'Events are essential to how brands engage and grow': the evolution of Yellow Fish

For years, live events have fought for a seat at the marketing table. Often treated as a “nice to have”, they were expected to deliver impact without always being given the strategic weight - or measurement frameworks - to prove it.

But that is changing - fast - says Laura Pace, CEO of Yellow Fish, who contends that the shift marks one of the most significant turning points in the industry in the last decade.

“It’s a very exciting time to be in the live events world,” she says. “We’ve known for years that consumers, employees and customers are placing less and less value in mass marketing and advertising. Events are the one channel that demands authenticity and builds relationships in a way that no other channel can.”

That demand for authenticity is at the heart of a broader transformation. As audiences become harder and more expensive to reach through traditional channels, brands are reassessing where real value lies.

“You only have to read a few industry articles to see that the cost of acquiring a customer is going up,” Pace explains. “The world is saturated with brands spending money to try and reach someone. The more businesses that come into that space, the harder you have to work.”

By contrast, she argues, live experiences cut through that noise - not just as a brand-building tool, but as a measurable driver of business outcomes.

Laura Pace, CEO, Yellow Fish

From brand layer to business driver

Historically, events have often sat at the top of the funnel: building awareness, creating moments, supporting campaigns. But Yellow Fish is seeing a clear shift in how clients are deploying live experiences - particularly in B2B.

“It used to be that events were a bit of an add-on,” says Pace. “Now we’re seeing them come into the sales funnel itself.”

That shift is being driven in part by a growing ability to measure impact, something that has long been a sticking point for the sector.

“In every marketing channel, the challenge is the measurement framework,” she says. “Other channels have just been more confident in how they present theirs. In events, we’ve often been hesitant to talk about direct and indirect return on investment.”

That hesitation is beginning to fade. Yellow Fish has been working with clients to track customer journeys across multiple touchpoints, using CRM data to map how event engagement influences outcomes such as acquisition, retention and sales uplift.

“For us, measurement has to be both direct and indirect,” Pace explains. “Did it result in a sale? An uplift in footfall? But also - how does that event sit within the wider ecosystem? How do we capture those touchpoints along the journey?”

As events become more integrated into broader marketing strategies, the ability to demonstrate ROI is improving - and with it, confidence from clients.

“The more we integrate events into the overall framework of comms and marketing, the more we can measure the investment,” she says.

The integration imperative

Alongside Yellow Fish, Pace also leads Blue Panda, a brand and marketing agency focused on delivering campaigns across paid, organic and owned channels. Together, the two businesses represent what she describes as “shop windows” into a broader, integrated offering.

“A client might come to Blue Panda for a piece of marketing campaign work, and then cross into Yellow Fish if they’re looking for a live experience,” she explains.

The long-term vision goes further: building an independent collective of specialist agencies that can come together to answer increasingly complex briefs.

“We know from client-side experience that businesses want fewer agencies that can do more,” says Pace. “The integrated response - across B2B, B2C, paid, organic and earned - is becoming more important.”

For Yellow Fish, that means moving beyond standalone projects towards deeper, longer-term partnerships.

“We’re not interested in being a supplier,” she says. “We want to be the partner clients come to with a business challenge - whether that’s growth, acquisition or brand building - and help solve it.”

Scaling up - and structuring for growth

Yellow Fish and Blue Panda now employ around 40 people, supported by a shared creative studio spanning 2D, 3D and development. The past year marked the agency’s strongest performance to date, with growth across revenue, profit and output.

“It was our best year ever,” says Pace. “And the work was really varied - from a pop-up for Samsung in Waterloo Station to an incentive trip in Colombia.”

That diversity of output remains a key marker of success - but scaling the business brings its own challenges.

“We’re moving from a small to a medium-sized business,” she says. “That comes with process, structure and discipline. But it’s an exciting challenge.”

To support that growth, the agency has recently restructured its leadership team, with Pace moving from MD into the CEO role.

The new structure includes a mix of long-standing team members and senior hires, bringing experience across B2B, B2C and the wider events landscape. For Pace, the focus is on creating an environment where those leaders can thrive.

“My role now is less about being hands-on and more about supporting and guiding the team, pushing our creative and building awareness of what we do,” she explains.

Bigger briefs, deeper relationships

Looking ahead, Pace sees the biggest opportunity in what she describes as “meatier” briefs - projects that require cross-functional thinking and integrated delivery.

“It costs a lot to acquire a client,” she says. “And clients want fewer agencies that can deliver more. Those bigger briefs - that’s where the opportunity is.”

As live experiences become more measurable, more integrated and more closely tied to business outcomes, their role within the marketing mix is being fundamentally redefined.

For agencies like Yellow Fish, that shift is not just an opportunity - it is the foundation for future growth.

“If you put the right people in a room together - people who are experts in their field - you come up with ideas that are truly different,” Pace says.

“And that’s where events are heading. Not as an add-on, but as an essential part of how brands connect, engage and grow.”

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