Grey Goose treated attendees at Tales of the Cocktail, the premier gathering of top bartenders in the world, to exclusive experiential events that brought the brand DNA to life. First up was the filming of Beyond The Bar, a series of documentary shorts celebrating characters behind and beyond the bar.

The United States Bartenders’ Guild and Sundance Channel, the series presenters, selected twelve mixologists through a casting process based upon style, creativity and overall originality. These twelve hail from across North America, and embody the best in the business: April Wachtel (Boston), Evan Hawkins (Atlanta), David Ortiz (Miami), Joaquin Simo (New York), Scott Baird (San Francisco), Eric “ET” Tecosky (Los Angeles), Charles Joly (Chicago), Eddie “Lucky” Campbell (Dallas), Tony Abou-Ganim (Las Vegas), Danny Valdez (New Orleans), Willy Shine (New York) and Lauren Mote (Vancouver).

Key influencers and members of the media were invited to watch the filming of the series, which will begin airing October 2, 2010 during Grey Goose Entertainment’s acclaimed TV series Iconoclasts. TheBostonist.com summed it up best: “Iconoclasts, a show that features ‘people who are game-changers in their field,’ says executive producer Emil Jattne, “is a forum where said iconoclasts (from Maya Angelou to Tony Hawk) can showcase their process, their inspirations and accomplishments. The Beyond the Bar 1-minute vignettes will stud the 15- and 45-minute mark of 6 episodes.”

Next on the Tales agenda was an exclusive Parisian-inspired celebration at Latrobe’s, where guests enjoyed four satellite flavor bars inspired by the streets of Paris. Each one represented a flavor of the Grey Goose portfolio and featured specialty cocktails. Grey Goose brand ambassadors highlighted the latest mixers, unique fruits and fresh herbs, with a bird’s eye camera projecting the action for guests throughout the venue. Exclusive clips of Beyond The Bar were shown in a private screening room for guests to enjoy at their leisure.

Months in the making, the Grey Goose events at Tales of the Cocktail looked as effortless as ever thanks to several key members of Javelin’s Grey Goose team: Kristopher Curtis, Angie Maniscalco, David Catron, Casey Hunter, Jason McCarthy, and Sean Collins. Thanks for all you do, team – you’re awesome!

If you ask 5 different people to define experiential marketing, you’ll probably end up with 5 different answers (moreover, if you’re talking to the right people, all 5 answers will probably be on-target in one way or another).  Here’s a great piece by Erik Hauser from 2007 that comments on the “fluidity” of experiential marketing:

The definition of experiential marketing is fluid – as is the methodology itself. It was once little talked about, and is now being embraced as a silver bullet. I once posed the simple question of experiential marketing’s definition to the Experiential Marketing Forum (experientialforum.com), and received more than 200 definitions from more than 150 countries.

Given the wide range of views on what experiential marketing encompasses, it follows that literature on the subject abounds. Since many of these books rival college textbook prices, we thought we’d start a reading list challenge to lay down the definitive word on which titles are worth your time and money, and which ones are not.

We haven’t had time to read all of these experiential marketing books, so we turned to user reviews on Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com to help sort through the mayhem.  We’ll ignore the reviews that read like the publisher wrote them for the back cover of the book, and focus on the brave souls who threw down their hard earned cash to discover if a book was a sleeper or a gem of marketing wisdom. The verdict will be a thumbs up, thumbs down, or when we can’t tell yet, thumbs sideways.

If you’ve read any of these books and have thoughts to share, please add your comments! If you add something particularly insightful, we’ll update the post with your thoughts and provide a link back to your site. Are you ready?

1. Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to Sense, Feel, Think, Act, Relate (1999),by Bernd Schmitt

The consensus on this book is that it treats old news (moving beyond features and benefits, marketing to consumer emotions, etc…) like it’s a revolution. Probably nothing you don’t already know.

2. Experiential Marketing: A Practical Guide to Interactive Brand Experiences (2009) by Shaz Smilansky

One 5-star positive review does not inspire supreme confidence but there’s no reason to believe there isn’t something worthwhile here. Jury’s out.

3. Experience the Message: How Experiential Marketing Is Changing the Brand World (2006) by Max Lenderman

Generally favorable reviews with a few thoughtful critiques. Lenderman hits the right notes with his analysis of the experience economy.

4. The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage (1999) by B. Joseph Pine

This one seems to have withstood the test of time. However, it reads like a textbook (because it is one).

