February 13, 2025 • 19 mins
Experiential marketing has gained significant recognition over the past decade, becoming essential for brand engagement. Real-life experiences create emotional connections and community, which are often more impactful than traditional advertising methods.
Bryan Duffy explores the evolution of experiential marketing from a "below-the-line" activity to a crucial component in marketing strategies. He discusses the immense value experiential marketing adds through consumer engagement, emotional connection, and shareability of content.
Bryan explains that effective experiential marketing requires a strategic approach that combines creativity, consumer insights, and logistical expertise. Bill Southard expands on the collaborative nature of creating engaging experiences, emphasizing the synthesis of PR, digital, and experiential tactics for consumer-driven campaigns.
Key Takeaways
- Experiential marketing, once considered a secondary marketing tool, has evolved to be a vital element in integrated marketing strategies, offering significant ROI and reach.
- PR firms are increasingly collaborating with experiential marketing agencies to create seamless consumer engagement strategies that deliver tangible results.
- Live events create community and emotional connections that digital marketing simply can't replicate, enhancing brand loyalty.
- The proliferation of mobile technology has enhanced the value of experiential marketing by enabling immediate content sharing and amplifying campaign reach.
- Experiential events can take place as part of larger activities or as bespoke experiences, each providing unique opportunities for consumer interaction and brand promotion.
- The value of experiential marketing lies in its shareability, allowing brands to reach millions beyond just event attendees.
About the Guests
Bill Southard is founder and CEO of Southard Communications, a firm he founded in 1994. Under his leadership, Southard Communications has shown significant growth across a number of market segments. Headquartered in New York City, the firm has executed successful public relations, digital marketing and communications and social media campaigns for a wide range of B2B and B2C companies, for several of which the agency has been recognized with industry awards. Southard has four decades of experience in the public relations industry. Prior to founding his current firm, he was executive vice president/general manager of Dorf & Stanton Communications, an agency that was sold in 1989 to Shandwick. The agency has worked on a number of iconic brands in the toy and game space including Etch a Sketch, LeapFrog, The Elf on the Shelf, Pound Puppies and Slinky, to name a few.
Bryan Duffy is the Founder/CEO of BOOM Ventures, a full-service brand engagement agency he started in September 2020. A marketing communications veteran with over 30+ years in the industry servicing some of the worlds biggest and most relevant brands; he left the "big agency" structure behind to start BOOM with a unique approach and spin on the classic agency model. Bryan started his career on the brand side of the table in both sales and marketing roles at Converse and since that time has been in executive-level roles with some of the largest agencies in the industry. Throughout his tenure he has developed strategic business solutions for the likes of: Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Pepsico, NFL, ESPN, Coca-Cola, General Mills...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
From the Public RelationsGlobal Network. This is PRGN Presents.
I'm Adrian McIntyre.
And I'm Abbie Fink, Presidentof HMA Public Relations in Phoenix,
Arizona and a founding memberof PRGN. With public relations leaders
embedded into the fabric ofthe communities we serve, clients
hire our agencies for thelocal knowledge, expertise and connections
(00:24):
in markets spanning sixcontinents across the world.
Our guests on this bi weeklypodcast series are all members of
the Public Relations GlobalNetwork. They will discuss such topics
as workplace culture, creativecompensation and succession planning,
the importance ofsustainability and environmental,
social and governanceprograms, crisis communications and
(00:45):
outside of the box thinkingfor growing your business.
For more information aboutPRGN and our members, please visit
prgn.com. And now let's meetour guest for this episode.
Hello. Hi, I'm Bill Southard,president, CEO and founder of Southern
Communications, an agency thatI founded 30 years ago. We're based
(01:06):
in New York City. It's reallyan honor to introduce a good friend
of mine and a businesspartner, Bryan Duffy with Boom Ventures,
who's going to talk about therole of experiential marketing and
one to one consumer engagementand how we provide value to our clients.
An honor, Bill. That'simpressive. Thank you. Appreciate
that. Hi everybody, I'm BryanDuffy. I'm the founder and CEO of
(01:29):
Boom Ventures. I've been inthe marketing communications industry
now for well over 30 years. Ifounded Boom, as crazy as it sounds,
in the middle of the globalpandemic in the fall of 20 20. We've
had tremendous success overthe last three, four years based
on the model that we've builtand looking forward to the conversation.
So why wouldn't you start acompany in the middle of a global
(01:49):
pandemic? Why would that be a problem?
Exactly, right.
So maybe just to kind of levelset a little bit before we get a
deep dive, could you kind ofgive us your definition of experiential
marketing and kind of wherethat fits and maybe the overall strategy
of a marketing program?
