King's College London

Berlin’s nightclubs are globally renowned, not just for elusive door policies and long queues, but for the unique atmospheres inside: intense, liberating, and emotionally charged. New research shows that these clubs aren’t just places to dance, they’re curated environments where strangers connect, social boundaries shift, and the crowd itself becomes part of the experience.

Published in the Journal of Marketing, the study by researchers from King’s College London, the University of Bath, Karlstad University, and Freie Universität Berlin lifts the lid on Berlin’s nightlife to reveal how firms across the experience economy, from live sports to festivals, can create powerful social atmospheres and avoid losing their appeal or becoming tourist traps.

The researchers say that the key is not leaving the crowd to chance, but actively designing a mix that generates energy, connection, and belonging.

The research draws on four years of ethnographic fieldwork and 38 interviews with selectors, DJs, club owners, event organisers, security staff, and clubgoers. The team also observed over 500 real-time selection decisions at one of Berlin’s most renowned clubs and analysed archival material, including documentaries and industry reports, to understand how venues can curate the ‘right’ crowd to stage social atmospheres.

The findings reveal a three-stage model of social atmosphere curation designed to achieve what the authors call ‘social fit’: an emotional and behavioural alignment among customers that allows resonant group experiences to emerge:

• Cultivation: The process starts long in advance. Expectations are shaped through event names, visual branding, and how and where the experience is promoted, drawing in people who ‘get it’ while deterring those who don’t.
• Selection: At the door, selectors make quick but deliberate decisions about who will contribute to or disrupt the emerging atmosphere. But it’s not just about blending in. The most powerful atmospheres rely on a core paradox: people need to both fit in, by understanding the scene and being ready to contribute and stand out, by adding something fresh, unexpected, or underrepresented to the mix.
• Mystification: Creating an aura of mystery is key to making atmospheres resonate. By keeping access criteria deliberately vague, an aura of exclusivity is created that heightens anticipation, fuels storytelling, and makes being chosen feel meaningful, not random.

Lessons for the whole experience economy

The authors point out that similar approaches can be adopted across the 'experience economy' and not just in nightlife.

The study also challenges conventional thinking around inclusion and exclusion, by highlighting how creating inclusive spaces can sometimes justify carefully managed exclusion.