5. Customer Experience Management: A Revolutionary Approach to Connecting with Your Customers (2003) by Bernd H. Schmitt

Schmitt’s follow up to the 1999 release mentioned above received more positive feedback, but he still got knocked for his somewhat academic approach.

6. Managing the Customer Experience: Turning Customers Into Advocates (2002) by Shaun Smith

Positive reviews abound, but it sounds like a new edition is needed to take into account changes in mobile connectivity and the social web.

7. Critical Thinking in Consumer Behavior: Cases and Experiential Exercises (2009) by Judy Graham

No reviews to go on here. Have you read it?

8. Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses – As well as the Classes (2005) by Pamela N. Danziger

According to one reviewer, the book lacks the why and how of marketing to the masses versus particular classes. Another reviewer thought it sounded an awful lot like this book, Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods and How Companies Create Them by Michael J. Silverstein.

9. Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority (2003) by David B. Wolfe

Loads of favorable reviews.  However, I’m curious what Wolfe would have to say on marketing to the new customer majority in today’s economic climate.

10. There’s No Business That’s Not Show Business: Marketing in an Experience Culture (2003) by Bernd H. Schmitt, David L. Rogers, and Karen Vrotsos

Seems to be targeting those interested in learning about what it’s like to work with major brands and (relatively) large budgets, not those who already work with well-known brands.

11. Events Design and Experience (Events Management) (2007) by Graham Berridg

A different look at events than what you might find in the other books listed here. The focus is on design elements.

12. Brandscapes: Architecture in the Experience Economy (2007) by Anna Klingmann

Another look at design in the experience economy. This one scales it up to the architecture of buildings and environments. Kudos to Klingmann for the portmanteau title too!

13. Place Branding: Glocal, Virtual and Physical Identities, Constructed, Imagined and Experienced (2009) by Robert Govers, et al.

While not directly applicable to experiential marketing, there are lessons here for any brand manager.

14. Trillion-Dollars Moms : Marketing to a New Generation of Mothers (2005) by Maria Bailey, Bonnie Ulman

Like Wolfe’s breakdown of the new customer majority, this title focuses on marketing to a specific demographic. Anonymous reviews don’t cut it though.

15. Brand Enigma : Decoding the Secrets of Your Brand (2009) by Duncan Bruce, David Harvey

A how-to guide for placing your brand at the center of your business… no reviews yet. Have you read it?

16. Life after the 30-Second Spot : Energize Your Brand with a Bold Mix of Alternatives to Traditional Advertising (2005) by Joseph Jaffe

Worth a look. Jaffe makes the case for mixing up your ad budget with new media. Another title where an updated edition might be needed.

17. Greentailing and Other Revolutions in Retail : Hot Ideas That Are Grabbing Customer’s Attention and Raising Profits (2008) by Neil Stern, Willard Ander

Interesting premise. No reviews though. Have you read it?

18. New PR : An Insider’s Guide to Changing the Face of Public Relations (2007) by Phil Hall

Looks at the role of experiential marketing strategies in public relations. No reviews yet. Have you read it?

19. Before the Brand : Creating the Unique DNA of an Enduring Brand Identity (2002) by Alycia Perry, David Wisnom, David Wisnom III

With this title, the emphasis is on brand identity. We’ll need to read it or hear your thoughts on it before we make up our minds though.

Just because you’re slathered in SPF 50, covered in insect repellant, have pissed in a Port-A-Potty and somewhere a band is playing it doesn’t mean it’s a festival.  It just means it’s summer. The term festival is used for virtually every event involving live music on an outdoor stage.

Recently I attend INK-N-IRON in Long Beach, California. and enjoyed 3-days of sensory overload. INK-N-IRON is a true festival experience that certainly has music as an important element, but that element supports everything else that is going on, rather than dominating.

INK-N-IRON is a celebration of kustom kulture, Americana and the art of rebellion.  A diverse and passionate group of tens of thousands of people make the pilgrimage to Long Beach: Latinos in cuffed Levis and greased hair, punk rockers with pink Mohawks, custom bike builders with pompadours, sexy babes, Suicide Girls, hot rod enthusiasts in mechanic shirts, rockabilly hipsters and pin-up babes.  Collectively they are the heart of the experience.

This eclectic group of trendsetters all come to INK-N-IRON to explore and experience vintage collectibles, hot rods and kustoms, burlesque, art shows, fashion, 280 of the best tattoo artists in the world, pin striping, pin-up contest, BBQ, beer, hundreds of vendors selling amazing hand crafted merchandise, and – of course – an incredible lineup of music.

