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Fortune 500 Company Seeks Parrot. Must Be Funny
Wed, Nov 4 2015 11:16 | Accolades, Articles, News | Permalink
Live Spark got a nice mention by Greg Schwem both on Huffington Post and in The Chicago Tribune.
Original articles are here (Huffington Post) and here (Chicago Tribune). More information on Greg here.
We have to add--the actors behind the voices of our AniMates (who interact in real-time) most certainly need dressing rooms and their share of the "bird seed".
The article:
Whenever I have my children's full attention, meaning they are only performing two simultaneous tasks on their cell phones, I attempt to offer fatherly advice on subjects ranging from drugs to fashion choices to not spending money like a Kardashian. So far they seem to be listening, although I know the day is coming when one bursts through the front door and excitedly screams, "Dad, don't you think this tattoo will be perfect for my job interview?"
Recently my eldest and I were discussing her chosen college major, physical therapy, a vocation that I wholeheartedly support for it meets the criteria I laid out during one of my advisory sessions: Do not choose a career that can be replaced by a computer. Physical therapist has only a 2.1 percent chance of becoming automated in the next decade or two, if one is to believe "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible are Jobs to Computerization," a 2013 study authored at the University of Oxford. Budding fashion models take note: The study predicts a 98 percent likelihood that robots, not humans, will be sashaying down Parisian runways in 2033.
Now, I fear, I may be searching for a new line of work, having just lost an employment opportunity to a parrot. And a computerized one at that.
I always assumed my longtime profession - stand-up comedian - would forever be immune to virtualization. "Comedian" doesn't even appear in the Oxford survey. And besides, I tell my children, "Nobody is going to sit in an audience and laugh at a machine." Of course, that was before presidential candidate and automaton Ted Cruz garnered some yuks at the last GOP debate, but I digress. "Sure, robots can build cars, cook gourmet meals and fill orders for cholesterol medication at the local pharmacy. But tell jokes? Nonsense," I said smugly.
Not so fast, as I discovered upon contacting a client who had hired me several years ago to perform live, human generated comedy at an annual meeting for a large, independent optometry network. At the event's conclusion, accolades of "great job," "funny stuff," "stay in touch and "we DEFINITELY want you back" poured in.
Last week I contacted the client, eager for him to make good on his promise. The original contract was on my computer screen; all it needed was a new date and maybe a slightly higher performance fee. Even comedians are not immune from the ravages of inflation.
"Actually, Greg, we've been using a parrot the last few years," the client replied.
"What kind of parrot?" I asked, as if losing a gig to a scarlet macaw as opposed to a green-cheeked conure would provide me with some comfort.
"It's an animated character," the client said. "I'll email you a link to the company that created it."
"But, but ..." I stammered.
I remembered another piece of advice I consistently give my children: Always stand up for your beliefs and your skills. This would prove difficult, knowing my competition didn't require a plane ticket, a king-sized bed at the local Marriott, meal per diem and a taxi ride to and from the airport. Out of curiosity, I clicked the link. The parrot was the brainchild of Live Spark, a Minnesota-based event production company and creator of "AniMates," computer generated characters that can humorously interact with audiences in real time. Live Spark President Dan Yaman was happy to talk with me, once I assured him I wasn't calling to name him - and his parrot - defendants in a wrongful termination lawsuit.
"We have a talking horse, talking eagle, talking building; basically whatever you can slap a face on, we can animate it," Yaman said. Heavy hitter companies including Intel, MetLife, Target, Pfizer and Xerox have used Yaman's creations at live events.
"(AniMates) can talk about things on the audience's mind. They can even challenge the CEO," Yaman said. But, he reminded me, AniMates are controlled entirely by creative human beings who sit backstage, generating the funny lines and controlling the character's movements.
"Let's talk next week," Yaman said to me. "Maybe we can work together."
And with that, Yaman reaffirmed yet another piece of grandfatherly-sounding advice I've bestowed on my kids: When one door closes, another opens.
