Howdy Nation, As promised we've been hard at work with our partners at IMI regarding getting a new, stronger experiential marketing research section up and running. The press release will go out tomorrow. You can expect to see this section updated with something new at the beginning of each month. We are also talking about how/where/when we will be conducting more research to keep the community informed and ahead of their competition at all times.:) There is a banner on the homepage http://www.experientialforum.com/ You will need to visit the EMF and log-in to get the first three pieces that got the New Research Section up and running on time.:) My friends............we now set sail to be able to present our clients with hard facts that will enable us to continue to grow our businesses. All the best, Erik

 Just a quick thought.........

I have got to tell you that I love to hear the latest and greatest buzzwords.  They are absolutely awesome - sometimes they are so clever that I even wish I trademarked them myself.  My favorite to date has been tryvertising, but there are a 1,000 buzzwords that could come in a VERY close second place. Tryvertising - honestly - where is the bucket because that word makes me want to throw up!:)

There’s the old saying that half of all advertising is complete BS, and that only the trick is to figure out which half.  This makes me laugh because when you think about this statement and cross pollenate it with the factory of buzzwords it really does make one question the state of the industry.  

Of course this begs the question - What is real?  What will be eternally great and will never simply be a buzzword or the flavor of the week?

One thing is for certain - Experiential Marketing Methodology is not a buzzword or a flavor of the week.  It’s a tried and true customer-centric marketing methodology that is media agnostic.  It can take place on any media.  It doesn’t have to be tactile in nature, but certain medias lend themselves to better utilize different parts of the methodology.  For example, print ads allow us to tug on the audience’s emotional Rolodex by using compelling imagery.  Live events allow us to engage the 5 senses while other medias also have their attributes and faults.  But, in the end, each can claim a piece of the experiential pie.

It’s a true statement to say that people attempt to pervert the meaning of the word or interpret it for their own capitalistic purposes.  Or,  in some cases, people are simply just looking for a salient differentiator between their company and their competition.  What they often fail to recognize is that by slanting a well-known methodology into something it isn’t simply makes them look silly.:(   When will they ever learn:)

Vive le marketing experiential

A Note from the Good Professor . . .
Dr. Neal Burns

In a very direct sense, the initial interest in experiential advertising theory and tactics was a reaction to - what appeared to some - as a lose of effectiveness in the 30 second spot or the interest in gaining the center spread with a four color double truck in a special interest publication. The chaos that resulted brought many of us to examine the business models upon which the traditional agencies were built and the theories that seemed to stem from A.I.D.A - a linear scheme that ignored the independence of the audience. The combination of new technology and a huge cultural shift in terms of values and attitudes in the past 10 years were to the best of us, confusing - and to many so threatening that denial appeared as a reasonable reaction - "This is just a phase - soon we'll get back to normal."  

Alternative advertising techniques gained share of mind - and share of budget - and not only experiential but also interactive, consumer generated content and the rapid growth in numbers and influence of social networking moved from being considered "fringe" to a position in the center of campaign planning.

To the extent that advertising practice and its business model - along with many other media related enterprises - is going through change and upheaval, examining these social networks and exploring the impact of blogs , chat , e-mail, Twitter , Facebook - and the others - is an interesting and critical new dimension. Looking at its impact and using those resources clearly augments our experiential efforts and, as the recent results at the Advertising Festival in Cannes showed, may replace much of traditional advertising (Check out page 1 of the 6/29 issue of AdAge) . . . we are in a period that Bob Garfield call "the post-advertising era".

All in all, this is a great time to be involved in this business. And the EMF is an ever-improving resource for those of us trying to understand wotinthehell is going on. You guys agree?

I’m sitting here in my hotel mentally prepping for another trek back to the states, but I felt this overwhelming urge to get this one out of my system at this very moment. Let me first say that I know that there are a myriad of factors that play into retail. There are several things that are out of the retailers’ control, but we have big boxers and small boxers that have simply killed themselves by not controlling their eco-system properly.

Let me clearly state that I visit retail outlets often. They are part of my routine, and I enjoy the experience that they offer. However, none of that matters if my experience doesn’t end with me dragging my feet to the register. This, of course, begs the question why don’t the majority of my retail visits end at the register and usually end with me simply discarding my overpriced coffee on the way out?

