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Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 1 theexperience ISthemarketingJames H. Gilmore & B. Joseph Pine II Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 2One of AOL Time Warner’s last acts of2001 was announcing that it would closeall 85 of its Warner Bros. Stores, whileone of the Walt Disney Company’s first acts of2002 was its own announcement of closing another50 Disney Stores (for a total of 120 in the pastyear). Then in March, amidst continueddisappointing sales, Disney decided to split itsremaining studio stores into two distinct formats– Disney Play aimed at kids, and Disney Kids atHome aimed at their parents.What happened? How could these titans of mediaand marketing – especially with all the belovedcartoon characters featured so prominently withintheir stores – fail so miserably at retailing? (Disneyeven finds the going so difficult it now looks todouble its trouble.) We believe the problem stemsfrom the very concept of retail “store.” Instead ofstores, AOL Time Warner and the Walt DisneyCompany should have leveraged their vastknowledge of their theme park, movie, music, andonline businesses to create retail experiences.Consider a competitor in the toy business, ThePleasant Company, maker of the American Girlcollection of dolls. When founder and ex-schoolteacher Pleasant Rowland decided to gobeyond selling her wares directly to consumers,rather than open a store she produced anexperience: The American Girl Place, just offMichigan Avenue in Chicago. Here, mothers anddaughters (with not a few grandmothers) spendtime together at The American Girl Theater, wherefor $25 apiece they can take in a 70-minute stagedproduction, The American Girls Revue. They goto The Cafe for a “grown-up dining experience,”paying an admission fee of $16 for lunch or teaand $18 for dinner. Girls pose for a $21.95 photoshoot to take home a copy of American GirlMagazine with their pictures on the cover. They The Experience IS the Marketing James H. Gilmore B. Joseph Pine II Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 3even have their dolls’ hair styled in The Hair Salonfor $10 (a simple ponytail) to $20 (restoring thelook of its original styling).Think about it: A family can walk into theAmerican Girl Place and spend hundreds of dollars– without buying a thing! Of course, each onearrives home with more dolls, more furniture,more clothing, and more accessories asmemorabilia of their experiences. This Place soengages guests that visits average over four hoursTo be clear, we’re not talking about “experientialmarketing” – making your marketing promotionsmore experiential. That’s all well and good, butas yet another adjective-based idea it only affectsmarketing materials around the edges. We aretalking about a fundamentally new way ofattracting and retaining your customers throughcreating new experience offerings. It’s not aboutexperience marketing, but rather marketingexperiences. As Peter Drucker rightly articulated– and you know the more time theyspend, the more money they spend. TheAmerican Girl Place achieves this levelof retail success precisely because it hasso thoroughly abandoned the “store”paradigm. (Proof? The question visitorsalready inside the Place most frequentlyask of the concierge in the foyer is,“Where’s the store?”).Marketing ExperiencesThe Pleasant Company, since bought by Mattel,understands a fundamental dictum for creatingdemand today: The experience IS the marketing.The best way to market any offering (good, service,or experience) is with an experience so engagingthat potential customers can’t help but payattention – and pay up.We see many companies today floundering in howto market their offerings thanks to the demise ofmass markets, the ineffectiveness (and un-measurability) of advertising, and the seemingfailure of using the World Wide Web as an effectivemarketing vehicle. That’s why we also see aplethora of “adjective-based” marketing ideas; toname just a few, think of guerilla marketing,permission marketing, viral marketing, evenemotion marketing and emotional marketing. Eachtype may have something valuable to say, but neverreally addresses the heart of the problem: Peoplehave become relatively immune to messagestargeted at them. The way to reach your customersis to create an experience within them.in The Practice of Management, “The aim ofmarketing is to make selling superfluous.” To thatwe add: The aim of experiences is to makemarketing superfluous.Making Marketing SuperfluousFor this to work, it’s crucial that the experiencesyou create be treated as distinct economicofferings – not as a marketing exercise alone –that engage your customers and create memorieswithin them. A great place to start, especially formanufacturers, is to follow The PleasantCompany’s lead: Establish a flagship venue.Implementing this principle, automakerVolkswagen created a destination attraction calledAutostadt from unused land outside its factory inWolfsburg, Germany. Guests experience each ofits eight brands in ways the company, for the firsttime, can fully control. Brewer Heinekenfashioned the Heineken Experience inside its oldfactory in downtown Amsterdam, where guestsget to be a beer bottle traveling along an assemblyline (complete with being filled to the brim with acold one!). And last year General Mills openedup Cereal Adventure at the Mall of America inPeople have become relativelyimmune to messages targeted at them.The way to reach your customers isto create an experience within them. Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 4Minnesota, where kids go on tours and play gamesto learn all about how cereal is made (and can evenleave with their own picture on a box of Wheaties).Even B2B, or business-to-business, companies aregetting into the act. Case Construction Equipmentcreated the Case Tomahawk Experience Centerin the northwoods of its home state of Wisconsinto provide an outdoor arena for potential customersto try out its large earth-moving gear in a low-key, relaxed atmosphere before they buy. (Folksoften have so much fun playing with the equipmentthat they stay for several nights.) Not surprisingly,Case found that due to the relationships createdthere, a trip to Tomahawk dramatically increasesits close rates.Indeed, Executive Briefing Centers really areflagship venues that businesses place inside oftheir offices to turn mundane customer visits intoengaging experiences. At the Johnson ControlsShowcase in Milwaukee, the company plungescustomers into an inky, cold darkness to simulatea winter outage – or bakes them in an arid heatwave – to demonstrate viscerally how itstechnology helps potential customers avoid thetrauma of such occurrences. At Nortel Network’sExecutive Briefing Center in Research TrianglePark, North Carolina, guests receive smart cardsTellingly, the money for such corporateexperiences – as well as the consumer-orientedAutostadt and Heineken Experience – comesout of each company’s marketing and/orcommunications budgets. Indeed, let’s cement thisprinciple: Steal from traditional marketing. Asa start, carve out 20% of your traditional PR andadvertising budgets and put it into the realm ofphysical experiences. Such experiences engenderemotional connections with which no marketingmessages can hope to compete. Indeed, whilemany still do, a number of experience stagersmanage to forego completely or do very littletraditional advertising. The Pleasant Company,Starbucks, the World Famous Pike Place FishMarket, Vans, Recreational Equipment, Inc., anda host of others choose to let their experiencesalone serve the purpose of acquiring newcustomers and energizing old ones.As a corollary, realize too: Use your creativeresources as your R&D. Don’t view your internalmarketing talent or your external agencies asresources solely to be wasted on mere marketingcampaigns, but as the very designers of your besteconomic offerings: the experiences that drivedemand for your company. When it comes toexperiences, it’s not your father’s R&D. The samefolks back in the lab designing your physical goodsor in the field developing your new serviceofferings are unlikely to have the necessary back-that activate and guide their experience with Norteltechnology. Potential customers find themselvesimmersed in personalized presentations that usethe latest in experience technologies (includingvirtual reality) to demonstrate how the latest inNortel technologies would apply directly to them.ground or skills to design and script, muchless construct and cast, an experience.Think of some of the highly imaginativeadvertisements of the past few years.What if we unleashed all that creativityon conceiving, designing, and bringing tomarket revenue-generating – and profit-enhancing – experiences? Instead of justcreating those wonderful youth-dancingcommercials for the Gap, what if its ad agencywere contracted to conceive, design, and rollout –in other words, innovate! – a compelling danceclub where kids pay to gyrate in their jeans? (Andperhaps others pay to watch on the Web?) What ifNike’s incredibly creative talent were used not justto put those basketball-passing, sneaker-Don’t view your internal marketingtalent or your external agencies asresources solely to be wasted on meremarketing campaigns. Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 5squeaking, breath-exhaling commercials on the air,but to design real basketball courts that customersactually used in their Niketown stores? In otherwords, don’t just show it, do it! Do this to establishongoing businesses, not temporary campaigns.in the stores feed people directly to the websitewhile online presentations feed people to thecompany’s stores. (It leaves you wondering whyAmazon.com doesn’t do the reverse, creating aphysical flagship in the hometown it shares withExpanding Your PortfolioAnd don’t stop at just one experience – you shouldcreate a series of related experiences that flow onefrom another, creating demand up and down atevery level, both generating new forms of revenueand driving sales of whatever you currently offer.In other words: Create a rich portfolio ofexperiences.Outdoor retailer Recreational Equipment, Inc.