By The Participation Agency
Why did you two begin experiential marketing firm the Participation Agency?
Ruthie Schulder: We met at New York University Stern School of Business while we were getting our MBAs. We both had entrepreneurial backgrounds and wanted to start an agency that would grow to become the best hotspot of marketing. We decided to focus on building digital campaigns around an experiential platform because it’s a big part of the industry; a lot of resources go into it, and people don’t know how to do it well.
Jessica Resler: As an experiential agency, we are at the epicenter of an advertising area that pushes the boundaries of marketing, starting from the idea of, “How can we make the most noise for our clients?” and unfolding from there.
There are definitely more women-led companies overall in New York City, and we meet more female founders in all capacities, which is exciting. But it’s still, from my standpoint as a creative director, a boy’s game. So we’re trying to position ourselves to evolve that.
Schulder: Jessica and I are in this business to really be in business. So it was important to us when we started the agency to be generating revenue from the get-go. The fact that we’re a young company that’s made Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000—Inc. magazine’s lists of the United State’s fastest-growing private companies—two out of four years is a big differentiator from other startups in New York City.
Tell us about a memorable early project.
Schulder: The Timeshare Backyard had a huge influence on the agency and on our approach. We took a stalled lot in Manhattan and transformed it into a suburban backyard—complete with grass, chairs, lawn ornaments, bench tables and a grill—that we then rented by the hour. It’s a Participation Agency–owned asset that we funded ourselves in the agency’s first year and brought to market.
The project got 400 million media impressions the first year, and in its second year, we were able to sell it to Coca-Cola’s ice tea brand, Fuze. Because it was a creative, out-of-the-box project that was bite sized and had a sense of nostalgia, it became an immediate, widespread hit that came to exemplify our work.
Why is it important to build a digital campaign around an experiential platform?
Resler: Essentially, all sharing is done online, but at the same time, people are always looking for a shared live experience—and that’s what tends to amplify the effectiveness of the digital elements. Something we like to say is, “Environments feed amplification,” so the trick is to connect a live experience to the digital one by anticipating how it will be shared online.
Schulder: There are tons of solely digital campaigns that are brilliant, viral and wildly successful. However, one of the reasons why live experiential is so successful is because when you give consumers a touch point such as a mobile platform, there’s a ton of data consumers can absorb about the company. That can convert them into customers much faster, especially compared to some of the more traditional approaches such as TV advertisements. A white paper from the experiential marketing think tank Event Marketing Institute has shown that a consumer would need to view the same advertisement, like a TV commercial, seven times in order to get the same purchasing influence as that of a live, branded event.
It’s the digital and experiential components working together that truly achieves impact. We always execute off a three-tiered platform: experience, influence and digital. The experience is really the runway for the product with influencers there who speak on behalf of it, to amplify the conversation and provide a sense of being. The digital tier—both user-generated content and produced content—extends the life of the campaign or live event online.
For instance, we did a launch for juice company Joe & The Juice, a global brand that just opened its first store in the United States in New York City. We had a full street campaign to build buzz before the store opened, and then the week of the opening, we had some influencers come to the store during various events. From there, we created shareable content for Instagram, and we actively pushed it out to influencers who were either in the store or in the surrounding neighborhoods that we preidentified. We were able to have conversations with influencers on social media, through Instagram direct messages, where we offered them more campaign experiences.
What are the difficulties of marketing to millennials?
Resler: Sharing somebody’s attention span with his or her mobile device. When we first started, we were focusing on, “How do we get 100 percent of somebody’s attention?” We know that everyone, especially the millennial market, is on his or her phone at live events. So we now look at, “How do we share that attention span, and how do we play into it to create something that’s behavioral?”
Schulder: We’re excited about the opportunities emerging to integrate mobile at events, which is hugely important for the industry. If people are spending so much time on their phones wherever they go anyway, why not use those interactions to our benefit instead of competing with them?
How do you ensure that the experiences you design will be authentic?
Resler: A big thing is to consider the audience that you’re speaking to. Remember that not everything is right for every type of consumer; you have to be focused on what the targeted group will be captivated by and then play to that. You also want to be forward thinking when brainstorming a moment of surprise that will break through the noise. We like to be clever in the work that we do and see these kinds of moments as the most authentic.
For example, when creating music subbrand the Patch for Sour Patch Kids, we didn’t plaster Sour Patch Kids all over the walls. Instead, we used a neon outline of the Sour Patch Kid—that outline is what made it into the pictures musicians were taking and posting to their social media accounts. So it’s really the approach of branding in a way that’s subtle yet effective.
What new technologies or trends are you excited about in your field of experiential marketing?
Resler: There’s a lot of noise out there, so we try to think above the babble. Just because video streaming app Periscope came out doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to immediately jump on it for the purposes of experiential marketing. With that mindset, you can spin your wheels a lot.
Schulder: We’re also interested in transformative marketing, where 300 people can go to an event and each be actively given a different experience through varying digital calls to action and prompts. This idea also ties into our focus to use mobile at events to not only capture the right data and tailor the right content to consumers, but also to affect a truly unique consumer experience.
Ruthie Schulder: We met at New York University Stern School of Business while we were getting our MBAs. We both had entrepreneurial backgrounds and wanted to start an agency that would grow to become the best hotspot of marketing. We decided to focus on building digital campaigns around an experiential platform because it’s a big part of the industry; a lot of resources go into it, and people don’t know how to do it well.
