Intentional Design – engineering new rituals
“Awe-inspiring” “THE place to be” “A memorable moment!”
How our events are perceived is critical, and there are some important variables we need to get right to be successful. These can go either way, so ideally we want to sit on the right side of the spectrum.
The compelling nature of the genuine and the unknown.
STAGED v SPONTANEOUS
The unique proposition of live events over other forms of entertainment (or regular products and services) is that they are unpredictable experiences, with
Serendipity – the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
CONTRIVED/FALSE v ORGANIC/AUTHENTIC
To connect with our audiences it is important we provide experiences that fit with the values of our organisation, and, in line with the expectations of our audience. In a way that will connect with our audience, that is true to our brand, and to our fans. Authentic and real.
There are many events and sports which are trying
INSIGNIFICANT v INFLUENTIAL
As I’ve said before, the world doesn’t need any more events which have no meaning or purpose. All events can, and should, influence their audience in some way. Influencing what we think, feel, do and say. Events are too much hard work not to be meaningful!
ONE OFF v REPEATED
We need for these meaningful, organic moments to occur, and we also want our audience to know that these moments will be repeated, so that there is value f
There is value in developing moments which are repeatable, both for your audience, and for you.
When these rituals become ‘must see’ moments, and are amplified by word of mouth, our work is pretty much done for us!
The 80:20 rule
We know that 80% of the impact of any event, comes from 20% of the experience, the majority from a handful of influential moments. So it is worth mapping out your moments, to identify which ones are having the most impact, and which ones need to be repeated!
SOLO v EN MASSE
We also know that experiences are more powerful wh
Essentially, I think what we ideally want to engineer is new, shared rituals.
Something that is real, created by the fans, participants, that they can own and share, again and again.
Rituals are … ‘a series of actions or type of behaviour regularly and invariably followed by som
RITUALS EN MASSE
The Mexican wave is a brilliant example of the ‘go to’ (if somewhat tired) ritual for sports fans.
How the Mexican Wave started is more contentious than you might have thought, and it didn’t start in Mexico. However was the 1986 World Cup in Mexico where the wave came to global attention, and became a repeatable ritual for sports fans across the world.
The story of how the wave originally occurred that I like best tells of when the On Fiel
So how do we engineer scalable, repeatable rituals?
It’s not easy, and there is no proven playbook as yet (as far as I am aware!?). But I do have a few ideas… which I will share with you next week.
Fan rituals, are basically habits, shared en masse, and in sync.
Next week we will look at how the science behind building habits in individuals, which may help us create rituals en masse in our audiences.
We know that habits are “a particular activity or way of acting that you do automatically and regularly” and rituals are “a series of actions regularly and invariably followed by someone – especially as part of an event” so… we can mash these forces tog
Taking an insight and evidence based approach to designing experiences allows us to merge the art and the science of events, engineering and amplifying the influence of experiences.
Events after all are about bringing people together for something different. To share a common passion. And we must provide the platform for these shared experiences, transformation and memorable moments to occur.
We can’t always engineer the magic, but we can provide the platform, the stage for wonderful things to emerge.
Let’s talk more next week!
… … and DON’T FORGET – the other 80:20 rule
As I wrote in my book, I also believe it is important to change up a vast majority of an experience each time. So once you have identified the 20% of interactions that have an impact, you can (and should) go about modifying the other 80%.
That may be a new venue, theme, or format. As experience providers, we must provide a contrastable experience. We must make sure it is never the same again!