So how do we continue to deliver exceptional results without the same level of resource support?  Here are a couple lessons the economy is teaching us:

Integration. In a recent client meeting, we were asked to demonstrate how our agency is aligning our internal human resources and expertise to benefit their overall brand objectives.  Similarly, we needed to ensure that more of their integrated business units were involved in our solutions to support a broader portfolio of their products and services.  The benefits of this focused effort were many, including exposure to incremental business opportunities in other sectors of the organization and streamlining our own internal communications.  From a client perspective, it was clear that combining offerings in a peanut butter and jelly scenario led us to deliver richer, more robust experiences, while our clients achieved tighter internal controls and cost containment.

Expanding Networks and Outsourcing. Many companies are reducing headcount and simply don’t have the capability, experience and internal resources they previously enjoyed.  We believe you should view outsourcing in terms of what you can add, not subtract.  Outsourcing allows a company to create synergies, reduce liability and risk, improve communication and delivery, control costs and ultimately deliver a more significant return on your investment.  Moreover, outsourcing enables companies to be more efficient with their time, allowing them to channel their efforts on the core business competencies and objectives.

These are just a couple ways the economy is broadening our capabilities and strengthening our ability to drive your ROI.  Curious? What is the economy teaching you? How will you rise to the top in a down economy?

With that being said, experiential agencies and their brand customers often fall prey to accepting UNQUALIFIED Data acquisition.  In a romantic sense, we can use an analogy of love relationships to best tell this story.  In the best of cases, the Sponsorship and Events Group at Brand X have this great romance going on with the Sales Department as the Sponsorship/Event Group delivers bundles of Qualified Leads captured out of the weekly sponsorship/event activations.  The Sales Group dances through the halls as these Qualified Leads generate New Business Sales on a routine basis and all is fine in the relationship.  MME’s recent experience included the delivery of Qualified ‘Hand Raisers’ (consumers who visited MME’s Portable Auto Showroom installed at Marathons and other Community Events) in 5 Midwest Cities across much of 2008 for an unidentified Auto Maker.  As MME delivered bundled leads to local Dealer Groups, you could say the love affair was poignant, especially when you consider that these Qualified Leads have lead to a staggering 463 Auto Sales (and still counting…) and thereby generated over $15 million in sales for the struggling U.S. automaker.  This is real love and what we call Real ROI.

Conversely, having recently visited a NASCAR Race to review an Experiential Activation of an unknown Brand Y, I surveyed a relatively solid Consumer Experience that attracted a solid flow of consumers through the Brand Experience.  While the display was attractive and included some fun experiences, the lack of relevancy to the Brand was pretty obvious and more to the point, the data capture mechanism, was reliant upon Contest Entry.  This is what we refer to as highly Unqualified Data — the kind of data the Sales Department learns to accept, only to push this to the side, as they quickly learn that the data is generally worthless.  Consumer are less interested in the product, more interested in the prize.  Data that in general leads to a less than romantic relationship and is not likely to be sustainable.  While I have no quantitative results to reinforce my POV on this, my gut is that Contesting Data acquisition lists might be on par with what the Sales Department could acquire from a Data List broker.

As a close to the story, MME did present a solution to the Brand Y and is still in discussions and hopes to be serving Brand Y and enhancing the Romance.

What bracket does your Acquired Data fall under?  Is it real love…or was somebody just giving you fake digits?

OK, so how do we leverage experiential media to get us there?

Start with the consumer and work back to the brand experience. How (and how often) does your audience consume certain types of media? Which emotions do they generally seek out through certain channels of experience (i.e. sporting events = excitement, humor)?

When you can converge where you reach them physically with what they WANT to feel emotionally, then the question is: How do you put your brand in the middle of it and ask them to be your customer in a relevant way? Apply this thinking across multiple channels of experience and soon they will realize it’s not just the experience you are relevant to, it’s their lifestyle.