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Creating awareness around privacy is one thing. Making people feel it is another. When most people think about privacy and consent management, "engaging brand experience" isn't usually the first thing that comes to mind.
But at INBOUND 2025, Usercentrics—working closely with the INBOUND team—brought a fully immersive Custom Experience to life, transforming abstract ideas like consent, trust, and data ethics into a tangible, memorable interaction.
Here’s how that collaboration used an INBOUND Custom Experience to turn privacy from a compliance checkbox into a brand-defining moment that fueled long-term pipeline development and market presence.
Breaking into a new market is challenging enough. Doing it while explaining complex privacy regulations? That's a whole different level.
As a European privacy and consent management platform, Usercentrics came to INBOUND 2025 with a clear mission: establish a strong entry point into the US market while educating marketers about Privacy-Led Marketing (a concept that puts user trust and transparency at the center of marketing strategy).
Usercentrics needed to show marketers what privacy actually feels like, both when it's done right and when it's done wrong.
Their goals were to:
To achieve all of that, Usercentrics opted for a Custom Experience, giving them the creative freedom and physical space to bring their vision to life.
Usercentrics came to INBOUND with a clear goal and a strong creative idea inspired by their campaign asking, “What if people were treated in real life the way they’re treated online?” From there, the INBOUND team and their agency partner EA helped evolve that insight into a fully realized Custom Experience.
Building off Usercentrics’ initial concept, EA presented multiple creative directions for illustrating “good” and “bad” shopping experiences and worked closely with the INBOUND team to refine the approach that would be most visually compelling, intuitive, and effective on the show floor. Together, the teams shaped key elements of the activation while guiding layout, visibility, and engagement strategy to ensure the concept landed clearly.
The result was a collaborative, end-to-end process that shows how brands can come to INBOUND with an idea or inspiration and rely on the INBOUND team and EA to bring it to life in a way that resonates with attendees.
“Our activation came to life through close collaboration with the INBOUND partnership team and their agency, EA. They played a big role in turning our idea into a real, on-site experience.” — Anna Keysberg, Senior Event Marketing Manager at Usercentrics
The Concept: A Tale of Two Sides. Instead of telling marketers about the difference between good and bad privacy practices, Usercentrics built an immersive retail environment that showed them. Enter "The Usercentrics Privacy Shop": a real-life store inspired by their campaign video, designed around one provocative question: "What if we treated people in real life the way we do online?"
The space was intentionally split down the middle, creating two dramatically different experiences:
The Bad Side of Privacy
Walking into this section felt deliberately uncomfortable, and that was exactly the point.
The aesthetic was harsh, the atmosphere cold. Every element was designed to mirror the frustration of being tracked, profiled, and pestered online
The Good Side of Privacy
Cross an invisible threshold, and the entire atmosphere shifted.
The team asked attendees upfront whether they wanted to engage or simply browse, reinforcing consent as a form of respect.
Only when people chose to share information did personalization unlock, most visibly at the hat customization station.
The moment attendees stepped from one side to the other, the contrast was not subtle: respect feels different.
The Centerpiece: Hat Customization Station
Privacy-Led Marketing came to life in its most tangible form at the hat customization station. Here, attendees could:
This single activation drove significant foot traffic and became a social media magnet. Attendees loved watching their preferences transform into something physical and shareable. More importantly, it demonstrated the value exchange at the heart of Privacy-Led Marketing: when you ask for consent respectfully and deliver genuine value in return, people actively want to engage.
Beyond the Booth: Multi-Channel Integration
Usercentrics didn't stop at the physical experience. They wove their presence throughout INBOUND with:
The INBOUND partnership team played a crucial role in bringing the vision to life. "HubSpot made sure we stayed closely aligned throughout the process," Anna Keysberg, Senior Event Marketing Manager at Usercentrics, noted. "They set up regular check-ins and ensured our needs and priorities were always considered."
The INBOUND team supported the full build-out and execution ensuring everything fit the space, the personalization station was highly visible, and the setup encouraged strong foot traffic. "Their hands-on support and experience really helped make the activation engaging, approachable, and successful on the show floor," shared Keysberg.
The results spoke for themselves—both in hard numbers and in lasting brand impression:
Lead Generation & Quality:
For a brand entering a new market, these numbers were substantial. But more importantly, the quality of conversations was exceptionally high.
“The visibility, awareness, and quality of conversations we achieved were significant, helping establish Usercentrics as a recognizable Privacy-Led Marketing brand in the US.” — Anna Keysberg
Standard booth sponsorships offer visibility. Custom Experiences offer transformation.
What made Usercentrics' approach so effective was the format itself. A Custom Experience gave them:
1. Physical Space to Tell a Complete Story
Rather than squeezing their message onto banner stands and brochure racks, Usercentrics had room to create a journey. Attendees saw the brand and got to experience the philosophy behind it.
2. Permission to Be Unconventional
The "bad side" of their Privacy Shop was deliberately uncomfortable but was powerful in a Custom Experience where attendees understood they were walking into something designed to challenge and educate.
3. Higher Engagement Through Participation
The hat customization was an invitation to co-create. This participation created both investment and memorability that passive viewing never could.
4. Differentiation in a Crowded Space
Custom Experiences are inherently distinctive because they require stopping, entering, and experiencing.
“Creating an experience people can interact with naturally leads to stronger engagement, more meaningful conversations, and better overall results than a traditional booth.” — Anna Keysberg
Fill out the form to receive a copy of the INBOUND 2026 sponsorship prospectus and learn how Custom Experiences can help you make your mark.
INBOUND Team
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