It’s simple. Besides the fact that their pricing models are ridiculous, they are so so so very far from cracking the C3 model.

That’s right. I’m back to beating that drum. C3 — Convenience, Control and Choice — dominate the marketplace! If you offer your customers this you will win the game, dominate the market and put the competition out of business.

This rant, for wanting to come in under 20,000 words, is simply going to be relegated to my recent music purchases. Yes, people are paying for music. For me, it’s about properly compensating an artist for the work that they perform, but for some others it’s because the RIAA and labels finally raised the pain threshold so high that the thought of even having to try to find a place to steal the music seems daunting.

So, for argument’s sake — let’s say that we have people that are wanting to purchase music — who is going to get the consumer that’s in play?

I walked into a nameless book store to buy some books and peruse the album selection as I went to hunt down my mom and stepfather. I saw the new Matt Kearney that I really wanted to buy. If you can imagine, it was $18.99. I almost burst into laughter. The retailer just made me go away. I was astonished. It was $18.99 take it or leave it, monologue pricing. There has to be a better way to sell music in these outlets. Let’s think, shall we.

I went home and logged on and went to Apple’s iTunes and bought the entire disc for $11.99. And heck, if I only wanted to buy a few songs then I could have simply done that too. However, in this particular instance I did want the entire album as his music is epic. While i was online I also tracked down some live Shawn Mullins and bought a couple of tracks off his albums and then I proceeded to do the same for about another $40. Huh. Go figure. I was unwilling to take the retail monologue offer of $18.99 for one album so I went home and did it the way that I wanted to and spent $40.

Retailers, lend me your ears! Do you see what happened? You got out-aced, out-maneuvered, out-everythinged (not a word, I know) . This particular channel dominates the C3 model.

Retail needs a radical change. I would have done the same thing while I was waiting for my group in the store, but there were no options. And there never are…that’s my point.

End of the days of monologue retailing and start giving the consumers what they want. Give them C3 and, heck, even give your shareholders a higher stock price!

And don’t even get me started on plasma TV’s. That’s for another day, my friends……

Experiential Marketing : Profiles In leadership Section Launched

http://www.experientialforum.com/content/view/179

It is with great pride that I introduce the newest section of The Experiential Marketing Forum: EMF Profiles in Leadership.

The idea for it arose after I began connecting recently with a bunch of EMF community members who wanted to chat about the economic changes and what was going on with the industry.  Everyone seemed to be asking like-minded questions re: what was going to happen next and how we would all be affected.

By now, everyone kind of knows my style :) - In typical Erik fashion I spent many hours on the phone just talking to people.  The most important part of the conversations wasn’t the part when I was talking - it was the part when I was listening to what the community had to say.

It occurred to me that we could create a new tool on the EMF that would offer the community keen insights about our industry and other relevant subject matter from the best minds working with, and around, us all. 

In reality the idea flows back to what my mom told me when I was a kid.  She said,” If you find things in life that you like then associate yourself with them - if you can’t find these things - create them.”  This forum is built on the vision of those words  -- and  I still hear her in my head each day.  From a personal perspective, at the time I created the EMF I was looking to create order in the chaos I felt during one of my liminal phases of my career.   I needed an outlet where people spoke the same language and understood that a rising tide lifts all ships. The goal was to build a place where people would come to learn - a place where there would be interactions and give and take  -  even among competitors - for the greater good of the industry. 

This new section is just another branch growing off of that logic tree.

It’s called EMF Profiles In Leadership because it involves forward thinking practitioners and theorists.

I figured that I’d throw out some questions to industry heavyweights and it could be a great learning tool for everyone to see what others are doing to make it through these tough times.  Most importantly, I thought in addition to my own conversations, it would start to help answer some of the questions that the community was posing to me, and in general. 

I really look forward to having some distinguished people answer some simple questions that can help the community grow their businesses, perform better at their current jobs or even help someone decide which major to select in college.  Having said al of that - away we go!

Files..

There is a reason that United Airlines doesn’t let the passengers fly the planes. There’s also a pretty good reason that the hospital doesn’t allow its patients to perform emergency surgeries. Simply put – the majority of folks don’t have the skill set to do it.