Jessica Resler: As an experiential agency, we are at the epicenter of an advertising area that pushes the boundaries of marketing, starting from the idea of, “How can we make the most noise for our clients?” and unfolding from there.
There are definitely more women-led companies overall in New York City, and we meet more female founders in all capacities, which is exciting. But it’s still, from my standpoint as a creative director, a boy’s game. So we’re trying to position ourselves to evolve that.
Schulder: Jessica and I are in this business to really be in business. So it was important to us when we started the agency to be generating revenue from the get-go. The fact that we’re a young company that’s made Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000—Inc. magazine’s lists of the United State’s fastest-growing private companies—two out of four years is a big differentiator from other startups in New York City.
Tell us about a memorable early project.
Schulder: The Timeshare Backyard had a huge influence on the agency and on our approach. We took a stalled lot in Manhattan and transformed it into a suburban backyard—complete with grass, chairs, lawn ornaments, bench tables and a grill—that we then rented by the hour. It’s a Participation Agency–owned asset that we funded ourselves in the agency’s first year and brought to market.
The project got 400 million media impressions the first year, and in its second year, we were able to sell it to Coca-Cola’s ice tea brand, Fuze. Because it was a creative, out-of-the-box project that was bite sized and had a sense of nostalgia, it became an immediate, widespread hit that came to exemplify our work.
How can we make the most noise for our clients?
Why is it important to build a digital campaign around an experiential platform?
Resler: Essentially, all sharing is done online, but at the same time, people are always looking for a shared live experience—and that’s what tends to amplify the effectiveness of the digital elements. Something we like to say is, “Environments feed amplification,” so the trick is to connect a live experience to the digital one by anticipating how it will be shared online.
Schulder: There are tons of solely digital campaigns that are brilliant, viral and wildly successful. However, one of the reasons why live experiential is so successful is because when you give consumers a touch point such as a mobile platform, there’s a ton of data consumers can absorb about the company. That can convert them into customers much faster, especially compared to some of the more traditional approaches such as TV advertisements. A white paper from the experiential marketing think tank Event Marketing Institute has shown that a consumer would need to view the same advertisement, like a TV commercial, seven times in order to get the same purchasing influence as that of a live, branded event.
It’s the digital and experiential components working together that truly achieves impact. We always execute off a three-tiered platform: experience, influence and digital. The experience is really the runway for the product with influencers there who speak on behalf of it, to amplify the conversation and provide a sense of being. The digital tier—both user-generated content and produced content—extends the life of the campaign or live event online.
For instance, we did a launch for juice company Joe & The Juice, a global brand that just opened its first store in the United States in New York City. We had a full street campaign to build buzz before the store opened, and then the week of the opening, we had some influencers come to the store during various events. From there, we created shareable content for Instagram, and we actively pushed it out to influencers who were either in the store or in the surrounding neighborhoods that we preidentified. We were able to have conversations with influencers on social media, through Instagram direct messages, where we offered them more campaign experiences.
What are the difficulties of marketing to millennials?
Resler: Sharing somebody’s attention span with his or her mobile device. When we first started, we were focusing on, “How do we get 100 percent of somebody’s attention?” We know that everyone, especially the millennial market, is on his or her phone at live events. So we now look at, “How do we share that attention span, and how do we play into it to create something that’s behavioral?”
Schulder: We’re excited about the opportunities emerging to integrate mobile at events, which is hugely important for the industry. If people are spending so much time on their phones wherever they go anyway, why not use those interactions to our benefit instead of competing with them?
How do you ensure that the experiences you design will be authentic?
Resler: A big thing is to consider the audience that you’re speaking to. Remember that not everything is right for every type of consumer; you have to be focused on what the targeted group will be captivated by and then play to that. You also want to be forward thinking when brainstorming a moment of surprise that will break through the noise. We like to be clever in the work that we do and see these kinds of moments as the most authentic.
For example, when creating music subbrand the Patch for Sour Patch Kids, we didn’t plaster Sour Patch Kids all over the walls. Instead, we used a neon outline of the Sour Patch Kid—that outline is what made it into the pictures musicians were taking and posting to their social media accounts. So it’s really the approach of branding in a way that’s subtle yet effective.
What new technologies or trends are you excited about in your field of experiential marketing?
Resler: There’s a lot of noise out there, so we try to think above the babble. Just because video streaming app Periscope came out doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to immediately jump on it for the purposes of experiential marketing. With that mindset, you can spin your wheels a lot.
Schulder: We’re also interested in transformative marketing, where 300 people can go to an event and each be actively given a different experience through varying digital calls to action and prompts. This idea also ties into our focus to use mobile at events to not only capture the right data and tailor the right content to consumers, but also to affect a truly unique consumer experience.
Jessica Resler is the cofounder and creative director of the Participation Agency. With an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business, she has more than ten years of experience in experiential production, marketing, operations and brand strategy. She has developed creative for brands including Sour Patch Kids, Dell and many more. In addition to client briefs, Resler has concepted and developed platforms for the Participation Agency.
Ruthie Schulder is president of the Participation Agency, driving strategy and business development. She received her MBA from New York University Stern School of Business, where she focused on marketing and management. Schulder spearheaded a concept of digital offerings that helped earn the Participation Agency an Ex award for best production of a consumer event in 2014.
Ruthie Schulder is president of the Participation Agency, driving strategy and business development. She received her MBA from New York University Stern School of Business, where she focused on marketing and management. Schulder spearheaded a concept of digital offerings that helped earn the Participation Agency an Ex award for best production of a consumer event in 2014.