(REI), for example, created a flagship experiencein its hometown of Seattle, complete with aclimbing mountain (for which non-members paya $5 fee) as well as a bicycle track, walking trails,and other such experiences. This flagship realizedsuch success that it became the number one touristattraction in all of Seattle, with more than twomillion visitors per year. So REI added a secondlayer of similar experience venues at other locales,including one in Minnesota that fashioned a cross-country ski trail around the place, and one next toa river in Denver with a kayaking experience. REIexpands its portfolio through its 50-plus retailenvironments that, while recognized as “stores”by the buying public, still yield a heightenedexperience via their architecture and ambience,as well as through the various educational classesand clinics held there. A further member of REI’sexperience portfolio is its website, REI.com, thatis effectively integrated into its retail channel. PCsREI.)Vans Inc., the forty-year-old manufacturerof athletic shoes particularly popular withskateboarders, grinders, and other extremesports enthusiasts, developed a differentkind of experience portfolio. While athleticretailers always carried its shoes, Vans earlyon created its own retail environments – thestrength of its brand voiding potentialchannel conflict for its now 140-plus locales –providing a distinctive shopping experience thatit could stage. But it finally hits its experiencestride in 1998 when the company opened up itsfirst Vans Skatepark in The Block at Orange, amall in Southern California. There, kids pay $7 to$14 for two-hour skateboarding sessions in,around, and above ramps, jumps, and combi-pools.Vans now has ten Skateparks around the country,with the latest adding indoor/outdoor BMX bikingtracks.None, however, qualify as a flagship.Appropriately for a company whose customers ziparound on skateboards, Vans produced a mobileflagship: the Vans Warped Tour, which goes tosome twenty-plus cities every year. More than analternative rock concert for alternative athletes,this new genre of experience combines a musicfestival with skateboarding spectacle. Filling outits portfolio even further, the company createdVans Triple Crown sporting events to give itscustomers a nationally televised experience astheir own show (not a nationally televisedcommercial interrupting somebody else’s show).It also stages Skateboard and Snowboard Campsfor aspiring enthusiasts at its Skateparks and othervenues, and like REI, effectively integrates itswebsite into its experience portfolio.Through the practice of companies such as these,we’ve been able to divine a full LocationDon’t stop at just one experience— you should create a series ofrelated experiences that flow onefrom another…. Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 6Hierarchy Model for where and how companiesshould create experiences. For just asmanufacturers have a location theory about whereto place plants, warehouses, distribution centers,and sales outlets, experience stagers need a theoryfor where to place the marketing experiences theystage. You can’t do everything everywhere, but asshown in the exhibit on the next page, you shouldconsider how best to take advantage of the fivephysical echelons we discern: Flagship Location: Create the singular place,generally in a locale indelibly associated with thecompany, where a company stages the very best,most dynamic experience. In addition to thosewe’ve already discussed, you can also visit theSony Metreon in San Francisco; the Bass ProShops’ Big Cedar Lodge outside of Branson,Missouri; the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin;Swarovski’s Kristallwelten (“Crystal Worlds”)experience outside its factory in Wattens,Austria; and the brand-new Toys ‘R’ Us mega-store in Times Square. In each case, thecompany produced a unique experience thatboth built upon its heritage and expanded theaudience for its offerings – while alsoproviding a source of new revenue. Experience Hubs: Set a few places inlocations where your customers naturallycongregate. In its most basic form, locatewhere retail tourism is already rampant,including (but not limited to) the U.S. hubs ofLas Vegas, Orlando, Times Square inManhattan, Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, andMinnesota’s Mall of America in the U.S., aswell as Amsterdam, London, Tokyo, Sydney,Hong Kong, and others around the world.Depending on your business, though, adifferent hub network may make sense. Ifyou’re in the cooking field, you’ll want to bein San Francisco or Napa Valley, New Orleans,New York, Paris (skip London), Tuscany, andso forth. If you’re in the automobile industry,of course go to Detroit, Indianapolis, DaytonaBeach, Stuttgart, perhaps, and maybe even theBonneville Salt Flats. (And how about thatmountain up which every carmaker’s SUVclimbs in their commercials?) These hublocations are generally more focused (and lesscomprehensive) than flagship locations,though without its heritage; some companies,however, make them every bit as experiential– from REI’s outdoorsy