October 1, 2024 • 33 mins
Sonic's new pickleball courts are revolutionizing fast-food marketing - could this be the future of customer experience?
Join us as we discuss:
Connect with us:
Benji: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benji-block/
James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamescarbary/
Join us as we discuss:
- The power of unique brand experiences and how Sonic's innovative pickleball courts are changing the game
- Redefining business experience marketing with creative ideas for non-retail businesses
- The impact of experiential marketing on brand perception and customer loyalty
Connect with us:
Benji: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benji-block/
James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamescarbary/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Your favorite spot to pick up a cherry linemade may
just become your favorite place to play pickleball too.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Sonic has announced a new store in East.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Texas that'll have pickleball courts and a playground for the kids.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Let's get into.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It, James, I want to start with two questions. The
first part because I know you. I'm like, I think
attractional marketing, like what Sonic's doing with pickleball courts, is
going to be very interesting to you. So I'm interested
to hear your take. I want to hear your thoughts
on Sonic, and I want to hear your thoughts on
(00:34):
just the rise of these more attractional marketing plays over
the last few years.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
So growing up in Oklahoma, Sonic is headquartered in Oklahoma,
so a huge Sonic fan. Cherry Vanilla Doctor Pepper was
my basically the blood coursing through my veins growing up,
So huge affinity for Sonic. I think what they're doing
here is absolutely brilliant. You're creating a space where people
want to hang out and play and oh, by the way,
(01:03):
I can get something to eat and have a cherry
lil made to it while I'm doing this activity that
I was probably going to already do anyway.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
So you're creating the space that's going.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
To magnetize people to you, which I just think is
absolutely brilliant. I was thinking also about repeat visitors, and
so you think about the rhythm of how often a
family would go to a place like Sonic, And you know,
we don't have them all over the place here in Orlando,
(01:35):
so I hardly ever go to Sonic anymore. But if
it were in my town, this might be a place
that I would go. I don't know, maybe once a month,
once a quarter. If there was a Sonic in my
town that had pickleball courts and a playground, yep, I
would be going there.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
I mean, it might become a weekly rhythm for me.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
And I think there's a lot of people that fit
into that category where you're putting this activity that the
entire family can enjoy together. You can meet up with friends,
you can do all these different things, and if you
can ingratiate your brand experience and make it become a
(02:16):
regular habit for your customer, I just don't think there's
any smarter way to do marketing than that you literally
become a habit.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Sonic is interesting because I feel like from a fast
food perspective, like I can think of a lot of
brand experiences, but I other than like a playground at
a Chick fil A or a McDonald's, I feel like
most fast food restaurants are actually going away from that.
Like I've seen most of those other like McDonald's, where
there used to be play places, they're taken them out.
Like I remember when ballpits as a kid was like
(02:47):
the big thing, and they're like, Nope, that's disgusting.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's gross, Like we're done to that.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So I felt like there was a pivot away from it,
and now I would be interested to see what are
other ways that are attractional.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
But it's always been for kids. I think pick a
ball courts.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
There is a good play for adults where it's like
our kids are going to play on the playground, the
adults are going to go play pickleball. We're all going
to get our soda, cherry lime, maade, whatever your drink
of choice fix is by going there. So there's like
multiple rewards that you're getting by going to Sonic, and
the more you can do that, the better. I made
a list and I want to run these down with you.
(03:20):
I have my top five unique brand experiences and going.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
On here, I don't see that I'm going to call
you out on soon.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So okay, well let me start here.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
So I live just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which is
the home of dick Sporting Goods. And I found out
two weeks ago that actually, while we got the first one,
it's not the only one now. But they started this
new thing called House of Sports. So there's actually one
at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. There's one in
at the mall five minutes from my house right outside
(03:51):
of Pittsburgh, and then I think there might be one
or two more. But the idea here is what you
think of when you think of a normal sports store.
It's like barrel. You know, we sell basketball as we
sell water bottles. This is like you walk into a
House of Sport and they have a rock climbing wall,
a batting cage, they have like the whole golf simulator
(04:12):
set up, and this is a two level thing like
they bought out. Like imagine a Macy's or a Sears
being one of the foundational stores in a mall. That's
Dick's like a House of Sport. Not so like you
know at a mall when it's like the four main stores, yea,
this is what House of Sport is. And then inside
that it's like you can sign up for rock climbing wall.
(04:33):
Right outside of the mall, they have a full soccer field.
They have a little track that goes around it. My
parents were in town last weekend. We brought our son
and my parents to the mall just to show them
this place, and then we played bags outside and they
have it set up.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
We have open hours. You can just go out there
and play.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So it's so brilliant because people will go for the
experience and like kids literally get dropped off at the
House of Sport and the parents will go other places
in the mall and shop because it's that much of
a like immersive experience.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I think they could have doubled down on it more.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I think they could have built a basketball court and
said we're gonna host like open gym nights, and that
would have been so smart because like everybody that needs
Jim Schwartz or a new water bottle or whatever has
to walk through Dix to go to the basketball court
to play their game and then go home. So it
feels like this cool fusion that's happening. So that's my
first one. Have you seen Dick's out a pause Sporto.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
I haven't, but is you said they're justin Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
There's one am all of America.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I think this is like they did three or four
of them, but this was the first one was in
Pittsburgh because that's their their flagship, their home.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
That's incredible.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Second one on my lists Starbucks Reserve Roasteries in Chicago.
I just was there a couple months ago, but they
have a five story Starbucks that has every level is
a different thing that Starbucks does. They have like one
hundred and twenty different versions of like a way that
they make coffee in the store, and they have like
a full dessert menu, a full actual menu. They have
(06:06):
like alcoholic drinks that have are coffee and fused, and
every floor does something different. So Starbucks is they've done this,
like they've gone up a level in specialty. But they're
like lying around the block. I mean to get into
this place. So that one's wild. I don't know if
they have any other locations, but that's a really good
anchor store in downtown Chicago. That's like, oh, We're going
(06:29):
there as an experience. We're not just going there to
like stop it. You know, there's like ten Starbucks on
Michigan Avenue. Everybody's walking to this one because it's like, well,
I might just eat my full meal there and get
an entire like try like five different drinks.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah. Yeah, that's an incredible experience.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Next up, Lego House one. Do you know anything about this?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Well, we've got a Lego like a big Lego store
at Disney Springs here in Orlando, and it's I don't
know that I would Necessarily, it's kind of an experience
because right outside of the Lego store they have these
massive Lego builds and these different characters, and even in
the water, like very close to the store, there's like
(07:11):
this big body of water and there's like.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
A giant Lego dragon like coming out of the water.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
And so it's kind of an experience within an experience
because Disney Springs this is its whole own experience. So
that's where my head went. But I'm curious about this
Lego House in Denmark.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
If you haven't seen the Lego House in Denmark, you
should look it up. It is a legit like full
immersive Lego experience, and it's like multiple floors. It's like
going to a museum, but it's all like those native legos.
