Your Guide to Experiential Marketing - 10 Insider Tips and Tricks for a Successful Brand Roadshow with Ray Sheehan

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Finding Founders. Today, we'll be breaking down your guide to experiential marketing, 10 insider tips and tricks for a successful brand roadshow. To drop these value bombs, I have brought Ray Sheehan into EO Fire Studios. Ray is the owner of Old City Media, a North American event production and experiential marketing agency. And today, DayFarNation will talk about the time of year, the consumer, partners, objectives, staffing needs, takeaway products, shareable content, scaling your roadshow, and so much more.

0:43And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Ray and our sponsors. The Product Boss, hosted by Jacqueline and Mina, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Product Boss helps you take your physical product sales and strategy to the next level to create your dream life with episodes like, can I have a successful product business as a side hustle? Listen to The Product Boss wherever you get your podcasts. Ray, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:19Well, thank you so much for having me on the pod. I appreciate it. I would say one thing that people would probably disagree with about being an entrepreneur that you have, or at least I don't have this, but you have all this freedom. Or maybe your life is, you have your own business, you're an entrepreneur, with that comes all these amazing things. And one thing being freedom, where for me, it just consumes me, which some people love, some people argue with. But for me, I probably thought I would have much more freedom. But for me, it never turns off, always thinking, always trying to think of ways to grow and build.

1:58Love that. And Fire Nation, as I mentioned in the intro, we're talking about your guide to experiential marketing. And we're going to really hammer on 10 insider tips and tricks for a successful brand roadshow. Let's start off with a bang, Ray, considering the time of year. Tell us more. Yeah. So I come from this special event space. For the past 20 years, our agency's been out producing world-class events. And with that, we've had the opportunity to work with a lot of brands. So I'm sure there's a lot of people out there listening that might be a brand manager or they run their own company and they're thinking about, hey, how can I integrate my brand into the fabric of the community?

2:42How can I get out there? How can I promote my products or services or whatever it is that you might have, whatever your business is? The first thing I advise would be time of year. And typically we look at Q1 as the perfect time to plan. Obviously, in most parts of the world, Q1 could be problematic from coming off the holidays. So a lot of people are being a little more mindful of how they're spending some of their discretionary income. So for me, time of the year, when you're actually going out to promote and market your business, Q1 for me is typically when I'm really heavy into planning and then really looking to make my bang in Q2, three or four.

3:27Let's talk about focusing on the consumer. Why is this so important? Yeah, so obviously when you are out in the market, you're trying to figure out who is my target audience? Who am I trying to gauge? What am I looking to get from that consumer? And maybe it's some additional insight. Maybe you can have a deeper understanding about how your company is perceived. It could be something as simple as how they think about your customer service or your corporate social responsibility. So for me, always need to focus on the consumer, getting out into the market, getting out into the community. Doing events obviously gives you access to that where you can really have that conversation with that end user.

4:09It's important to choose our partners strategically, but how do we do this? It takes a lot of research. So if you are out and you are looking for potentially an event or a festival or potentially maybe a retail partner, you want to make sure that those potential partners, they align with your brand. And whether it's what type of event you want to be associated with. So for me, when you're going out into the market and you're going out into the field, you just want to make sure there's that business that you're potentially aligning yourself with. Do you have the same sort of vision? Do you have the same sort of vision of that particular company or event or whatever it is that you're doing from an event execution standpoint?

4:55A lot of people will start the process without really a clear end goal. They don't actually have an objective in mind. Talk to us about having a clear objective, the importance of it, how we do that. Yeah. So for me, it's like, well, how do you gauge success from your team, from the program, from your strategy? So for me, you need to develop some sort of a key performance indicator, KPIs. What are we really trying to do? Is it engagement? Maybe it's we're trying to get more leads into our lead funnel. So is it an email address? Is it phone numbers? Is it sales? We're just out trying to sell the product.

5:34So for me, when you're going out into the field, you want to have some clear objectives. And again, this can be a roadmap. It doesn't necessarily need to be the Bible, but at least now you're able to hold your strategy, your team, your staff, your management. Everyone now has a little bit of a sense of accountability. And for me, like everyone probably listening today, goals are important. Like I love waking up every morning and having a goal. Now I know what I'm fighting for in life. So if you're not establishing goals personally, to me, you're probably doing yourself a disservice. And clearly, if you're not setting up goals and objectives before you go out into the field, you're kind of flying blind, which obviously we could probably all agree is not a smart business decision.

