As marketing and advertising industries continue to evolve, it has become increasingly apparent that content will continue to be the bedrock of successful campaigns. Content is the engaging force, the conduit of your message to your intended audience. Best selling author Andrew Davis eloquently states: “Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” In short: Content is the most important facet of your campaign.
As we continue our journey in Experiential Marketing, all too often we find truly groundbreaking technology applications that miss their mark because of a lack of quality content and a coherent story. This experience has helped us in the formation of our process – that in order to have a truly great experience, you must first start with the story.
“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust.
Trust drives revenue.” – Andrew Davis
Here at 900lbs, our roots are grounded in traditional content, cutting our teeth with the Dallas Mavericks. It is in the cavernous stage of the American Airlines Center that we learned the power of harnessing 20,000 screaming fans, and uniting them towards one singe goal. Our content usually takes 2 different tones – funny or motivational, which arms the Mavericks with a video for multiple situations. Intense planning and scripting enables us to minimize costly content mistakes, helping elevate the Dallas Mavericks as the NBA’s premier game-day experience.
Every year we help Activision create unique and compelling storytelling for the GameStop Managers Show, where truly great content is the main differentiator in establishing credibility with the audience. At this conference, GameStop Managers are paraded from one gaming publisher to the next, learning about the year’s upcoming releases and relevant information to help them reach their sales goals. Activision’s presentation must standout amongst the clutter, which is where we come in.
Most recently, we finished working with the Boy Scouts of America in creating content that is as futuristic as the technology being used to view it. For this project, we sought to sought to give prospective Boy Scouts a 1st person experience of being a Boy Scout. We had to reach outside the conventional video capture methods to truly create this immersive experience, and used a new technique to create a 360 degree video for the Oculus Rift. Audiences were able to experience the rush of zip lining down one of the longest zip lines in North America or rafting through West Virginia’s roaring rapids.
Ross Bailey, Senior Associate Athletic Director of Facilities and Operations at TCU, breaks down the experiential audience into 3 distinct categories: The Strider, The Stroller, and the Studier. The Strider will interact with the experience at arms length, typically reading only headlines and is more inclined to a visual experience. The Stroller will get a little more interactive, reading secondary headlines and is generally more interested in the content. The Studier is fully invested in the information and content, and is dead-set on learning from the experience.
The Strider. The Stroller. The Studier.
These different projects highlight the importance of content as we become a more multi-platform society. Giving content life outside of its initial context by using mediums like social media, web applications and events will provide added longevity and efficiency. In the end, content is the high performance engine of the experiential marketing vehicle. The technology applications may bring some glitz and glamour, but it’s the story and purpose behind the campaign that will get you from point A to point B. If your campaign is having trouble reaching its goals, reach out to 900lbs. We have the roadmap to successfully navigate your campaign’s content to maximize its potential, elevating your brand to the heights it deserves.