It looks like there's things that they did outside, similar
to what you're saying, but like the building is just
like a building, okay, but it's their flagship, like this
(07:47):
is the Lego house, Like this is their thing?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Are they front is Lego?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Like?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yes? Yes?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
From okay, yep, So that's my third. I got two
more for you, and then I'll give you one I'm
confused by as well. Red Bull this is different. This
is not a store front. This is like things they've
done that when you think of red Bull, they've lodged
themselves into your mind. I think of two events. When
I say red Bull to you, what do you think
(08:12):
of as far as.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Like marketing the space thing?
Speaker 4 (08:15):
For sure?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yes, that's definitely. That was definitely on my list. Do
you think of anything else?
Speaker 4 (08:19):
I think of like motocross, extreme sports?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Some people would say cartoons and animations just because they
do those old school commercials still, but I think of
the exact same things. But the other kind of event
that they're really big for. I don't know how to
pronounce it like flog tag or something, but it means
flying day in German. And they set up this diving
board and people out of cardboard and whatever material try
(08:43):
to find a way to fly something as far as
possible with like the person on it. And so people
are just like running and jumping off and just falling
into the water. But the whole idea of Red Bull
gives you wings and mashing that together and creating an
event around it. While it's not a storefront, this has
to make my list because they're thinking of ways to
(09:04):
just like put this idea in your head face, wings, flight,
all of it is like put into these events and
again it's like adventure the Red Bull brand. They figured
out ways to get people excited and do it on
the side where you're like not even realizing how much
you're being marketed to.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So I love that one. And then the last one.
Have you been to a Compassion International compassion experience? You
know what Compassion International is?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So you can like a basically adopt a kid and
help provide food or like whatever is that.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
If someone is exactly something like I think two or
three kids the same.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, we've had we've been helping and like participating with
Compassion International for several years.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
But so I grew up overseas. I grew up in Kenya.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I haven't had an experience in America actually explaining what
poverty is like quite like this. So they go to
different churches or businesses and they set up like a
full immersive experience. They bring in truckloads of stuff and
they you walk through what looks like a slum and
(10:13):
you have headphones on and it tells you the story
of the kid. How immersive it is, Like I've done
it twice and both times I was like the detail
that went into this that like I get to hold
the dish that they eat from, and like see their
art on the wall, and like they're bringing it to you.
(10:33):
And I would assume that in the future they're going
to make this even more immersive with like VR, but
they bring all of it to a church or to
a business.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I just joined the board of a foster care organization
that comes alongside churches and basically helps churches organize care
communities for foster families in their church, And they just
bought a piece of real estate to do something very
similar to this. That's also the first one is going
to be here in Orlando, but they ultimately want to
(11:02):
put them all over the place, and you come in
and it's this like experiential thing of seeing what it's
like for a kid to go from home to home
to home to home in the foster care system, and
then at the end there's like a movie that you
watch and ultimately like they know that if they can
get you involved in a care community first, which is
(11:24):
just like supporting bringing a meal once a week to
a foster family in your area, you then are that
much closer to the problem and that much more likely
to become a foster parent yourself. So it's like a
really cool flow. But the experience of actually going through
what a kid goes through, that's instantly what I thought
about as you were explaining this. This is this is
(11:45):
incredibly smart and yeah, gives gives me goose chills.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Okay, I got to tell you what I'm confused by
and just see if you can figure it out and
tell me what I'm missing.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
The one I'm confused by is bank cafes. Have you
heard of those? I think I've seen like Capital One
do some commercials.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
As I was researching, I could not figure out what
is the benefit and who would go there? I work
from a coffee shop every day and don't I wouldn't
trust a bank cafe to have great coffee. I feel
like I would get pitched to at any time, But
like they're trying to do the experience thing, and it
clearly if they're like multiplying them all over the country,
then they're working. But I can't figure out who the
(12:25):
person is that goes there for coffee.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
It also it looks like a pretty sterile environment when
you see him in the ads, Like it looks like
just a bank with a.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I also ended up on a Reddit board of people
that recommended a specific cafe bank cafe in Chicago, But
the only reason they recommended it is because it was
slightly cheaper for what they said was not bad coffee,
because it was really close to a very busy Starbucks.
So it was like the alternative for like a couple people,
(12:56):
and like that was the benefit of it. But if
you know, and you're listening to this or you're watching
this right now on YouTube, if you know the benefits
of a bank cafe, or you've been to one that
you think is awesome, I would love for you to
DM me on LinkedIn. I would be very curious because
I can't figure that that that went out.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I'm a little surprised that I what I didn't see
on here, and it's probably because it's not opened yet.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
But Dude Perfect theme park that they're moving, I can't.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I can't put something on my list, James that hasn't
even opened yet.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
But they've got the mockups and you see it in
the thirty for thirty that just dropped.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
That freaking theme park is going to be sick. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
That so like explain to people who don't. I mean,
most people will know who Dude Perfect is.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, so Jude Perfect, bunch of guys that started a
YouTube channel in college back in like two thousand and
eight or two thousand and nine, when YouTube was still
at cap videos and it was not what it is today.
They have rowed the wave of YouTube. They do these
stunt type videos where they make a trick shot off
of like they'll be in a plan, you know, five
(14:01):
thousand feet in the air.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
And insert Dude Perfect video here. Yeah yeah, just show up.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah, so crazy, crazy experiences. And now they're building like
one hundred million dollar theme park in Dallas. I think
where they're at. So it's going to be absolutely insane.
And they showed some mock ups in their in a
recent thirty for thirty the ESPN just did so they
they hit the world's.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Tallest basketball shot.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
It set some world record and ESPN went and like
documented it for thirty for thirty and it's a fascinating,
like our hour and a half long watch.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
So go and watch that. But you'll see them talk
about the theme park that they're building and.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I don't know when exactly it's going to be up,
but it's for sure going to make the brand every
brand experience list that any marketer ever talks about.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
That's a dream for creators to be able to, like say,
they created a theme park essentially where all these people
that you know have watched our YouTube videos their.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Theme of trick shots and like, so just imagine the
kind of experiences within that park. You're going to have
I recreating the video that you watched, you know, one
hundred times.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
How did they do that?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Oh my god? Now I get to do that in
his physical space?
Speaker 4 (15:18):
So sick.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Okay, So before we transition to how businesses should be
thinking about this, we've given a lot of good examples.
