Customer Engagement

Las Vegas – September 24, 2026 -- Hands-on participation at live brand events correlates with an 85% increase in purchase intent among deeply engaged attendees, according to new research from experiential agency Spiro released today.

Spiro's second EMIR report isolates which design choices drive trust and sales action

The findings come from EMIR: The Deeper Dive, the second wave of Spiro's Experiential Marketing Impact Report (EMIR), based on a survey of 2,000 additional B2B and B2C live-event attendees. The first EMIR report, published in 2025, established a business case linking live experiences to trust, advocacy and purchase intent; this follow-up isolates which specific design decisions produce those results.

North America – September 23, 2026 -- EZ Texting has launched Rich Communication Services (RCS) Business Messaging across its platform, giving its base of more than 230,000 small and mid-sized business customers access to branded sender identities, verified badges and interactive chat tools previously limited to large enterprises.

RCS replaces anonymous numbers with verified brand identities

The upgrade allows businesses to swap generic phone numbers for branded sender profiles carrying verification badges, a shift aimed at increasing customer trust and message deliverability compared with standard SMS.

Interactive carousels let customers browse products inside the chat window

The platform supports up to 10 high-definition cards per carousel, enabling in-chat product browsing designed to cut friction in the sales process. HD media support extends to images and video files up to 100MB, exceeding the size limits of traditional MMS.

Charleston, S.C. – September 17, 2026 -- Storiad, an operating system for author marketing, and Chicago-based Bitta AI have struck a partnership to convert published books into AI-powered interactive experiences called Living Books, giving authors a new pre-purchase engagement tool for prospective readers.

Living Books let readers test drive content before buying

The technology allows a prospective reader to ask an author's book questions, practice techniques described in it, or apply its methodology to a real situation, rather than relying on static marketing assets like excerpts, reviews or social posts. Fiction readers will eventually be able to interact with characters and explore an author's story world.