experiences in itsMinnesota and Denver hubs, to Ian SchragerHotels’ hip hotels in the hip hubs of New York,Los Angeles, South Beach, London, and SanFrancisco. Major Venues: Here’s the “meat” of mostcompanies’ hierarchies, where they put theirprimary outlets that reach the most peoplewhere they live. These are situated wherevera large enough population can create demand– whether (a) across major “urbanite” citiesas with REI, (b) out in hunting and fishingterritory as with REI competitors Bass ProShops and Cabela’s, (c) in stylish mallsdrawing an artsy clientele as with Apple’s newchain of outlets (each complete with theatreand cafe), or, (d) virtually everywhere when itcomes to the coffee experience at Starbucks(which, while it has still has the originallocation in Seattle, has no flagship). Thesemajor venues should “echo” the higher-echelon experiences and confirm theirsignificance, yet without competing with them.In this way, such locations will whet theappetite for customers to experience the entireportfolio. Case Construction Equipment doesthis when it conducts “rodeos” at itsdealerships to let customers operate theequipment in a fun environment (completewith prizes for the best at each event), givingcustomers a day-long taste of what its flagshipTomahawk experience is like. Derivative Presence: The fourth level involveshaving a presence inside of some other venueor event, “a place within the place,” derivingvalue both from the surrounding environmentas well as distilling the essence of the flagship,hubs, and major venues in a more accessibleway. Vans, for example, sells its shoes insideother retailers – often going beyond simplyhaving shoes on the shelves to an area entirely Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 7Exemplar: The LEGO CompanyToymaker LEGO placed its original, flagship LEGOLAND theme park outside its own factory in Billund, Denmark, andis now putting similar theme parks in major experience hubs acoss the world, including outside London, Los Angeles,and (opening May, 2002) Munich. These introduce youngsters to its brand, create an emotional attachment to thatbrand, and drive demand for its unique building block toy system. (When it opened LEGOLAND in Carlsbad, California,sales of its toys went up over 15% throughout all of Southern California.) It also has a few LEGO Imagination Centersat other experience hubs, including the Mall of America and Downtown Disney, that echo the LEGOLAND experienceby exposing kids to its toys in an interactive, playful atmosphere. In addition, it has placed Mindstorm experiences inbetter Science & Industry museums, major venues that attract youngsters and their parents (not to mention theirteachers). LEGO’s directly owned and operated experiences increase demand for its toys bought at all retail outlets,some of which (such as at F.A.O. Schwartz) have a dedicated presence themed by LEGO to be derivative of its ownexperiences, while others are boxes on the shelf of virtually every toy store in the developed world.LEGO mirrors this physical structure with a virtual one. It uses the Internet to reach consumers at children’s sites, toyretailers, and search engines all over the World Wide Web, produces derivative placements on sites like StarWars.comand HarryPotter.com, presents its own major platforms for distinct product lines (such as the ongoing storyline atwww.bionicle.com), employs the drawing power of experience portals MSN (where LEGO supplies content for itskids’ pages) and AOL (keyword: bionicle), and then stages its own unique, immersive experienes at its flagship site,LEGO.com. Just a few of the online experiences it stages at this virtual place are story contests, consumer-createdmovie events, imaginary worlds to be explored (that grow monthly), and a mass customized product section. Theoverall goal of LEGO’s experience hierarchy: enhancing children’s creativity and imagination by stimulating them tomake their own designs from LEGO elements.FreeFreeFeeFeeSingular PlaceSingular PlaceUbiquityUbiquityPhysical AccessVirtual AccessFLAGSHIP LOCATIONEXPERIENCE HUBSMAJOR VENUESDERIVATIVE PRESENCEWORLD WIDE MARKETSFLAGSHIP SITEEXPERIENCE PORTALSMAJOR PLATFORMSDERIVATIVE PLACEMENTWORLD WIDE WEBLocation Hierarchy Model Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 8devoted to Vans’ shoes, with its ownenvironmental fixtures. It further uses NBCSports to broadcast its Triple Crown events.Starbucks is branching out from its own coffeeexperiences to creating a presence inside ofgrocery stores, banks, and – egad! – even anairline. (Let’s do be careful out there – no oneOr consider Cleveland-based insurer ProgressiveCorp. It sends its claims adjusters out on the roadin “Immediate Response Vehicles” (IRVs) wherethey respond directly to the very site of an accident.When an adjuster arrives on the scene, if need behe first handles any emergency situation (likeputting out the occasional fire). He then respondsshould place their experience in theincapable hands of such a poorexperience stager.) And rather thancreate a flagship or even a major venueexperience, Lutron