6:16So I will say one thing that Fire Nation is very aware of is the difficulty of getting a team built, the challenge of staffing up. How can we determine our staffing needs? with building out that plan that we just talked about. Okay, where are we trying to go? When are we trying to go? How much manpower or bandwidth do we actually need? That will dictate the headcount. Do we have the resources internally? And most companies might be like, no, we need to start thinking about staffing agencies. And there's a lot of companies out there that provide short-term staffing solutions. So again, you want to do a little bit of some research to really identify which sort of staffing agency really provides the best sort of support.

7:03Are you looking for Giselle? Are you looking for more like Giselle's cousin, you know, more girl next door, guy next door, just very personable, extremely outgoing. Obviously, brand ambassadors provide that short term kind of solution. So if you're thinking about, hey, how do we go out and really test measure, test measure? Now we don't need to hire all these people. We can we can hire a brand ambassador, give them the tools and the education and the insight to be successful, now we can really go out, determine if this strategy is correct. Do we need to pivot or adapt or whatever? And now we can actually think about hiring some full-time staff.

7:39And a lot of times when you're hiring a part-time staff, whether it's utilizing an agency or a brand ambassador, it's nice to kind of go through a little bit of a trial period. And what you might notice is like, wow, there's some real raw talent here. They know enough right now to be dangerous. Imagine if we were to retain them and put them on our team. Imagine what we could do. So staffing is really important. And if you don't have the capabilities, um, internally, you can always look externally and there's some amazing staffing agencies out there that could provide that solution. Test measure, test measure.

8:12I love that process fire nation. And if you think we're even close to being done with these 10 insider tips and tricks, well, we still got five more as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. We all want the same things for our business. More leads, faster sales, and better insights so we can serve our customers at the highest level. One thing we all don't want to waste time and money trying to figure these things out. So what's the solution? A CRM that's easy to set up and customize sounds too good to be true, right? But this CRM exists and it's called HubSpot. What sets HubSpot apart is that it's easy to use and integrate.

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10:40And I want to talk about envisioning our activation setup. What does that look like? What does this vision and envisioning entail? You got your plan. You know where you're going. You have your staff. Well, now you're there. You're actually in the market, whether it's an event or festival or retail or home show, wherever you may be. Now you need to really think about your activation. What does that activation look like? How are you creating some stickiness within your activation? What are you doing to drive that consumer over to your table? And it could be something as simple as maybe it's spin the wheel.

11:15Maybe you're asking questions. So for me, thinking about your activation, thinking about your pop up, thinking about how can we make this pop up as engaging as possible to drive that consumer over to our table or to our area to start to have those organic conversation. So thinking about your setup, thinking about technology, thinking about the process of like, once that consumer comes over to the table, what sort of information are we getting? What sort of questions are we asking them? What do we really need from this consumer? Where are we trying to drive them along as it relates to kind of like thinking about the consumer mapping, so to speak, once they come over, where do we want to move them along to the next part of the process.

11:56Fire Nation knows that providing value is such a key part of any process we're going to do. And something interesting that I wanted to talk about with you as well was takeaway products. This might be something that's not super familiar with my audience. So talk about providing value with takeaway products. Think about it. You're having this amazing conversation with a potential customer and you want to give them some sort of takeaway. And it could be something as simple as like a marketing material might not be very sexy, but what could you do? How can you take your brand and have your brand extend out further from that immediate interaction right there?

12:32And there's a lot of simple things. There's a lot of really cheap and expensive things that go a long way. It could be something as a t-shirt, a hat, a tote bag, a strip ball, a tent, a little piece of post-it notes with your brand on it. Now that brand lives in their vehicle. Maybe it ends up on their refrigerator. Maybe it ends up in their office. So now that little interaction, that conversation that you had during your pop-up activation, you're now giving that consumer something, a present, right, which people love, free items. And now they're taking that somewhere else. And now your brand lives through eternity, wherever that landing spot is.

13:13So a little bit of a takeaway, some swag or some merchandise. and there's a lot of these different things online that you can find goes a long way and consumers and potential customers absolutely love it. One thing that I think a lot of people don't think about is that this is not just a single moment in time. I mean, there can be things that are captured at this event that can go forth and live on and be used in marketing materials and reviews and testimonials. So talk about capturing shareable content. Yeah, so when you are at an event or the roadshow or an activation, you want to make sure you capture that.

13:49You capture that experience and a perfect way of doing that. Maybe it's something as simple as taking some photos. Maybe it's shooting some video. This content now could be used for some of your social channels. And you mentioned it, John, it could be something as simple as recaps or testimonials. So now you create all this goodwill, all this engagement, this amazing experience at that activation. Well, not everyone was there. You could have an international brand and not everyone was able to go to that particular event. Well, now you can share that experience online. People can now look at that and a picture or a video says a thousand words.

