23 APRIL 2024
CHRIS BOOKER
A stellar line-up of speakers set the tone for an insightful day in central London last week, with hot topics including engaging Gen Z through music, how to inspire creativity, the power of location and of course justifying budgets.
So what stood out and which themes kept coming up?
1. Location-based storytelling
The power location can play in an experience is huge and is something I’ve been banging on about for ages to anyone who will listen, so it was great to hear this referenced through the day, particularly in Derek Manns‘ session which introduced the new ‘Below The Lights’ space at Piccadilly Circus.
It’s not just about finding a functional 10 x 10 space anymore, the venue can be a key character in your story, or even the story itself.
Its place in culture can set the tone for an activation. Its shape and characteristics can inform your storytelling, as Paul Stanway talked about. Clara Biu referenced the Just Eat Queens Header pub. We’ve seen various corner shop style pop-ups recently.
It’s such a crucial part of the experience and needs to be thought about as such, not as an afterthought.
2. Putting people first: audience-centricity is king
Again and again, panels and presentations kept coming back to truly understanding audiences, first and foremost.
Being always-on students of people and culture might seem an obvious thing, but it can be easily forgotten. Don’t let it be, because it’s the key that unlocks the best experiences.
3. Measure more than the moment
Some great points from Greg Klingaman during his panel around measurement. We’re at an information disadvantage in the experience industry. We don’t have the standardised metrics of other channels which makes it more difficult than it needs to be for everyone involved.
It reflected lots of chat through the day, including great client-side perspectives around internal stakeholder management and fighting for budget – when every agency has their own way of doing things from a measurement perspective, it isn’t necessarily that helpful.
It’s a point David Ogiste touched on too, recalling a Glastonbury trip that lived long in the memory. That’s of huge value, but not necessarily captured.
The upshot: measurement has to be more than the moment. Over and above attendance and awareness, we’ve got to look at the longer-term impact of participation, and what that deeper engagement does to purchase behaviour.
It’s something the industry needs to work on as a whole, and something the The Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM) are working on, as pointed out by Emma Kirk.
4. The power of partnerships and collaboration
Great presentation from Sarah Mahoney of PepsiCo and Ashley Stevenson from Live Nation Entertainment about the live music fan journey and why in-person experiences – especially live music – can be one of the most exciting places to engage Gen Z audiences.
Aside from some really interesting insight around the Rockstar journey, and valuable hints and tips around how to best engage people in that context, it reinforced to me the amazing power of long-term partnerships.
We preach the power of collaboration at TRO a lot, and this just served to highlight why. Two partners, hugely invested in each other’s success, working collaboratively to create fantastic experiences. Amen to that.
Collaboration and diversity of thought was something I took out of the session on sparking creativity from Jen Bonassera, MELISSA NOAKES and Karen Swift. Bringing in different perspectives early on. Working with suppliers and partners on programming to add layers and richness. Getting creative, production and delivery aligned from the start to ensure great ideas that can be delivered. Everyone working together towards shared goals. In such a fast-paced channel, collaboration’s a must if you want to stay ahead and deliver the best work.
Overall, it was a day that sparked plenty of ideas, reinforced various existing conversations and once again inspired me about the future of the channel.
It was mentioned that “everyone in every industry is eventually going to have an experience-first strategy” (or words to that effect), which is a direction of travel I can definitely get behind
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