Electronics Corp. ofCoopersburg, Pennsylvania, went insideof EPCOT at Walt Disney World to puttogether, with a host of other suppliers,The Ultimate Home Theater Experience. World Wide Markets: Rounding out thephysical echelons, of course, lies everyfeasible place where customers mightencounter a company’s offerings. For amanufacturer, this may involve not onlyexperiences per se but also the pure availabilityof its physical goods around the world, as wellas the experience of using those goods by itscustomers, wherever they reside. For a serviceprovider, this may mean turning everycustomer interaction – even unfortunate ones– into an experience. For example, The GeekSquad, based in Minneapolis, installs andrepairs computers with panache. Its SpecialAgents costume themselves in white shirts,thin black ties, and black pants with deviceshanging off the belt. They drive around in newblack-and-white VW Beetles dubbedGeekmobiles and engage their customers in aunique blend of street theatre. When a geekgoes to a customer’s premises, he pulls outhis identification badge and might saysomething like, “I’m Special Agent Smithfrom The Geek Squad. Please step away fromyour computer, ma’am. . . .” Chief GeekRobert Stephens tells us his goal is to makeeach performance so engaging that customerscan’t wait until their computers break down!to the claimant’s emotional needs – such asoffering a cup of coffee (another derivativepresence opportunity for Starbucks?) and a seatinside the IRV to calm one’s nerves, and, whenneeded, arranging for a tow truck and replacementvehicle to come to the accident site. And finally,he adjusts the claim using a laptop computer withwireless uplink to the company’s mainframecomputers. In a great many cases, the customerreceives a check on the spot!Interestingly, one of the company’s policyholderstold us, “I didn’t used to be a customer ofProgressive’s – until I got hit by someone whowas!” The Progressive experience went so farbeyond the mundane service her old insurancecompany provided, that she said, in essence, “If Iever have another accident, that’s how I want tobe treated.” Now here’s the kicker: this reactionoccurs often enough that the company’s claimsadjusters now carry around application forms tosign up the other person in the accident uponrequest. The experience is the marketing indeed.Mirror WorldsThe five echelons discussed above represent thehierarchy of physical experiences a business cancreate in the real world. As seen earlier, companiesneed not limit themselves to the physical realm,but can use virtual experiences as well. ThusCompanies need not limit themselvesto the physical realm, but can usevirtual experiences as well. Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 9another principle: Integrate physical and virtualexperiences. The Pleasant Company leverages itsface-to-face interactions at the American GirlPlace to create demand for its remote relationshipsYou can further use the World Wide Web for adramatic “post-show” experience. Vans, forexample, documents every one of its Warped Tourstops online, complete with artist list and a galleryof photos (“Hey, dude, is that me in that picture?”).The Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattleprovides one of the best post-shows we’veencountered. EMP, Microsoft co-founder PaulAllen’s celebration of the Seattle music scene (andin particular all things Jimi Hendrix), provideseach of its guests with a customized Palm, Inc.handheld computer called a MEG, for MusicExperience Guide. It serves the normal museumfunction of playing audio clips about the contentsof each display found at EMP, while also allowingits users to “bookmark” whichever artifacts theyfind most interesting. At the conclusion of theirtour, they give the device back to a host, whouploads the bookmarked information onto EMP’sservers. When any guest goes to the company’swebsite, www.emplive.com, and inputs hispersonal ticket number, EMP then dynamicallyproduces a mass-customized webpage filled withinformation specifically about the items that guestbookmarked. It’s a terrific way of extending thedramatic structure of the experience online,moving from the real to the virtual and – upon thenext visit when the guest can request his pastbookmarks be downloaded for him right then andthere – back to the real.From these and other examples, we’ve gleaned ahierarchy of five virtual echelons that preciselymirror the five physical echelons, as again givenin the exhibit: Flagship site: This is the singular place (youknow: www.yourcompanyname.com) on theWeb people will expect to look for you andyour online experience. Unfortunately, mostcompanies treat their websites as purebrochure-ware rather than experience-fare.Perhaps the best examples of flagship onlineexperiences are gamesites likewww.MaMaMedia.com. But many companiesare beginning to make at least part of theirflagship site an experience, including customhouseboat maker Sumerset, from Somerset,via catalog and website. Nortel uses its in-personsales meetings to create personalized websitesbased on the technological interactions