Major events are notoriously eco–unfriendly affairs.  Here is some inspiration from Jack Johnson to green up your events.

Singer-songwriter, Jack Johnson, was reared with a surfboard under his arm and sand between his toes on the paradisiacal North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.  While most of us are lucky just to have a backyard, his backyard was the world’s most famous wave, Banzai Pipeline.  When the waves turned into enormous crashing monstrosities they would rattle his bedroom windows at night while he dreamed of becoming a professional surfer.  No doubt, a childhood spent in intimate communion with nature’s own playground has inspired his zeal for protecting the environment.

When not wearing board shorts he is wearing a t-shirt and jeans and rarely incarcerates his feet within shoes’ restrictive confines.  His mannerisms are relaxed.  And his humility is accentuated by his unassuming nature and complimented by his laid-back demeanor.  But don’t let his chilled-out surfer dude persona fool you.  He is motivated.  The pro surfing gig didn’t work out and now, at age 33, he is a multi-platinum selling mega-star who has sold millions of albums.  He has turned his boundless passion and knack for success towards reducing his impact on the environment.  And that’s a daunting mission for a singer on tour.  “We started doing shows in 1998, first in clubs, then in theaters, then in amphitheaters.  And one day, you look around, and you realize there are trucks and buses and the tour has a pretty large carbon footprint” (Fast Company).

Music industry events are notoriously high impact affairs.  Huge, grumbling trucks and tour buses guzzle gas and spew pollutants as they roar from city to city. Masses of fans drive from miles away to stand in long lines for food and drinks that are also shipped in from far away, produced wastefully, and wrapped in plastic containers, great heaping mountains of which will be around for their great-grandchildren’s great-grandchildren.  And its not just music industry events: business events, festivals, fund raisers, rallies, and trade shows are all traditionally big wasters.  Jack Johnson is trying to change that in several profound ways.  Importantly, his efforts help create and support the emerging green market which creates more options and opportunities for other companies.  Here are some of the things he is doing:

Green Band Actions on Tour:

• Providing on-site water stations, waste management, and recycling services.
• Utilizing reusable water bottles that can be refilled on-site.
• Fueling tour vehicles and/or generators with sustainable biodiesel
• Offering eco-friendly tour merchandise
• Selecting environmentally-conscious travel and hotel options.
• Procuring locally grown and organic foods for backstage catering
• Offsetting all remaining CO2 emissions from the tour and for each night’s show using a unique CO2 Offset Strategy.
• Encouraging fans to join in

For the Fans:

• There is a CO2 offset purchase option when you purchase your tickets.
• They can Explore videos by local non-profits on the All At Once site and Jack Johnson will donate $1 per view to those organizations through his new charity, the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation.
• All At Once Volunteer Calendar: to help fans get involved.
• The Village Green located at the show offers a forum for non profits.
• Usually there’s VIP parking for carpools and hybrid vehicles.
• Donations to the local non-profits at the show and online will be matched by Jack’s new charity (up to $2,500 US dollars).

(for the complete list visit http://www.jackjohnsonmusic.com/home )

Notably, he is using his fame as a platform and his show as a forum to encourage and educate his fans to be more eco-friendly.  And it certainly doesn’t hurt brand Jack Johnson.  He gains respect, credibility, and free press (like this article) through his environmentally responsible behavior.

Mellow tones and upbeat beats flow from his guitar like the rhythm of rolling waves crashing on the North Shore beaches he calls home.  His voice is smooth and inviting as glassy face of impossibly blue 6 foot waves that march in orderly lines towards right-hand point breaks.  His environmentally responsible actions benefit the nature he loves and are a great inspiration and guide to event organizers, providers, marketers, and exhibitors who are looking to reduce their environmental impact and make their events green.

RELATED ARTICLES

Swell Guy — Outside Magazine

Green Grow the Rockers — Fast Company

Backstage with Green Rocker Jack Johnson — Focus Earth

Artist Biography — Billboard.com

ADVENT GREEN EVENT ADVICE

Green Display Booth — Teresa Drozak

10 Tips For an Eco-Friendly Trade Show — Bill Taylor

Advent leads from the forefront of the cutting edge modern marketing industry by fueling events with the power of brand.  Advent is committed to social and environmental responsibility.  For more, check out Advent’s GREENmark or go to www.adventresults.com.

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it’s all in the balance, it hasn’t happened yet, it hasn’t even begun yet, it not only hasn’t begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it’s going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn’t need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose than all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago…

–William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust

With vividly rich language, Faulkner outlines the allure of Gettysburg.  He paints an intensely lucid picture of a deeply emotional, transcendent experience of the type that a soulfully impoverished society craves.  The details are impossibly real.  Pickets “long oiled ringlets” gleam from the page.  And the story-the story of Gettysburg drips with deed, hope, and gallantry.  It oozes with visceral suspense at the brink of the war’s fulcrum and bleeds with hopeless devotion to the romantic idealism of a cause yet lost.  This passage details a boy’s ability to be completely, emotionally, and bodily rapt in a moment.  However, most of us are not fourteen year old Southern boys and too rarely does our imagination serve as the vehicle to take us to such places.

