Opinions, Stories and Observations from the inside of the Experience

Tim (@gameplanhayden) and I sat with our good friend Matt Wood (@lakewoody) at The Porch in Dallas last Monday night to discuss the future and the direction of GamePlan from where we are today to where we want to be. As we talked, a thunderstorm rolled in and a bolt of lightning hit the transformer right outside the window, causing the entire restaurant to almost jump out of their seats with a “did that just happen?” look on their face and talk at every table. Sparks were flying outside, rain was falling, and we couldn’t believe there was still power. About 24 hours later, Tim and I decided that wasn’t just a freak occurrence but a sign of things to come. We saw the future.

GamePlan is poised to lead the charge into the new marketing millenium, and with partners like Matt Wood by our side, there is no stopping us. The Live Mobile Online concept we preach is the literal wave of communication in our lives today. TV is an escape, radio is in a world of hurt, and we’re more interested in saving trees than cutting them down for more newspapers and magazines.

To illustrate, I’ll take you through just a portion of our Dallas trip. While checking in on Facebook in Austin, Tim saw a status update from Jon Reynolds (@pegnewsjon) to which Tim commented, said we’d be in Dallas and asked about catching up for a beer. Three hours later, we were sitting with Jon at the Old Monk talking business, downloading the free Pegasus News app from the iStore (check it out!), and making plans to get together again soon. Later, Matt Wood was texting us from across the street saying he was at waiting at our table and also had downloaded the Pegasus News app since Tim just tweeted about it. When the lightning hit, we noticed almost the entire restaurant get on the phone to either text or tell friends and family what they just saw. Our lives had all intertwined through the one-to-one conversation (dinner, a ballgame, a concert, whatever…), the ability to catalog the experience and share it immediately through our phones, and finally to take the experiences back online to re-live them again and again.

That, my friends, is what happens when lightning strikes.

I was in a whirl wind of excitement with hundreds of kids that had just scattered and were running wild. No, I wasn’t at Disneyland and no Mickey Mouse hadn’t just popped out of a candy cake. I was in the middle of the ocean, sailing for a client activation on the Nickelodeon Royal Caribbean Cruise. The kids (and parents) had just been set free for the Ship-Wide Family Scaventure Hunt while “Eye Of The Tiger”, kid version, was blasting for the seventeenth billion time that week. Parents kept telling their kid’s to “walk, not run” yet the parents were speed walking faster than I’ve ever seen speed walking. They really wanted to win this scavenger hunt prize. I, however, was safely tucked away in a Cafe watching the experience fly by me.

It was the last day of the week-long Mexican Riveria cruise and I was ready to sail home. However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t going to have nostalgia for this magical place.

Every day was jam packed with exciting family activities to keep all travelers busy, busy, busy. Traveling alone forced me to jump into the fun with no reservations! I’ve had the pleasure of letting loose and getting into the kid activities, clapping, singing and dancing along..sometimes for the client activation and sometimes just because. I was able to experience the experience. The cruise was literally entertainment overload.

That week reminded me why experiences keep us all going, keep us excited, and keep us connected with each other. When a brand can successfully incorporate itself into a true experience or create one from scratch, it’s quite powerful. Remembering the audience is key. I can’t say that I became extremely excited to get slimed by the official Nick Green Slime, but that was an experience those families – the audience – will never forget.

So, there I was in this café soaking in the past week. I couldn’t help but smile to see these families running TOGETHER to reach the finish line of the scavenger hunt. A wife was standing on the sidelines next to me and handed off a napkin to wipe the sweat off her husband as he flew by with the kids. I turned to her and asked, “what is the big prize?” She laughed and said, “honestly, I have no idea and I don’t think my husband does either. He got wrapped up in the thrill of the game.”

Hats off to Nickelodeon and Royal Caribbean for providing such a memorable experience for thousands of kids and their families. Whatever the prize was for that scavenger hunt, it must have been good! Although I wouldn’t be surprised if people were simply swept up not in the prize, but the experience itself.

Repent – “to dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life.” It is not so much for the sins we have committed, but for the crimes that have been committed against GamePlan that I must offer forgiveness.  With this “global recession” looming and client receivables dissipating as budgets were reduced, we were caused last December to cut costs over the following quarter.  Lucky for us, these cuts revealed larger problems that would have meant the death of GamePlan if those problems were allowed to fester.  Over a beer next time we meet (or when the book is released), I’ll tell you all about how scary, hairy and fun the 2009 roller coaster has been.   You know me; I can always find a path to turn a frown upside down and I assure you that no one around here sees a mountain too tall to climb.

Realign – “To make new groupings of or working arrangements between.” In addition to launching a new website today, I am excited for new partnerships and clients that will soon be announced.  While we have invested most of the past two years in proving the Live-Mobile-Online engagement model, we are adhering to policies of “innovation and collaboration” that should establish GamePlan as one of the most resourceful agencies in the Southwest…and beyond, way beyond.  In short, we are more impactful each day through new social technologies and applications as we respect that we can’t deliver the magical experiences we do without our friends and valued partners.  GamePlan is good to go, let us go forth and show…

Relaunch! – “A marketing process in which a brand is relaunched, which may involve new packaging, style or new features.” Over the past six years, GamePlan has often brought a client’s brand or product to life through an indelible experience.  Over the next 60 days, we will sample a dose of our own medicine to introduce you to new agency practices such as behavioral analysis, community engagement and holistic experiential marketing.  I’ll present more at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston on October 7…or when we meet for that beer.  Until that day arrives, saddle up, and let’s get the conversation going here.

What do YOU think about the new GamePlan web presence?