Since the early days, Advent has guided its partners to differentiate in a crowded marketplace. For the first decade, the marketplace often was a convention floor where brands competed for attention at trade shows. Advent not only created exhibit and sales spaces for customers in healthcare and other verticals but also created zany ideas to pique the interest of its partners. Want to know why a company sent a miniature Volkswagen bus without wheels, a replica of the Hope Diamond, or a live goldfish in a bowl? Drop by and find out.

Trade shows sparked interest in branded spaces beyond the convention floor. Advent worked with corporate clients with brand moments for their internal audiences — connecting our partners’ employees with the mission and vision of the brand. By the late 2000s, the economic recession forced a pivot to one business that seemed unaffected: collegiate athletics. Advent sent a “letter of intent” to Mississippi State University, committing to new partnerships in branding college athletic facilities. Advent worked with nearly every sport at Mississippi State, including large-scale graphics on Davis Wade Stadium. Soon after, the University of Southern California, Stanford University and others came calling, and Advent’s next phase began.

Q. What happens after proving one’s wares in college? A. The pros. And not any professional brand: The NFL. The League. America’s Team. The Dallas Cowboys. The Star in Frisco was unlike anything in professional sports, but Advent was ready for anything Jerry Jones and his team could throw at us. The Cowboys and Advent reimagined the team headquarters, not as an office building, but as a destination for fans and the community. With that kind of attention, sponsors lined up for a piece of the action. Advent re-imagined the sponsor experiences throughout the Cowboys’ campus, bringing brands like Tostitos, Dr Pepper and others closer to the fans. The Star launched a decade of partnership with the Cowboys, including experiences at the Miller Lite House at AT&T Stadium, the Ring of Honor Walk, the Ford Deck at AT&T Stadium, and Cowboys Fit locations.

Los Angeles has never lacked for entertainment options, but the 2010s saw LA bring two NFL teams back to the City of Angels. The Rams and Chargers returned not to a stadium, but to a 298-acre entertainment complex of parks, hotels, retail, offices and residential real estate. The mixed-use district was a big idea — one planned with the 2028 Olympics in mind. Big ideas called for big, bold solutions, so Advent flexed its digital muscles to create the SoFi Stadium Experience Center. The sales center included a virtual suite experience for VIPs, including projection mapping onto a 30×40 campus model with 12 projectors and 107.8 million pixels of digital real estate. The SoFi Stadium Experience Center not only paved the way for more sales centers and corporate briefing centers but also expanded Advent’s digital capabilities beyond the touchscreen.

The boom in branding and storytelling in collegiate athletics facilities found an audience beyond student-athletes. Presidents, chancellors, deans, and, most of all, donors began to take notice of what their peers were doing in football and basketball offices. If athletic buildings could drive recruiting, why couldn’t academic buildings drive admissions? That was a big gamble for the University of Nebraska’s College of Business. Advent partnered with NU as it built Hawks Hall, starting with donor engagement. Advent activated the stories of graduates and spun them into fundraising materials to raise money for the project. From there, Advent partnered with institutions like Oregon, Oregon State, Belmont and East Texas A&M to create welcome centers that fueled enrollment.

After partnering with renowned brands in the United States, Advent quickly discovered it needed a Passport. Advent’s partners — and its workforce — today spans oceans and borders. Advent today counts several partners in Canada and Europe. Meanwhile, we’ve further added to our digital capabilities with team members in Poland, England, Germany, and Spain. Advent still moves audiences in our own backyard, but we’re also creating experiences that move people from all over the world, including the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.