Do We Ever Grow Up?

Watching my kids playing in the park the other day, I was reminded of my own childhood and the way we all behaved in the schoolyard.
It’s interesting – the behaviours you observe when children get together make for a compelling analogy about the marketing industry.
Here’s a kid with a pocket full of sweets, and he’ll give you one if you agree to be his friend. I think there might be a future in sales promotion for him.
At the other end of the playground are a bunch of kids marching arm-in-arm shouting ‘Who wants to play at army!’
Round and round they go, gradually swelling their ranks. Could they grow up to be in advertising?
Then there’s the pretty girl who persuades her friend to tell that handsome boy “My friend really likes you”
Someone’s heading for a career in PR.
And finally, there’s the budding sponsor, who’s planning a big party on Friday evening and everyone’s invited.
So where does experiential fit into all of this?
Well, the experience is the doing, not the communicating.
The experience is the enjoyment of the sweets, the game of army that takes place in the field, the thrill of that first date and the celebration of the party.
It’s the thing you do rather than the thing you talk about.
And it’s the thing you remember and talk about forever.