Even if the object behind that door is a brightly-colored bird that doesn't need a dressing room.
Follow Greg Schwem on Twitter: www.twitter.com/corpcomic
Learning By Experience
Thu, Mar 12 2015 04:26 | Articles, Dan Yaman, MPI | Permalink
Recently, Dan Yaman, President and CEO of Live Spark, was quoted in MPI magazine; highlighting how events must be interactive to be effective.
by Wendy Helfenbaum | Feb 04, 2015
"Studies point out that the emotion does not have to be from the material that's being presented, but it has to be generated in some way," he says. "Being able to create a level of emotion through increased engagement and interaction is the biggest trend we're seeing among our clients: How do you keep the audience at a peak state and create a fun experience?"
Ditch the Data Dump and Keep Things Simple
Too many conference sessions include overwhelming amounts of complex content, often worsened by presenters misusing PowerPoint.
"PowerPoint [presentations] should be clear so as to enhance what the presenters are talking about—anything else will create an overload situation, where the brain shuts down," Yaman says. "Get the information honed down to what is absolutely critical. Make that information really meaningful and ask, 'What do I want the audience to do after they leave?' Make sure everything's aligned to achieve those outcomes."
People retain information more effectively when presenters combine art, science, psychology and fun—but preparing groups is crucial.
"At events, everyone focuses on the presentation phase, without fully preparing the audience," Yaman explains. "We'll spend a half-hour before bringing out the first presenter—even if he's the CEO—to get the audience totally set up for success."
By doing this, the audience is more likely to receive and retain the information, he says.
"Evoke a need for the material that's being delivered by creating curiosity and a strong buy-in from the audience so they'll really focus—put the responsibilities for the takeaways on the audience," Yaman advises. "We say, 'This could be the most powerful two days of this event. Are you willing to step up and put it all in?'"
Keep the Energy Alive
Next, control the room and the audience's state of mind to keep attendees engaged by switching things up.
"If they go vacant, the client's message is gone," Yaman warns. "At four- or five-minute intervals, present the same information in a different manner: Tell a story, show a video, do a case study; just keep it alive."
One way he accomplishes this is by occupying the moments between presenters with relevant, on-screen questions and arming the audience with remote-response keypads.
"It's a shot of adrenaline that helps re-engage and re-energize the room for the next presenter," Yaman says.
Live Spark also threads gaming elements throughout the entire event—as opposed to scheduling a single team-building challenge for one day—which fosters emotion while building upon education with quizzes pulled from presentations.
Yaman says. "We want people to be sitting at the edge of their seats, having a good time," Yaman says.
He believes AniMates—computer-animated characters that show up onscreen throughout the event to interact in real time with people onstage—can greatly increase content retention and comprehension.
"It's not the sophistication of the equipment—we could do the same level of engagement with a sock puppet," Yaman says. "If you know how to create a rapport with the presenters and, more importantly, with your audience, these characters can break down complex issues into simple, relevant chunks that everyone will understand."
Live Spark recently introduced Eddie the Eagle as a mascot for a heavy equipment company in South Dakota. Eddie voiced the audience's concerns through live interactions with presenters while keeping the audience engaged.
"We've done studies for Gartner and found that the biggest indicator of whether someone thought something was successful was how much interaction they had with the other people in the audience," he says. "A lot of learning happens in the moments when presenters and participants can interact with each other. Create different tracks so that people can go after what they think they need."
Read the rest of the article "Learning by Experience" on MPI's website.
Three reasons to consider the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) when planning your next event.
Mon, Nov 12 2012 03:18 | Articles, Best Practices, Brain-based Learning, Event Psychology, HBDI, Research | Permalink
The Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument (or HBDI...or "Whole Brain" model) is one of the most highly researched brain models out there; showing how different people have a tendency to view various situations differently, respond to different stimuli, and even gravitate toward different professions.
