Ryan Learns Experiential Marketing: Ryan Learns Something Episode 6 - YouTube

this episode is bananas b a n a n a s can we get Gwen Stefani somewhere like can we

interview her? on this episode of Ryan learns something we're going to be

talking about guerilla marketing which nowadays people call it experiential

marketing or engagement marketing but we're going to look at how, you know,

small-scale graffiti artists do their type of marketing all the way up to big

brands doing ginormous events and we're going to get weird in a gorilla

suit. Let's talk about guerrilla marketing the term was coined by a big-time

Chicago ad man named Jay Conrad Levinson he wrote a book about it in the 80's creative

title Jay. The concept was simple do something unexpected to get a lot of

people talking about your brand but guerrilla marketing tactics existed long

before someone finally gave them a name and wrote a book about them there's the

Goodyear blimp, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

more recently brands have taken guerrilla marketing to the next level literally

Mini Cooper stuck their cars on the sides of buildings

Domino's delivered pizza by drone, and Red Bull live-streaming a guy

sky diving from the edge of space, now guerrilla marketing doesn't have to

cost a fortune to work it could be as cheap as a restaurant flyer stuck under

your windshield wiper or as simple as putting up a few posters

wild postings are one of the oldest forms of market check out this

watercolor from 1835, look familiar? and today non-traditional marketers have

an important tool in their hands- the Internet. From flash mobs to viral videos to

hashtags on social media, technology has allowed the interaction to extend well

beyond a single physical location. The latest trend is experiential marketing

where brands create unique experiences and invite people to participate like

TNT's push for drama stunt or Dove's Choose Beautiful campaign , or when the Simpsons took over a

dozen 7-elevens and turn them into kwik-e-marts, it just goes to show that

brands are continually trying to reinvent the way they can get our attention

earn our devotion and sell us more stuff now, where's my red bull? So I got one book

on experiential marketing it's called experiential marketing go

figure and I started reading it and it wasn't my favorite read but yeah if you

want some information it's alright I'm going to go try and find something on

YouTube I feel like it might be more worth my time

this video makes it seem like guerilla marketing is just like the dad joke of the

marketing world just like puns

I found some great examples but I think it's probably best to just go talk to an

expert good morning it's 4:30 in the morning, going

to meet with one of the best experience based marketing firms in Los Angeles they're

called BeCore I've got some questions for them we're also going to go eat my

favorite chicken and waffles at Roscoe's that's number one item on the

agenda

when you come to LA you have to hit up Roscoe's chicken waffles and chicken and

waffles is becoming a theme around here

they hype is definitely real

I looked at a bunch of different street art I saw Banksy a ton of Shepard

Fairey's we went to the Paul Smith building which is like normally it's

just a pink wall but somebody had tagged it like the night before it made this

like weird juxtaposition that they were having to repaint over the graffiti

which is funny because that's basically what the wall is to begin with is this art

piece then we went to BeCore, BeCore is a

really rad company they do a ton of big large scale and small scale experience

based marketing projects we are BeCore incorporated we're an experiential

marketing agency here in Los Angeles California we specialize in creating an

experience and an interchange that helps people appreciate that brand product or

service talk about graffiti artists and how I mean they were kind of kind of where you

guys came out of right experienced marketing kind of started with these

street team guerrilla marketing type things that's as guerrilla as it gets for sure

although it's becoming more and more acceptable I like the way Banksy put it

you know people look at him as if he's a criminal because he puts his art up in

places that nobody asked him to be his response is marketers are shoving their

message at me they're inserting their message everywhere I go I didn't ask for

that I didn't get approval to have your message pasted on every square inch of

where I go why is it different for what I'm doing the term guerrilla marketing

kind of arose out of a non-traditional approach to kind of insert yourself into

the conversation what we do is probably the opposite of guerrilla I think we're

trying to create a compelling environment that spontaneous moments can

happen and it could be anything from a pop-up shop or a mobile tour or a skate

park on a barge or a PR stunt it's non-traditional still what we do so it's

not just speaking at someone but we're speaking with them but I think the

biggest challenge comes to you can see a picture of a blueberry pie and I can

tell you how delicious it is and encourage you to try it and hope that you will and tell

your friends or I can slice the pie up and give you a piece and hand it out I'm

going to walk away knowing if I want this or not because of that when

experiential is authentic it's enjoyable because what you're doing is you're

providing a service that the people want most consumers are really easily

delighted if it's a brand that they really love and they feel like that

brand gets them doesn't always have to be big as long as it's meaningful and

three simple things that you should focus on who do you want to talk to where are you

