HOW TO BE EXPERIENTIAL DURING A TIME OF ISOLATION

Beyond the obvious concern for those directly afflicted by COVID-19, I’ve been feeling deeply for all my peers, family and clients in the business of events and experiential - who are canceling, postponing and in some cases having to lay off employees. While respecting the undercurrent of anxiety permeating our society right now, I’m also compelled to applaud the human instinct to do the right thing. We will never know if we overreacted, but we will know that as a society we can still come together and fight for the survival of our most vulnerable citizens. I’m already quite impressed with the proactive nature in which the many brands, communities and orgs I follow are taking action to minimize spread and educate their followers. Perhaps this will light a fire under other crucial issues facing humanity.

In the meantime, let’s unleash creative problem solving to keep our communities thriving and engaged while our natural instinct to congregate is disrupted. Perhaps there will be a variety of butterflies that emerge on the flip side of this cocoon we are all entering. What is experiential? People want to be inspired, surprised, caught up in something, introduced to something new, comforted - experiential is to feel something elevated. While we will suffer the absence of cultural events the next few months (and I have many ideas on how to fill that void), I’ve been also having a lot of conversations the past few days about how to evolve IRL brand marketing activation concepts into something to fit our temporary new normal to keep engagement (and $) flowing.

Here are a few thought-starter ideas and I encourage you to toss some of your own into my comments (regardless of your profession or art):

• Old school snail mail baby. Get your hands on a mailing list through a partner and send them something unexpected.
• Bring music to the burbs, parade a flatbed truck or windowed RV through neighborhoods like an ice cream truck
• Tap into the "Get Lost & Find Yourself" zeitgeist by aligning marketing with the David Cross / Debra Messing film The Dark Divide
• Take over a Firefly fleet. Have them swarm neighborhoods with distinct, geo-tagged messages.
• Engage people individually IRL or online but give them all a part of a puzzle they have to solve collectively online
• Tap into the popularity of alternate reality games
• Align with IRL communities (from co-working spaces like Second Home to bird watching groups) to develop online programming together.
• Work with the festivals who had to cancel their events to brainstorm new ideas that can support their artists. Run competitions or emerging talent, engage audiences to choose the winners.
• Align with hybrid communities that are offline and online like Ivy. Give them the resources to launch more expensive digital ideas or programming in collaboration with you.
• Create think tanks that anyone can join. Run a contest with something real world at stake
• Create online hackathons with the likes of Capital Royale
• Make art together . . .partner with Hitrecord or DeviantArt. Create a store for brand fan art merch (people will wear/use their goods with pride once they can go back in public)
• Impromptu online concerts with big acts – announce day of or before for that element of surprise. A digital rave with viral invites. Run a roulette like program to let fans engage with the talent
• Online film festivals with Q&A’s. Documentaries in particular. A small topical summit.
• Work with Laugh Lounge app to bring the live comedy experience into homes
• Create a club or membership around something tied to your brand’s values, give the followers content and tasks
• Start a movement (whether local or global) for the sake of bettering the world (similar to REI Opt-Outside)
• Create a scavenger hunt or some other game, or meaningful exercise (including actual exercise) to get them out of their house, into the woods - even if in isolation.
• Grow the virtual reality community

Just a few off the cuff ideas to riff on. Always happy to explore ideas or the "how" further with any of you. Whatever you do – think about how it can be supported with a neatly designed integrated campaign to reach people in all aspects of their daily lives. Remember, events won't be dead for ever so whatever you do - it can be designed to have a long tail that will activate at festivals, fairs or pop-ups once we come out the other side.