Those in the "A" quadrant tend to be the Analyzers of the group. The Analyzers are highly logical and quantitative. These would be your CFOs, perhaps even some accountants, etc. For them, the most persuasive argument for adopting a new process is to lay out the numbers. What will it mean to the bottom line?
Those in the "B" quadrant are your Organizers. The Organizers respond to order and detail. These are likely your meeting planners. They're highly efficient and good at making sure that everything falls into place. As long as things are checked off the list in a timely manner, they're with you.
Those in the "C" quadrant are your Personalizers. The Personalizers in an organization are often the human resources personnel. These are also the teachers, the social workers, etc. They are very concerned about how people are going to feel about information and are persuaded by a collectivist good.
And finally, those in the "D" quadrant? Those are your Strategizers. The Strategizers are your sales people. It doesn't matter much if information is perfectly laid out. It doesn't always have to be super logical or in detailed steps.
What matters is that the information/process/etc. makes sense and is relevant to them.
With this in mind, what are three things you should consider with regard to the HBDI and your next event?
The makeup of our profession correlates with, at least somewhat, the makeup of our brain and how we are persuaded. If your audience is full of sales reps, they're going to fall into a different quadrant--generally speaking--than, say, human resource directors. Paying attention to who is in your audience can give you clues on HOW to present your key messaging. Data isn't always bad. Playing to the emotion of the story isn't always right (though engagement IS absolutely critical).
Not every audience is the same, so your solutions shouldn't be the same. You're having a sales meeting. To convince your sales force that you're going to have a great year, you throw data at them. The collective eyes glaze over and the messaging is lost. You're having a meeting of CFOs. To convince the CFOs that you're going to have a great year, you throw data at them. They are enthusiastic.
When you think about the whole brain, you think about the whole audience. It's unlikely that your audience will be *only* in one quadrant. Crafting a multi-faceted presentation with persuasion coming from multiple angles (i.e. data, story, interaction, WIIFM) will reach the whole audience and the whole brain.
There's a challenge that comes into all this: the designers of a meeting are typically not in the quadrant that their audience resides. The CFO giving a presentation for a human resources department is unlikely to persuade them. Therefore you can have a meeting planner--concerned with all the points fitting into their proper place--having a meeting for a sales force that craves interaction, engagement and a clear, concise message.
Designing a Brain-Based Event: The Power of Competition
Wed, Nov 17 2010 12:17 | Articles, Brain-based Learning, e4, Event Tips, Game Shows | Permalink
(Note: This entry will also be posted at the Experient E4 Blog)
In the Brain-Based Events Exchange Café at e4, the audience was divided into two teams and we played the Brain-Based Smackdown (an audience response game show). Now, we didn't just play the game for fun's sake (though it certainly was a lot of fun), we added both the team interaction and the competition into the presentation to increase the success of the event.
Why put the audience into teams and add competition into an event?
· A person can get lost in an audience of 100…500…1000… It's more difficult to get lost in a team of 10-20.
· Being on a team provides a personal, supportive environment at an event.
· Having team competition makes attendees accountable to their peers for engaging in the event.
· Competition reinforces content and adds energy, excitement, emotion and engagement.
Ways to add competition:
Game shows: Game shows are a great way for teams to earn points in a team competition. You can either add a single game to a workshop/breakout session, or have a game that runs throughout the day (previewing information, reviewing information, teaching information, etc). You can use the same format in different rounds (i.e. Multiple matches of a Jeopardy-style game) or you can use different game formats. Game shows can even be structured in tournament style to make them an event within the training.
Audience-response game shows can be particularly effective. Everyone has their own game pad so everyone plays along (and individual scores go towards the team tally).
Knowledge Bucks: A great way to keep individuals engaged and participating in a less structured session is "Monopoly money" or Knowledge Bucks. This funny-money can be given out when individuals respond to a question, arrive on time, etc. Team members can put them in a designated box, and they are added to the team's total score. These can be tallied during breaks.
