Fred Flintstone & George Jetson

You spent your entire marketing budget to plan, design, and finally construct your dream mobile marketing asset. It’s the perfect embodiment of how you want your brand to be perceived, and now it’s time to roll to your first event when you suddenly ask yourself, “Do my customers love technology as much as I do? Can I get data connectivity to my display each week? Did I build a digital experience for my analog customers?” If you have ever had a panic attack caused by flip phones, please know that you are not alone.

When working on the Sprint Unlimited Experience, my customer wanted us to deploy a tech-heavy experience that reflected the way that Sprint wanted to be perceived. The challenge was that the majority of the guests we hosted each week looked more like Fred Flintstone than George Jetson. It was during this time in my career that I started studying the differences between analog and digital customers, ultimately finding ways to market to each.

I have been asked to speak at the Florida Festivals and Events Association conference and tradeshow (#FFEA2017). It is here where myself and Erik Muendel, a longtime friend and a tech guru from Brightline Interactive, will be sharing our thoughts about these two different customer segments and how we design experiences where both groups can co-exist.

As part of my presentation, I will be representing customers from Bedrock—where they carry flip phones, want to play spin to win, and look at you like you are from another planet when you ask them to scan a QR code. These are my people, I have been working around them for the last 20 years and I understand what they will and will not do at an event.

I will share some of my favorite analog marketing experiences, like the American Greetings display at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, as well as my tips from an operation guy’s perspective on how to protect your digital experience from crashing your customers’ experience.

I hope attendees at this year’s Florida Festivals and Events Association Conference and Tradeshow enjoy the fun way we have categorized these two different customer groups and will be able to use some of our insights at their next event. Stay tuned as I recap my trip and share some of the highlights from this year’s conference with you.

Yabba-Dabba-Doo!
Michael