Zip-Lining from a War Zone and onto Computer Screens

Physical activations are great for impressing an in-person audience, but they can pull double duty by engaging with audiences far away as well. In fact, they should.

The online buzz, PR and social media engagement produced by an impressive physical experience can be well worth the cost when done right. The secret to a good experience? It’s one that “compresses time and space,” says MediaMonks Director of US Production and Partnerships Chris Byrne. What might sound like witchcraft (or a scary sci-fi plot) is actually a simple strategy for producing experiences that engage far and wide—here’s how to achieve it.

Treat physical and digital experience as equals.

It might be tempting to privilege physical experience over digital, but an experience that truly engages with a distant audience must not treat digital as an afterthought. When planning out your experience, try considering first and foremost how to create an exciting experience for digital audiences, then look for answers on how physical elements can make it even cooler. The key is to provide your audience with the ability to make significant impacts on the experience no matter where they are in the world—not treat them as a passive viewership who’s watching everyone else have fun.

In addition to the typical geek-themed influencers you’d expect at Comic-Con, the Jack Ryan Experience also invited pro athletes like Ronda Rousey and Richard Sherman to take part. Their presence helped to stretch the experience’s appeal beyond just geek culture while maintaining relevance to the experience’s physically demanding challenges.

Physical and digital experiences go really well together—a bit more like peanut butter and jelly than oil and vinegar. Your approach to extending the reach of any physical experience, then, involves carefully considering how one audience’s actions support (or challenge) the other’s. By striking this balance, you should have little trouble extending your experience’s digital reach.

Curious what the Jack Ryan Experience was really like?

Early in its planning stages, the Jack Ryan Experience was conceived as a game of laser tag in which IRL participants were pitted against the internet. It eventually ballooned into a 60,000 square-foot hyperreal obstacle course that took the form of a Middle East black site, though one quality remained from the beginning: both digital and IRL participants were supported in equal measure. In the project’s final iteration, the competitive aspect between those participating physically vs. online were retained by allowing Twitch viewers to launch attacks at participants while they watched live.

If flashy explosions rendered in VR seem outside the realm of your budget, don’t despair. “It’s not about the size of the interaction, but how you do it,” says Byrne. What really makes the digital interaction click for Twitch viewers of the Jack Ryan Experience is that they get instant visual feedback and can see how their presence makes a mark on the environment by hindering the progress of those attending in-person.

Ask participants to share the fun.

Experiences that are given a life online aren’t bounded by physical constraints, nor should they be bounded by time. Even if your experience or activation takes place during an event, a smart multichannel strategy should allow it to extend beyond the confines of its event or hosting stage. From microsites that promote the experience before and after to highlighting key user-generated content (UGC) collected over its course, plan for ways to attract audiences no matter where—or when—they browse.

UGC played a key role in the Jack Ryan experience’s success. At the experience’s bazaar segment, for example, participants were tasked to fulfill small missions that involved puzzle-solving, engaging with actors and taking photos. These small challenges helped participants insert themselves into the world of an IP, then share that experience with their friends. Automatic video capture also provided participants with a custom video of their visit that they could also share to social media.

Some participants even walked away with some swag, which also provided them with something to share and brag about online. And that’s an important note to remember: UGC also has the potential to ignite a sense of fear of missing out (FOMO) in digital audiences, prompting them to sniff out more information or to follow along with the event from afar. In fact, encouraging FOMO was among the top goals for the Jack Ryan experience to build buzz: “The throughput wasn’t the intent,” Eric Shamlin told the audience at the DigitalLA summit. “FOMO and social conversation were the intent, along with PR response.” Consumers want to strike a human connection through digital media, and sharing their good experiences—wish you were here!—is a key way to do it.

Broaden the audience with influencers.

One key way to share the fun is to invite influencers to participate in your experience, then broadcast their impressions to their online audience. While partnering with influencers aligned with your niche is a great idea, you might also consider working with someone who can extend beyond the first demographics that come to mind.