But one of the things that I thought would be
worth us talking about is when you hear about these
different brand activations and like the difference between what Red
Bull's doing with an event like that, or what House
of Sport is doing versus a traditional like just store
(15:41):
that you go and buy a basketball from or whatever.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
The difference there is significant.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
But I wanted to just like, now that you know
all of these, right, like you had never heard of
House of Sport, how does it change how you think
about that brand? Like you knew something about Dick Sporting
Goods before I brought up what they're doing here, and
then I tell you what they're doing with this, like.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I instantly like them more. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, you're creative, your customer centric. You're trying to do
something innovative and different and.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Giving me an excuse to go there or participate in
the thing that's not necessarily your all. It's it kind
of is top of funnel marketing within a store, where
it's like you're saying that I should come here for
an experience even if I don't buy something from you,
but at some point you know I will buy something
(16:31):
from you. But I feel so much better about that
type of experience, like even if I'm at the mall,
not to go to the House of Sport, I go
to the House of Sport because it's that cool. I
just think of all of these, the whole list we
just rattled off, and the way that it changes, how
your brand feels more personal and feels more unique, and
like just takes up more mind share. I want to
(16:54):
tell people about the Compassion International because I had the
Compassion experience. So I think it's smart for us when
you're in B to B specifically to just look at
what other people are doing, because it's way harder to
apply in B to B. It's not as obvious as
what some of these options are. But there's so much
inspiration out there that we had to bring it to
(17:16):
an episode and talk about it.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
And I think about what I've there are I've heard
Gary Vee talk about if you're in B to B,
start talking about golf, because there's a lot of depending
on who your buyer is inside of a B to
B organization, say you sell the salespeople. A lot of
salespeople at B to B companies love golf because.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
They do it for work.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
It's bizdev it's all the stuff, So like, can you
find a golf course that is in the same area
as the next conference you're going to and host some
sort of experience at a golf course, so aligning to
your buyer's passion and.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Which is bringing you full circle to Sonic.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yes, in a way, Sonic is a really good example
because it's like, oh, people like pickaball, Let's just put
want a pickaball court or three right next to a
Sonic In the same way, what can you tap into
when you're at a conference, whether you're at an event
near your office, whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
If Gearheart does this really well. Whenever he goes to
an event, he hosts a like a run club the
morning of like the second day or something. So it's like, hey,
at five thirty or six am before the conference starts,
we're all going to meet down here and we're going
to go run, you know, three miles together. Or because
he knows through understanding his community at the depth that
(18:36):
he understands them that a lot of them are health
conscious and a lot of them are you know, trying
to get their exercise in. But you don't necessarily want
to go to the gym by yourself. You'd rather be
in community with the people you're at the event with.
And so him organizing those things I think shows why
he's had the success that he has as a creator,
because he understands human psychology and he understands his audience
(18:58):
and what they actually care about. And so, yeah, I
think really understanding what are your customers passionate about in
a way that is disconnected from the thing you do,
And I think that's that's a hard thing for a
lot of marketers to rap their head around. We want
everything to tie back to this is our value prop
and this is how our product serves our customer. But
(19:21):
if you can disconnect that a little bit, there become
endless options for how you can align or create an
experience that actually taps into something much bigger than the
problem that your product solves that your customer only thinks
about maybe once a month or something. And so I
think that's yeah, this has been super fun. I love
(19:42):
thinking about this stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I think a lot of marketers need to actually pay
attention more at trade shows, which is funny because trade
shows get a lot of crap nowadays for like, what
what actually happens at a trade show? How much are
you paying for the booth whatever. But if you say,
think about the experiences that actually stick out to you
from a trade show or an event that you went to,
(20:05):
it's not necessarily the booth itself. It's the experience that
someone can provide in that space that becomes memorable. Sometimes
it's swag, sometimes it's something that they're doing within that space.
But if you were to just think about that as
a business more holistically and go like, what's an experience
we can make outside that's shareable, that's memorable, that gets
(20:25):
people excited, maybe bring some of your top customers or
prospects in to do something special for them. And I've
been I know I've said it on this podcast before,
but I am bullish on the idea that you could
create private events that are very very small that you
don't really like market to the masses, but you make
hyper specific to a small group of people that they
(20:47):
would be so excited about it that they will never
stop talking about how cool that experience was.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And that is an easy.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Like tap into that tap into thinking about how you
could level up like those type of experience answers, and
any business actually.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Can do that.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
So I my friend Dale Dupree formerly the Copyer Warrior,
now runs a sales rebellion. He's got an event coming
up called Totality, So if you're in the if you're
in sales and want to check out that event, you
should definitely check it out.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
But he does all that.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
He's known for doing these crazy, outlandish like prospecting stunts,
and he'll send like a box of empty donuts to
a prospect and then you could see the blaze in
the box and it's just a sticky note that's like, oh.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Man, you never called me back.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
So I went on ahead and just I was waiting
on you to but I hate all the donuts, like
let me know, and I'll, you know, call me back
and I'll send you I'll send you another box. So
he does this thing. I still think it's one of
the most brilliant things he's ever done. He was calling
into like an IBM or it was some location where
there was a big physical headquarters in this particular city.
(21:59):
And so I think he like put like he got
flyers basically saying, hey, lunch in the parking lot tomorrow
and put it under you know, went the day before,
put it under all the what are those things called
the wipers the day before, so everybody like, okay, like
lunch in the parking lot.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
What's this about?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
He shows up with like giant food trucks in the
parking lot of this big like headquarters, so everybody is
obviously coming to him. And then he's got his little
you know, he's copy I think he was selling copiers
at the time, And so everybody now in that building
knows who Dale is and knows the copier warrior, and
(22:39):
knows that if they ever need a copier, He's obviously
the guy that went out of his way to cater
lunch for an entire building. Ye by bringing in dope
food trucks and so that kind of stuff. I just
think for the marketers that want to press more into
their creative genius, this is the kind of stuff like
the stuff that gets shared, stuff that aligns with your
(23:01):
audience's passion.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
I would love to see so much more of this
in B to B.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
And it can be even more dope in B to
B because your average customer lifetime.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Value is so much higher.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
You're not trying to sell a can of red bull.
I'm trying to sell a six or seven figure software subscription.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
So I just think there's a lot of opportunity here.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I'll give away a really easy way to brainstorm. And
I actually did this when I asked my wife to
marry me, but it applies here. So if you have
a sheet of paper next to you and you just
want to jot down, like, what's a level one experience
that you could provide your clients or prospects, and just
like write out what you think would be a cool event,
(23:46):
and then put level two under it and just go like,
how would I want up this event and try to
get to ten. If you try to get to ten,
ten is going to sound so outrageous and so insanely
expensive that seven or eight's going to sound really good.
