The Hauser/Burns Report

The Experience Threshold

2008-05-19T19:12:46+01:00

The question is often asked if metrics can be placed around the bottom line in regards to the improvement of the brand experience and the utilization of experiential marketing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_marketing). One of the main points that I touch on in one of my experiential marketing presentations is a point that David Wolfe always used to drill in my head. Experiential marketing reflects a right brain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_brain) bias because it is about fulfilling consumers' aspirations to experience certain feelings - comfort and pleasure on one hand, and avoidance of discomfort on the other. So, let me talk about avoidance of discomfort for a second - $4.57 for a gallon of gas. This, for the first time, has gotten people to slow down on the highway - amazing. In essence, some people have reached their pain threshold (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_threshold) when it comes to gas prices. Therefore, they have modified their behavior in order to keep it within acceptable levels. The notion being that people are now driving the speed limit ultimately helps them save money at the gas pump. In any case, they have modified their behavior to avoid discomfort and to keep it inside their acceptable experience levels. Now, for...

Connecting To The Universal Truth Using Experiential Marketing Methodology

2008-05-14T15:14:55+01:00

Universal Truths - Parent Awareness - Inflatable Bubbles - IATI don't see myself as much of an experiential marketer as an explorer in the never ending search of uncovering and connecting with Universal Truths. C'Mon - really - how much more sexy does that sound than I'm a marketer anyway - total Indiana Jones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_jones)? :) There are absolute truths (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_truth) that are sometimes in plain sight, others are unspoken and some are nearly impossible to find or identify. The ability to find, qualify and to harness the power of these universal truths turns experiential marketing campaigns into movements, and gives campaigns an eternal shelf life. This is because, if done correctly, your campaign will become a movement of sorts that that will transcend the brand that started the exploration and make it's way into the mainstream (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream) conversation. Your brand will always be associated with the unveiling, and the extended conversations! Regular campaigns disappear - universal truths don't!I reserve the name universal truths for the really, really big - very, very real - truths that are so powerful - so connectable - they can launch a brand zooming past the...

Rant Radiohead Redux - Left Coast Style

2008-04-13T10:15:57+01:00

So, I just spent some time walking around a beautiful city. Paris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris) is beautiful, and the people have been very kind. It's just about 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Very cold.It's been some time since Radiohead (http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/) released their album free of charge online. I, of course, immediately wanted to comment on the experiential marketing aspects of it, but I was more interested to see what would come next, and what it would all mean.I think that I've seen more than I expected -- way more!Just to recap - the band Radiohead released their new album for free. They then released the album in stores.What happened? Radiohead challenged an entire model. A model that has existed since the first records spun around the first record players and people paid for the privilege to listen.Here's an excerpt from techconsumer.com (http://www.techconsumer.com/):According to a study (by a third party, comScore (http://www.comscore.com/)), only 38% of downloaders paid something while the 62% majority paid nothing. And of those paying, most paid less than $4. While it was fun to speculate on what this could mean for the music industry, turns out any speculation was based on more speculation (comScore's)....

Media Metrics (Experiential Marketing)

2008-03-25T07:42:31+01:00

[A ramble from Neal]As some of you know I entered the business of advertising in full with an unswerving belief in the power of compelling creative. The majority of my advertising career was spent in businesses winning awards for their creative contribution - and at times for the effectiveness of that creative work. And now - surrounded by consumer generated content (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-generated_content) and digital and experiential alternatives - it does seem that media is king - and not creative. (Let's take a moment for that shiver and chills to pass.)Some of these new media (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media) alternatives easily generate their own metric. Set-top-box (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set-Top-Box) data, for example, has an inherent measurement index that tracks user activity - giving the Nielsen's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACNielsen) and TNS's of the world new vitality as well as stronger customer interest. The electronic ability to sample viewing behavior moment to moment, at set intervals, or with channel change is appealing. And easy. And then there are many of the Experiential Marketing readers of this blog with their medium sitting out there - in a mall, at the point of purchase, or in...

United Beta-Business Class - How to Capitalize on UAL's Mistakes To Convert High CLV Customers

2008-03-16T08:47:42+01:00

My day brilliantly unfolded in a way that allowed me to take my favorite role in life - the role of a social scientist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_scientist)! I was the unfortunate victim of United Airline's (http://united.com) new international business class - even though I was flying domestic! As an experiential marketer, it was a great day to be alive - so many things to dissect from a Customer Experience Management (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_experience_management) (CEM) point of view. There was even a chance to see how the on-board employees were going to handle the 80/20 rule (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_20_rule) and the notion of Customer Lifetime Value (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_lifetime_value) (CLV). I couldn't believe that all of these fantastic dynamics were going to come into play in just one 5 hour plane ride. I may be the luckiest guy alive. Most of the folks around me were really upset, but I was busy acting like a sponge taking it all in. I didn't care to be upset - I wanted to learn - learn - learn. Ladies and Gentlemen - I present you Flight #XXXX From SFO to XXX - and away we go. Not looking to get anyone in trouble...