(02:10):
Yeah, no, it's a greatquestion. I've been, as I said, I've
been doing this now for 30plus years, specifically within the
experiential marketing spacefor the last 20 plus years. Plus
years. It's interesting, overthe last 10 years, I'd say that experiential
marketing has really taken aseat at the table with the big boys.
And what I mean by that is theother mediums, advertising, pr, digital
marketing, et cetera, etcetera. Right. For years and years,
(02:33):
experiential marketing waskind of the redheaded stepchild at
the table and it was alwaysconsidered a below the line service
offering. And what's happenedover the last 10 years in particular
is marketers, brand marketersare really truly valuing what experiences
provide from the consumerengagement perspective from a standpoint
of communicating theirproducts and services and their messaging
(02:55):
and so forth. And what we'veseen is that from the value that
experiential marketers haveright now in the space and in the
medium in particular, they'respending more and more dollars towards
it, they're prioritizing it.There's so much more that can come
from experiential marketing.There's the opportunity to drive
content, obviously theengagement component, the digital
(03:16):
and tech component, andelements that are involved with that
are amazing. The shareabilityfactor, again, going back 10 plus
years ago, the knock againstexperiential marketing, it was always
a very expensive proposition.You would do an experience, let's
just say it's in the middle ofTimes Square. Several thousand people
would show up. That's great.You would spend the money. But the
(03:37):
ROI in many cases was notvalued as much as it is now because
you had just a set of eyeballson it that were there in person.
But there wasn't really anybit of a shareability factor. Now
we're creating experiencesthat create engagement, that create
the experience that consumersare capturing. They're sharing that
content. So from anamplification perspective, from a
(03:58):
reach perspective, the ROI istremendous. Right. So that's really
where in many ways the valueof experiential marketing has taken
a bigger seat at the tablewhen it comes to that integrated
service and marketingcommunications offering.
So it might seem obvious thatit is an in person opportunity. So
(04:19):
maybe thinking about, youknow, when you did begin your own
agency, when we weren't inperson as much, but you know, where.
How do we start theseconversations about the importance
of consumer engagement and whythis investment might be worth, and
(04:40):
I imagine this is relevant,really, no matter how large or small
your organization is, you cancreate an experience for your consumers.
But as you said, it's still arelatively young discipline within
our industry in terms ofacceptance. So how do we talk about
that? How do we get the valueproposition in front of our clients
(05:04):
to get them to understand whythey should make this type of investment?
Yeah, no doubt. And I'll talkabout the value of experiential marketing
and why do it first and thenI'll bring it back to why do it in
the middle of the globalpandemic. Right. But at the end of
the day, I think most folkswill tell you that live face to face
communication and marketingand events provides a sense of community.
(05:27):
So we are all longing anddesiring for a sense of community.
It's more emotive, theemotions that come from the ability
that I'm going to go to anevent with my friends or my family
or whoever that may be and I'mgoing to experience that together.
So there's the communityaspect, there's the emotive aspect,
there's the emotional aspectof it, there's the shareability,
(05:47):
as I said before, tremendousvalue. And yes, the event might capture
or it might attract a couplehundred or a couple thousand people,
but the shareability gives youthe ability to reach literally millions
across the world. Right. Somuch value in that. Longer lasting
impressions, much morememorable. Right. You guys probably
remember, it's interesting, Ispeak a lot at colleges and so forth
(06:08):
and do panel discussions. It'samazing when you go and you start
talking to people, it's like,hey, tell me what you did for your
21st birthday. What was thefirst sporting event you ever went
to? What was your first musicconcert? Right. What did your parents
do for their 50th weddinganniversary? Whatever it may be,
people automatically rememberit. Why? Because it was something
that was again community, itwas emotional and it created a LONGER
(06:31):
Lasting impression. Versus doyou remember that 30 second spot
you saw on TV two years ago?Right. Do you remember the 10 second
spot that you saw on thedigital advertising piece or whatever
it may be? But it buildscommunity, it's a shared experience,
it's emotive and at the end ofthe day it creates human connection
and that's what people crave.And then going back to, you know,
(06:54):
why do it? Coming out of thepandemic, I had the good fortune
of working for some prettylarge experiential marketing and
sports marketing agenciesowned by some of the big holding
companies for years andtremendous value in that and had
a great experience. But what Ifound for me personally as I was
getting further and furtheraway from consumers and our employee
(07:14):
base, as I continued to growmy career and eventually was a president
of an, of an experientialagency. But you know, coming out
of the pandemic, I knew therewas the opportunity to build a better
mousetrap because I knewpeople were gonna be again craving
community, wanting to getoutside experience things together.