And no one knows that you went to ten. Go
do seven or eight and people be like, wow, that
was awesome. So it's a really easy way if you're
(24:07):
not feeling creative to just boost some creativity and force
yourself to do the same exercise a few times to
get at the more creative thing, or try to one
up each other. Get a few creative people in the
room and just be like, Okay, here's what I think
a good event is. Now you try to one up
it and just go back and forth.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
So it was level seven like Sid marry me, and
level ten was like Sid marry me in space.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I never got the space because I think that would
have freaked her out. I don't think we would have
got there. She probably would have said no. But I
did get like significantly more expensive at like level nine
and ten, and I was like, I'm I'm broke. I don't,
I don't, I can't pull this off. I was already
calling in favors for what I ended up doing, which
is a story for another time, and it was great,
(24:49):
But that's an easy way to get to get more
creative ideas. We're doing this with the house because as
a remote first company for a long time, we loved
the idea of the experience that our clients were getting.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
We wanted to make it as good as we could.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
But it's way different when you're recording remote shows versus
doing something in a physical space bringing people in. So
can you just quickly talk about your vision for the
Creator House in like how this has changed the way
you think about doing media?
Speaker 3 (25:21):
So I said, for a long time, we don't use
the word friendship in business enough, and I knew that
when we when we had this physical space, we were
going to be able to bring that to life in
a way that we never had before. And so, and
when you think about co host chemistry, you think about
how that chemistry compounds over time when you can go
(25:43):
to dinner together, when you can film together for large
blocks of time, like you just flew in this morning
from Pittsburgh. We're going to be filming all day together.
When you have actual time with one another, you are
sharing stories with each other, You're sharing you have shared
experiences because like oh the crazy the crazy waitress at
this restaurant that we went last night.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Or the multiple car accidents.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
So you just end up with inside jokes that they
create this bond. And so the fact that we can
now help our clients facilitate those relationships with one another,
with other people on their team that maybe you know,
they have a marketer and a cfo are that are
coming together to be co hosts on a show, and
they live in different parts of the country. But we
(26:28):
can facilitate a space now where they can create legitimate
chemistry camaraderie with each other because they're creating content in
a physical location in one of our sets. So friendships
were a huge part of the vision that I wanted
to cultivate, and I think more pragmatically, we can just
create a much better product for our clients because of
(26:50):
the in person production element that the house brings and
so before I mean, you can just it's very easy
to tell the difference in I think they're folks that
do it well. Like Jay Klaus has figured out remote
recording on YouTube. Well, he's probably the best one I've
seen on YouTube, but it's very hard. There's a reason
why most of the top one hundred and fifty podcasts
(27:13):
in the world have an in person set. And then
you saw is it Chris Williams or Chris Williamson from
Modern Wisdom that.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Just built that massive like.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
There's all screen. They're starting to go.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
I mean, they're starting to level up their sets, and
I think having a space here, we've got four different
unique video sets that clients can rotate on.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
They can find one they like and stick with it.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
High end cameras, audio, that's top shelf lighting, things that
they would probably never set up in their home office
or their corporate headquarters. But they can come here and
get a much better product. And it's honestly, it's been
a differentiator for us as a video podcast agency in
a way that I knew it would become a differentiator,
(27:59):
but now, I mean I was talking to our sales
guy the other day and he's like, James, our last
three or four new deals are because of the creative house.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Well, it also is focused for the people that come in,
so it's like you're so busy elsewhere and then you
get here and it's like, oh, yeah, I'm here to record,
You're here for a reason. And then also the fact
that they can like stay upstairs, Yes, takes a huge
pain point out or it's like you don't have to
think about the hotel, you don't have to do all
the other stuff. But that also adds to the experience
of being here because it's like the house is this
(28:26):
completely immersive thing. So the vision for it sounded awesome.
Having been on the team long enough to be like,
you know, hear you talk about it and like, oh,
that's gonna be cool, But now to like live in
it is just a very unique experience and you're just
seeing all these different ways it plays out. We both
really enjoy experiences experience marketing. So my CTA my call
(28:50):
to action for this episode would be DM James or
myself on LinkedIn and tell us your favorite experience marketing,
whatever that thing is for you. That's like, man, I
love that brand because they did this activation or this thing,
or they've tried this type of experience, Like I would
love to hear it. We eat that stuff up, So
(29:11):
definitely do that. We're also going to try a new
thing at the end of our episodes called research Roundup.
So this is a new thing for us. We think
there's a lot of data out there, a lot of
facts and stats out there were really at the intersection
of media and B to B and trying to help
people think better about that and progress their thinking. So
(29:32):
I'll hand it over to you for this first research roundup,
but highlight a stat or a fact for us that
you think is compelling and worth us talking about.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, so this stat that we're going to talk about
in the segment today is from a report from beam So,
a content agency. Brooklyn Nash is the founder of it.
Got to meet him at Goldenauer the Audience plus event
earlier this year super Cool Guy and their reports called
Closing the Content Gap.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
What we learned from talk you were quoted in A plus.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, Yeah, they reached out and then I was like, oh,
the stat that I found coincidentally aligance with what I
had contributed, So closing the content gap what we learned
from talking to four hundred plus go to market pros.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
It's an incredible report. Definitely go check it out.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
But the specific stat or the collection of stats here
to tell the story that I wanted to call out here,
so it says, I don't know what page this is.
Pitge ten of the report says almost eighty percent of
content folks believe that involving the broader go to market
team and content would improve the effectiveness and relevance of
(30:37):
the content they produce. But what does the broader go
to market team think? Ninety five percent of go to
market folks think their involvement in content marketing will make
it more relevant and effective, but only half have had
a positive experience getting involved. So they basically talk about
how this is an incredible opportunity for for content marketers.
(31:01):
And so the go to marketer or knows how their
involvement impacts the quality of their content.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
They know they're the subject matter experts.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
They know that they can make this content better than
the content marketer who maybe is earlier in their career,
they don't know the space as well as they do.
