The Power of Experiences-And Why Every Business Is Going To Depend On It

For the past twenty years, my job has been to create once-in-a-lifetime experiences for people.

When I started my first company, Tuchman Sports Enterprises (TSE), in 1997, it was an innovator in its field as one of the first companies to create bespoke experiences for people to attend live sporting and entertainment events. It also happened to be a year before James Gilmore and Joseph Pine penned their prescient Harvard Business Review article on what they termed the emerging “Experiential Economy.” I had no idea at the time, but I was embarking on a road that the entire global economy was heading toward.

A Simple Baseball Game That Was Anything But

The stage was set for my career path during my freshman year of college. By far the most exciting part of the first year at Boston University was that my dorm, Warren Towers, was just a few blocks from Fenway Park. I’ll never forget that warm September night when I found myself outside of Fenway for the first time before a Red Sox game. I can still feel the adrenaline when I think back about walking around Kenmore Square and Lansdowne Street. I wandered aimlessly, taking it all in as I searched for a ticket to my first game at Fenway. I felt alive, completely engrossed by the energy of people hustling all around. I still have vivid memories of fans piling out of the Cask ‘n Flagon bar, the street vendors selling sausage and peppers and, of course, the brokers hawking tickets. I was swept up by the excitement of a simple baseball game – and I was hooked. Fenway Park and the streets around the stadium became my classroom. Little did I know that those first several weeks around Fenway Park would have more of an impact on my career than the following four years of college.

 I so enjoyed my time hanging around Fenway that I thought it would be a dream if I could actually get a job at the stadium. I couldn’t imagine anything better than being inside Fenway Park for every Red Sox game. So, in the spring of my sophomore year, I applied for a job with the Red Sox working as part of the security team. Even though I was from New York, I got the job. I learned quickly that this was going to be quite different from all those other experiences I had had at Fenway. My job was to literally stand outside the suite of Lou Gorman, the Red Sox General Manager, and make sure no one bothered him. I ended up spending my summer staring at Lou Gorman’s closed door. Every few innings, he would pop out and give me the score. While I enjoyed being in the park, this was not what I had envisioned. It taught me that not everyone has a similar experience at the same event. I also realized that somehow, some way, I was going to spend my life providing people with amazing experiences. I just had no idea at the time how I was going to make that happen.

My Aha! Moment

I ended up taking a job at Lehman Brothers after graduating from college, but I knew right away that I wasn’t passionate about finance. While other recent graduates were enthusiastically reading stock charts of McDonald’s and General Motors, I was completely miserable. Unlike so many others on Wall Street, I had no interest in making money to buy the new car or the big house in the Hamptons. I was more like the millennial colleagues in my office today, interested in acquiring real-life experiences over material goods. I realized “things” were never going to make me happy – but sharing experiences with others would.

So, as I wallowed on Wall Street that first year out of school and thought daily on how to get into the sports business, I was fortunate enough to have my greatest once-in-a-lifetime sports experience. I had the chance to witness the New York Rangers 1994 Stanley Cup run, attending every playoff game at Madison Square Garden. Clinching the Stanley Cup in game seven at MSG was the greatest sporting experience of my life (I’m still waiting for the Jets to make the Super Bowl). That experience reaffirmed my passion for live events and I became even more desperate to find a way to make those types of experiences part of my work.

In 1995, I finally got a job in sports. I joined Sports Profiles, a company that published local sports magazines in New York, Chicago and L.A. I sold magazine ads. It took me only a couple of months to realize that my clients cared less about the ads they were buying and more about the experiences they got as perks for doing a deal with us. Buyers were more interested in the location of the tickets they got from us to the Knicks or Yankees than the location of their ad in the magazine. We were charging them for ads when the client was really paying for the experience.

That was my lightbulb moment for a business idea. Why not solely focus on selling experiences to attend major sporting events? Forget about the ads that it seemed nobody wanted and just sell the experiences. 

The Rise of The Experience Economy

As Pine and Gilmore started promoting the idea of their “Experience Economy,” I was becoming living proof of it. I had started a business that was a prime example of opportunity in this new economy. People craved experiences and they needed someone to provide them the access. Really, though, I just wanted to share in these great memories that people were creating.

 At the time, getting a client two seats and a couple of hot dogs at a game was considered a good experience. I knew there was an opportunity to give people better experiences – and I was confident there would be a huge demand. I wanted to be the one to provide access and incredible service to make it an unforgettable experience. Corporations also understood that they could build relationships by inviting customers to attend these experiences with them. It’s no coincidence that at the time, stadiums were being torn down and rebuilt in record number with luxury suites and premium options front of mind, as opposed to just maximizing the number of seats. 

Although my product was an experience, what I was really selling were memories. I would ask clients to imagine being at the Super Bowl or the Kentucky Derby – think about being there with your client or your child and the memory you will share with them forever. It was easy to be passionate because I truly believed in what I was selling. Obviously, there was no social media at the time, but that has added an entirely new dimension to how people share their special experiences. Back then, you displayed the ticket stub in the office, or photo on the mantlepiece with some big celebrity at the Super Bowl. Today, Instagram accounts are social currency to show the world: Look where I am, at the Super Bowl with Adam Levine!

Inspiring Stories

I am blessed to have spent the past twenty years getting to see people enjoy their own memorable personal experiences. I have many favorites, including a close friend who took her mom to the Masters. They came from a family of avid golfers and never dreamed it was possible to actually step foot on Augusta National, the mecca of golf courses. They were shocked when I told them I could make it happen. I myself was the son who took his father to see the Yankees clinch the 1996 World Series. It’s a moment I fondly recall about my father, who has since passed. But my all-time favorite was when I was able to secure special VIP access to Radio City Christmas Spectacular in New York for a son of my former client from Eastman Kodak Company. My client was dying of cancer and his son wrote me a beautiful note a few weeks later, about how that night was the last great time he spent with his dad. I still have the note pinned to my wall at work.

Transformational Experiences = Happiness

Today, “experiential” has become paramount in all aspects of life. Several recent studies find that it is experiences, and not material goods, that make people happy. The smartest companies are using experiences to drive entire business strategies. Look at the industry leaders that are dominating today – Apple, Disney, Starbucks, American Express and Sephora, just to name a few. They were all early adopters of selling an experience. The best marketers understand that positive interactions with their products will create memorable experiences for their customers. More recently, companies such as Peloton, Drybar and Rent the Runway have thrived by offering experiences that help their customers to feel good about themselves. The most astute business leaders know that great experiences have the ability to transform people’s lives. And while experiences are felt for a period of time, transformations can last a lifetime. Companies that are able to transform people with their offerings will be operating in what Pine and Gilmore believe to be the next-level economic stage after Experiences, called Transformations. These companies will offer experiences that inspire people to change for the better. Any brand that can do that will most likely own that customer for life.

Long gone are the days where companies developed “one size fits all” products for consumers. Today, companies have to start by determining what value they can bring to the individual customer. As Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, sums it up: “In the experience economy, seven billion consumers are in the driver’s seat like never before. Emotion drives behavior, loyalty, satisfaction. People make buying decisions based on a range of factors, not just price. We embrace brands that embody our dreams and shun those that fall short. This has serious repercussions for organizations of all shapes and sizes.” Pine and Gilmore were visionaries when they identified this twenty years ago. I was just lucky to stumble upon it.

I am grateful that my career has led me down this experiential road. Every day, I get to work with individuals and brands to create amazing emotional connections. It’s no surprise that today I find myself living on the same block as the Beacon Theatre in New York City, where each night I get to come home and relive the experience I felt back at Fenway Park.