Energizers: Have the teams organize a post-lunch cheer, with the most creative, on-point and well-executed cheer receiving the most points. Have a paper-toss where members write questions on paper, crumple them up and toss them around until a designated time period passes and one person from each team must answer the question in their hand--for a certain number of points a piece. Activities like this both contribute to the energy of the room and the team competition.
Leader Board: Have a leader board that shows the tally of team scores for all activities--game shows, knowledge bucks, team cheers, etc. Update it at breaks so teams can see where they stand and to stoke a little competition. This doesn't have to be anything fancy--a grid on a white board or a PowerPoint slide will do nicely.
Dan Yaman is the Founder and CEO of Live Spark, the event design firm that produced Eddie and Ellie the eagles. Live Spark also consults on presentations and events, designs custom game and audience-response experiences and more. You can check out our blog for more tips and event insights—or check back here for more postings to come.
Designing a Brain-Based Event: Adding Emotion
Mon, Nov 1 2010 03:08 | Articles, Brain-based Learning, e4, Event Tips | Permalink
In the Brain-Based Events Exchange Café--recently presented at e4--we talked about ways to engage an audience at an event and make sure that your message is communicated in a way that people will remember.
Emotion has been proven to increase the rate of recall in events. When there's an emotional context, the brain secretes adrenaline and this helps to fuse memories. This creates a powerful event where more key information is retained by attendees.
Within our café session, we asked participants to brainstorm ways that they can add emotion into an event. Here are some of the great answers we received:
Share stories: Stories activate the brain and engage us emotionally. A story can be an anecdote or can even be the "story" of a product.
Create a personal connection: Good speakers get audiences to relate to them using rapport, anecdotes, humor, etc. Creating a personal connection could also mean making it possible for people to bring and share their own experiences within an event. Setting their own powerful, highly-personal goals and outcomes.
Incorporate humor: Ellie and Eddie the Eagles are good examples of incorporating humor into an event. You don't have to have a giant talking eagle co-hosting to engage the audience in a humorous way, though. Jokes, anecdotes, videos, etc. are also ways to add humor.
Create competition: In the Brain-Based Events session, we played an audience-response game show to re-engage participants, but also to create the emotional experience of competition.
Inspiring videos: Hollywood spends millions of dollars producing products that will emotionally connect with an audience. In the right context, an inspirational video can be extremely powerful. (The locker room scene of "Miracle on Ice" comes to mind.)
Use music: Our brains are wired to engage with music. The music you use as the audience walks in, leaves, and reflects/discusses during the event can have a huge emotional impact. On example of musical mis-use? I attended an event where the opening song, as the audience walked in, was "Rainy Days and Mondays (always get me down)". Talk about setting an inappropriate context for the event!
Scents: We saw scents being used at the e4 event to draw people into areas. Scents can have a powerful emotional connection—the smell of popcorn in the lobby, fresh-baked bread, the sharpness of peppermint etc. Keep in mind, though, that scents are somewhat risky to employ at an event because there can be so many sensitivities, and strong scents can be a trigger for headaches.
Nostalgia: Company heritage pieces are a good example of using nostalgia for emotional impact. Old photos, sound clips, etc. can also be employed.
Novelty: Changing up the program and adding elements that are completely new and surprising can provide an emotional experience.
Photos: There's a reason that people display "happy snaps" on the morning of the second/third day of an event. It reconnects people with their experience at the event.
Environment of the room: Lighting, seating, staging, etc. can all subtly influence emotion in the room. Dark rooms with close seating create a different feel than an open room with theatrical, flashy lighting.
Interaction: Interacting with the audience at an event can foster an emotional experience… but more on creating interaction later!
Emotional connection with an audience doesn't have to be complex, and it doesn't have to be one single emotion. Making an event FUN adds emotion. Having a team competition adds emotion… And that all leads into higher content retention and a more effective event for you and your clients.
