State Street Investment Management at the Future Proof Festival

State Street Investment Management was a leading sponsor of the Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach, California, and wanted to set themselves apart from the competition - from the structure itself, to the activities offered, and the merch.

The Future Proof Festival is the world’s largest outdoor wealth management and financial innovation festival - that gathers financial advisors, instituional investors, private wealth managers, asset managers and fintech innovators for networking, panel discussions, workshops, live music, food trucks, art exhibitions, and team-building experiences.

For what we called internally the State Street Sectors Beach House, we created a completely custom two-story activation that was the clear focal point of the festival, towering over everyone else, having the best view in the house, and largest footprint that invited and engaged with. thousands of people over the course of a 3-day festival with unique daily programming that keeps pulling them in throughout the day.

Visually, we looked to capture the coastal luxury landscape of Huntington Beach – with an open-plan that brings in the natural light and sun of our beautiful location, and dressing the space with inviting, modern, and sophisticated light wood and neutrals with State Street’s signature blue color, and bright color-blocked elements to delineate specific sectors. Every element—from the organic textures to the polished, custom details was hand-selected for its premium appearance, ensuring this activation felt like a curated, high-tactile destination that was distinctly both exclusive and welcoming.

The space featured a section that was devoted to SPY and hosted panel discussions throughout the day along with serving as meeting space. And then we had a section devoted to Sector ETFs which featured the iconic sector colors and was an immersive bodega space that showcased a few of the largest sectors XLK (Technology), XLC (Communications) and XLP (Consumer Staples). In the Technology section we featured propped products that sit in that sector along with an AI-created headshot experience which came along with a stat about how AI is growing the XLK sector. The Communications section was a newstand that featured TV screens showing networks that fall in the News ticker in that sector, and featured daily Wall Street Journal (also falls in that category) with a belly band explaining its significance. And then the Consumer Staples section featured pressed juices with custom labels representing each sector etf, along with a selection of actual consumer staple products for people to take (like sunscreen, deodorant, chapstick, and snacks). Lastly, we designed interactive touchscreens for people to see real-time stats within each sector, top 10 holdings, and learn more about what State Street Investment Management is all about.

Merch included SPY G/FORE hats, SPY crew socks, Karst notebooks and pens, and custom-made transparent tote bags in the color of each of the sectors.