{"id":66749,"date":"2025-02-25T04:20:34","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T04:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/consultant-behind-meow-wolf-blue-man-group-shares-lessons-on-joy-playing-and-branded-experiences\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T04:21:32","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T04:21:32","slug":"consultant-behind-meow-wolf-blue-man-group-shares-lessons-on-joy-playing-and-branded-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/consultant-behind-meow-wolf-blue-man-group-shares-lessons-on-joy-playing-and-branded-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"Consultant behind Meow Wolf, Blue Man Group shares lessons on joy, playing, and branded experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

Pop quiz! What do Meow Wolf, Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, Disney Imagineering, and Ringling Bros.<\/strong> have in widespread? They\u2019ve all sought out right this moment\u2019s visitor as a marketing consultant.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

However right this moment\u2019s grasp is\u2026 truly not a grasp of advertising and marketing<\/em> in any respect. In reality, he\u2019s by no means labored a day in advertising and marketing. However he actually wrote the guide on interactive performance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And as advertising and marketing leaders pour massive budgets into branded experiences, dwell occasions, and interactive model activations, you\u2019re going to wish to hear what he has to say.<\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Title:<\/strong> Jeff Wirth, Co-founder of the Interactive PlayLab<\/a><\/p>\n

Job:<\/strong> Designs, directs, and consults on interactive experiences, digital world purposes, and dwell immersive fiction<\/p>\n

Declare to fame: <\/strong>Did you see <\/em>the listing of firms he\u2019s labored with?!<\/p>\n

Enjoyable reality:<\/strong> Began his profession as a clown for the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus<\/p>\n

Lesson 1: Start on the finish.<\/h2>\n

When designing your interactive expertise, Wirth recommends first eager about what you need members to stroll away with. No, not a buying bag filled with merch. Suppose extra philosophically.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would you like individuals to know after the activation that they didn\u2019t perceive earlier than?<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

For Meow Wolf or Cirque du Soleil, that could be discovering a childlike sense of surprise. For a model activation or advertising and marketing occasion, it\u2019ll be\u2026 one thing no much less deep, truly.<\/p>\n

Certain, you could possibly purpose for them to stroll away with some product information \u2014 if you’d like them to overlook it by the point they get again to their automobile. Really memorable experiences purpose for one thing extra profound.<\/p>\n

Wirth says step 2 is asking: \u201cHow can we make it so we don\u2019t inform <\/em>them what to know? We create a context inside which they’ve a possibility to uncover<\/em> that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That context is the skeleton to your occasion or expertise design.<\/p>\n

However Wirth emphasizes that this should solely be a possibility \u2014 making an attempt to power a participant to a selected conclusion is, to his thoughts, each unethical and probably damaging. Which brings us to Lesson 2.<\/p>\n

\"jeff-wirth-mim-opportunity\"<\/p>\n

Lesson 2: Empower your members to assume for themselves.<\/h2>\n

\u201cPut the precedence on the participant\u2019s capability to assume for themselves<\/strong>,\u201d Wirth advises.<\/p>\n

As an anti-example, he shares the story of a pharmaceutical firm that approached him to create an interactive expertise. When Wirth required that the expertise current their product amongst a variety of choices, the corporate shortly backed out.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a mistake. Other than being ethically questionable, railroading a participant will assuredly result in an expertise that’s forgettable at finest <\/strong>\u2014 at worst, it could possibly be dangerous to the participant and your model.<\/p>\n

However that doesn\u2019t imply you shouldn\u2019t give your members one thing to assume about.<\/em> Wirth explains that if you’d like individuals to play, you could give them sufficient to play with.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s extra, \u201cyou could give them the expertise that they will play and achieve success at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In different phrases, your expertise wants to offer sufficient context that your members know tips on how to play \u2014 and might even really feel accomplishment \u2014 however not a lot that they\u2019re merely following directions.\"jeff-wirth-mim-joy\"<\/p>\n

Lesson 3: Play is not only for kids.<\/h2>\n

Play is usually a highly effective part of a dwell occasion. However \u201cplay\u201d means various things to completely different individuals.<\/p>\n

You’ll be able to play a sport. You’ll be able to mess around. You’ll be able to play alongside. These all have completely different shades of which means that have an effect on what your members are requested to do and what they get out of your occasion.<\/p>\n

It’s essential to resolve what sort of play serves the context you outlined in Lesson 1. For Wirth\u2019s experiences, play means \u201cmake-believe for the aim of empowerment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why make-believe? That\u2019s a tough phrase to place in entrance of stakeholders.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne, you get the chance to be extra genuine. Since you\u2019re not having to carry the masks that’s the way you current your self to society.\u201d<\/p>\n

And two? Make-believe provides you \u201cthe power to have deeper empathy for people who find themselves not such as you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile you play make-believe, it doesn\u2019t must be profitable and shedding. The enjoyment is just within the making of perception.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, as for what a participant walks away with, \u201cpleasure\u201d is a fairly good bag of merch.<\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n