Our Work is Theatre... but what happens after?

It's been a busy 2-3 weeks and I've been neglecting this blog a little. I can feel my blog biceps sagging a little with Bob & Jillian yelling at me to get back on the treadmill!

Yesterday, I spent the morning at my daughter's first Christmas Concert at her pre-school. It was a beautiful, hilarious, and proud event for me as a father. The kids had a ball dressing up with their parents' 100% attention on them.


It was an amateur production but fantastic result. The parents were singing praises for the teachers, school, volunteers, and the kids for putting on a great show. They were talking about it long after the concert had finished. Loads of pictures and videos recorded a memorable event.

On reflection of our own work in marketing - Our work is theatre. We use to focus so much on putting a great show with big budget beautiful ads such as the Qantas - Australia Home, Barclay's Waterslide, and our famous Carlton Draught's Big Ad.

Paul Isakson mentioned:
Which rings true. A communications campaign can be amateur production made from card boxes with sticky tape and still be a hit with our consumers.

I'm not saying don't spend money on big creatives. The Qantas and Big Ad has been a stellar success. But think about how your campaign will allow your audience to create their own stories.

Various agencies have their own methodologies. Naked's approach is Transmedia planning. Some just came from a result of great creative thinking talent - Boom chika wah wah and Bond's Commercial promotion with So You Think You can Dance. Both created buzz by their audience and created a cult following.

Maybe for each campaign, start focusing beyond putting a great show and ask "Will they talk about it?" The answer can be found from insights and strategy.