I would like to think that I have a fairly good understanding of the marketplace. There are products and services that are created for consumption, and there are advertising professionals that are asked to help expedite this process, and to help make their client’s product or service outsell the competition. I’ve really enjoyed the American Idol age of advertising, but I’m convinced you will be seeing a lot less of it soon. The rush to allow customers to create everything will trend down, and in many respects, the old world order will re-assert itself. I am certainly not saying that customer generated content (CGC) will disappear completely, but like everything else in business it has a natural lifecycle and the cream will rise to the top – great creatives will once again be the driving force in marketing campaigns.

Let’s take a trip down recent memory lane – shall we? Remember the first blogs? Blogging quickly asserted itself as an extremely powerful tool. Many people with intelligent points of view now had a platform to be heard, and there was a thirst from the public to hear real individuals and non-professionals speaking up as an alternative to the established media power structure.

The amazing blog phenomenon helped create a new world order and dynamically shifted the way information was being consumed by the general public. Bloggers were now on the same playing field and had the same reach and opportunity to be heard as the most well respected journalists. The world of media had become flat with no hierarchy - amazing.

What do blogs and CGC have in common? They have both reached the stage where hyper-saturation and hyper-fragmentation are setting in. Blogs may never die, but they will slowly fade into the distance and lose the intense allure and attraction of something new. Which kinda’ brings me to my point. There is a good reason why web-site traffic at established news resources is rapidly growing more than, dare I say it, less credible web properties. People are starting to raise the red flag, and want to feel confident the information that they are getting is based on fact or objective truth, not just personal opinion, and in some cases, paid for personal opinion. I’m not saying that established media outlets never slant a story, but they are much farther along the credibility chain than Joe Schmo’s blog. They have checks and balances.

What’s causing this accelerated lifecycle? History is a good indicator that squeaky wheels are the ones that often get to be heard. The Internet, the most powerful tool for dissemination of information in the world, has given complainers a moment in the spotlight, a brief 15 minutes of fame for them to be indexed right next to Charlie Gibson or Katie Couric. It’s also given aspiring creative directors a chance to produce national advertising campaigns without lots of experience or layers in between them and the customer. For a brief moment all is equal – but just for a moment. As the internet as an information source continues to grow and evolve, and we watch the results of CGC in terms of sales and metrics, it’s becoming clear there is a very good reason that regulated news mediums and ad agencies exist. A pro is a pro.

The Internet has grown out of its terrible twos/Wild West days, and has begun to mature, and the CGC fad is slipping. No longer does even the average Internet user weigh all things equally – in essence, order is reasserting itself.

For some reason people will always feel that creating successful advertising is as easy as 1-2-3. Just like the hundreds of thousands of American Idol hopefuls are convinced they are the world’s best undiscovered singer. Is it so? No! Great singers don’t come along every day, and great creative directors are just as rare. The sound of everyone shouting to be heard is becoming white noise, and the voice of tried-and-true will be the one that rises above the roar. The Internet is definitely the doorway to the world, but most people are still discriminating about who they ultimately invite home.

from the files...

It seems like everyone’s thoughts on marketing are being copyrighted these days (is that because of the advent of customer-generated content and wanting to separate the pros from the nonpros?), and many have attempted to turn their catchphrases into actual marketing strategies. Some of the strategies are seemingly quite complex.

I have a strong affinity for trademarks too. My trademarks, however, are usually relegated to the field of clever T-shirt catchphrases. If we took all the catchy phrases about the marketing strategies folks are putting on their book covers and ran them through a specially made BS incinerator, would anything be left? Would there be any universal truth that could resist the BS Test?

One certainly comes to mind. The one essential truth that shines through every strategy is that for a product or service to be successful it must start with a good or pleasant experience at the first customer touch point. That experience can be with the actual product or service, or it can be a great experience with the marketing initiatives themselves. The experiences can be external, or something can be designed to trigger a positive internal experience. Either way, it’s the initial interaction/experience with a brand that helps the customers begin to define it as they see it and to bond with it or not.

So is it really that easy? Brands simply have to deliver a pleasant experience?

