Why 62% of fans now want real rooms, not just feeds

The creator economy may have been built on feeds, but its next proof point is a physical one. Maya Raichoora, who grew an Instagram following of more than 600,000 people teaching visualisation and became Nike’s first mental fitness trainer in 2024, now runs a live event for her community every month. She is moving her followers off the platform that made her known and into rooms she believes will outlast anything she posts.

“I do think the future is going to be in real life,” she said at a recent MKTG Sports + Entertainment and Rising Ballers event on the future of creator marketing.

The post-feed world

James Kirkham, co-founder of brand consultancy Iconic, frames the shift as the post-feed world. Social media, he argues, stopped being social a long time ago and became broadcast. That works for discovery, but not for holding attention. A feed offers a glance; a well-run live room gives people a night they still talk about a year later.

Raichoora puts the distinction more bluntly. Many creators can hold a camera, but no one turns up to their in-person events. That is not a problem if the goal is reach. It becomes one if you want the emotional depth that sustains a brand relationship. “Who has an audience and who has a community” now matters more than the raw follower number, she argues.

Why brands are counting seats, not impressions

Live events change what a creator partnership can be measured against. A sponsor can tally turnout, sales and sign-ups before the night is over—a sharper result than another view count. Dude Perfect, for example, is in its sixth year of U.S. stadium tours and drew more than 200,000 fans in 2025; it judges the tours on ticket and merch sales. AT&T sponsored all of Ludwig Ahgren’s events for six months last year, and White Claw backed Alex Cooper’s Unwell Tour.

MKTG Sports + Entertainment’s data underlines the appetite:

• 45% of sports fans say that as digital and AI content grows, they crave more physical or offline experiences.
• 62% believe community in sports can only be built through real-life experiences.

Amar Singh, svp at the agency, argues that moving an audience from feed to room shows a relationship beyond passive consumption. That turns creator marketing from simply buying reach into tapping genuine fandom through meaningful experiences.

What this means for your next creator deal

Joel Beya, founder of Cheeky Sport, compares the content moment to the music industry: peak video may have passed, and clippers now sometimes earn more than the creators they clip. Live events give creators something a clipper cannot copy, and they give brands a test of loyalty that a follower count cannot.

The practical question for marketers is not whether a creator has an audience, but whether that audience will leave the screen. Before signing a deal, ask what an event with this creator would look like—and how you would measure show rate, sales and sign-ups.

Source: Digiday