the personhas at its flagship venue (neatly recorded on theindividual smart cards). And shoemaker Vansstreams video from its Skateparks so that onlinebuddies (and parents) can view the physical actionelectronically.In fact, Vans exemplifies what our friend PeterChernack, president of MetaVision Corporationin Burbank, California, advocates as one way ofintegrating the virtual with the real: using the Webas a “pre-show” for the live experience. This is aterm borrowed from Disney’s use of its queuingareas to set up the “back story” of its rides, therebycreating anticipation for the experience ahead.Perhaps the movie studios have figured out howto do this best, with online trailers, games, behind-the-scenes videos, and other digital experiencesthat, when done well, greatly enhance the chancesof having a hit on their hands. The Blair WitchProject is probably the most famous for havingits producers leverage an online pre-show to createan audience before ever showing the film intheatres. However, the most successful pre-showmay be that of New Line Cinema, the makers ofThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring(and a unit of AOL Time Warner) and its twoupcoming sequels. It brought the fanaticalfollowers of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional trilogy –who not only provide the core audience for filmedversions, but who could have easily derailed itspotential through word-of-badmouth – all but intothe filming and production process.Via a carefully managed official Internet website(www.lordoftherings.net) launched two-and-a-halfyears before the movie premiere, as well ascoordinated information sharing with the myriadfan sites, New Line produced an unprecedentedsuccess, with over 1 billion hits prior to theopening of the film. Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 10Kentucky (yes, Sumerset from Somerset). Itprovides daily pictures on its website directlyfrom the manufacturing line so customers cancheck on the progress of their very own boat.Retailer Gallery Furniture of Houston, Texas,has a slew of mobile cameras set up in itswarehouse-like store that website visitorscontrol. (Many in-store wives use thecapability while talking to their at-workhusbands to save a second trip for him to seewhat she’s considering buying.) And at itsflagship site, wgsn.com, B2B company WorthGlobal Style Network effectively useswebcams (so its paying visitors from thefashion industry can see, live, exactly what ishappening in store fronts in Milan, Paris,London, New York, and so forth) as well asstreaming video (for live and archived fashionshow footage). Experience Portals: The online world consistsof a number of experience portals where peoplespend large amounts of time. The premierplatform, of course, is America Online with its 33million paying customers, while others includeYahoo! and MSN (the Microsoft Network).Because of the mass congregation of web surferson these portals – equivalent to the vast amountof tourists visiting the experience hubs in the realworld – it pays to have relationships with them tofeature a company’s own goods, services, andexperiences. General Motors, for instance,produced a NASCAR-themed game, the DodgeSpeedway, for MSN’s Gaming Zone. On AOL’swelcome screen one can immediately link to agreeting card page from American Greetings witha simple click on the Keyword button, to namejust one of the literally thousands of hotlink buttonsproduced by other companies to fit AOL’sformat. Similar to the experience hubs in thephysical half of the hierarchy, there are alsosubject-specific experience platforms, such asbusiness portals The Wall Street Journal’sWSJ.com or The Financial Times’ FT.com,and woman’s lifestyle portal iVillage.com. Major Platforms: These are distinct websites,though of course they may link to the others,where a company can create a unique webexperience outside of the normal parametersexpected of a corporate website. Sony suppliesa terrific immersive gamesite at Everquest.com,and movie studios create a distinct Webplatform for every new movie they produce.Automaker BMW maintains bmwfilms.comto showcase short films by edgy filmmakersthat, not coincidentally, feature its own cars.At www.motorola.experience.com, Motorolacreated a futuristic environment – where as avisitor you can “explore the many worlds ofyour personal network” to “experience thefuture” – in order to expose its consumer andbusiness customers to its new technologies. Derivative Placement: Outside of portals,companies can create “sites within the site,”placing their own digital experiences withinothers’ websites. Perhaps the best at this isAmazon.com, which provides the booksellingportion of hundreds, if not thousands, ofdistinct websites. Sometimes this merelypoints to specific Amazon web pages – arudimentary placement at best – but at othertimes Amazon.com’s book covers, listings,reviews, and ordering and shippinginformation are placed on other sites, with onlythe actual ordering process clicking over toAmazon.com itself. Obviously, experienceportals provide a great place for companies toplace