And I knew there was anopportunity for me to time it right.
(07:35):
So you know, started theagency in the fall of 20 20, took
three or four months to standup and operationalize the business
went live to the marketplacein January of '21. And I knew that
in the spring and summertimeframe, coming out of the pandemic,
what was gonna be the firstthing people did, they were gonna
go and attend sporting events,they were going to attend music festivals
and concerts, all outsideactivities where we all felt somewhat
(07:58):
comfortable. Right. The B2Bevent space wasn't quite there yet.
So hence you had that hybridmodel between you know, again digital
and live experientialmarketing. But just felt the timing
was right to be able to comeand build the agency model that we've
created. And we've had verygood success with capturing and taking
advantage of people with pentup demand to get back to engaging
(08:19):
with each other, quite simply.
So Bill, a lot of your work isin consumer products and such. So
obviously this is somethingthat's of interest and of value to
you and the work that you'redoing. And I'm curious about the
implementation process and howfrom idea generation and brainstorming
(08:44):
about what we're going to doto the activation element of it and
you know, what are thoseconversations like when you're, you
know, beginning to bring tothe table, let's build something
that's experience driven andyou know, how are we going to carry
that through?
Yeah,oodquestionAbbie.Soyouknow, it'sreally
really about collaboration. Imean, so with team, ifit'sanexisting
(09:10):
client, we'llbringtheminduringthebrainstormingstageand sayoh,because
youknow,theyneedtoknowwhoisourtargetaudience,whatare our goals,
what'stheproduct'spointofdifferentiation,what'sthekeydemographics.Bryanalsojust,youknow,weworkverycloselywithJenBelcastro. Jenwasonlastyearwhenwetalked
abouttheroleofmarketresearch.SowebringBryanandhisteamin kindof
(09:32):
anearlystageandcollaboratelywe'lldevelopideasaroundessentialstrategythatmakes senseacrossall
mediums,whetherit'sPR,digital,paidearned,etc.Aswellasexperientialontheimplementationside.AndBryancan tellyou
this becauseIknow thathedoesworkwithsome,some ofthebiggest
agents,biggestPRagenciesintheworld,theydon'tknowhow toexecute.Right.Soevenif
(09:57):
theykindofcomeupwiththe ideaandtheyarelargelyresponsibleforgeneratingthepress coveragethatmaybe
attached to thatexperience,alllogisticsbehindpullingittogether, ittakesanexpertisetomakesureeverythingkindofworksflawlessly.
Soit'sa,it'saGoodrelationshipintermsof havingindividualsand
(10:20):
ateamthatunderstandsthateven,forexample,Bryan andIareworkingonsomething
togethernowforatourismboard,forexample, andthey
hadsomethinginmindabouttimeofday andlocation.Bryanandhisteam
reallykindofdugintoit.Wecameback witharecommendationthatmadea
lotmore sensebaseduponhowmuchtraffic theywantedtoattract, thetypeofindividual,thetypeoflocation,etc.SoI
(10:45):
thinkat the end oftheday,it'sreallyaboutbeingcollaborative.WebringBryan in
even onpitcheswherewemaybepitchinga consumeraccount,andwe'llpresentthemwiththestrategyandsay,listen,
here'sanexperientialideathatcan helpcreatesomemomentumforyour
product.TheonelastthingI'llsaythat,youknow,we'reallseeingincreasedpressurefrom clientsandthe
(11:07):
consumerside,particularlytocreatemore ofavalue
betweenthattouchpointandthat.Thatdriving traffictoawebsite
ordrivingsales.Withmobile.Right.ToBryan'spoint,withmobile,ifyougotoanevent inTimesSquare,
aneventinoneofthosemajorcities,Bryan,there'sanopportunityrightnowtoactuallybuy theproductrightonsite.Right.Which,youknow,10,15yearsagowas
(11:30):
difficult.Youhadtoleave,youhadtogo backhome,
etcetera.Sothatisakeyadvantage.Andthelast thingI'llsayis
that foralotofourconsumerbrands,wereallyneedtokind of
stressapointofdifferentiation.Andthat engagementwiththeconsumerin
thatimmersiveexperienceallowsustoreallycreatethatpointofdifferentiationthat would
potentiallybringsomebodyintoabrandthatwe'rerepresenting.
(11:52):
Yeah. And Bill, to build uponthat, going back to that live component.