Why is it a surprise that a good or pleasant interaction, all by itself, gets people talking? We’ve always known that if we have a good experience with anything we tell our circle of friends and family. It comes from our basic human desire to share. We want those close to us to have the same great experiences that we’ve had, and we want to talk about them. Outside the close circle, we also want to share what we know with those we meet as a way of helping or of showing our expertise or knowledge.

This is what most people refer to as word of mouth (WOM). But WOM is not the strategy being used. I really don’t even see WOM as a strategy. I apologize in advance if the idea offends anyone professionally.

The strategy that is actually being used in that situation is the experience strategy. Deliver a great experience, and people will talk. When people talk about WOM as a strategy or a method, they are really talking about an experience marketing strategy.

Without the initial great experience the conversation never starts --or if it does, it's the opposite of what you want. It becomes a conversation that damages the brand, because a bad experience will spread even faster than positive interactions customers have with a company and its products or services.

So in terms of marketing, put all trademarks, catchphrases, and copyrights aside for the moment, and let’s agree. It all begins and ends with experience--yours, mine, and ours--and what we talk about and share with the world around us.

My body clock is almost getting back on US time, but with all the work that I’m still doing overseas I’m starting to ask myself - why bother?

Boy - traveling today has really become something else. It’s as if the airlines have adopted a policy that humans equal cargo and therefore should be treated as such. I have never felt so dehumanized in my life as of late.   I have had some of the worst flying experiences of my life in just the last month alone. Flights have been oversold by up to 40 people, customer service has become a complete misnomer and I wish they’d turn the air filters back on during the darn flight so that I can breathe!

So, having all of these recent experiences, it made me not look forward to taking the world’s longest commercial flight - 18 and a half hours!

I’ve got to be completely honest when I say that I was dreading the thought of having to spend 18:30 hours on a single plane. So, at the time, I found myself with a bad attitude, a horrible frame of references and the longest flight ever waiting at the gate - this wasn’t going to turn out well.

Well, I couldn’t have been any farther from the truth. I was so wrong that It’s sick.  Ladies and gentlemen allow me to introduce to you Singapore Airlines. Without question - THE single best airline that I have ever taken in my life. Not only was the flight great - this flight was EPIC. Every last detail was perfect! They treated each customer like they were the most important thing in the world. It was amazing.

I learned my lesson - I’m scarred, but smarter.

Erik

A Note from the Good Professor . . .
Dr. Neal Burns

Recently I was asked to define success – what does SUCCESS really mean to advertising and marketing firms? It’s a great question and perhaps some members of the EMF Nation want to come forward and offer their definition.  I’m not sure what the right or best answer is (an unforgivable moment of honesty on my part) – but here are a few thoughts that the question stimulated.

Success – for either advertising or marketing firms is clearly a term with many definitions and in the advertising business it has several manifestations – really cool offices, shelves dripping with awards, a client roster of the world’s best known brands, etc - but in any serious discussion between the agency and their client (as well as with investors) return on investment – ROI - clearly plays an important role. I think that achievement may be part or even at the center of the definition of success as well. If we are successful the spend we have encouraged our clients to make on creative, research, team building will result in ads, experiences and messaging strategies that maintain our client’s price point, build their brands, support sales growth and increase their ability to take share.  Showing that the spend generated an outstanding ROI is often the key to a successful relationship and keeps the agency as part of the client’s roster mix.

Success – in another context - for experiential firms as well for many agencies is the ability to retain one’s customers – year after year.  A successful agency business needs to establish a client core that can be counted upon so that our projected back log and sales forecast is more than a wish list.  Clients, who have consistently enjoyed good results from the money they spent with us and repeatedly buy, season after season, are showing respect for our creative strategies, our abilities to execute and with that history the agency moves from “vendor” to “partner”.  It’s a good move!

And then there is the business plan of the agency itself – its founders and investors- and the exit plan they all envisioned.  Although we are clearly in a different place than the era of the ‘80’s in terms of agency acquisition, several shops and many start-ups in this business consider long term success to be an affiliation with a larger organization, the promise of the chance to work on major brands and a global perspective. and perhaps because of an acquisition leaping forward as an operating unit of an existing national digital network.  And, of course hopefully, a chance to ”cash out”.

