Five For Twenty Twenty Five

As 2024 comes to a close and 2025 is on the near horizon, I wanted to pen a final piece and wish you a very Happy New Year for when it arrives.

I’ve never really been much into end of year wrap-up posts and predictions (because our world is hard to predict).

What is easy to predict, however, is that customer behaviours and consumption habits will continue to become more messy, brilliant, strange, diverse and unpredictable than they have ever been. With that, as experience providers, we need more-than-ever to be able to give ourselves the strongest competitive advantage in effectively reaching and impacting our customers.

As we head into a new year, here's "Five For Twenty Twenty Five" that I believe ALL experience provides, in the business of attractions, brand homes and destination based experiences should be considering.

Each of the above have vastly different objectives and purposes, some centred around place and some product, each of the points shared, are applicable for all.

Ready to dig in? ....

1.) Should We Put Down Personalisation in 2025?

Contentious, right?

In short, I don’t believe so. BUT experience providers need to think very carefully about the use of personalisation as we move into a new year.

Because, like many things, personalisation is a growing trend, it can often be included to satisfy ticking a “personalisation box" with little thought given around its design, how it works (if it works) and resulting customer impact.

Very poignant, post-Christmas, but I watched one of my favourite Christmas Movies, Love Actually, over the holidays and the scene with Rowan Atkinson as he (painfully and slowly) personalises the packaging for the gift that Alan Rickman is purchasing (you know THAT gift that we all hope, each time, is going to be for Emma Thompson) - sadly not.

But the point from this iconic, memorable scene is the slow, excruciating process of watching the gift get personalised as we scratch our heads frustratingly thinking “what’s the point” “hurry up” “that’s a bit OTT” or "Is is going to get caught?"...

As I was wandering through an airport (pre-Christmas) there was a personalised experience on offer for passengers. The area of the airport was aesthetically beautiful, the experience display striking and in a strong footfall area. This was during one of the busy travel times of the year with thousands of passengers walking through the airport - presenting brands and hospitality experiences with the option to make many last minute Christmas sales.

I couldn’t help but notice one particular personalisation experience, but most importantly, the lack of people taking part in it. It received a trickle of attention at best and no uptake during the time I was there.

Granted, my walk through was during a short snapshot of time, but during that time I listened to the passengers deliberating around me. Here’s what I heard:

“No, let’s just get them this, it’s less of a faff than waiting for that”

“We haven’t got time to wait for this, we need to get to the gate”

“It seems overpriced just to be able to have this”

"Why would they even want that?"

There was much more.

Fascinating.

I find it fascinating to listen to how experience is received, as opposed to how it was intended. They can vastly differ.

Whilst I’m not advocating dropping personalisation within your experiences in 2025, I am saying carefully think about its use.

Ask of yourself, does it make sense? (not for your attraction, brand home, or destination) but to them, your customers in the exact moment that it makes an appearance.

Including personalisation SHOULD enhance experience, not create friction and overwhelm.

Consider Context.

As I observed at the airport, I couldn’t help but think that this particular experience was largely misplaced. People are often time short in airports anyway as a starting point. Personalisation, in this instance, added more time for customers who are all on "the clock" No doubt, this experience would likely be far more impactful in a less time restricted environment.

Be sure, when including any element of personalisation as a "doing" part of an experience that it is strategically placed where there is enough time for guests to be able to enjoy it. You don't want your customers feeling like Alan Rickman, or us, as we painfully watched Rowan Atkinson personalise that gift, that day.

Enable Enhancement.

Personalisation should enhance, not create friction within an experience, if it is something that becomes clunky and overwhelming as opposed to enhancing, you might want to reconsider its use. Personalisation design is critical and should deeply consider impact on customer outcome.

2.) Become More Polymath.

I’ve long talked about becoming “The Only”, a category-of-one, in a world of many same or similar experiences.

To come up with unique ideas that enable the creation of "The Only" based experiences and, to solve some of your biggest challenges, I believe we need to become far more aware of what we are feeding our brains. Polymathic thinking comes from nourishing our minds with rich and diverse knowledge sources from multiple topic areas.

Polymath: someone who possesses a wide range of knowledge and skills in various fields of study and isn't confined to a single domain.

Categories and industries become stagnant when those within it follow same or similar approaches to experience design, when everyone consumes the same, or similar content and when everyone thinks in similar, singular (industry only) focused ways.