They're ready, they're willing, they most have already got involved,
but it's not always been the best experience. So, you know,
piggybacking off of you know, making these big brand experiences,
(31:29):
getting a little bit more micro. How can you create
an experience for your internal subject matter experts that make
them want to participate with you in content creation? Because
if you're a content marketer, that is worth your salt
at all. You know, subject matter expertise is the root
of all great B.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
To B content.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
And you as a content marketer, you may understand social platforms,
you may understand newsletter growth, you may understand all these
different things, how the YouTube algrowth more, but you probably
don't have this the depth of understanding of your market
that somebody else in your org does. So think creatively
about how you can engage those people, create a great
(32:12):
experience for them so that they look forward to the
monthly call block that you put.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
On their calendar to record with them.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
And so that's that's my takeaway here in this first
little research round up segment.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And I'll just tease a future episode, we're going to
give away five easy habits to help your execs or
your SMEs.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Create more content. Let me just tell you.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Removing friction from people's calendars, or figuring out the questions
you would ask so they don't have to think much
about it and they can just come in and do
their thing. Like those are the types of things that
we just need to be thinking about, Like what is
the experience we could create to remove the friction from
this so great stats, that's our research round up.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
We'll be doing more of that. James, this is fun.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Are out
Your favorite spot to pick up a cherry linemade may
just become your favorite place to play pickleball too.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Sonic has announced a new store in East.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Texas that'll have pickleball courts and a playground for the kids.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Let's get into.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It, James, I want to start with two questions. The
first part because I know you. I'm like, I think
attractional marketing, like what Sonic's doing with pickleball courts, is
going to be very interesting to you. So I'm interested
to hear your take. I want to hear your thoughts
on Sonic, and I want to hear your thoughts on
(00:34):
just the rise of these more attractional marketing plays over
the last few years.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
So growing up in Oklahoma, Sonic is headquartered in Oklahoma,
so a huge Sonic fan. Cherry Vanilla Doctor Pepper was
my basically the blood coursing through my veins growing up,
So huge affinity for Sonic. I think what they're doing
here is absolutely brilliant. You're creating a space where people
want to hang out and play and oh, by the way,
(01:03):
I can get something to eat and have a cherry
lil made to it while I'm doing this activity that
I was probably going to already do anyway.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
So you're creating the space that's going.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
To magnetize people to you, which I just think is
absolutely brilliant. I was thinking also about repeat visitors, and
so you think about the rhythm of how often a
family would go to a place like Sonic, And you know,
we don't have them all over the place here in Orlando,
(01:35):
so I hardly ever go to Sonic anymore. But if
it were in my town, this might be a place
that I would go. I don't know, maybe once a month,
once a quarter. If there was a Sonic in my
town that had pickleball courts and a playground, yep, I
would be going there.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
I mean, it might become a weekly rhythm for me.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
And I think there's a lot of people that fit
into that category where you're putting this activity that the
entire family can enjoy together. You can meet up with friends,
you can do all these different things, and if you
can ingratiate your brand experience and make it become a
(02:16):
regular habit for your customer, I just don't think there's
any smarter way to do marketing than that you literally
become a habit.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Sonic is interesting because I feel like from a fast
food perspective, like I can think of a lot of
brand experiences, but I other than like a playground at
a Chick fil A or a McDonald's, I feel like
most fast food restaurants are actually going away from that.
Like I've seen most of those other like McDonald's, where
there used to be play places, they're taken them out.
Like I remember when ballpits as a kid was like
(02:47):
the big thing, and they're like, Nope, that's disgusting.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's gross, Like we're done to that.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So I felt like there was a pivot away from it,
and now I would be interested to see what are
other ways that are attractional.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
But it's always been for kids. I think pick a
ball courts.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
There is a good play for adults where it's like
our kids are going to play on the playground, the
adults are going to go play pickleball. We're all going
to get our soda, cherry lime, maade, whatever your drink
of choice fix is by going there. So there's like
multiple rewards that you're getting by going to Sonic, and
the more you can do that, the better. I made
a list and I want to run these down with you.
(03:20):
I have my top five unique brand experiences and going.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
On here, I don't see that I'm going to call
you out on soon.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So okay, well let me start here.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
So I live just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which is
the home of dick Sporting Goods. And I found out
two weeks ago that actually, while we got the first one,
it's not the only one now. But they started this
new thing called House of Sports. So there's actually one
at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. There's one in
at the mall five minutes from my house right outside
(03:51):
of Pittsburgh, and then I think there might be one
or two more. But the idea here is what you
think of when you think of a normal sports store.
It's like barrel. You know, we sell basketball as we
sell water bottles. This is like you walk into a
House of Sport and they have a rock climbing wall,
a batting cage, they have like the whole golf simulator
(04:12):
set up, and this is a two level thing like
they bought out. Like imagine a Macy's or a Sears
being one of the foundational stores in a mall. That's
Dick's like a House of Sport. Not so like you
know at a mall when it's like the four main stores, yea,
this is what House of Sport is. And then inside
that it's like you can sign up for rock climbing wall.
(04:33):
Right outside of the mall, they have a full soccer field.
They have a little track that goes around it. My
parents were in town last weekend. We brought our son
and my parents to the mall just to show them
this place, and then we played bags outside and they
have it set up.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
We have open hours. You can just go out there
and play.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So it's so brilliant because people will go for the
experience and like kids literally get dropped off at the
House of Sport and the parents will go other places
in the mall and shop because it's that much of
a like immersive experience.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I think they could have doubled down on it more.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I think they could have built a basketball court and
said we're gonna host like open gym nights, and that
would have been so smart because like everybody that needs
Jim Schwartz or a new water bottle or whatever has
to walk through Dix to go to the basketball court
to play their game and then go home. So it
feels like this cool fusion that's happening. So that's my
first one. Have you seen Dick's out a pause Sporto.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
I haven't, but is you said they're justin Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
There's one am all of America.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I think this is like they did three or four
of them, but this was the first one was in
Pittsburgh because that's their their flagship, their home.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
That's incredible.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Second one on my lists Starbucks Reserve Roasteries in Chicago.
I just was there a couple months ago, but they
have a five story Starbucks that has every level is
a different thing that Starbucks does. They have like one
hundred and twenty different versions of like a way that
they make coffee in the store, and they have like
a full dessert menu, a full actual menu. They have
(06:06):
like alcoholic drinks that have are coffee and fused, and
every floor does something different. So Starbucks is they've done this,
like they've gone up a level in specialty. But they're
like lying around the block. I mean to get into
this place. So that one's wild. I don't know if
they have any other locations, but that's a really good
anchor store in downtown Chicago. That's like, oh, We're going
(06:29):
there as an experience. We're not just going there to
like stop it. You know, there's like ten Starbucks on
Michigan Avenue. Everybody's walking to this one because it's like, well,
I might just eat my full meal there and get
an entire like try like five different drinks.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah. Yeah, that's an incredible experience.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Next up, Lego House one. Do you know anything about this?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Well, we've got a Lego like a big Lego store
at Disney Springs here in Orlando, and it's I don't
know that I would Necessarily, it's kind of an experience
because right outside of the Lego store they have these
massive Lego builds and these different characters, and even in
the water, like very close to the store, there's like
(07:11):
this big body of water and there's like.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
A giant Lego dragon like coming out of the water.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
And so it's kind of an experience within an experience
because Disney Springs this is its whole own experience. So
that's where my head went. But I'm curious about this
Lego House in Denmark.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
If you haven't seen the Lego House in Denmark, you
should look it up. It is a legit like full
immersive Lego experience, and it's like multiple floors. It's like
going to a museum, but it's all like those native legos.
