DURATION or IMPACT?
What it “looked like”
Given the ridiculous get-up (no offense to my German friends), this activation could be seen as a party-trick. The fact that I’m accompanied by a literal juggler adds to the potential perception of ‘frivolity.’
Ah yes, but my friend, this is where it turns….
Yes, I was in lederhosen (thank you @Giovanni Laruciella). Yes, I had a professional juggler (thank you @Steve Krauss). I also had a brilliant segue provided by the panel members.
No one would know or would have guessed that during this 2+ hour CEO only forum I was paying acute attention.
Writing down actual quotes from the panel members.
Gathering THEIR insights to fuel our ‘performance.’
Listening to audience questions to ensure relevance to them.
As we took to the front of the room, I opened by quoting panel members.
BTW – this is the second time my client uttered something that became our activation. @Jules Bligh said, “CEOs have so much to juggle.” The dots I joined in my head…
Our audience: medtech CEOs and clinical leaders
Samantha McKenna’s #showmeyouknowme philosophy
CEOs must ‘metaphorically’ juggle many business operations (especially in start-ups and scale-ups)
Actual juggling is a thing – an analog to the metaphor
It’s relatable. Made moreso by quoting the panel
That is literally the Freudian free-association that led to this activation.
Watch the video – our whole ‘presentation’ took 2 minutes. As we left the stage, host and conference organizer Giovanni said, “I thought you needed a lot more time.”
Channeling my inner Dorothy Parker, I replied, “Who needs duration? I had impact!”
As evidenced by the feedback on the activation, indeed we did.
ANECDOTE: In case you’re wondering what OTHER Jules Bligh utterance became an activation: Last year, as we approached TCT (important cardiology conference) Ascend sought to build its clinical research pipeline by meeting as many potential meddevice sponsors as possible.
During a prep call, Jules mentioned, “we can serve as their ‘boots on the ground’ in APAC.”
Dots I joined:
“Boots” – RM Williams a pre-eminent Australian bootmaker (highly-regarded among the cognoscenti)
Intrigue usually motivates folks to show up for a meeting – especially when you’ve never met them.
What if, in the meeting invite, I ask their shoe size? Not explaining why.
Show up to the meeting with the metaphorical (there’s that word again) and LITERAL Australian boots….
Boom!
It worked! All but one of our meetings showed up. During each meeting, I presented our target customer with their own pair of RM Williams boots as their “Australian boots on the ground.” Now these boots sit in their closet or on their feet and they REMEMBER Ascend. We secured more than a couple brands in our pipeline as a result.
Lesson – making the metaphor literal makes is memorable sticky
If you need to an injection of creativity or if your brand needs to find ways to be “sticky” with your audience – contact LOCC.
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