Designing a Brain-Based Event: Adding Interaction
Mon, Oct 11 2010 03:00 | Articles, Brain-based Learning, e4, Event Innovations, Event Tips | Permalink
In the Brain-Based Events Exchange Café--recently hosted at E4-- we talked about ways to engage an audience at an event and make sure that your message is communicated in a way that people will remember. Adding interaction to an event and within presentations is absolutely critical to success.
Studies cite different attention span limits (Dr. Medina stated 10 minutes), but on average, the adult attention span in a live event is from 5-7 minutes.
That means that in most typical presentations, there is going to be a lot of attention atrophy, and the messaging will be lost. So how does one mitigate against this effect in a typical, 60-minute presentation? By adding interactive elements at regular intervals.
During our exchange café, we brainstormed ways to add interaction within a presentation, and here's what we came up with as a group:
Add a game: In our own presentation, we played a game show. In addition to being a way to review, preview and present the information in a unique way, it also added an element of energy and competition that broke up the content.
Do a skit: At an event we produced, instead of just giving the finer points of coaching, the presenter brought an assistant on stage and modeled the coaching interaction.
Have discussion: Give the audience opportunities during a presentation and an event to reflect and discuss your content with a neighbor or at their tables. Not only does it reinforce content and add interaction, but it also creates personal relevance.
Demonstrate: If it's a new product presentation, don't just rattle off bullet point features—have a prototype to show, or things that the audience can "play" with and interact with. If it's a new process, actually go through the chronology.
Show a video clip: Media is a great way to break up a presentation, add emotion and captivate the audiences' attention.
Ask questions: When a speaker interacts WITH the audience, it makes they audience accountable for their participation in the presentation. Gathering their opinions, thoughts, misconceptions, etc. makes a presentation more personally relevant.
Switch speakers: While the best-intended panels of mice and men may often go awry, the concept behind a panel or interview or tag-team speakers is a good one. Switching speakers resets the attention clock.
Use different sounds: When this was brought up in our session, it referred mostly to the modality of a person's voice—varying tone and timbre to be a dynamic, continually engaging speaker. However, using music, sound effects, etc., could be a way to add novelty and re-engage the audience.
Add activities: An audience wants to play. Participating in hands-on activities not only increases interactivity and extends the attention span, but it also gives the opportunity to practice with key concepts and content.
Tell a joke: Humor is a wonderful way to re-engage the audience, because it evokes a strong emotional response (also causing the brain to secrete chemicals that aid in binding memory). Getting the audience to laugh is a great way to keep their attention. (This is another reason why we use live animated characters, like Ellie and Eddie the Eagles.)
Tell stories: Speaking of emotional engagement… A good story can captivate attention far beyond the typical attention span, because that's how we're wired to receive information, process and learn.
"We Have Met the Enemy, and He is PowerPoint"
Tue, Apr 27 2010 01:44 | Amusement, Articles, Brain-based Learning, Links, PowerPoint | Permalink
While perusing the news, I came across this article in the New York Times about the U.S. Military rallying against PowerPoint as an instructional tool.
Full text is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?no_interstitial
The slide to the left was used to explain military strategy. Do you get it? Apparently, neither does anyone else--showing the striking lack of clarity that relying on PowerPoint can bring to a presentation.
A few quotes out of the article (emphasis and italics mine):
"PowerPoint makes us stupid," Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps
Gen. H. R. McMaster, who banned PowerPoint presentations. . . [likened] PowerPoint to an internal threat.
"It's dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control," General McMaster said. . . "Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable."
Gen. David H. Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and says that sitting through some PowerPoint briefings is "just agony,"
Commanders say that the slides impart less information than a five-page paper can hold, and that they relieve the briefer of the need to polish writing to convey an analytic, persuasive point. Imagine lawyers presenting arguments before the Supreme Court in slides instead of legal briefs.
Senior officers say the program does come in handy when the goal is not imparting information.