Right. There's nothing thatreplaces the ability to sell a product
or for a consumer to touch anexperience and engage with a product
than being at an event itself.Right. E Commerce. We all know how
that's exploded. And from adigital and content perspective and
(12:13):
traditional PR and tv, it'sall well and good, but to create
a platform, to create anexperience and environment for a
consumer to come up into andengage and demo and sample, nothing
replaces that. So it drivesincremental sales, drives incremental
advocacy. And that again, goesback to the value of what experiential
(12:33):
marketing can be.
Now, are these activations,these engagement opportunities part
of an existing event, or areyou creating an event for this purpose?
You mentioned sporting eventsand concerts and things, and now
when you go, there's dozens ofthings happening around, you're,
you know, constantly being,you know, flashing Lights and other
(12:56):
things and, you know, selfie,you know, step and repeats and all
these things. But is that kindof what you're speaking of, that
it's an activity within alarger activity, or are you creating
something very specific thatis intended for that brand?
Yeah, no, Abbie, goodquestion. It's a combination of both.
It really is. It depends onthe goals and objectives of our client.
(13:17):
What type of businessobjectives they're trying to achieve,
who they're trying to reach,when they're trying to reach, what
are they trying to get them todo. What's the call to action for
the consumer? So within thesports or the entertainment world,
we're working many timeswithin those major tentpole sporting
events, the Super Bowls, theFinal Fours, the Masters of Golf,
you name it, Right. We'reworking with a client right now that
(13:38):
wants to be at the super bowland they want to host another client
of theirs. And they want thatbuilt in audience that comes with
the super bowl, whether it'sthe consumer or the B2B audience
that are attending the SuperBowl. So they want that ready built
in audience. Now theadvantages to that are you have that
ready made audience. It is thesuper bowl, it doesn't get any bigger.
(14:00):
And the ability to create theexperience and then capture the content
and then share it out,Everything we've talked about before
is significant. The challengewith that comes how do you cut through
the clutter? Right? Becausethere's so much noise going on at
the super bowl, there's somany activities, there's so many
choices for consumers and forthe B2B audience down at the Super
Bowl. So, you know, how do youmake your experience unique and different?
(14:22):
That's going to step above andcut through the clutter, if you will.
So that's certainly part ofgoing to an experience that's already
created or an environmentthat's already created, or we're
creating experiences for ourclients that are completely brand
new. There is not a built inaudience. We're not going to a tentpole
major event, whatever that maybe. And we're just looking at it
(14:44):
to say, okay, what are yourgoals, objectives? Who are you trying
to reach? How are you tryingto reach them? What is that call
to action? How do you want tocreate content and shareability?
And then from our perspective,as Bill was saying before, we'll
look at it from a strategicperspective. We'll do, we'll do our
insights, we'll gather ourdata that those insights and that
data will inform our creativeideation, which will then inform
(15:06):
how we're strategicallylooking at the overall program, how
we're going to achieve theobjectives that the client has outlined
and then we build theexperience to that and go from there.
So that could come in manydifferent forms.
Bryan, I'm really struck bysomething you started with, which
is that experiential marketingis no longer just a below the line
(15:26):
service offering. I've beenthinking on that point for the last
few minutes as you've beentalking. I mean historically advertising
and public relations were kindof the definitive above the line
strategy. Trying to cast thewidest possible net to hit the most
people with a mass campaign.And then the smaller, more targeted,
(15:46):
narrower activities wereconsidered below the line. And what
you're describing is onlypossible now given that everybody's
carrying around, you know, ahigh quality digital camera and broadcast
tool in their pocket in theform of their phones. So all this
user generated content is nowpart of the mix. It's a little more
(16:08):
unruly than a traditionalcampaign because it's being, you
know, it's, you're notcontrolling the distribution. But
there's a number of factorsthat have converged that now make
this much more interesting andexciting. And I'm just wondering
whether or not clients havereally realized the, the power of
(16:30):
that. Is it something you'rehaving to try to convince them of,
given there's still in manycases a very traditional outlook
on, you know, TV commercialsstill in 20 25. So how's this playing
out? I mean, there's a lot ofinnovation that's happened to make
this moment in time possible.
Right? Yeah, no greatquestions. And I think you've got
to look at it from theperspective of one of the things
(16:52):
we talk about all the time isgoing hyperlocal. Right. It gives
you the ability to target avery specific consumer and build
programming around that at ahyperlocal level. Right. So you're
getting that engagement, thatreach that you're looking for. But
then it goes back to the factthat now through technology, as you
mentioned, we can give themthe ability to go national with that
(17:14):
reach from a standpoint of theshareability of content and so forth.
