while the rest of the do lab spent the last week preparing to syndicate our show for japan, i spent it putting together a powerpoint presentation. slide number 17, the one titled:

“Expanding Brands into Experience Platforms”

ended up featuring this image from lucent l’amour 2006 :

photo by: mickipedia

i figure, depending on how well the presentation has been going in the preceding 16 slides, i might point out that this particular moment was going on in a confession booth:

photo by: mulling it over

since the event itself was actually taking place inside a cathedral:

photo by: siouxzen

“expanding brands into experience platforms”…. you know?

the church obviously got the memo about that one. they’ve been using that tactic in their “engagement strategy” and it seems to be working out pretty well for them. (ok, well, maybe not that EXACT tactic–kissing in the confessional at st. vibiana’s cathedral was only made possible by the pope first signing a note establishing that “God has left this building.”–not kidding–but you get what i’m sayin.)

anyway, 2000 years of catholic church case study aside, modern day ad agencies want to know how to measure the success of such a strategy. which got me thinking, well, how does scion measure the success of throwing a party at alcatraz? or how does red bull measure the success of their underground ascension extravaganzas? and furthermore, how do we? at the do lab, how do we evaluate the success of an event?

well….

did you have fun?
did you meet new friends?
did you hook up with someone?
did you get your mind blown away?

…experience itself has the capacity to be a broadcast channel. a much more powerful, much more visceral, much more immersive channel than any without the prospect of making out–or, i mean, just connecting to other human beings (and sometimes god) in exciting ways in general, really. if you had the time of your life with us (tho we have yet to implement any real exit polls….if you were there, you did. believe me) then this experience is now part of who you are. and since people buy the brands that represent their identity, this whole brand-experience approach is like getting a brand in on the consumer psyche VIP-list, while all the other brands are standing in line waiting to get in the club.

oh my god, all my analogies are even party related.

in other news, here’s richard branson chillin in our little experience platform on HIS really big experience platform this weekend:

ps. bonus points to anyone who recognized that branson’s whole branded empire is built on an iconic religious concept.