While reading the latest issue of Event Marketer, I stumbled upon an article about brand ambassadors entering the digital age, leveraging their social networks on behalf of brands.  It immediately reminded me of something similar I wrote here a year ago, though Sandy O’Loughlin was far more eloquent.

For an industry-wide snapshot of what kind of influence brand ambassadors are wielding – and will be expected to wield – in the social media jungle, check out EM’s article for examples like Yahoo at the Olympics, or Samsung and the Guinness World Record.

Where do you see the role of brand ambassadors going?

It's a social media jungle!

My first Event Marketer Summit was a blur of speakers, case studies and seminars, getting lost in the hotel, stealing sombreros, and eating my weight in Mrs. Fields cookies.  I was excited to take it all in until I noticed how out of place I was, standing in the registration line behind a lot of stuffy suits.  Fortunately, it soon became clear the line was for a biotech conference.  As soon as I found the right registration area the crowd around me was casual, lighthearted, and dressed in green ties, purple sneakers, feather skirts, etc.  You know…the usual marketing look.

The days were crammed with engaging speakers, “BeLinking” and conversation.  The highlights for me were HP, BlackBerry, AT&T, Yahoo, Sports Illustrated, Virgin Galactic, and several authors.  Impossible to ignore was the massive amount of branded swag from room drops and vendor exhibits, ranging from cheese to charcoal to notebooks.  It was nice to finally to put some faces with some of the names I’d been chatting with by email – and to check out all the latest technology on display.

The nights were full as well.  On Monday I attended The EX Award Gala, along with other Javelin folks, to represent Bacardi B-LIVE in the Best Nightlife Program category.  Cheering for ourselves and our competitors was equally fun, and we looked damn good doing it!

Donna Meier, Jen Novak, Erin Bagby, Meredith Goette - EX Awards 2010

Tuesday, after dinner with my colleague Meredith and some of her Chicago agency friends, we headed to MasterTent’s Cuatro de Mayo Party for free food, free booze and free sombreros.  Actually, I’m not absolutely sure the sombreros were free – but we took them anyway.

Reconnecting with friends

The best part was dragging our sombreros to all the morning seminars and then through the airport.  Not.  It was worth it, though – we had them for the real Cinco de Mayo.

Ole!

All in all, my first experiential marketing summit was a success.  I met tons of vendors, learned new ideas and ways of approaching projects, and my suitcase weighed about 10 extra pounds with all the swag I brought back!  I’m looking forward to many more in the future.

In-your-face authenticity is hot

There is something alluring about in-your-face authenticity. It’s sensational yet attractive, like Arthur Fonzarelli, better known as The Fonz.  People liked Fonzie.  He got what he wanted seamlessly, without sacrificing his values. That is, until he literally jumped the shark.

Jumping the shark is not

Jumping the shark, an idiom for when something well established begins a decline, originated when the writers of Happy Days had Fonzie literally jump a shark while on skis, wearing his trademark leather jacket and all.

Ride your Harley into the party

Losing your base can be pretty easy when you’re a big name with a known reputation like The Fonz or (insert your favorite brand name here).  A solid brand has already established where it fits, and has spent significantly to be there.  Any experiential program, event or otherwise, should be authentic to the soul of the brand, and honest to the expectations attendees have.  If you’re the Fonz, ride your Harley into the party. If you’re Grey Goose, showcase your signature cocktails in a super premium lounge.

Going over the top is not always better.  Simply slapping a well known name on something overly-sensational is unlikely to be good for a brand, even if it would get eyeballs.  You’ve probably already had an example or two come to mind, so I’ll politely refrain from naming any myself.

Cultivate an honest relationship

Experiential marketing — whether at a large event on in private — cultivates an honest, well-defined relationship. Isn’t that why we loved The Fonz?  He was edgy but he was true to the core.  Then…he jumped the shark.  So, aaay!  Learn from the Fonz.  Be cool. Authenticity is where it’s at.  Don’t be something you’re not, even if it promises to be a unique experience…or your brand may become the next symbol for jumping the shark.

At Javelin, once the big experiential marketing ideas have been approved, we get down to the business of making them real.  We plan meticulously and verify every detail.  Even when it comes to Superman.

One Javelin staffer volunteered to go to Superman’s boyhood home of Metropolis, IL, and do some investigation.

