In the renaissance days of the self-help book, a global bestseller was Chicken Soup for the Soul. It was full of stories that could “open the heart and rekindle the spirit”, long before ‘wellbeing’ became a 5.6 trillion-dollar industry. The paperback hit tapped into the idea that we need to maintain and nourish ourselves, however, in the 21st century we’re fighting against digital overload. And it’s not just the adults in the room needing self-help books. Anyone with kids glued to their screens can attest that we’re all in the same boat! As a consequence, this need to nourish is intensified. It’s no surprise that our screen-addicted kids are spending over £150 to own some pretty low-tech (but so sick) Walkman spin-offs to try and compensate in this new age of digital alienation.
As my friends & I recently began to unearth our 30-year-old DJ mixtapes for a fresh listen, a familiar thought entered my head. We crave the physical. Young or old, it’s a human need. It seems there is a huge (even primeval) need to interact, engage, experience and connect in the physical world with physical things. We’re not made for Zoom calls and in-screen interaction. And we know it. This summer, nearly a quarter of a million people again made the annual pilgrimage to Glastonbury, a mecca for creating ‘unique’ and interesting experiences culturally and socially. It’s not just kids who are addicted to screens and need an escape.
In the events and experiential world, we continue learning from this and taking in some ‘chicken soup for the soul’ ourselves. But the process requires thought. If events made things better by simply existing in the physical world, this would be easy. The question is, even though the event is in the physical space we occupy, how do we make the experience genuinely nourishing for the soul?
A Feast for the Senses
Step one: We must maximise the sensory experience. It was heartening to read about the many excellent activations brought to life by experiential professionals adopting this approach. In LLB’s article Experiential Marketing: A Feast for the Eyes, Ears and Soul, Andy Sexton from 2LK used the phrase “primal storytelling” in describing a creative approach that put a purer level of interaction over and above “digital saturation”. A shoutout to Collaborate’s Andy Walker too, who called out how even physical events can become areas for “passive media consumption”. If you build it, that doesn’t mean that they will necessarily come. Outstanding experiential work comes from putting yourself in the shoes of the visitor, over & above the commodity, message or idea that the activation is trying to sell. Once you’re there, the focus is on how the user experience can be tangibly maximised, even if that means using tech. We’ve all seen events with pop-up banners, promotional stress balls, or guests wearing oversized sunglasses giggling in photo booths. Please, no more. Focus on the senses and go from there.
Don’t Start Boring or You’ll Get Boring
I’ve been inspired by the imaginative insights of Grant Dudson on LinkedIn. As he says, you’ve got to know “how to wow”. A key to that is being able to start outside the box and work your way back into the realms of reality & possibility. KGA production brains have encountered rigorous tests here, having received many an outlandish brief over the years. “We’d like a giant inflatable roller coaster next to Tower Bridge with a food truck in the Thames and flying ice cream refreshments, please. Budget: £50k; Timeframe: 4 weeks.
But expectation management aside, I’d rather have conversations around real artistic vision and wildly bold ideas, around exciting people, than around something creatively borderline and budgetarily out of scope. Think just outside the box and KGA will bring you just inside the boundary of the possible - where lies the essence of an innovative event.
What’s the Takeaway for Brands and PRs?
We know that experiential can take audiences away from the hustle & bustle of digital media by crafting authentic experiences that are meaningful and memorable. But while embracing that, hold onto the notion that our need to experience is primeval and not just a slice of the marketing or PR pie. By focusing on the deeper audience needs, explore ways to engage their senses and elicit emotions. Rather than approaching the activation as a tick-box exercise, work with an open mind and then bring it back into the realms of possibility. Chicken Soup for the Soul was published in the early nineties, but a 21st-century injection of real-world experiences may provide the secret ingredient.
Dan Keam-George is Founder and Director of KGA
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