a derivative presence. At iVillage.com,five of its 14 or so “channels” are provided byother websites – some with straight links andsome framed by the iVillage look and feel. (Asixth channel on books is, naturally, a frontfor Amazon.com.) But companies should alsoseek to identify sites less prominent than theportals, but more relevant to the specificinterests of the customers they hope to attract. World Wide Web: Finally, matching thephysical ubiquity of being available in worldwide markets is the virtual ubiquity of beingavailable on every website having anything todo with the company’s offerings. A recentsearch at Google.com for “vans shoes,” forinstance, yielded a grand total of 59,300 webpages with those words on them. Even better,consider again how director Peter Jackson and [...]... Mr Gilmore is co-author (with B Joseph Pine II) of The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage B Joseph Pine II is an author, speaker, and advisor to Fortune 500 companies and start-ups alike, and is co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP In addition to co-authoring The Experience Economy (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1999), Mr Pine also wrote the award-winning book Mass... visit www.amazon.com/BrownHerron and search for the title of this e-Doc, or go directly to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail /-/ B00006JMDC/ To order 50 or more copies of this document at a bulk discount rate, contact Strategic Horizons LLP at +1 (330) 99 5-4 680 or e-mail: shllp@aol.com Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 14 ... arguably the best (and highest admission-feed) virtual experience for the masses: America Online If it can gain the same synergy across its varied units that it achieved with The Lord of the Rings, the company should become the premier experience stager in the world The Chief Xperience Officer (CXO) should be responsible for managing the rich portfolio of paid-for experiences Remember, the experience... (330) 99 5-4 680 This Special Report is available online exclusively at www.amazon.com/BrownHerron Published by BrownHerron Publishing ISBN: B00006JMDC (August 26, 2002) Electronic or hardcopy reproductions, copies, or facsimiles of this document are strictly prohibited For additional electronic copies of this document, please visit www.amazon.com/BrownHerron and search for the title of this e-Doc, or... creating experiences that customers prove willing to pay for That is precisely the role of the Chief Xperience Officer Copyright 2002 by Strategic Horizons LLP • Page 13 James H Gilmore is co-founder of Aurora, Ohio-based Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings Mr Gilmore works with management teams... attend the workshop Still, this is not yet possible for all companies in all situations Most companies are easing into it, charging for particular activities or at specific times in an otherwise admission-free place But as indicated by the vertical line in the Location Hierarchy Model, you should at the very least consciously choose which experiences should be for free, and which are for a fee Never just... created is Walt Disney World For guests not only pay an admission fee at the gate, but pay to stay in Disney hotels, park in its parking lots, eat at its restaurants, and take home its Mickey Mouse ears, T-shirts, watches, mugs – and so forth – as memorabilia for the wonderful time they have there as a family You might now worry; after all, if the premier experience stager, Disney, couldn’t get it right,... Web ubiquity to the movie, the movie’s website provides derivative placement to the chosen few New Line Cinema also took advantage of the experience portal produced by sister company AOL, running a two- Snapping All the Pieces Together While many companies choose to work only in a few levels of the full Location Hierarchy Model, every company should examine its own situation and determine which echelons... were filmed, decided to capitalize on New Line’s tremendous success ($300 million worth of tickets sold in the U.S alone and climbing, with two more movies to come) She named Pete Hodgson to the cabinet-level position of Minister for Lord of the Rings His mission: to turn the physical production sites into major tourist venues, with the country itself becoming a flagship location for the movies’ fans... original Tolkien book trilogy, as well as new sites that cropped up in anticipation of the movie Indeed, searching for the specific string of words “lord of the rings” at Google.com resulted in a mind-boggling 1.3 million web pages! Interestingly, a few of those websites gain preferential treatment with discussions and links back to them at the official movie site So while they provide World Wide Web . and bringing tomarket revenue-generating – and profit-enhancing – experiences? Instead of justcreating those wonderful youth-dancingcommercials for the. word-of-badmouth – all but intothe filming and production process.Via a carefully managed official Internet website(www.lordoftherings.net) launched two-and-a-halfyears