Finally, in the area of corporate social responsibility, more and more of us hope that our agency’s success will be defined by our ability and the contribution our work makes in improving the world, in fighting disease, poverty and environmental issues.  Success is doing good for humankind.

Your thoughts?

It’s funny - what’s that you say? The notion of exploring what exactly makes the inner workings of a relationship. I often like to speak about this subject because it plays such a strong role in what we all do for a living - like it or not!

Let me first say that I love to explore human behavior. For me, it’s the key to driving purchase. Getting a keen understanding of your intended audiences lifestyle and behavior, in my opinion, should dictate the tactical strategy of any successful marketing campaign. It provides us the opportunity to determine when to deliver a very positive and correct mode of experience when the audience will most be receptive to it. It allows us to open up the possibility for them to partake in what we are sending out into the ethos in a way that they choose.

But don’t be fooled. We aren’t in control of this media consumption equation. Our intended audiences now have the ability to consume media where and when they want - essentially on their terms. As marketers, all that we can do, is try to nail the opportunity and get them to want to participate in what we our offering.

The question then becomes how do we raise the our likeliness to succeed metric? How can we confidently walk into a client’s office and say that this is it? While there are no certainties in life, but there are certainly great attempts and anemic ones - I’m sure you’ll agree. So, how do we do this?

We do it by, first of all, quit referencing our intended audiences as targets and begin to try to form the bonds of friendship that will bring them to try our client’s brand. Essentially, welcoming them into our community by building the bonds of friendship. See, here’s the kicker. As humans we have one notion of what a relationship is. We apply this across the myriad of relationships that exist in our life. I know that I am an intense, sometimes reserved but always passionate person. This is reflected in the types of relationships that I have across the board.

If we begin to look at brands through the lens of friendship some interesting things begin to emerge. How do you select your friends? What do you look for in a friend? What allows you to keep a friend around for a lifetime? Are you beginning to smell what I am cooking?

Simply replace the word friend with brand. We like to surround ourselves with friends that we get along with, that share the same core values and that are around when we really need them. In essence, if we can deconstruct the core elements of friendship we can then understand how to strategically build the perfect brand.

Nobody likes to have friends surrounding them that aren’t who they say they are - people that are posers and that simply hop on the latest trends are simply annoying. We/They want to surround ourselves with genuine, authentic people that we/they can connect with. We, as marketers, do the same things with brands. Granted, this is not a static thing. Our internal measuring stick continually moves based our own selfish needs. Therefore, this process of being the perfect friend or the perfect brand for someone is a very dynamic process and requires constant monitoring.

Let me give you a few examples to help further contextualize this. I am not a big fan of running seasonal efforts and then going dark. What happens when you begin to have communications with a friend and they simply disappear? You get upset, confused and go look for someone that is more reliable. Let’s use a completely hypothetical example. Let’s say Jackson Hewitt and H&R Block were vying for the right to do your taxes. If Jackson Hewitt was talking to you all year and then simply increased their frequency around tax time you’d be much more likely to go there as opposed to “Johnny come lately” H&R Block which would only come around in a selfish manner when they simply want something from you - your money. How many of us like our selfish friends?

What would you do is you were dating someone for 6 months and then he/she disappeared completely? Then, showed back up 6 months later and acted like nothing had happened? You’d have moved on - correct?

Now, lets look at another common mistake that brands make - trying to make fast friends. UGH! How may of us like the person that shows up on the scene and then won’t quit calling, e-mailing and texting us? We generally run in the other direction.

What do we think of our friends that chase trends in an attempt to be cool? We think that they need to find out who they truly are and that they should really quit trying to impress everybody. We usually feel that we could be much better friends with them if they had a better sense of self and felt more genuine and authentic. That would allow us to have a more “real” relationship with them.

Well………..The good news is that you can be friends - great friends! There are simply no short-cuts or tricks to brand success just like their are no short-cuts or tricks to eternal friendships. In the end, if we do this correctly, our clients are their best friends because we are constantly evaluating and monitoring their needs and meeting their needs. We will be the best friends EVER, and they will always want our client’s brands around!

Whew..sorry..got a little carried away….:)