It looks like there's things that they did outside, similar
to what you're saying, but like the building is just
like a building, okay, but it's their flagship, like this
(07:47):
is the Lego house, Like this is their thing?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Are they front is Lego?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Like?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yes? Yes?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
From okay, yep, So that's my third. I got two
more for you, and then I'll give you one I'm
confused by as well. Red Bull this is different. This
is not a store front. This is like things they've
done that when you think of red Bull, they've lodged
themselves into your mind. I think of two events. When
I say red Bull to you, what do you think
(08:12):
of as far as.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Like marketing the space thing?
Speaker 4 (08:15):
For sure?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yes, that's definitely. That was definitely on my list. Do
you think of anything else?
Speaker 4 (08:19):
I think of like motocross, extreme sports?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Some people would say cartoons and animations just because they
do those old school commercials still, but I think of
the exact same things. But the other kind of event
that they're really big for. I don't know how to
pronounce it like flog tag or something, but it means
flying day in German. And they set up this diving
board and people out of cardboard and whatever material try
(08:43):
to find a way to fly something as far as
possible with like the person on it. And so people
are just like running and jumping off and just falling
into the water. But the whole idea of Red Bull
gives you wings and mashing that together and creating an
event around it. While it's not a storefront, this has
to make my list because they're thinking of ways to
(09:04):
just like put this idea in your head face, wings, flight,
all of it is like put into these events and
again it's like adventure the Red Bull brand. They figured
out ways to get people excited and do it on
the side where you're like not even realizing how much
you're being marketed to.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So I love that one. And then the last one.
Have you been to a Compassion International compassion experience? You
know what Compassion International is?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So you can like a basically adopt a kid and
help provide food or like whatever is that.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
If someone is exactly something like I think two or
three kids the same.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, we've had we've been helping and like participating with
Compassion International for several years.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
But so I grew up overseas. I grew up in Kenya.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I haven't had an experience in America actually explaining what
poverty is like quite like this. So they go to
different churches or businesses and they set up like a
full immersive experience. They bring in truckloads of stuff and
they you walk through what looks like a slum and
(10:13):
you have headphones on and it tells you the story
of the kid. How immersive it is, Like I've done
it twice and both times I was like the detail
that went into this that like I get to hold
the dish that they eat from, and like see their
art on the wall, and like they're bringing it to you.
(10:33):
And I would assume that in the future they're going
to make this even more immersive with like VR, but
they bring all of it to a church or to
a business.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I just joined the board of a foster care organization
that comes alongside churches and basically helps churches organize care
communities for foster families in their church, And they just
bought a piece of real estate to do something very
similar to this. That's also the first one is going
to be here in Orlando, but they ultimately want to
(11:02):
put them all over the place, and you come in
and it's this like experiential thing of seeing what it's
like for a kid to go from home to home
to home to home in the foster care system, and
then at the end there's like a movie that you
watch and ultimately like they know that if they can
get you involved in a care community first, which is
(11:24):
just like supporting bringing a meal once a week to
a foster family in your area, you then are that
much closer to the problem and that much more likely
to become a foster parent yourself. So it's like a
really cool flow. But the experience of actually going through
what a kid goes through, that's instantly what I thought
about as you were explaining this. This is this is
(11:45):
incredibly smart and yeah, gives gives me goose chills.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Okay, I got to tell you what I'm confused by
and just see if you can figure it out and
tell me what I'm missing.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
The one I'm confused by is bank cafes. Have you
heard of those? I think I've seen like Capital One
do some commercials.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
As I was researching, I could not figure out what
is the benefit and who would go there? I work
from a coffee shop every day and don't I wouldn't
trust a bank cafe to have great coffee. I feel
like I would get pitched to at any time, But
like they're trying to do the experience thing, and it
clearly if they're like multiplying them all over the country,
then they're working. But I can't figure out who the
(12:25):
person is that goes there for coffee.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
It also it looks like a pretty sterile environment when
you see him in the ads, Like it looks like
just a bank with a.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I also ended up on a Reddit board of people
that recommended a specific cafe bank cafe in Chicago, But
the only reason they recommended it is because it was
slightly cheaper for what they said was not bad coffee,
because it was really close to a very busy Starbucks.
So it was like the alternative for like a couple people,
(12:56):
and like that was the benefit of it. But if
you know, and you're listening to this or you're watching
this right now on YouTube, if you know the benefits
of a bank cafe, or you've been to one that
you think is awesome, I would love for you to
DM me on LinkedIn. I would be very curious because
I can't figure that that that went out.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I'm a little surprised that I what I didn't see
on here, and it's probably because it's not opened yet.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
But Dude Perfect theme park that they're moving, I can't.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I can't put something on my list, James that hasn't
even opened yet.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
But they've got the mockups and you see it in
the thirty for thirty that just dropped.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
That freaking theme park is going to be sick. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
That so like explain to people who don't. I mean,
most people will know who Dude Perfect is.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, so Jude Perfect, bunch of guys that started a
YouTube channel in college back in like two thousand and
eight or two thousand and nine, when YouTube was still
at cap videos and it was not what it is today.
They have rowed the wave of YouTube. They do these
stunt type videos where they make a trick shot off
of like they'll be in a plan, you know, five
(14:01):
thousand feet in the air.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
And insert Dude Perfect video here. Yeah yeah, just show up.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah, so crazy, crazy experiences. And now they're building like
one hundred million dollar theme park in Dallas. I think
where they're at. So it's going to be absolutely insane.
And they showed some mock ups in their in a
recent thirty for thirty the ESPN just did so they
they hit the world's.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Tallest basketball shot.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
It set some world record and ESPN went and like
documented it for thirty for thirty and it's a fascinating,
like our hour and a half long watch.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
So go and watch that. But you'll see them talk
about the theme park that they're building and.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I don't know when exactly it's going to be up,
but it's for sure going to make the brand every
brand experience list that any marketer ever talks about.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
That's a dream for creators to be able to, like say,
they created a theme park essentially where all these people
that you know have watched our YouTube videos their.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Theme of trick shots and like, so just imagine the
kind of experiences within that park. You're going to have
I recreating the video that you watched, you know, one
hundred times.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
How did they do that?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Oh my god? Now I get to do that in
his physical space?
Speaker 4 (15:18):
So sick.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Okay, So before we transition to how businesses should be
thinking about this, we've given a lot of good examples.