I had a brilliant conversation with a client earlier this year, we delved down a hole of discussing Polymathic thinking and it highlighted how in years gone by, this was a more sharpened skill.

It got us questioning:

Where are all the polymaths these days?

Diversifying knowledge input throughout organisations vastly changes output. It births ideas that wouldn't arise by simply following what others in industry are doing. It grows teams to be far more curious, creative and helps increase commercial opportunity.

Polymathic thinking supports building strong problem solving skills. It helps you to see challenges in unique ways and create non-typical solutions.

Mid-week dips at your destination? Slower shoulder seasons? Not reaching your more discerning guests effectively? this thinking and the development of this skill is critical to help approach these challenges. In 2024 I've worked with teams within attractions and whisky categories to support building these skills. Want to solve some of your biggest challenges in 2025, this is a key skill that your teams can sharpen to can change things.

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A Polymathic brain doesn't happen by chance, it happens by design.

Your entire organisation, your experience and your customers will benefit from developing the skills to "think more polymath".

Brains expand, or shrink, to the proportion of what we feed to them -

Let me ask you: What is the "size" of your organisations brain?

Is it linear and only industry or category focused?

Or, does it see possibility where others don't?

Feed the brains of your teams in diverse ways.

Encourage different thinking.

Become interested in acquiring knowledge that isn't only industry, or category specific.

How Can You Start To "Think Polymath?"

1 - Ask, are you encouraging diverse reading / knowledge gathering from different sources, industries and categories, across your organisation?

A brand I previously worked with created conditions for strong polymathic thinking throughout their organisation, tasking team members, monthly, to pick one unique read, or to be on the look out for one digital or real world "attention grabber" from outside of industry. At the end of each month, leadership cherry picked team members to feedback examples of their single most powerful learning. All learnings were captured digitally in a shared board for access across all organisation departments.

2 - Ask, are you including training that diversifies how brains think, work and support new opportunity creation?

Training niche skills is paramount for all organisations in the business of experience. Training teams to be able to think uniquely and connect dots that seemingly don't connect at first is a critical and often an under-flexed skill.

You can ask me more about this approach.

?3 - Ask, can you invest budget (or switch budget) to get your teams out into real world environments to take part in new, outside-of-industry activities. A change from regular environment to fresh new places creates inspiration and creatively encourages sharpening polymathic thinking skills.

Its critical to widen-the-lens and encourage teams to become a "dot connectors" to develop strong creative and commercial problem solving skills and to be able to build "The Only" based experiences.

3.) Drop What You "Think" Customers Think

Ok, the title sounds jarring, but bear with me.

As we go into 2025, I truly, madly, deeply, hope that all experience providers take this seriously, by stepping back to really look at your customers and the truth of the world that your customers live in as opposed to what you think and say customers think of them.

I have had countless conversations that begin with: "people really care about our brand" or, "people love our destination"...

...They don’t.

(Again, bear with me).

What people really love and care about is how they FEEL when they are at your destination or attraction.

What people really love and care about is what your brand or experience does for them and how it fulfils a need during the moment when you momentarily intersect with them, amongst their lives.

If you provide a great experience in that moment, they might afford you more of their moments.

Your customers are juggling family and friendships, they have multiple priorities. Their lives that are laden with celebrations, worries, tasks, paying the bills, driving kids to school, doctors appointments, work deadlines, school concerts, food shopping, yoga classes, football, birthday’s, anniversaries etc…

You have a wonderful opportunity to make a difference and impact in the lives of your customers, but please have a realistic starting point.?Assumption that a customer truly "loves or cares" puts you at a disadvantage. Elevated assumption of how they feel, oftentimes means we miss things. We can slack on service, fall down on experience, miss the small things, the details, the things that really matter.

Your customers really don’t care about you, until you show them how much you care about them.

Make 2025 the year when you truly empathise with where people are, what they are dealing with, how you can elevate their life experiences when they are with you, rather than leading with “People love us because"...

They simply, don’t.

They are caught up, like you, like me … in life.

Assumption kills experience impact.

Empathy accelerates it.

Let's make 2025 the year we lead with empathy and elevation of experiences rather than assumptions that customers care just because we say they do.

Real world thinking > Blindness.

4.) Oh What's Occurring? ... What A Christmas Day Special and Social Media Told Us About Creating Raving Fans.

