules and brand guidelines
With more people getting news from creators than traditional media, those creators are still trying to build sustainable businesses.