But one of the things that I thought would be
worth us talking about is when you hear about these
different brand activations and like the difference between what Red
Bull's doing with an event like that, or what House
of Sport is doing versus a traditional like just store
(15:41):
that you go and buy a basketball from or whatever.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
The difference there is significant.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
But I wanted to just like, now that you know
all of these, right, like you had never heard of
House of Sport, how does it change how you think
about that brand? Like you knew something about Dick Sporting
Goods before I brought up what they're doing here, and
then I tell you what they're doing with this, like.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I instantly like them more. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, you're creative, your customer centric. You're trying to do
something innovative and different and.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Giving me an excuse to go there or participate in
the thing that's not necessarily your all. It's it kind
of is top of funnel marketing within a store, where
it's like you're saying that I should come here for
an experience even if I don't buy something from you,
but at some point you know I will buy something
(16:31):
from you. But I feel so much better about that
type of experience, like even if I'm at the mall,
not to go to the House of Sport, I go
to the House of Sport because it's that cool. I
just think of all of these, the whole list we
just rattled off, and the way that it changes, how
your brand feels more personal and feels more unique, and
like just takes up more mind share. I want to
(16:54):
tell people about the Compassion International because I had the
Compassion experience. So I think it's smart for us when
you're in B to B specifically to just look at
what other people are doing, because it's way harder to
apply in B to B. It's not as obvious as
what some of these options are. But there's so much
inspiration out there that we had to bring it to
(17:16):
an episode and talk about it.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
And I think about what I've there are I've heard
Gary Vee talk about if you're in B to B,
start talking about golf, because there's a lot of depending
on who your buyer is inside of a B to
B organization, say you sell the salespeople. A lot of
salespeople at B to B companies love golf because.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
They do it for work.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
It's bizdev it's all the stuff, So like, can you
find a golf course that is in the same area
as the next conference you're going to and host some
sort of experience at a golf course, so aligning to
your buyer's passion and.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Which is bringing you full circle to Sonic.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yes, in a way, Sonic is a really good example
because it's like, oh, people like pickaball, Let's just put
want a pickaball court or three right next to a
Sonic In the same way, what can you tap into
when you're at a conference, whether you're at an event
near your office, whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
If Gearheart does this really well. Whenever he goes to
an event, he hosts a like a run club the
morning of like the second day or something. So it's like, hey,
at five thirty or six am before the conference starts,
we're all going to meet down here and we're going
to go run, you know, three miles together. Or because
he knows through understanding his community at the depth that
(18:36):
he understands them that a lot of them are health
conscious and a lot of them are you know, trying
to get their exercise in. But you don't necessarily want
to go to the gym by yourself. You'd rather be
in community with the people you're at the event with.
And so him organizing those things I think shows why
he's had the success that he has as a creator,
because he understands human psychology and he understands his audience
(18:58):
and what they actually care about. And so, yeah, I
think really understanding what are your customers passionate about in
a way that is disconnected from the thing you do,
And I think that's that's a hard thing for a
lot of marketers to rap their head around. We want
everything to tie back to this is our value prop
and this is how our product serves our customer. But
(19:21):
if you can disconnect that a little bit, there become
endless options for how you can align or create an
experience that actually taps into something much bigger than the
problem that your product solves that your customer only thinks
about maybe once a month or something. And so I
think that's yeah, this has been super fun. I love
(19:42):
thinking about this stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I think a lot of marketers need to actually pay
attention more at trade shows, which is funny because trade
shows get a lot of crap nowadays for like, what
what actually happens at a trade show? How much are
you paying for the booth whatever. But if you say,
think about the experiences that actually stick out to you
from a trade show or an event that you went to,
(20:05):
it's not necessarily the booth itself. It's the experience that
someone can provide in that space that becomes memorable. Sometimes
it's swag, sometimes it's something that they're doing within that space.
But if you were to just think about that as
a business more holistically and go like, what's an experience
we can make outside that's shareable, that's memorable, that gets
(20:25):
people excited, maybe bring some of your top customers or
prospects in to do something special for them. And I've
been I know I've said it on this podcast before,
but I am bullish on the idea that you could
create private events that are very very small that you
don't really like market to the masses, but you make
hyper specific to a small group of people that they
(20:47):
would be so excited about it that they will never
stop talking about how cool that experience was.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And that is an easy.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Like tap into that tap into thinking about how you
could level up like those type of experience answers, and
any business actually.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Can do that.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
So I my friend Dale Dupree formerly the Copyer Warrior,
now runs a sales rebellion. He's got an event coming
up called Totality, So if you're in the if you're
in sales and want to check out that event, you
should definitely check it out.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
But he does all that.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
He's known for doing these crazy, outlandish like prospecting stunts,
and he'll send like a box of empty donuts to
a prospect and then you could see the blaze in
the box and it's just a sticky note that's like, oh.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Man, you never called me back.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
So I went on ahead and just I was waiting
on you to but I hate all the donuts, like
let me know, and I'll, you know, call me back
and I'll send you I'll send you another box. So
he does this thing. I still think it's one of
the most brilliant things he's ever done. He was calling
into like an IBM or it was some location where
there was a big physical headquarters in this particular city.
(21:59):
And so I think he like put like he got
flyers basically saying, hey, lunch in the parking lot tomorrow
and put it under you know, went the day before,
put it under all the what are those things called
the wipers the day before, so everybody like, okay, like
lunch in the parking lot.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
What's this about?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
He shows up with like giant food trucks in the
parking lot of this big like headquarters, so everybody is
obviously coming to him. And then he's got his little
you know, he's copy I think he was selling copiers
at the time, And so everybody now in that building
knows who Dale is and knows the copier warrior, and
(22:39):
knows that if they ever need a copier, He's obviously
the guy that went out of his way to cater
lunch for an entire building. Ye by bringing in dope
food trucks and so that kind of stuff. I just
think for the marketers that want to press more into
their creative genius, this is the kind of stuff like
the stuff that gets shared, stuff that aligns with your
(23:01):
audience's passion.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
I would love to see so much more of this
in B to B.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
And it can be even more dope in B to
B because your average customer lifetime.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Value is so much higher.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
You're not trying to sell a can of red bull.
I'm trying to sell a six or seven figure software subscription.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
So I just think there's a lot of opportunity here.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I'll give away a really easy way to brainstorm. And
I actually did this when I asked my wife to
marry me, but it applies here. So if you have
a sheet of paper next to you and you just
want to jot down, like, what's a level one experience
that you could provide your clients or prospects, and just
like write out what you think would be a cool event,
(23:46):
and then put level two under it and just go like,
how would I want up this event and try to
get to ten. If you try to get to ten,
ten is going to sound so outrageous and so insanely
expensive that seven or eight's going to sound really good.