Just checking!

The verdict?  Yes…he’s definitely super!

As part of a highly integrated marketing program, Javelin partners with GREY GOOSE Vodka throughout the year to bring the spirit to major influencers and trend-setters at Best Of events across North America.

The latest in this series was the Miami Beach Polo World Cup 2010, where the world’s top players of the “sport of kings” competed for the coveted La Martina Cup.  GREY GOOSE spokes models welcomed spectators and players  served a variety of specialty martinis and signature cocktails made with GREY GOOSE Vodka Original, L’Orange, Le Citron, and La Poire.

A few readers (you know who you are) have requested more GREY GOOSE photos, so these are for you!

The human mind is the ultimate experiential consumer.

Where can we find some intellectual street cred and big brain support for our beloved discipline, experiential marketing? It is with keen insights and modern truths we can see and prove that the human mind is the ultimate experiential consumer—that experience drives all perception and opinion forming.

It is with great thanks (and enduring apologies) to Jonah Lehrer that I have done a mash-up of his great work, Proust Was A Neuroscientist, and our beloved discipline, experiential marketing. Briefly:

Proust had already discovered what Lehrer was trying to find out. He knew that 1) smell and taste produce uniquely intense memories, and 2) memory is dependent on the moment and mood of the individual. Scientists didn’t establish these facts until a few years ago, yet Proust made the point in 1913.

Smell and taste are the most intense of remembered sensations.

As we continue to learn more and more about the brain’s complex chemistry, we should – as experiential marketers – help our clients understand the primacy of the impact consumers will experience when they are addressed head-on in a sensory capacity. In fact, this bit says it all:

Proust’s goal in Remembrance of Things Past is to anatomize memory. His literary examinations teach him that smell and taste are the most intense of remembered sensations. Fast forward some 90 years to 2002, when Rachel Herz, a psychologist at Brown, shows that smell and taste are indeed uniquely potent evokers of memory.

This power, she speculates, lies in the direct connection the gustatory and olfactory nerves have to the hippocampus, which Lehrer calls “the center of the brain’s long-term memory.”

Establish the memories, then we can tinker.

Memories are not immutable as Herz and others have found; rather, they change as we remember them. I believe the key in experiential marketing is to first ESTABLISH the memories. We can then tinker with the nuance via social media and ad campaigns, but without base-line experiences to “fiddle with” we cannot gain serious ground in the consumer’s mind.

To me these are enlightenments equal to – if not more powerful than – ROI models. The discoveries of modern neuroscience, combined with the insights of these great thinkers, show that demonstration is king…that stimulating the senses is the coin of the realm in creating real, lasting memories…resulting in converted customers.

Enjoy Proust Was A Neuroscientist if you are so inclined. It’s a nice visit with Woolf, Stein, Escoffier, Stravinsky and of course Proust…our experiential forefathers.

Like you, I do my marketing homework.  I keep up with industry pubs, must-attend seminars, über-hip “expert” ad execs, cool school, Gladwell, Bob Garfield, Bob’s blog, your blog, etc.  The plethora of expert supposition/opinion/fact is enlightening, it really is, but who can keep up with it all?  In an effort to simplify our lives as experiential marketers, brand stewards and idea-generators, I’d like to propose an experiment of sorts.

I contend that everything we need to know about marketing, branding, and getting to great ideas has already been surmised by two people born over a century apart but united by their mutual distaste for monotony, monogamy and prison. Oscar Wilde and Paris Hilton have done a damned good job of generating axioms about life that are applicable to marketing – and easier to digest than the next must-read Fast Company book-of-the-month.

So here’s what I propose: skip reading What The Dog Saw and Baked.  It’s okay, people.  Really.  Let’s take a short break – a Nestea plunge if you will – from all the marketing intelligence surrounding us.  It will all be waiting for us tomorrow.

Today let’s run our marketing efforts through the WildeParis Experiment.  Sound kinky?  Here’s how it works:  simply see if the idea you are thinking about pitching or buying fulfills upon all or most of the following list of quotes – marketing axioms, as I like to call them.

The following lines are quotes from Oscar Wilde and Paris Hilton. Have fun guessing who said what (click on the quote to see who said it), but that’s not the point of the experiment.  The point is to take a break from the plethora of expert supposition/opinion/fact, and simplify what you need to know to deem an idea great.  Here we go.

“There is no sin worse in life than being boring.”

