As brand marketers gathered in Miami this week for Art Basel and Miami Art Week, one key question emerged: What does it mean to be at the forefront of culture for experiential marketers?
To explore this, Brand Innovators teamed up with award-winning, experiential marketing expert Michelle M. Collins, President and CXO of A Non-Agency, who has a distinct vision of how brands can push the limits of culture-driven experiences and actively engage the communities of ‘culture vanguards.’ Rather than offering a standard gallery tour, this year’s VIP experience immersed guests directly into the world of the artist, emphasizing personal connections and cultural storytelling. Collins’ philosophy pushes brands to think beyond surface-level engagement.
Brand Innovators brought VIPs on a unique Art Week Wynwood, Miami journey, guided by Federico Hausammann, art dealer for the Goldman family-owned Wynwood Walls and Wynwood Gallery, whose deep history and family reputation as vanguards of contemporary street art offered an intimate, insider’s perspective on the art world.
“He’s not just a collector, but a cultural connector,” says Collins. “Federico is a third generation art collector, dealer and vanguard of street artistry.”
The experience also featured a powerful AIDS Healthcare Foundation collaboration with five notable local and global artists. One such artist, Sam Kirk, is an award-winning LGBTQ+ artist whose work tells the stories of marginalized communities. Collins, who has managed Sam Kirk for seven years, compares Kirk’s artist narrative to that of the spirit of Diego Rivera, noting, “If Diego Rivera were alive today, Sam Kirk would be his modern counterpart—using art to weave together culture, community, social identity, and history.”
This year’s Art Basel experience also included a partnership with R House Wynwood, a staple of Wynwood Miami’s vibrant LGBTQ+ scene. At R House, guests were taken on a six-room immersive installation that chronicled the journey of individuals living with HIV/AIDS—capturing everything from the initial diagnosis to community support, treatment, and advocacy.
“The installation was a visceral journey,” Collins explains. “It’s about more than just an art show—it’s about using art to raise awareness, challenge stigmas, and push important messages into the cultural consciousness.”
For Collins, this type of immersive, culture-driven experience is at the core of her vision for experiential marketing. “I want brands to stop thinking of marketing as surface-level pop-up installations,” she says. “I want them to go deeper and ask: How can we truly contribute to culture? How do we ensure that the experiences we create reflect a genuine, meaningful connection to the community?”
Art Week, for Collins, is the ultimate platform for showcasing these types of forward-thinking experiences. “It’s a stage where you can push culture forward, tell stories that matter, and create real connections with audiences. The essence of experiential marketing is understanding the people and culture you’re trying to reach and telling that story authentically. It has to be more than a DJ party and pop-up activities.”
Collins sees this as an opportunity to engage the next generation, who are increasingly focused on culture and experiences. “This generation is looking for authenticity and a sense of community loyalty” she says. “They want to connect with what heritage and legacy feel like, but they’re also hungry for what’s coming next in an elevated, curated and transformative way. Art Week offers a unique opportunity to bridge that gap, but many Brands are missing the mark.”
In her role on the Board of the Wynwood Chamber of Commerce, Collins also works to bring non-traditional organizations like Brand Innovators into the fold. “It’s not common for a Chamber of Commerce to collaborate with outside organizations like Brand Innovators, especially when their headquarters aren’t based here,” Collins notes. “But that’s part of the philosophy I bring: understanding cultural experiences from the inside out, from your background to your values to the way you curate and deliver an experience.”
For Collins, the future of experiential marketing isn’t just about creating moments—it’s about creating cultural movements that resonate on a deeper level and leave a lasting impact.
About Michelle Collins: Michelle Collins is President and CXO of A\N/A A Non-Agency, an award-winning consumer experience creative consultancy based in New York. The firm was ranked #413 on the Inc. 5000 for 2020, and in 2022, among Inc. magazine’s Regionals List for the Northeast. A\N/A owns and operates the award-winning hospitality retail community for culture tastemakers, Brand Closet Showroom Social.
Founded in 2016 under the premise of bringing together the best-of-the-best creative, technical and experiential marketing talent to fashion, retail, hospitality and other brands, A\N/A maintains a small, highly-specialized, inclusive and diverse team of Directors of Creative, Strategy, Experience Design, Fabrication and Technology, to ideate and produce the next evolution of meticulously-curated experiences that are changing the way communities and consumers learn, explore, and buy brands. The firm’s three service and product offerings include consumer experiences, a creative marketplace/NFT+ AI, and a hospitality retail platform.
Luxury and other global brands, including Richemont N. America, Van Cleef & Arpels, Lalique, Kate Spade (Shoppable Barricades), Phillips, Lancome and Delta Airlines (CES 2020), have tapped A Non-Agency to develop and deploy their first experiential marketing strategies and installations.
