Pop quiz! What do Meow Wolf, Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, Disney Imagineering and Ringling Bros. have in common? They have all sought out today’s guest as a consultant.
But the master of the day is … actually not a master in Marketing at all. In fact, he has never worked one day in marketing. But he literally wrote the book about interactive performance.
And when marketing leaders pour great budgets into branded experiences, live events and interactive brand activations, you want to hear what he has to say.
Name: Jeff Wirth, co -founder of the interactive Playlab
Job: Design, directs and consult on interactive experiences, virtual world applications and live immersive fiction
Claim of fame: Did you see The list of companies he has worked with?!
Fun Fact: Started his career as a clown to Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus
Lesson 1: Begin at the end.
When designing your interactive experience, Wirth first recommends to think about what you want participants to go away with. No, not a shopping bag full of MERCH. Think more philosophically.
“What do you want people to understand after the activation they didn’t understand before?“
For Meow Wolf or Cirque du Soleil it may discover a childlike feeling of amazement. For a fire -activation or marketing event it will be … something no less deep, actually.
Of course, you can aim at them to go away with some product info – if you want them to forget it when they get back to their car. Really memorable experiences aim for something more in -depth.
Wirth says Step 2 asks: “How do we do it, so we don’t tell them what to understand? We create a context within which they have an opportunity to discover to.”
This context is the skeleton for your event or experience design.
But Wirth emphasizes that this must only be an option – to try to force a participant to a particular conclusion, for his mind, both unethical and potentially harmful. Which brings us to lesson 2.
Lesson 2: Strengthen your participants to think for themselves.
“Put the priority on the participant’s capacity to think for yourself“Advises Wirth.
As an anti-example, he shares the story of a pharmaceutical company that approached him to create an interactive experience. As Wirth demanded that the experience present their product among a number of options, the company quickly supported.
It’s a mistake. Aside from being ethically questionable, rail a participant will certainly lead to an experience that is forgetful At best – At worst, it can be detrimental to the participant and your brand.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give your participants anything to think sore. Wirth explains that if you want people to play, give them enough to play with.
What’s more, “You have to give them the experience they can play and succeed with it.”
In other words, your experience should give enough context that your participants know how to play – and can even feel implementation – but not so much that they simply follow instructions.
Lesson 3: Play is not just for children.
Games can be a strong component of a live event. But “play” means different things to different people.
You can play a game. You can play around. You can play together. These have all different nuances of meaning that affect what your participants are asked to do and what they get out of your event.
You have to decide what type of game earns the context you defined in Lesson 1. For Wirth’s experiences, play means “make-faith for empowerment.”
Why make-faith? It is a difficult word to put in front of the stakeholders.
“One, you get the opportunity to be more authentic. Because you don’t have to keep the mask, it’s how you present yourself to the community. “
And two? Make faith gives you “the ability to have deeper empathy for people who are not like you.”
“When you play make-faith, it doesn’t have to win and lose. The joy is simply creating faith. “
And as for what a participant goes away with, “Joy” is a pretty good bag of Merch.