Go ahead; be honest with yourself when assessing your work.  Do you like the idea? Love the idea?  Are you passionate about it? You know if it’s boring. If you don’t…you’re boring.

“I can resist everything except temptation.”

That’s what we do for a living; we tempt.  Is your idea irresistible?  Is your story tempting?

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

Look, there’s a lot of money being wasted on marketing shit nobody cares about, notices or talks about. There are many, many examples, and I don’t want to be cruel, but consider this.  Almost every brand seems to believe they need a website, right?  And I agree, most brands do. But have you ever visited the black, depressing, corporate, empty, pointless hole that is macys.com, walmart.com, century21.com, aa.com? AA.com is American Airlines, not Alcoholics Anonymous; their site, aa.org, is pretty good.  Anyway, the list of grotesquely expensive, meaningless, never-talked-about marketing goes on and on.  And it is the worst thing in the world.

“There’s nobody in the world like me. I think every decade has an iconic blonde – like Marilyn Monroe or Princess Diana – and right now, I’m that icon.”

Homogeneity abounds.  Brands and marketers alike are too often risk-averse, and without risk — intelligent risk — there is no innovation.  I give out Failure Awards at the agency to recognize those who embrace risk to achieve something great, truly creative and original.  Without risk, your brand is just another pair of khaki pants in a button down shirt, hiding behind a laminated desk, waiting for the clock to strike 5 so it can rush home in its minivan to a plastic house in the suburbs.  But if your brand is consistently taking inspired risks and sometimes failing, you become something original or, on rare occasions, iconic.

“When people agree with me, I always feel that I must be wrong.”

Embrace a culture of friction and passionate discourse.  Never hire your doppelganger. Fire every “yes” man in your organization.  If you don’t, you’ll never have a great idea.

“I don’t have sex unless I’m in a relationship. I’m old-fashioned when it comes to that. I really am!”

Consumers want to have relationships with real, committed brands like Mountain Dew, not blowup dolls like (insert your favorite poseur brand).  Know what your brand is.  Know what it isn’t. Commit to it.  Not everyone needs to like your brand, and your brand doesn’t need to sleep with everyone; we’re not in high school.

To get a consumer into bed you need to know them.  Know who they really are.  Love them.  Eat fast food with them.  Play Halo with them.  Ride scooters, walk dogs, go shopping at Wal-Mart (yes you, go to Wal-Mart), watch obscure movies, eat fish heads, wear latex body suits…do whatever your demo does.  Here’s why: if you commit to what you are, you’ll never be a part of another lifeless brand and you’ll never garner lifeless results.  You’ll be in the hottest, sexiest relationship of your life.

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”

To support this point, I’ll break with consistency in the WildeParis Experiment, and take a look at what Seth Godin, the maestro of expert supposition/opinion/fact, has to say about consistency.  Or is it inconsistency?

Consistency
How can someone:
… be opposed to euthanasia but in favor of the death penalty?
… be in favor of the impeachment of Bill Clinton but not of George Bush?
… be worried about global warming but fly in a big private plane?
… be in favor of the impeachment of George Bush but not of Bill Clinton?
… be opposed to amnesty for illegal aliens but in favor of a pardon for Scooter Libby?
… be in favor of military intervention in Darfur but not in Iraq?
… be opposed to big government but want the government to control public speech?
… be in favor of banning medical marijuana but opposed to government regulation of cigarettes?
… be opposed to judicial meddling except in cases where you disagree with the current laws?

Easy. Because people aren’t consistent. Sure, you say, each of the above examples isn’t fair. They don’t match. They don’t line up. [Smart people are lucky: they can hold seemingly contradictory ideas in their head while they look more deeply into the facts and make good decisions... it’s called nuance.]

We don’t eat dessert because we’re on a diet but we put blue cheese dressing on our salad. We don’t pay extra for first class but we refuse to give up a seat to get bumped from a flight, even though the reward is a thousand dollars. We curse the spam that clutters our e-mail boxes but turn around and authorize millions of pieces of junk mail to go out to support our new business.
The local hardware store owner curses the existence of Home Depot but buys his family’s clothes at Wal-Mart. The vegetarian wears a leather belt…

Everything is a special situation; everything begs for inconsistency. If all we did was market to computers, life would be a lot simpler, but a lot less interesting.

So, there it is: the WildeParis Experiment.  It may not be perfect but it’s certainly a reprieve from all the expert supposition, opinion and fact.  Give it a try and let me know how it turns out!