Why world-building will reshape experiential

Brands that ignore world-building will be left behind. It’s time to let fans build your brand universe now, says Kristina McCoobery, CEO at INVNT.

Today, I want to challenge you to shift the narrative, taking a close look at why world-building is, in fact, central to audience and fan engagement.

From EMEA's cultural mosaic to APAC's digital frontiers and the Americas' bold innovations, world-building stands as the challenger edge for brands daring to really impact culture. We are seeing fans evolve from passive spectators to empowered world-builders, where every micro-engagement at an activation, scavenger hunts, lore drops, and co-created moments compound into a timeless brand legacy that spans continents. And this isn’t new, just evolving.

Brands hesitating to integrate influencers for metaphysical fandom action risk obsolescence; experience creators need to hand the fans the narrative reins, turning activations into global universes they inhabit and expand.

The psychology of world-builders

Fandom is fuelled by a deep psychological need for belonging, and so flipping consumers into prosumers who weave brand lore, Easter eggs, and user-generated epics are far richer than scripted ads.

“At its core, fandom is about a fundamental human need, the desire to belong”, according to Dr. Michael Bond, author of “Fans: A Journey Into The Psychology Of Belonging”. This shift, from passive intake to active world-shaping, amplifies loyalty through shared emotional peaks, resonating from San Francisco streets to Barcelona arenas. Globally, we need to leverage this to make fans the storytellers, rebuilding brand narratives with authentic and participatory fire.

Playbook for fan-led worlds

Consider ditching sponsorships for a fan-first playbook by seeding micro-moments that stack into legacies, like influencer-managed onsite co-creations blending physical highs with digital lore on Discord or Reddit. An omni-channel strategy ensures every activation echoes across fan spaces, strategic messaging pre-event, real-time metaphysical action onsite, and post-event community nurturing. This global blueprint can be scaled from EMEA pop-ups to APAC takeovers, empowering fans while safeguarding brand integrity.

Fans may spend hours decoding a hidden message or creating their own content based on a brand’s universe - this is what investing in a brand really looks like. It is a shift from passive intake to active participation in world-shaping.

Building a "world" is different from running a "campaign."

World building requires a 'fan-first' strategy:

Seed the micro-moments: You cannot do everything at once, so don’t try to. Create small, stackable experiences, like influencer-led co-creations, that blend physical events with digital lore on platforms like Discord or Reddit.

Creating the metaphysical bridge: This may seem complex, but an effective strategy must be "omni-channel." This means the excitement starts early with strategic messaging pre-event, it then explodes into "metaphysical" (physical + digital) action onsite at the activation, and then sustained through community nurturing post-event.

Scale globally but act locally: This blueprint is modular; for example, it can scale from an intimate EMEA pop-up to a massive APAC takeover, empowering local fans while maintaining the brand's core integrity.

Case study: Samsung Unpacked takeover

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked's three-day San Francisco domination by INVNT created a #TeamGalaxy Connect universe, rallying 140 influencers from 35 countries for eSports "Play Galaxy Cup" clashes and scavenger hunts that exploded to 16.77 million livestream views. Fans built the lore through shared hunts and battles, compounding micro-moments into a borderless Galaxy world that redefined tech fandom.

Case Study: PepsiCo & ABB Worlds

At PepsiCo's IBC 2025 in Barcelona, there was a six-zone odyssey, from VR realms and gamified coolers to a dramatic F1 car drop, empowering 700+ global bottlers as world-builders, hitting a 4.8/5 satisfaction peak. ABB's debut of ABBe, the AI-robot mascot, let partners personalise interactions via real-time animations, bridging phygital realms into an ongoing global narrative that fans extended digitally.

Future-proof metrics and risks

We need to pivot away from utilising footfall as a success metric, and move towards "cultural equity", fan sentiment, UGC volume and community growth to really understand ROI of an event.

Niche digital tribes on Reddit can dictate physical designs with AR/metaverse real-time tweaks. The biggest thing to be careful of is performative fandom - fans will sniff it out as fake in a moment. Of course, this will do more damage than good to sentiment with these key fans.

The golden rule is to embed undecipherable superfans-only lore, crowning their emotional peak. Fandom is the antidote to ubiquitous ad fatigue; it is time to build inhabitable worlds now.

I challenge the world to unleash fan world builders, craft activations that truly spark engagement and investment from fans and consumers.