going to find that person what's a great way to demonstrate what it is you're

doing we take all of the research and the strategy and then we do

a big brainstorm and so that's where we start getting into the creative ideas

and figuring out what we want to do everything in the entire world is a

beginning of a brainstorm for an experience there's always a period when

we ideating where we let ourselves get really crazy and I think that's the

really fun part is to be like oh my god that is a crazy idea and just go as far

as we can so what's the best solution first let's just start with the best

solution for this issue or this problem this challenge we start reverse

engineering we'll try and find a way to make it work because what we're doing is

so non-traditional it hasn't been done before and so that's really the trick of

how do we show this to the client something that's never been done before

and never been made in a way that they can imagine it and see it coming to life

and understand what that experience is going to be with people so that they can

dream with us what the possibility of what we're actually going to build will

be how do you guys quantify results? whether that success failure or how do

you figure out and something's done well? what are the goals what's the definition

of success where are we going what's our demographic or a number of qualifiers we

decide what that is I think in the best situation and experiencial campaign

includes the digital team how do we quantify that emotional connection that

then leads to the digital because that is where those hard numbers come in five

years ago you weren't talking about social extensions and digital extensions

and it was a lot harder to measure how successful experiential was I see the

future of experiential marketing hands down as the future of marketing I don't

think that social will stand alone I don't think traditional will stand alone

I think it's all going to come under an umbrella where all of these

pieces are talking to each other because that's the only way where you're telling

this story that all of the pieces make sense and talk to each other together

and then you're having this authentic conversation with the public and that's

where you get a really really powerful campaign that lasts with people and

really changes how they feel about you as a brand I put on a freaking gorilla

suit and I went and gave out free bananas let me explain a little more to

test some of what I learned at BeCore I have an experiment I want to do

something that's experiential and will also delight people so I'm going to put

on a gorilla suit and hand out free bananas that's that's more what I'm

doing not that was a bad explanation

that's what we call passion you know I put my sweat into this I'm done people don't

want to take your free stuff because they're like eh, is this a gimmick? what's in it

for me? Like what do I have to do for it? and I was just giving out free bananas but

what was funny was I went to one corner and there were these girls and a guy

handing out cards for I don't know they were selling something and they were

handing out postcards no one was taking the postcards but I gave out a ton of

bananas on the corner and I think it's two reasons I think because one it's

goofy as crap because I was in the gorilla suit and two because being in a

gorilla suit there didn't have to be a full-blown interaction that it was just

kind of assumed like oh I don't have to talk to you I can just take your banana

so it kind of eliminated the awkwardness and kind of just opened I think it

opened up people's bubble a little more so the one thing I would change about

the gorilla suit was I just wanted to experiment and see if people would take

the bananas but the one thing I would add is maybe a call to action or some

way of letting them know what we were doing the sign did say Ryan Learns

Something so maybe they'll go google it but so this has been a crazy episode I

flew to Los Angeles saw a bunch of cool street art I talked to BeCore which is

an amazing agency who does this experience-based marketing and then I

came back and I put on a freaking gorilla costume and gave out free

bananas and it's just been a crazy cool experience and I've actually learned a

lot so here's my takeaways so number one it can scale you can start small and go

as big as you want but even if you have like $10 you can figure something out

and that's the coolest part about experience or guerilla marketing like

I'm not going to tell you to do anything illegal but you could probably do some

illegal things that's probably okay Shepard Fairey did it he's been arrested

he's core you think Banksy gives a crap? Banksy don't give a crap although I

think that Banksy is mr. brainwash so number two it's all about the relationship

you're wanting to create an emotional connection with whoever you're trying to

connect with an experience-based marketing like that's that's like the

core of it right you want to go and do these things that are on your brand

whether that's using artwork or you're trying to break the mundane of their day

while they're walking on the street and get them to remember who you are

and that's the basis of guerrilla or experience marketing so number three use

technology but don't use it as like a crutch social media and things like that

are a multiplier so you have to have the main event to multiply that message so

you got to go out and do something really cool and you can use technology

and BeCore talked about even like RFID and things like that so you can measure

the impressions there but don't worry so much about the backend of like what are

we getting out of it because it's all about that actual experience and the

relationship you built there and then use technology as much as you can within

that but don't use it as like the sole purpose of doing what you're doing

Alright here's what I spent this episode I bought a gorilla suit on Amazon for $71

which is cheap enough that I think everyone should go pick one up I got the

book experiential marketing for $18 the trip to LA including flights and

Roscoe's was $503 dollars total spent $592 dollars that leaves me with eleven

thousand three hundred and sixty one dollars of the fifteen thousand I

started with let's have a moment of silence for Harambe

On the next episode of Ryan Learns Something I learn how to tell story

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