So that's again goes back tothe value prop of why experiential
marketing. You can be veryhyper local focused with it or you
can expand and go big from astandpoint of the capture of content,
the digital componentry, thetechnology that's involved, the influencer
component that's involvedright now. So that is the other beauty
(17:36):
about experiential is there'snot a lot of other mediums where
you can create an experiencewhere you can plug in content, right?
You can shoot content, whetherthat's a 32nd spot, a commercial
or just some form of usergenerated content. You can plug in
influencer into this. You canbuild apps and a website associated
with it and so forth, right?You've got the PR component obviously
(17:59):
what you guys and prgen are sogood at, right? You can build in
that ready made PR component.There's a sports marketing element
where you can bring inathletes and celebrities and influencers
to it. So it truly becomesthat medium that is a catch all for
other. You can generatecontent that then becomes more of
a short form or long formvideo commercial can be shot from
(18:20):
this. So there's so much thatcan be done from a standpoint of
while postings and mediaaround at a local level, right from
a billboard and out of homeperspective. So it truly is the one
medium that you can integrateso many other mediums into it to
drive maximum consumerengagement, immersion and then reach
and scalability.
(18:42):
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of PRGN Presents, brought
to you by the Public RelationsGlobal Network.
We publish new episodes everyother week, so subscribe now in your
favorite podcast app. Episodesare also available on our website
along with more informationabout PRGN and our members at prgn.com.
From the Public RelationsGlobal Network. This is PRGN Presents.
I'm Adrian McIntyre.
And I'm Abbie Fink, Presidentof HMA Public Relations in Phoenix,
Arizona and a founding memberof PRGN. With public relations leaders
embedded into the fabric ofthe communities we serve, clients
hire our agencies for thelocal knowledge, expertise and connections
(00:24):
in markets spanning sixcontinents across the world.
Our guests on this bi weeklypodcast series are all members of
the Public Relations GlobalNetwork. They will discuss such topics
as workplace culture, creativecompensation and succession planning,
the importance ofsustainability and environmental,
social and governanceprograms, crisis communications and
(00:45):
outside of the box thinkingfor growing your business.
For more information aboutPRGN and our members, please visit
prgn.com. And now let's meetour guest for this episode.
Hello. Hi, I'm Bill Southard,president, CEO and founder of Southern
Communications, an agency thatI founded 30 years ago. We're based
(01:06):
in New York City. It's reallyan honor to introduce a good friend
of mine and a businesspartner, Bryan Duffy with Boom Ventures,
who's going to talk about therole of experiential marketing and
one to one consumer engagementand how we provide value to our clients.
An honor, Bill. That'simpressive. Thank you. Appreciate
that. Hi everybody, I'm BryanDuffy. I'm the founder and CEO of
(01:29):
Boom Ventures. I've been inthe marketing communications industry
now for well over 30 years. Ifounded Boom, as crazy as it sounds,
in the middle of the globalpandemic in the fall of 20 20. We've
had tremendous success overthe last three, four years based
on the model that we've builtand looking forward to the conversation.
So why wouldn't you start acompany in the middle of a global
(01:49):
pandemic? Why would that be a problem?
Exactly, right.
So maybe just to kind of levelset a little bit before we get a
deep dive, could you kind ofgive us your definition of experiential
marketing and kind of wherethat fits and maybe the overall strategy
of a marketing program?
(02:10):
Yeah, no, it's a greatquestion. I've been, as I said, I've
been doing this now for 30plus years, specifically within the
experiential marketing spacefor the last 20 plus years. Plus
years. It's interesting, overthe last 10 years, I'd say that experiential
marketing has really taken aseat at the table with the big boys.
And what I mean by that is theother mediums, advertising, pr, digital
marketing, et cetera, etcetera. Right. For years and years,
(02:33):
experiential marketing waskind of the redheaded stepchild at
the table and it was alwaysconsidered a below the line service
offering. And what's happenedover the last 10 years in particular
is marketers, brand marketersare really truly valuing what experiences
provide from the consumerengagement perspective from a standpoint
of communicating theirproducts and services and their messaging
(02:55):
and so forth. And what we'veseen is that from the value that
experiential marketers haveright now in the space and in the
medium in particular, they'respending more and more dollars towards
it, they're prioritizing it.There's so much more that can come
from experiential marketing.There's the opportunity to drive
content, obviously theengagement component, the digital
(03:16):
and tech component, andelements that are involved with that
are amazing. The shareabilityfactor, again, going back 10 plus
years ago, the knock againstexperiential marketing, it was always
a very expensive proposition.You would do an experience, let's
just say it's in the middle ofTimes Square. Several thousand people
would show up. That's great.You would spend the money. But the
(03:37):
ROI in many cases was notvalued as much as it is now because
you had just a set of eyeballson it that were there in person.
