An article in Crain’s Chicago Business describes Marketing Werks as the “elder statesman” in the world of experiential marketing. The article, published January 27, 2014, highlights Scott Moller and Julie Guida, who founded Marketing Werks 25 years ago, as well as the company itself.
The article notes that experiential marketing has grown dramatically over the past five years as marketers recognize that the quickest way to grab the attention of overwhelmed consumers is to create a fun, real-life experience. “Unlike two decades ago, social media and smartphones can catapult the stunt into the digital realm, where tweets, Facebook likes and Instagrammed photos can create a splash many times larger than the event itself.”
Here is the full article:
How ‘real life’ marketing avoids the spam filter
By Brigid Sweeney January 27, 2014
When Scott Moller and Julie Guida launched their marketing company 25 years ago, they didn’t think they were ahead of their time. After starting their careers promoting events for the Harlem Globetrotters and Ice Capades, the brother-and-sister duo realized they could make the same impact—and a lot more money—producing showy events for corporate clients.
Today, Chicago-based Marketing Werks Inc. is the elder statesman in the world of experiential marketing, which has become the tactic du jour for megabrands. The category, which invites people to actively try a new product rather than watch yet another 30-second video, has grown dramatically over the past five years as marketers recognize that the quickest way to grab the attention of overwhelmed consumers is to create a fun, real-life experience. And unlike two decades ago, social media and smartphones can catapult the stunt into the digital realm, where tweets, Facebook likes and Instagrammed photos can create a splash many times larger than the event itself.
Over the years, co-CEOs Mr. Moller, 52, and Ms. Guida, 54, have overseen stunts that landed them in the Guinness Book of World Records, including building the world’s biggest shower (100 feet long and 15 feet high, to call attention to Lever Bros.’ Pure Rain Body Wash) and making the biggest lollipop (4,016 pounds, to promote Jolly Rancher’s Fruit Chew lollipops).
Such high jinks made Marketing Werks one of Chicago’s fastest-growing companies from 2006 to 2011, pushing it beyond 800 employees and $100 million in revenue. It was the largest independent experiential agency in the country before it was sold last year to Crossmark Inc., a shopper marketing company based in Plano, Texas.
In some ways, Mr. Moller and Ms. Guida’s work isn’t all that different from door-to-door salesmen who traveled the country in the 1940s and ’50s. But instead of selling vacuums to housewives, Marketing Werks is selling people the idea that Walgreen Co. stores now stock produce—by handing out bananas from Walgreen-branded trucks. Or that the Air National Guard is an interesting career path by creating interactive aptitude tests for passers-by to take.
“Our job is to figure out how to create an interaction that’s fun,” Mr. Moller says. “You have to have an understanding into the psychology of how people want to be related to.”
Our job is to figure out how to create an interaction that’s fun. You have to have an understanding into the psychology of how people want to be related to.
— Scott Moller
“Companies and brands have always tried to reach out and engage customers and generate some excitement,” says Tim Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “What has really changed, however, is that traditional media outlets are eroding incredibly quickly and so experiential marketing takes on a whole new level of importance.”
As technology allows people to skip commercials and filter content, “consumer recall of traditional marketing has decreased by double digits every year, at the same time as the amount of marketing clutter has increased by triple digits,” says Dan Hanover, editor and publisher of Event Marketer, a Norwalk, Conn.-based trade magazine. “The only way to connect today is through the medium of life.”
Social media, in particular, has amplified the reach of event marketing. Previously, if an event or stunt cost $20,000 to put on and only 1,000 people attended, it would be deemed a failure. But today, if each of those attendees shares a photo of the event and tweets about it, the event has theoretically reached hundreds of thousands of consumers.
That means big brands are willing to spend more money on experiential campaigns. According to the Event Marketing Institute in Norwalk, Conn., experiential marketing budgets increased almost 8 percent in 2012 and are on pace to increase at a similar level through 2014.
The acquisition by Crossmark was motivated by Mr. Moller and Ms. Guida’s desire to gain access to sophisticated customer data analysis. The deal created a roughly $1 billion company, although neither party would disclose the purchase price.
But even as the digital and mobile revolution changes the business, the backbone of Marketing Werks’ approach should endure.