And no one knows that you went to ten. Go
do seven or eight and people be like, wow, that
was awesome. So it's a really easy way if you're
(24:07):
not feeling creative to just boost some creativity and force
yourself to do the same exercise a few times to
get at the more creative thing, or try to one
up each other. Get a few creative people in the
room and just be like, Okay, here's what I think
a good event is. Now you try to one up
it and just go back and forth.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
So it was level seven like Sid marry me, and
level ten was like Sid marry me in space.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I never got the space because I think that would
have freaked her out. I don't think we would have
got there. She probably would have said no. But I
did get like significantly more expensive at like level nine
and ten, and I was like, I'm I'm broke. I don't,
I don't, I can't pull this off. I was already
calling in favors for what I ended up doing, which
is a story for another time, and it was great,
(24:49):
But that's an easy way to get to get more
creative ideas. We're doing this with the house because as
a remote first company for a long time, we loved
the idea of the experience that our clients were getting.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
We wanted to make it as good as we could.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
But it's way different when you're recording remote shows versus
doing something in a physical space bringing people in. So
can you just quickly talk about your vision for the
Creator House in like how this has changed the way
you think about doing media?
Speaker 3 (25:21):
So I said, for a long time, we don't use
the word friendship in business enough, and I knew that
when we when we had this physical space, we were
going to be able to bring that to life in
a way that we never had before. And so, and
when you think about co host chemistry, you think about
how that chemistry compounds over time when you can go
(25:43):
to dinner together, when you can film together for large
blocks of time, like you just flew in this morning
from Pittsburgh. We're going to be filming all day together.
When you have actual time with one another, you are
sharing stories with each other, You're sharing you have shared
experiences because like oh the crazy the crazy waitress at
this restaurant that we went last night.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Or the multiple car accidents.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
So you just end up with inside jokes that they
create this bond. And so the fact that we can
now help our clients facilitate those relationships with one another,
with other people on their team that maybe you know,
they have a marketer and a cfo are that are
coming together to be co hosts on a show, and
they live in different parts of the country. But we
(26:28):
can facilitate a space now where they can create legitimate
chemistry camaraderie with each other because they're creating content in
a physical location in one of our sets. So friendships
were a huge part of the vision that I wanted
to cultivate, and I think more pragmatically, we can just
create a much better product for our clients because of
(26:50):
the in person production element that the house brings and
so before I mean, you can just it's very easy
to tell the difference in I think they're folks that
do it well. Like Jay Klaus has figured out remote
recording on YouTube. Well, he's probably the best one I've
seen on YouTube, but it's very hard. There's a reason
why most of the top one hundred and fifty podcasts
(27:13):
in the world have an in person set. And then
you saw is it Chris Williams or Chris Williamson from
Modern Wisdom that.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Just built that massive like.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
There's all screen. They're starting to go.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
I mean, they're starting to level up their sets, and
I think having a space here, we've got four different
unique video sets that clients can rotate on.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
They can find one they like and stick with it.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
High end cameras, audio, that's top shelf lighting, things that
they would probably never set up in their home office
or their corporate headquarters. But they can come here and
get a much better product. And it's honestly, it's been
a differentiator for us as a video podcast agency in
a way that I knew it would become a differentiator,
(27:59):
but now, I mean I was talking to our sales
guy the other day and he's like, James, our last
three or four new deals are because of the creative house.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Well, it also is focused for the people that come in,
so it's like you're so busy elsewhere and then you
get here and it's like, oh, yeah, I'm here to record,
You're here for a reason. And then also the fact
that they can like stay upstairs, Yes, takes a huge
pain point out or it's like you don't have to
think about the hotel, you don't have to do all
the other stuff. But that also adds to the experience
of being here because it's like the house is this
(28:26):
completely immersive thing. So the vision for it sounded awesome.
Having been on the team long enough to be like,
you know, hear you talk about it and like, oh,
that's gonna be cool, But now to like live in
it is just a very unique experience and you're just
seeing all these different ways it plays out. We both
really enjoy experiences experience marketing. So my CTA my call
(28:50):
to action for this episode would be DM James or
myself on LinkedIn and tell us your favorite experience marketing,
whatever that thing is for you. That's like, man, I
love that brand because they did this activation or this thing,
or they've tried this type of experience, Like I would
love to hear it. We eat that stuff up, So
(29:11):
definitely do that. We're also going to try a new
thing at the end of our episodes called research Roundup.
So this is a new thing for us. We think
there's a lot of data out there, a lot of
facts and stats out there were really at the intersection
of media and B to B and trying to help
people think better about that and progress their thinking. So
(29:32):
I'll hand it over to you for this first research roundup,
but highlight a stat or a fact for us that
you think is compelling and worth us talking about.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, so this stat that we're going to talk about
in the segment today is from a report from beam So,
a content agency. Brooklyn Nash is the founder of it.
Got to meet him at Goldenauer the Audience plus event
earlier this year super Cool Guy and their reports called
Closing the Content Gap.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
What we learned from talk you were quoted in A plus.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, Yeah, they reached out and then I was like, oh,
the stat that I found coincidentally aligance with what I
had contributed, So closing the content gap what we learned
from talking to four hundred plus go to market pros.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
It's an incredible report. Definitely go check it out.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
But the specific stat or the collection of stats here
to tell the story that I wanted to call out here,
so it says, I don't know what page this is.
Pitge ten of the report says almost eighty percent of
content folks believe that involving the broader go to market
team and content would improve the effectiveness and relevance of
(30:37):
the content they produce. But what does the broader go
to market team think? Ninety five percent of go to
market folks think their involvement in content marketing will make
it more relevant and effective, but only half have had
a positive experience getting involved. So they basically talk about
how this is an incredible opportunity for for content marketers.
(31:01):
And so the go to marketer or knows how their
involvement impacts the quality of their content.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
They know they're the subject matter experts.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
They know that they can make this content better than
the content marketer who maybe is earlier in their career,
they don't know the space as well as they do.
They're ready, they're willing, they most have already got involved,
but it's not always been the best experience. So, you know,
piggybacking off of you know, making these big brand experiences,
(31:29):
getting a little bit more micro. How can you create
an experience for your internal subject matter experts that make
them want to participate with you in content creation? Because
if you're a content marketer, that is worth your salt
at all. You know, subject matter expertise is the root
of all great B.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
To B content.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
And you as a content marketer, you may understand social platforms,
you may understand newsletter growth, you may understand all these
different things, how the YouTube algrowth more, but you probably
don't have this the depth of understanding of your market
that somebody else in your org does. So think creatively
about how you can engage those people, create a great
(32:12):
experience for them so that they look forward to the
monthly call block that you put.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
On their calendar to record with them.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
And so that's that's my takeaway here in this first
little research round up segment.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And I'll just tease a future episode, we're going to
give away five easy habits to help your execs or
your SMEs.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Create more content. Let me just tell you.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Removing friction from people's calendars, or figuring out the questions
you would ask so they don't have to think much
about it and they can just come in and do
their thing. Like those are the types of things that
we just need to be thinking about, Like what is
the experience we could create to remove the friction from
this so great stats, that's our research round up.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
We'll be doing more of that. James, this is fun.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Are out
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