But there wasn't really anybit of a shareability factor. Now
we're creating experiencesthat create engagement, that create
the experience that consumersare capturing. They're sharing that
content. So from anamplification perspective, from a
(03:58):
reach perspective, the ROI istremendous. Right. So that's really
where in many ways the valueof experiential marketing has taken
a bigger seat at the tablewhen it comes to that integrated
service and marketingcommunications offering.
So it might seem obvious thatit is an in person opportunity. So
(04:19):
maybe thinking about, youknow, when you did begin your own
agency, when we weren't inperson as much, but you know, where.
How do we start theseconversations about the importance
of consumer engagement and whythis investment might be worth, and
(04:40):
I imagine this is relevant,really, no matter how large or small
your organization is, you cancreate an experience for your consumers.
But as you said, it's still arelatively young discipline within
our industry in terms ofacceptance. So how do we talk about
that? How do we get the valueproposition in front of our clients
(05:04):
to get them to understand whythey should make this type of investment?
Yeah, no doubt. And I'll talkabout the value of experiential marketing
and why do it first and thenI'll bring it back to why do it in
the middle of the globalpandemic. Right. But at the end of
the day, I think most folkswill tell you that live face to face
communication and marketingand events provides a sense of community.
(05:27):
So we are all longing anddesiring for a sense of community.
It's more emotive, theemotions that come from the ability
that I'm going to go to anevent with my friends or my family
or whoever that may be and I'mgoing to experience that together.
So there's the communityaspect, there's the emotive aspect,
there's the emotional aspectof it, there's the shareability,
(05:47):
as I said before, tremendousvalue. And yes, the event might capture
or it might attract a couplehundred or a couple thousand people,
but the shareability gives youthe ability to reach literally millions
across the world. Right. Somuch value in that. Longer lasting
impressions, much morememorable. Right. You guys probably
remember, it's interesting, Ispeak a lot at colleges and so forth
(06:08):
and do panel discussions. It'samazing when you go and you start
talking to people, it's like,hey, tell me what you did for your
21st birthday. What was thefirst sporting event you ever went
to? What was your first musicconcert? Right. What did your parents
do for their 50th weddinganniversary? Whatever it may be,
people automatically rememberit. Why? Because it was something
that was again community, itwas emotional and it created a LONGER
(06:31):
Lasting impression. Versus doyou remember that 30 second spot
you saw on TV two years ago?Right. Do you remember the 10 second
spot that you saw on thedigital advertising piece or whatever
it may be? But it buildscommunity, it's a shared experience,
it's emotive and at the end ofthe day it creates human connection
and that's what people crave.And then going back to, you know,
(06:54):
why do it? Coming out of thepandemic, I had the good fortune
of working for some prettylarge experiential marketing and
sports marketing agenciesowned by some of the big holding
companies for years andtremendous value in that and had
a great experience. But what Ifound for me personally as I was
getting further and furtheraway from consumers and our employee
(07:14):
base, as I continued to growmy career and eventually was a president
of an, of an experientialagency. But you know, coming out
of the pandemic, I knew therewas the opportunity to build a better
mousetrap because I knewpeople were gonna be again craving
community, wanting to getoutside experience things together.
And I knew there was anopportunity for me to time it right.
(07:35):
So you know, started theagency in the fall of 20 20, took
three or four months to standup and operationalize the business
went live to the marketplacein January of '21. And I knew that
in the spring and summertimeframe, coming out of the pandemic,
what was gonna be the firstthing people did, they were gonna
go and attend sporting events,they were going to attend music festivals
and concerts, all outsideactivities where we all felt somewhat
(07:58):
comfortable. Right. The B2Bevent space wasn't quite there yet.
So hence you had that hybridmodel between you know, again digital
and live experientialmarketing. But just felt the timing
was right to be able to comeand build the agency model that we've
created. And we've had verygood success with capturing and taking
advantage of people with pentup demand to get back to engaging
(08:19):
with each other, quite simply.
So Bill, a lot of your work isin consumer products and such. So
obviously this is somethingthat's of interest and of value to
you and the work that you'redoing. And I'm curious about the
implementation process and howfrom idea generation and brainstorming
(08:44):
about what we're going to doto the activation element of it and
you know, what are thoseconversations like when you're, you
know, beginning to bring tothe table, let's build something
that's experience driven andyou know, how are we going to carry
that through?
