Facing declining referral traffic from search and social platforms, steeper competition for scale-focused campaign budgets and a myriad of other woes impacting ad revenue, several digital publishers are doubling down on the business they still carry some authority over: events.

The strategies vary, from increasing the volume of events and turning their events businesses into standalone brands to turning experiential franchises into pop-up commercial content creation studios. But the goal remains the same for publishers: to keep revenue flowing.

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“Events [are] becoming a bigger focal point … influencers continue to grow [in appeal]. And some of that overlaps, which is where things get I think particularly interesting,” said Stacey Stewart, UM’s U.S. chief marketplace officer who oversees clients’ ad budgets.

Read more in Digiday.