If you want your audience to have great memories, you need a big ending.

‘People will forgive anything at the start of a movie and nothing at the end’?Old Hollywood idiom.

When it comes to movies, everyone knows the ending counts. It’s the climax, the resolution and - whether you know it or not - the part that will most affect your overall lasting memory of it. This is because we're hardwired to remember the emotional peak and the end of any experience the most vividly. In psychology this is called peak-end theory and was first advanced by the Nobel prize winning psychologist?Daniel Kahneman.

As with all the best theories it’s intuitively true. Imagine going to a Beyoncé concert where she played all her biggest hits in the first thirty mins and then finished with filler tracks, it would suck! Even though you heard all the same songs, you would remember the overall experience far more negatively because the peak and ending are worse.?

This format?of building to a peak and resolution is also the core of almost all narrative storytelling structures, including the most famous of all:?The?Hero's Journey. And most forms of entertainment from tv, movies and theatre to books, gaming and sports are designed to build towards big endings.

But if endings are so important, why do so many brand experiences finish when you’re bored enough to leave? You know how it goes, you enter the doors and it looks amazing - but after queuing for a couple of activations and grabbing a snack and?freebie?you get more and more bored until you do one.

One issue is that even though the goal of the experience is entertainment,?the structure of these experiences are often?not inspired by?entertainment formats but alternative societal forms, like shopping (The Pop-up), art?galleries (The Installation) or Conferences (The Workshop). Another, perhaps bigger, issue is that the logistics around pushing a large number of consumers through an experience but controlling how it ends for each of them can be challenging.

But there?are?solutions, guests can be allowed in batches and for shorter controlled durations. Environments can change and shift, using dynamic sets and lighting to build intensity. Exit activations can give final surprise and delight moments as well as satisfyingly wrapping up key stories and narratives for guests. Human interactions with ambassadors and staff can be planned to evolve over the duration and gifting and takeaways can land final messaging and goodwill.?

The most important thing is that when your audience leaves the room, they should want more. Not less.?

So next time, you're planning an experience, ask yourself, what is the ending for our guests? And if you don’t have a good one, you could be doing better.