Wow. Those are some pretty powerful statements from some people who have the responsibility to convey information effectively to the troops, higher ups, strategists, etc. The highlighted points in particular are both astounding and accurate:
Sitting through PowerPoint can be agony.
PowerPoint relieves the speaker of the responsibility to convey a concise, persuasive point.
PowerPoint is great when the goal is not imparting information.
And yet, PowerPoint is used almost exclusively in corporate presentations. What we've seen through the years has been right in line with the impressions of the article. Speakers all too often use PowerPoint as a crutch, and all too often, the PowerPoint itself hinders the ability to convey information--which is the opposite of its intention.
And yet:
"There's a lot of PowerPoint backlash, but I don't see it going away anytime soon," said Capt. Crispin Burke, an Army operations officer at Fort Drum, N.Y.
It's not going away in the corporate space anytime soon either. So what can we do about it? Find the best ways to use PPT as a TOOL instead of an obtusification device. I've spoken a lot about PowerPoint on this blog here, giving tips such as making PPTs clean, clear, concise, not having them be speaking notes, etc. Those are just a start. Perhaps we need to seriously rethink our stance on PPT as a given--or cut back drastically. After all, if the military can see it, shouldn't a CEO/VP/VIP?
Engine Eddie in the New York Times.
Wed, Jun 10 2009 12:46 | Accolades, AniMates, Articles | Permalink
This... ...has to be one of the strangest characters we've ever AniMated, here at Live Spark. Engine Eddie came to life for a Satellite Media Tour for Briggs and Stratton. He chatted with morning news anchors, gave lawncare tips, and directed people to eddiegram.com--where people could send customized messages, featuring Engine Eddie, to their friends and neighbors.
As you might imagine, this attracted some attention.
In fact, Engine Eddie got his own spot in the New York Times. Check out the article here.
Here's a copy of the article text, also:
Going Viral in Pursuit of the Perfect Lawn
By STUART ELLIOTT
Back when being the chief executive of General Motors meant something, one of G.M.'s leaders, Charles Erwin Wilson, became the secretary of defense and was widely known by a nickname, Engine Charlie. Decades later, a marketer is centering a campaign on an alliterative alternative, Engine Eddie.
Engine Eddie is an animated character who encourages consumers to take better care of their lawns by offering them the chance to send "EddieGrams" to friends and neighbors. The messages can be personalized to enable the senders to talk up the condition of their lawns -- or suggest that someone else's lawn needs some help.
And where, pray tell, would such assistance be available? Why, of course, from the sponsor of the EddieGram effort, the Briggs & Stratton Corporation in Milwaukee. As the leading maker of gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment, the company would benefit if Americans were seized with an overwhelming urge to improve the looks of their lawns.
The campaign is housed on a Web site where computer users can engage in some "backyard bragging with Engine Eddie," who is a lawn mower with a head where the engine usually goes.
To indicate the origins of the character, whom Briggs & Stratton describes as its "online spokesmower," he has a full head of grass rather than hair. (No need to buy Eddie a comb-and-brush set for Father's Day, just a nice pair of lawn clippers.)
Visitors to the Web site can create e-mail messages in which Engine Eddie — bearing his own face or the sender's, through the use of an uploaded photograph — "speaks" to the recipient. There is also a link to another Briggs & Stratton Web site, which describes why the company's products "are on more lawn mowers than any other engine in the world."
In other words, if Schlitz was "the beer that made Milwaukee famous," as the old slogan proclaimed, Briggs & Stratton wants to be the engine that makes it even more so.
The campaign is similar to many these days in having multiple agencies involved in its creation. Marx McLellan Thrun in Milwaukee conceived of the Engine Eddie character. The Milwaukee office of Cramer-Krasselt provided strategic direction by suggesting the character be the star of a viral campaign.
Oddcast in New York contributed its new PhotoFace technology, enabling the personalized messages to talk and bear the likenesses of the senders.