Yeah,oodquestionAbbie.Soyouknow, it'sreally
really about collaboration. Imean, so with team, ifit'sanexisting
(09:10):
client, we'llbringtheminduringthebrainstormingstageand sayoh,because
youknow,theyneedtoknowwhoisourtargetaudience,whatare our goals,
what'stheproduct'spointofdifferentiation,what'sthekeydemographics.Bryanalsojust,youknow,weworkverycloselywithJenBelcastro. Jenwasonlastyearwhenwetalked
abouttheroleofmarketresearch.SowebringBryanandhisteamin kindof
(09:32):
anearlystageandcollaboratelywe'lldevelopideasaroundessentialstrategythatmakes senseacrossall
mediums,whetherit'sPR,digital,paidearned,etc.Aswellasexperientialontheimplementationside.AndBryancan tellyou
this becauseIknow thathedoesworkwithsome,some ofthebiggest
agents,biggestPRagenciesintheworld,theydon'tknowhow toexecute.Right.Soevenif
(09:57):
theykindofcomeupwiththe ideaandtheyarelargelyresponsibleforgeneratingthepress coveragethatmaybe
attached to thatexperience,alllogisticsbehindpullingittogether, ittakesanexpertisetomakesureeverythingkindofworksflawlessly.
Soit'sa,it'saGoodrelationshipintermsof havingindividualsand
(10:20):
ateamthatunderstandsthateven,forexample,Bryan andIareworkingonsomething
togethernowforatourismboard,forexample, andthey
hadsomethinginmindabouttimeofday andlocation.Bryanandhisteam
reallykindofdugintoit.Wecameback witharecommendationthatmadea
lotmore sensebaseduponhowmuchtraffic theywantedtoattract, thetypeofindividual,thetypeoflocation,etc.SoI
(10:45):
thinkat the end oftheday,it'sreallyaboutbeingcollaborative.WebringBryan in
even onpitcheswherewemaybepitchinga consumeraccount,andwe'llpresentthemwiththestrategyandsay,listen,
here'sanexperientialideathatcan helpcreatesomemomentumforyour
product.TheonelastthingI'llsaythat,youknow,we'reallseeingincreasedpressurefrom clientsandthe
(11:07):
consumerside,particularlytocreatemore ofavalue
betweenthattouchpointandthat.Thatdriving traffictoawebsite
ordrivingsales.Withmobile.Right.ToBryan'spoint,withmobile,ifyougotoanevent inTimesSquare,
aneventinoneofthosemajorcities,Bryan,there'sanopportunityrightnowtoactuallybuy theproductrightonsite.Right.Which,youknow,10,15yearsagowas
(11:30):
difficult.Youhadtoleave,youhadtogo backhome,
etcetera.Sothatisakeyadvantage.Andthelast thingI'llsayis
that foralotofourconsumerbrands,wereallyneedtokind of
stressapointofdifferentiation.Andthat engagementwiththeconsumerin
thatimmersiveexperienceallowsustoreallycreatethatpointofdifferentiationthat would
potentiallybringsomebodyintoabrandthatwe'rerepresenting.
(11:52):
Yeah. And Bill, to build uponthat, going back to that live component.
Right. There's nothing thatreplaces the ability to sell a product
or for a consumer to touch anexperience and engage with a product
than being at an event itself.Right. E Commerce. We all know how
that's exploded. And from adigital and content perspective and
(12:13):
traditional PR and tv, it'sall well and good, but to create
a platform, to create anexperience and environment for a
consumer to come up into andengage and demo and sample, nothing
replaces that. So it drivesincremental sales, drives incremental
advocacy. And that again, goesback to the value of what experiential
(12:33):
marketing can be.
Now, are these activations,these engagement opportunities part
of an existing event, or areyou creating an event for this purpose?
You mentioned sporting eventsand concerts and things, and now
when you go, there's dozens ofthings happening around, you're,
you know, constantly being,you know, flashing Lights and other
(12:56):
things and, you know, selfie,you know, step and repeats and all
these things. But is that kindof what you're speaking of, that
it's an activity within alarger activity, or are you creating
something very specific thatis intended for that brand?
Yeah, no, Abbie, goodquestion. It's a combination of both.
It really is. It depends onthe goals and objectives of our client.