Elliot Gruber, vice president of the nonprofit Gettysburg Foundation understands the seduction and he understand what consumers want.  “Most people aren’t visiting to learn,” he says.  “They want to have an experience, to be immersed in something” (Read the article by Evan West).  Though visiting a battlefield is in itself a markedly experiential endeavor, the park and surrounding community has been faced with the ugly visage of declining interest, sagging attendance, and decreased revenue.  The thick ranks of consumers who used visit Gettysburg have been depleted by heavy barrage of artillery from marketers who compete for their attention with eye-catching glitzy hype.  But now, one hundred and forty-five years later, Gettysburg is fighting back with sleek new displays, multi-media exhibits, and inspired storytelling.

Our imaginations are vehicles that carry us beyond the moon and beyond the boundaries of time.  But these vehicles need fuel.  The Gettysburg National Military Park has torn a page from the experiential marketing text book to add some nitro to the imaginations and emotions of visitors in an attempt to boost attendance and length of stay.  With the help of a brand new $103 million visitor center that opened its doors on April 14, 2008 they hope to engage the evolving tastes of tech savvy, media drenched consumers (visit the official site).

Good experiential marketing focuses heavily on ‘story.’  Every brand, company, product, and service has a story to tell and Gettysburg is leveraging the power of its own incredible story.  At Gettysburg it is not cases full of hundreds of old canteens that interest or inspire people-it is the story of one canteen.  Who was the man that lifted it to his lips?  What happened to him?  How did the canteen end up here?  President of Advent marketing firm, John Roberson says, “In this world of text messaging, facebooking, and TV people crave reality.  They want what is real and authentic.”  Combining an engaging story with the very real experience of seeing and holding a canteen that was carried by a Civil War soldier is an incredible way to connect with consumers and bring history to life.  There is no substitute for authenticity.

The park has spared no ingredients cooking up a fine experiential dish for hungry consumers.  Multimedia and technology have been leveraged into making the park more attractive.  They’ve made good use of star power.  You might recognize voice-overs by Morgan Freeman and Sam Waterston.  They have replaced heavy content laden exhibits with music and visually stimulating exhibits.  Visitors view, eye-to-eye, life size mannequins in period dress.   And when your stomach starts grumbling a fine fare of “cast-iron chicken pot pie” and “Grandma Sarah’s corn bread” awaits you in the Refreshment Saloon.  All these ingredients seek to immerse visitors and provide them with an experience that transcends the dusty pages of history books and engages them in an intensely emotional, meaningful, and memorable way.

One hundred and forty-five years ago our nation was engaged in a great civil war, testing whether our nation, so conceived and so dedicated, could endure.  It has.  And today, on a great battle-field of that war, the Gettysburg National Military Park is using experiential marketing techniques to increase traffic and appreciation for the site.  Admittedly, the new $103 million dollar visitor center cannot dedicate-cannot consecrate-cannot hallow-this ground.  The brave men, dead yet living in our memories, who struggled there, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.  Yet through innovative techniques the park has dedicated itself to the task of ensuring that the world never forget what they did there and to the task of the living, to be dedicated to the unfinished work and increased devotion to the virtues for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.

Related Articles

Next Travel: The Battle of Gettysburg — Evan West, Fast Company Magazine

Definition of Immersive Marketing

The Battle of Gettysburg — from Wikipedia.com

William Faulkner on the web

Experiential Marketing and Star Power

Advent leads from the forefront of the cutting edge modern marketing industry by fueling brands with the explosive power of experiences.  Advent creates an emotional bond with audiences by leveraging the unrivaled effectiveness of experiential marketing through targeted events, engaging exhibits, and branded spaces.  High impact and high touch strategies mark Advent’s creative advantage and have helped rapidly expanding brands communicate messages that gain immediate and lasting resonance with consumers.  For more, please visit www.adventresults.com.

Damocles was a flattering courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse during the 4^th century BC. His story can help shed some light on a recent study conducted by the Event Marketing Institute concerning “The Power of Positive Experience.”  One day Damocles exclaimed to Dionysius how marvelous it must be to enjoy the status of king and experience all his power and wealth.  Graciously, Dionysius offered to trade places for a day so that he might understand his fortune.  That night at the banquet Damocles enjoyed himself immensely and was even waited on by Dionysius.  Only at the end of the meal did he look up to see a sharpened sword hanging directly above his head and dangling precariously by only a thin horse hair.  Immediately he lost his appetite for food and drink as well as his desire for the king’s power and wealth.  You can imagine him shaking and quivering in his seat.  Dionysius successfully conveyed the precarious nature of holding power.  Events are powerful.  And (at the risk of confusing metaphors) they are double edged swords.