What Every Marketer Can Learn From Guitar Hero

2008-02-20T13:38:08+01:00

It seems to be the mother of all challenges. It's the one that prospective clients call ad agency (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_agency) offices with daily - sometimes hourly when things are brisk. How do we increase relevancy within a particular market segment, and more importantly convert that new found relevancy into sales, they often say. How can we drive purchase and purchase consideration by our intended audience - an audience that currently doesn't even know that we exist? Both, by the way, are very good questions that brand managers are faced with on an hourly basis.Walk through any ad agency or experiential marketing firm and you'll see the creative teams addressing these questions that are posed every day by their clients. Often, agencies don't seem to land on the correct answer. That may explain why the business so often resembles a revolving door - old ones out - new ones in. However, every once in a while an agency finds a way to shift perceptions (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/perceptions) to drive purchase. I'd love to tell you that even those stories end well, but more times than not the agency is still shown...

Super Bowl

2008-02-01T15:46:41+01:00

It is time for all of us interested in experiential marketing and advertising to offer brilliant insightful comments about the annual parade of Super Bowl (http://www.nfl.com/superbowl) ads. The Burns-Hauser blog is no exception in its attempt to understand the social, business and cultural context of the event and its supportive advertising that, ideally, pays for the show. Here are a few observations before the big event that we would like to share. There will be several ads that will be the talk of the town at every coffee shop and water cooler. Look for surprising work for CareerBuilder (http://careerbuilder.com) from Wieden Kennedy while Coke (http://coke.com) , Pepsi (http://pepsi.com) and Gatorade (http://gatorade.com) will fight the leading seller of malt beverages for share of stomach with new work and perhaps a new brand. A very clever combination of web-based communications tied in with the Anheuser-Busch (http://www.anheuser-busch.com) Super Bowl 10 spot buy is being launched and reflects a clear understanding of the audience and its use of technology. In fact, several agencies and their clients have designs that are based on the behavior of the game’s...

Experiential Marketing - Gene Simmons Knows Best - Certainly Better than Kodak

2008-01-24T15:45:06+01:00

OK! So, I am going to speak about how one of my guilty pleasures happened to intersect with THE WORST EVER product placement in a TV show. Kodak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak) wins what can only be deemed the Antithesis (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Antithesis) effect award for what transpired on the USA (http://www.usanetwork.com) television show The Apprentice. Just to be clear, The Apprentice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apprentice) is not my guilty pleasure - it's Gene Simmons (http://www.genesimmons.com). I happened to catch his show Family Jewels (http://www.aetv.com/genesimmonsfamilyjewels) on A E (http://www.aetv.com) once and for the first time I got a glimpse into the mind of what can only be deemed an experiential marketing genius.I'm sure that it sounds totally odd being that he used to be the tongue-wagging member of the rock band KISS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_%28band%29). However, even if you look back at KISS what you really see is a finely crafted experiential marketing machine. A band that was so different than anything else in the marketplace - it was very appealing to a lot of people. To this day, KISS merchandise flies off of the shelves. Anyway, just wanted to give a little background.Enter this weekend - 10...

In the World Of Advertising Content is Queen

2008-01-11T20:52:39+01:00

An Experiential Marketing Rant...What's that I say? Content (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_%28media_and_publishing%29) is queen in the world of advertising?You betcha'I've said content is king in other domains, but when it comes to advertising content is queen. Which, of course, raises the obvious question What is king?Connected meaning (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/meaning) and relevance (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/relevance) is the king of advertising (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising) . Without it - you simply have a seemingly pretty form of art.One can have the best content in the world in an ad, but if the content isn't connected in a meaningful and relevant way then you'd be hard pressed to remember who even created the ad.BRAND RECALL ='s ZEROThe ad was funny? So what?The ad had killer visuals? So what?The ad was entertaining? So what?The ad was creative? SO WHAT?If the ad's creative doesn't creatively make the ad meaningful and relevant than I would argue that it was just a nice piece of art...or a cool short 30 second video.... or a... you get my point:)The most important part of the creative process is connecting to the audience on as many levels as possible through brand relevant communications.OK. Back to bed....I feel better now

A Holiday Blog From The Good Doctor...

2008-01-11T14:16:57+01:00

At the end of the year I think those that feel compelled to blog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog) also feel compelled to write something profound (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/profound) . . . a testimony to the past or some insightful revelation about 2008 or the world to come. I fear I have nothing that sweeping to offer - but do want to share a recent thought with our readers. I am driving across the country - from Austin to San Francisco (http://www.google.com/maps?f=d hl=en geocode= time= date= ttype= saddr=austin+tx daddr=san+francisco+ca sll=37.0625,-95.677068 sspn=47.972233,82.265625 ie=UTF8 ll=38.61687,-117.861328 spn=11.906782,20.566406 z=6 om=1) enjoying the green feeling at the gas stations that only a Prius (http://www.toyota.com/prius/) can give - and listening to books on CD. I love doing that - I mean, show me a kid that doesn't like being read to! (OK, so I'm just an old kid.)Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_world_is_flat) has taken me from Texas through Arizona - and I found it stunning. Beautifully written and well read by Oliver Wyman (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0943849/) it's long -- something like 20 hours - but you feel a lot smarter after listening than you did before....