This is an episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the beauty and wellness industries. More from the series →
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Behind every great in-person beauty or wellness event is an invisible team of insiders that has engineered the gathering for maximum impact.
Bilal Kaiser, the founder and principal of Agency Guacamole, is one of those insiders. Kaiser and his team have produced events for leading retailers and brands like Olive Young, NYX, Therabody, Matrix, Redken, Ole Henriksen, Evereden and many more.
Kaiser is a former L’Oréal Group executive and marketing instructor at UCLA and NYC’s General Assembly. He launched Agency Guacamole in 2016, a boutique communications agency based in Los Angeles and New York City that provides experiential, media communications, and influencer marketing services to the beauty and lifestyle industries.
For today’s episode, host Lexy Lebsack challenged Kaiser to break down the ins and outs of eventing in 2026. More specifically, he was asked to break down the nuances behind a successful event made for different age groups, including Gen Alpha, Gen Z, millennials and Gen X, and industry demographics, like press, influencers and consumers. Kaiser also fielded questions about event budgets, timelines, the future of eventing, and the optics to consider when planning luxury events or brand trips.
Press play for Glossy’s conversation with Kaiser now.
On the evolution of successful events
“[The beauty and wellness event space has] evolved significantly. I would say, especially coming out of Covid, I’ve observed the following few things happening. One, timelines are shorter, budgets are tighter, expectations are higher. So, give me more, give me bigger, but you have less. … If any clients are listening to this, we genuinely do love the challenge. But for everyone who’s not a client, you know how hard that can be to constantly deal with. Another evolution we’re seeing is a lot more intentionality behind events, and I anticipate that to become even more of a priority going into 2027 and beyond. And the third observation I would say is more of a connection to other parts of the marketing and PR funnel. I know we’ve talked about 360 [degree] marketing forever. I know that’s a thing, but what I’ve observed with events, specifically, is, looking at an event or activation, you want to think about the before, the during and the after.”
On creating events for Gen Z
“I would say the ins would be thinking through each separate experience and being very real. Gen Z is very quick to say if something is cringe or something is awkward, and there’s no point in trying to be something you’re not. I say lean into your own brand story and DNA, no matter what the audience is. But if your audience is Gen Z, just lean into that and let them have fun with it. … From an event perspective, when we’ve done events for them, I’ve always found the [demo] to be very lovely, very excited to be there and really eager to create content, which they know the brand wants them to do. … One thing that’s probably on the ‘out’ list is … [viral] TikTok memes or sounds that make their way into the broader culture. … [They are] fun and so cool in the moment, but as soon as the expiration date hits, it becomes the opposite [for Gen Z]. I think Al is trying too hard to jump on every single one, even if it’s not relevant for your brand. So, be mindful that if you are going to tap into a cultural conversation that’s taking place online, or on TikTok or wherever else, that you’re doing it in the right way and not being behind the curve, where all of a sudden it puts you in an uncomfortable or weird light.”