“It’s good to be king.” –Mel Brooks as Louis XVI, History of the World, Part I

If you are the king of marketing events then life is good.  A study conducted by the Event Marketing Institute found that an astounding 98% of attendees will recommend you after a positive experience. Over half will tell at least 4 people.  This kind of power gives your message wings to fly far beyond the event.  The wings will fan the flames of word-of-mouth and help it spread like fire, far beyond the initial spark.

There’s a but…

If you are thinking about conducting an event: not so fast.  You better plan for it.  The same study reports that 95% will trash your brand after a negative experience and a further 62% will tell at least 4 people.  Approach events with the knowledge that Damocles’ sword is hanging over your head.  Know that bad event is worse than no event.  Events are risky if you do not plan for them.  Eliminate the risk by taking your events seriously and taking your marketing strategy to the next level.

Advent leads from the forefront of the cutting edge modern marketing industry by fueling brands with the explosive power of experiences.  Advent creates an emotional bond with audiences by leveraging the unrivaled effectiveness of experiential marketing through targeted events, engaging exhibits, and branded spaces.  High impact and high touch strategies mark Advent’s creative advantage and have helped rapidly expanding brands communicate messages that gain immediate and lasting resonance with consumers.  For more visit adventresults.com.

Events are effective.  Time and again studies have shown that face-to-face interaction is the most believable, authentic, and memorable form of contact with consumers.  Our company recently conducted a snazzy event to introduce the partnership of two major corporations.  Every job brings its surprises and opportunities to learn how to optimize your investment.  Here is a story that will illuminate the two lessons I took from our most recent event.

A red carpet stretched down a long candlelit hallway that emerged into a courtyard filled with cool summer night air and the sound of a jazz trio playing in the open air art gallery.  The waitresses were dressed in black and white; they bustled about offering an array of market fresh delicacies.  Strings of lights hung from the high crumbly redbrick ivy covered walls and sparkled like glitter as they reflected on the polished glasses that were filled with local California spirits.  Company logos were lightly printed on sheer fabric that draped softly over open windows.  Executives from all over the country laughed and mingled below a two story slide show of still photos taken from classic movies that were projected against the far wall.  The environment created an aesthetically delightful experience.

An executive from the hosting company walked up to me during the event and brashly pointed out, “Well, looks like were at about 1,000 dollars a head.”  No doubt, this was more than he had intended.  He had quickly derived this figure by dividing the budget by the attendance which was lower than he had expected.  I was taken aback.  Despite our advice, he had not given us the reigns to optimize their pre-event strategy.  Here we find the first lesson.  It does not matter how dazzlingly incredible the event if nobody shows up. 

As these frustrations raced through my head, he added in the same breath, “But, [John] just spent fifteen minutes talking with the president of [Acme Corporation] and it was all worth it.”  He smiled.  “Wow!” I thought.  He spent all that money and it was worth it for one conversation.  This comment illustrates our second point.  Nothing takes the place of face-to-face.  Do not underestimate the emotional connection and loyalty that develops towards a brand or individual as a result of personal interaction.  In the blindingly fast pace of modern business fortunes and fates are sealed by the minutest margins.  One chance with the right person, in the right environment, at the right time can make all difference.

The fact that the event was a success despite poor attendance speaks to the effectiveness of event based marketing and investing in face-to-face contact as a primary touch point with your audience.  But, think how much more impact they could have had if they had invested in their pre-event planning strategy!

Avoid the same mistake.  Here are some pre-event planning tips:

• Target your audience — If a thousand Jamaicans show up to your bobsled sales event you probably have made a bad investment.
• Start early — Send out mailers early to build anticipation.
• Personalize - If you are like me you probably throw away half the things that don’t look like they contain a birthday card and $5 from Grandma. 
• VIP — The more exclusive your event, the more likely people are to attend.
• Incentives — Make a call to action.  Offer small gifts for each RSVP and rewards for attendance.
• Deadlines - Create deadlines for offers and RSVPs to create a sense of urgency. 

Advent leads from the forefront of the cutting edge modern marketing industry by fueling brands with the explosive power of experiences.  Advent creates an emotional bond with audiences by leveraging the unrivaled effectiveness of experiential marketing through targeted events, engaging exhibits, and branded spaces.  High impact and high touch strategies mark Advent’s creative advantage and have helped rapidly expanding brands communicate messages that gain immediate and lasting resonance with consumers.  For more check out www.adventresults.com.