14:29So now a consumer, a potential consumer could be looking at that from the outside looking in. And now there's a way to kind of engage that consumer where it's like, wow, I resonate with that or that experience there, what they're showing me it's kind of making a connection towards me. So for me, when you're at these events, do not let those moments, do not let those experience go by without trying to capture as much as that as possible for web, for recaps, for social, whatever the case may be, email marketing, that stuff is gold. And you want to make sure that you take full advantage of that. You keep it in your library for future use and future potential creative and content needs.

15:10Now, we've all heard about the words scale and leverage. I mean, these are so important in the entrepreneurial world and the business world. Now, let's talk about, hey, what if we are successful? What if this does get momentum and traction? How can we be prepared to scale our roadshow? Yeah, so once you go out and you produce a successful event or activation, like we talked about earlier, the test measure, test measure, well, now, once you've validated a couple different things, well, now you can scale. Now you can go out and look at, okay, which target markets are we trying to kind of penetrate?

15:44Maybe it's a consumer. Maybe it's a market. Maybe it's a field, whatever the case may be. But you now know you have your activation. You have your team. The technology is there. The lead funnel is there. That consumer mapping. All that stuff has been flushed out. Well, now ultimately you need to decide based off of time, energy. It could be budget. Or where do we want to go? How do we want to scale our business? But all of that has been kind of figured out through that kind of that trial run that we mentioned earlier of like going out into the field, doing these pop-up activations, doing these roadshows.

16:17Now you've kind of built the model. Now you can scale the model based off of, like I mentioned earlier, some timing and some budgets and stuff like that. So the final thing we're going to talk about today when it comes to these 10 tips and tricks is engaging with partner staff. What does that mean? Yeah, so a lot of times a brand will go to an event or a function or a concert, and they are primarily focused on the attendees or the customer going into whatever the case may be. And then there's the whole back line of the festival or concert or event or whatever the case may be, or staff working at that retail store.

16:56Those are potential customers as well. So my recommendation is always don't forget about them and think about that experience at their location. You're essentially at their home. So one thing that I like to do, and just to kind of like warm their heart, it'd be like if you're going to an event, or pardon me, if you're going to a friend's house for dinner, bringing over a bottle of wine. The same sort of strategy is here. I would like to bring maybe some water. Maybe it's a box of energy bars. There are certain things that you can do to kind of just enhance that experience while you're at that location.

17:32So now you're having all these conversations with the workers or the staff or the volunteers, whatever the case may be. They're now thinking much more favorably about your brand because they are, in fact, customers or potential customers. So one thing you don't want to forget about are the people actually working or the staff. There are volunteers there. Those could be potential customers as well. So there's some tips there. Just something as simple as an energy bar has helped and gone a long way. Ray, bring this home for us. What is the theme that you want Fire Nation to walk away with from our entire conversation here today?

18:06And then what's the best way that we can connect with you? Any call to action that you have? And then we'll say goodbye. First off, again, really appreciate it. Love the time here. If you are a brand, a company, and you're thinking about how can I grow my business? how can i get out into the world and grow my business how can i attract new customers i want to do a strategy i want to do a digital i want to do all these different things but i really truly want to understand my target audience who am i trying to identify with who am i trying to sell doing a program like this doing an activation doing a roadshow like this will absolutely without a shadow of a doubt help your business grow and scale we do it all the time with very small companies and then obviously with very large fortune 500 companies so if you're sitting out there and you're thinking of creative ways of how i can grow our business this is a program this is a strategy whether you work with us or work with some of that you really need to consider you will answer so many different questions that you're probably looking at right now where you don't necessarily have the answer getting out into the field you'll get those questions answered and then more importantly you obviously will drive some sales of your whatever sort of product or services that you do have.

19:20If anybody wanted some deeper insight to figure out, well, Ray, how could this work for my business? Go to our website, check us out. It's oldcitymedia.com. My name is Ray at ray at oldcitymedia.com and we'd be happy to help you provide some additional insight of how this strategy could work for your business. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with RS and JLD today, so keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Ray in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And Ray, it was oldcitymedia.com, correct?

19:59That's correct. Fire Nation, get over there, check it out, learn more, connect with Ray, make it happen. And Ray, I want to say thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, and value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute your brother, and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you now. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Ray for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. Over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 3 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and your fulfillment. I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk.

20:39The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. Order your copy and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. The Product Boss, hosted by Jacqueline and Mina, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Product Boss helps you take your physical product sales and strategy to the next level to create your dream life. With episodes like, Can I have a successful product business as a side hustle? Listen to The Product Boss wherever you get your podcasts.