If, like me, you are a Gavin and Stacey fan, you will have likely tuned into the finale that culminated years of hilarity on our screens. If not, here’s the viewing headlines that followed:

"The Gavin and Stacey finale attracted an average of 12.3 million TV viewers - the largest Christmas Day audience in more than a decade, overnight data shows" – Source, BBC News

And that was before streaming figures.

After recovering from the stomach ache of laughing (a lot), I took to social media to see what people were saying, I looked at the accounts of the BBC and the cast; James Corden, Rob Brydon, Joanna Page and Matthew Horne (to name a few), the comments were flooding in on their posts.

I found myself writing under one of James Corden posts “It Was Immense” – Job Well Done, Congratulations!

For those of you who have watched the series, you’ll know that “It was Immense” is one of the catchphrases frequently used by Ruth Jones hilarious character, Nessa.

As I scrolled through the other comments, it filled me with warmth and there was a real sense of unity and being a part of something beyond the programme, as thousands of fans were quoting favourite quotes from the show in the comments:

“Tidy”

“Oh My Christ”... What An Ending!

“Cracking” ... that is all.

“Just Lush”

“That, Was Epic”

"Truth Be Told, I Loves It"

And many, many more catchphrases from the show, amongst endless praise from viewers where the consensus was that it was the perfect ending to years of brilliance.

Back to the catchphrase thing...

It’s all language isn’t it.

When fans unite in concert stadiums and listen to their favourite artists, they sing the words, united, back to them. When football fans join at a game, chants are shared and sporting songs sang in unison.

Language creates shared connection beyond simply the thing itself. Words are powerful, they unite, create strength, make people feel “a part of something” much bigger, not simply an individual customer or a "one-time guest" of it.

So whilst 12.3 million of us all separately watched our screens as the finale unfolded, the sense of being united built strong momentum on social media afterwards.

Shared experience is powerful for creating not simply customers of your experiences, but united fans who feel a part of something.

As we go into 2025, think about the language within your experiences.

I’m not just talking about storytelling here.

I’m talking about language your customers can take hold of, with ease, and roll off the tip of their tongues.

What is your experiences “That was tidy” or “That was immense” or “cracking”?

Can you design language within your experiences that you don’t just story tell to your customers, but language that involves them as a part of the storytelling and makes them want to speak or “metaphorically sing” the words back to you?

Ask, what catchphrase(s) can you easily implement within your attraction, brand home, or destination experience as a seamless part of the story, that delivers the same joy and creates united fans when your customers take to social media?

I saw an interesting post around a month ago from James Watt, of a not dissimilar vein, where he talked about putting some of the worst things people had said about Brew Dog onto Merchandise: See post “In 2017 we took some of the worst things people wrote about us - and turned them into merch” HERE

Bold and Fun.

Perhaps not your thing and I’m not for one minute suggesting gathering negative reviews to achieve united customers and shared experience, but what I am saying is that similar to the impact of Gavin and Stacey, what Brew Dog did here was create a movement beyond individual customers, it united them through language.

You can do the same.

Whilst you’re planning storytelling strategies for 2025 within your experiences, be sure to think about including space for language crafting that your customers can easily recall and unite with other customers in shared experience, digitally. That’s how you build a movement, that’s how you create raving fans for your attractions, brand homes and destinations.

You can ask me more about this!

And finally… and I’m keeping this very short.

5.) Pre-and-Post: Wins The Race.

If you are not intentionally building pre-and-post experience design into your experiences in 2025, please revisit them.

They’re essential for growth.

They set up your experience for success and they create strong conditions for continuation, revisit and recommendation.

The pre-experience builds guest anticipation, gets the dopamine firing long before guests even set foot into your experience, and can create the commercial outcomes you desire, with skilled, intentional design.

I recently wrote a post about this HERE?

Your experience doesn’t begin and end in your physical location, it starts way before and finishes long after.

Signing Off Until Next Year.

To wrap up, for one last time on LinkedIn this year…

A personal thank you to those who welcomed me so warmly to Scotland this year through a huge transition and relocation.

To clients, peers and friends, it has been a great year, a year of learning, creating, building the foundations for new experiences, bold thinking, immersing myself into this exceptional place and personal and professional growth.

I’m looking forward to the next year in this wonderful country that I’m now able to call home and continuing to shape experiences with you all across attractions, brand homes and destinations.

Happy Hogmanay & wishing you all a wonderful 2025 ahead.

Slàinte Mhath.