(13:17):
What type of businessobjectives they're trying to achieve,
who they're trying to reach,when they're trying to reach, what
are they trying to get them todo. What's the call to action for
the consumer? So within thesports or the entertainment world,
we're working many timeswithin those major tentpole sporting
events, the Super Bowls, theFinal Fours, the Masters of Golf,
you name it, Right. We'reworking with a client right now that
(13:38):
wants to be at the super bowland they want to host another client
of theirs. And they want thatbuilt in audience that comes with
the super bowl, whether it'sthe consumer or the B2B audience
that are attending the SuperBowl. So they want that ready built
in audience. Now theadvantages to that are you have that
ready made audience. It is thesuper bowl, it doesn't get any bigger.
(14:00):
And the ability to create theexperience and then capture the content
and then share it out,Everything we've talked about before
is significant. The challengewith that comes how do you cut through
the clutter? Right? Becausethere's so much noise going on at
the super bowl, there's somany activities, there's so many
choices for consumers and forthe B2B audience down at the Super
Bowl. So, you know, how do youmake your experience unique and different?
(14:22):
That's going to step above andcut through the clutter, if you will.
So that's certainly part ofgoing to an experience that's already
created or an environmentthat's already created, or we're
creating experiences for ourclients that are completely brand
new. There is not a built inaudience. We're not going to a tentpole
major event, whatever that maybe. And we're just looking at it
(14:44):
to say, okay, what are yourgoals, objectives? Who are you trying
to reach? How are you tryingto reach them? What is that call
to action? How do you want tocreate content and shareability?
And then from our perspective,as Bill was saying before, we'll
look at it from a strategicperspective. We'll do, we'll do our
insights, we'll gather ourdata that those insights and that
data will inform our creativeideation, which will then inform
(15:06):
how we're strategicallylooking at the overall program, how
we're going to achieve theobjectives that the client has outlined
and then we build theexperience to that and go from there.
So that could come in manydifferent forms.
Bryan, I'm really struck bysomething you started with, which
is that experiential marketingis no longer just a below the line
(15:26):
service offering. I've beenthinking on that point for the last
few minutes as you've beentalking. I mean historically advertising
and public relations were kindof the definitive above the line
strategy. Trying to cast thewidest possible net to hit the most
people with a mass campaign.And then the smaller, more targeted,
(15:46):
narrower activities wereconsidered below the line. And what
you're describing is onlypossible now given that everybody's
carrying around, you know, ahigh quality digital camera and broadcast
tool in their pocket in theform of their phones. So all this
user generated content is nowpart of the mix. It's a little more
(16:08):
unruly than a traditionalcampaign because it's being, you
know, it's, you're notcontrolling the distribution. But
there's a number of factorsthat have converged that now make
this much more interesting andexciting. And I'm just wondering
whether or not clients havereally realized the, the power of
(16:30):
that. Is it something you'rehaving to try to convince them of,
given there's still in manycases a very traditional outlook
on, you know, TV commercialsstill in 20 25. So how's this playing
out? I mean, there's a lot ofinnovation that's happened to make
this moment in time possible.
Right? Yeah, no greatquestions. And I think you've got
to look at it from theperspective of one of the things
(16:52):
we talk about all the time isgoing hyperlocal. Right. It gives
you the ability to target avery specific consumer and build
programming around that at ahyperlocal level. Right. So you're
getting that engagement, thatreach that you're looking for. But
then it goes back to the factthat now through technology, as you
mentioned, we can give themthe ability to go national with that
(17:14):
reach from a standpoint of theshareability of content and so forth.
So that's again goes back tothe value prop of why experiential
marketing. You can be veryhyper local focused with it or you
can expand and go big from astandpoint of the capture of content,
the digital componentry, thetechnology that's involved, the influencer
component that's involvedright now. So that is the other beauty
(17:36):
about experiential is there'snot a lot of other mediums where
you can create an experiencewhere you can plug in content, right?
You can shoot content, whetherthat's a 32nd spot, a commercial
or just some form of usergenerated content. You can plug in
influencer into this. You canbuild apps and a website associated
with it and so forth, right?You've got the PR component obviously
(17:59):
what you guys and prgen are sogood at, right? You can build in
that ready made PR component.There's a sports marketing element
where you can bring inathletes and celebrities and influencers
to it. So it truly becomesthat medium that is a catch all for
other. You can generatecontent that then becomes more of
a short form or long formvideo commercial can be shot from
(18:20):
this. So there's so much thatcan be done from a standpoint of
while postings and mediaaround at a local level, right from
a billboard and out of homeperspective. So it truly is the one
medium that you can integrateso many other mediums into it to
drive maximum consumerengagement, immersion and then reach
and scalability.
(18:42):
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