Retail becomes unforgettable when it feels like culture, not just commerce. We sit down with Ryan Hughes of Gratsy to unpack how curated experiences—at home, in the community, and online with creators—turn casual shoppers into true fans. From precision-packed sampling kits to full-blown store takeovers, Ryan shows how a clear objective, smart logistics, and authentic storytelling can move people to try, buy, and share.

You’ll hear the behind-the-scenes of a standout activation with Walmart Connect and ESPN, where a lease space just past the registers morphed into a SportsCenter set, a mini sports museum, and a fan meet-and-greet hub. We talk through how that format makes “store as media” real, even when the product isn’t on the shelf, and how moments of pride and play can influence a whole basket. Ryan also breaks down creator strategy: choosing niche experts when precision matters, partnering with big names when reach counts, and always aligning talent to either awareness or action so the content doesn’t feel forced.

We dig into the culture that powers it all—accountability, creativity, and honest postmortems—plus the grit it takes to keep events calm on the surface when chaos strikes beneath. The “Bunpocalypse” scramble, the Old El Paso x Takis temperature-extremes stunt from Death Valley to America’s coldest spot, and the complexities of food-and-beverage sampling inside Walmart lease spaces all reveal what it means to scale bespoke experiences without losing freshness. If you care about experiential marketing, retail media, creator partnerships, and the operational muscle that makes big ideas sing, this conversation is your blueprint for building moments people remember and measure.

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