Convergent Experiential

Convergent Experiential

Blur the lines between physical, digital and hybrid

So much has changed all at once. Don’t settle for back-to-normal events or hybrid bolt-ons. This is our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to converge event platforms, technologies, and tools into harmonious customer experiences.

In this article, you will:

• Discover engagement mapping: an event planning methodology that weaves the goals of brands and audience needs into engaging events and experiences.
• Explore previously-impossible engagement tactics forged from the fires of the pandemic. See examples from real brands realizing limitless possibilities and measuring their success.
• Walk away with convergent strategies you can apply at the onset of your next product launch, campaign, or event. Feel ready for what’s next, empowered with everything from a big-picture mindset to a handy checklist.

Read on, or we invite you to experience the article immersively: CLICK TO EXPERIENCE.

Paintings in the Lascaux caves in France are one of the earliest known examples of pictorial storytelling. They were created by fire light tens of thousands of years ago.

Since at least then, human beings have gathered with one another, as we gather today, using the available technologies to exchange ideas and tell stories.

Storytelling is inherent to who we are. How we communicate with one another. How we express ideas and interpret our experiences.?

The pandemic will surely mark an evolutionary leap for event marketing. We've seen greater change in human behavior than any of us have seen or likely will see again.

In the years ahead, we’ll gather face-to-face like we always have. But the technologies developed over the last two years will allow us to reach audiences at home, and around the globe, like never before.

What hasn’t changed, is our innate human desire to gather with each other—as well as our affinity for exchanging ideas and stories with one another.

It’s one thing to draw deer on the wall with finger paint. It’s quite another to be in a room, like a board or conference room, trying to galvanize an entire organization of intelligent people in developing and sharing the story of a brand.

That’s hard. We know we need to take risks in order to stand out and be remembered by audiences. But risk-taking must be balanced with strategy (and budget). And making those decisions with a group of people takes time and effort. All of a sudden, ‘telling stories’ doesn’t sound as romantic.

That’s where we reach for the shiny new tech, in hopes we’ll stand out. Or we default to what we did before—at least that’s easy and predictable. The story though, and the human connection, gets lost. Our experience is expected, mundane and forgettable.

We’re going to show you another way. An approach we call Convergent Experiential and a collaborative creative process we call Engagement Mapping we use to balance brand objectives with audiences’ desires to create unforgettable experiences that tell a story—and memorable outcomes you can experience.

So, how do you actually apply this Convergent Experiential approach?

If you only take one thing away from this article, let it be this: “Start with the story.” Because storytelling transcends industry trends. It is deeper than ideas like “hybrid” and “virtual.” It cuts to the core of how we connect with each other as people.

Think about the last road trip you took with friends or family. Who made the plans? What route did you pick? Of course, you knew you couldn't plan every detail of how the trip would go (a stunning viewpoint, or hole-in-the-wall restaurant along the way for instance). But you had a framework.

Designing convergent experiences works kind of like planning a road trip. We use a framework. There are twists and turns, unexpected stops along the way—and eventually, you get to your destination. On the journey often some?of the best moments are the ones you never could have imagined. But it’s our framework that gets us there.?

Engagement Mapping is our framework for convergent experiential. It’s a simple workshop that merges brand objectives with audience needs. And leaves room for those unpredictable, imperfect, and beautifully human moments.?

It’s pretty simple. First, we get the decision-makers together. Management, Sales, the Brand team, IT and Creative too. Then we ask 4 questions that break human experience down to 4 core components: Perception, Understanding, Emotion, and Action.?

Question #1: Perception

What do we want the audience to think about our brand? Maybe it’s that we’re disruptive, innovative, or inclusive, for instance. The ideas we want them to have.??

Question #2: Understanding

The facts we want them to leave with. What do we want the audience to know? It could be a product launch, our customer-service awards, or important case studies.?

Question # 3: Emotion

What do we want the audience to feel as a result of their experience? An experience designed to inspire trust will feel very different than one aimed at stirring anticipation. It’s important to be thoughtful about this.

Question # 4: Action

What do we want them to do during, and as a result of the experience? To demo a new product, for instance. Or invite us to a meeting with their executive team. The right outcome varies a lot from brand-to-brand.?

From there, we’ll overlay the audience experience onto a Journey Map.?

The journey map includes touch points we know our event is going to have. For instance; Social Media, Pre-Event Promo, Arrival, Hospitality, Networking, Entertainment, Demonstrations, Post-Event Follow-Up.

And it allows us to identify the best places on that journey to tell the stories we know are important from our Engagement Mapping workshop. For instance; Product Launch, Brand Equity, Our Customer Story, Partnership, Social Responsibility, or Company Culture.

Now, we can envision an epic journey through our brand experience, in which the audience is the main character.

And that journey is probably a mix of IRL, virtual, and hybrid experiences. But we’ve arrived at what those experiences are very thoughtfully, and for good reason.

“To me, marketing is about values. It’s a complicated world. It’s a noisy world. And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear about what we want them to know about us.” — Steve Jobs

?Psychologist Jerome Bruner found we are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it’s been wrapped in a story.

Stanford’s Graduate School of Business found when people listen to pitches with either facts+figures OR a story, 5% remember the stat, while a striking 63% remember the story.

Regardless of the latest trends, technologies or tools out there (and they’ll always be changing), if we direct our focus and energy on telling a story, we’ll have a better chance of connecting with our audiences in meaningful ways.

The process isn’t easy. It takes time, collaboration and creative thinking. It’s work—we know, because it’s at the heart of our process here at Pinnacle. But worth it. And we want to help.

We invite you to experience this article in 3D where you can explore and download:

• Think | Know | Feel | Do worksheet
• Engagement Mapping guide with questions & prompts to ask yourself and teams
• Sample Customer Journey

We hope you embrace the idea of convergent experiential—starting with the story, designing the journey and trusting we have all the tools and technologies needed to pull it off.?

And if you get stuck, call us.