And two agencies in Minneapolis, Live Spark and One Simple Plan, brought Engine Eddie to life for a so-called satellite media tour, during which reporters and anchors at local TV stations were able to "interview" the character.
The EddieGram campaign, with a budget estimated at about $250,000, is also similar to others nowadays in that it seeks to reach consumers who are younger than the typical audience a marketer communicates with through traditional advertising.
In this instance, the goal is to introduce Briggs & Stratton to home owners ages 25 to 35 who are "self-directed," says Rick Zeckmeister, vice president for consumer marketing and planning at Briggs & Stratton, and "very Web-savvy; they like blogs and like getting customer information online."
"We celebrated our 100th anniversary last year," he adds, "and like any company around 100 years, what you make, and how you communicate, need to evolve."
"For a conservative, 100-year-old company, it seems a little more out there," Mr. Zeckmeister says of the campaign, "but we're trying to connect with our younger consumers."
"Honestly, when I presented it to senior management, the room would be divided," he adds. "One part of the room would be, 'I don't get it.' The other part of the room would say, 'Man, I should send that to my brother-in-law.' "
One major change "in the last 5, 10 years," Mr. Zeckmeister says, is that what he calls "generational information" is being shared less between, say, fathers and sons, in matters like "what car to buy, what power equipment to buy."
As a result, "people don't know as much about engines as they used to," he adds.
Enter the self-directed consumer, who goes to the Internet to get filled in. As a result, "we've done several initiatives online for young homeowners," Mr. Zeckmeister says, among them yardsmarts.com, a Web site devoted to lawn care that contains video clips, articles and a Yard Doctor feature. (Yardsmarts also has presences on Facebook and YouTube and offers e-mail newsletters.)
"We want to go where our next generation of consumers is," Mr. Zeckmeister says," and at the same time "have fun."
"We need to have a little more fun," he adds, laughing. "Yards and grass and family, it's supposed to be fun; we forget that sometimes."
The perceptions of Engine Eddie seem positive, based on the results so far of research into how the campaign is being received.
"It's a confluence of fun and the viral element," says John Feld, vice president at Cramer-Krasselt.
For instance, say "you're 32 years old, you get e-mail from a neighbor that says your lawn looks like hell," he adds. "You might send one back."
The initial goal of a 70 percent "open rate" for the e-mail messages has been far exceeded, Mr. Feld says, with recipients "clicking multiple times."
The goal of a 10 percent pass-along rate for the e-mail messages has also been exceeded, he adds, reaching 12 percent, while the goal for the number of repeat visitors to eddiegram.com, set at 20 percent, has reached 24 percent.
The only metric that has fallen short of its goal is average session length, Mr. Feld says, which has been running less than the projected 4 minutes. One theory is that people who return to the site spend less time there because "they know what they're doing," he adds.
If the ability to send talking e-mail messages sounds familiar, it may be because Oddcast is the agency that has developed many such applications including one for CareerBuilder — Monk-E-Mail, which dates to early 2006 — that was a huge viral hit.
There are still "hundreds of thousands of users a month, three and a half years later," says Adi Seidman, chief executive at Oddcast.
"The first thing we look for in a viral application is entertainment value," he adds, so in coming up with the EddieGrams the idea was to produce something that would appeal to "the Home Depot crowd."
That is the reason for features like inviting the senders of the e-mail messages to "pimp your lawn," and design unique backgrounds for Engine Eddie.
"We were all about making the pimping fun," Mr. Seidman says, so senders can "put a barbecue on the lawn, put a cool chicken on the lawn." "I would always push for the wilder and the more novel, for sure," he adds.
Hmmmmm. Perhaps the recipient of the next EddieGram will hear Engine Eddie echo "Engine Charlie" and say that "for years I thought what was good for the country was good for Briggs & Stratton and vice versa."
Pretty cool. :)
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Dan Yaman
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Event Industry Talk
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Event Psychology
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Events and the Economy
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Psychology of Persuasion
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