Addictive Marketing Podcast
With trade shows cancelled, and sales teams challenged with connecting with potential clients, it is time to rethink lead generation and the buyer's journey. Tune in as we discuss the connection between augmented reality and revenue growth.
Transcript
Dan:
I think we should talk a little bit about what some of those psychological drivers are that make what you do as a marketer more relevant than ever right now. Think about it from a psychological and neurological perspective. There are things that, no matter what the world looks like, human beings just need to survive. And from a psychological standpoint, one of those things is that we need social connection. We are wired to actually want to have social connection. And when we can't have it, it's frustrating to us. And you see that we began to manufacture ways to make that kind of connection.
Dan:
A good example of that is, why Zoom is doing so well, and the kids are Face Timing so much together. We need to have that social connection, and it's the closest thing that we can get right now. As human beings, we really crave these positive experiences, these emotional connections. We love to have dopamine released in our brains.and when
Dave: Absolutely.
Dan:
Those things are really, really relevant, now more than ever. Take a look at Netflix. Their subscription rates are way up. They're more popular than ever. They had to actually decrease their bit rate just to keep up with the demand. So people are craving experiences and they really want to be immersed into another world, because perhaps the world that they're in right now is not exactly where they want to have their head at the moment. So think about, as a marketer, is there a way that you can, A, create social connection, or B, bring them into another world, give them an experience, or tell them a story that really gets them immersed.
Dave:
From an environment standpoint, what does that look like specifically, in your mind? We're talking right now from a B-to-B standpoint. I'm a marketer here and I've got to generate leads, I've got to be able to be able to tell my story. What does that look like now? How does that apply?
Dan:
Okay. I'm going to answer that question with a question first, which is again, I heard the definition of invention is the putting together of commonly known inventions in a new way. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. You have too figure out what's working right now and apply that to your situation. Right now, many B-to-B companies rely on that one-to-one sales force situation. A lot of it would happen at shows and conferences, but now we can't have those. And at the same time, the last thing that prospects want is to be sold to. Everybody hates being sold to, especially right now. It's the last thing on anybody's minds. So you have to figure out a way, as a marketer, to be able to make an emotional connection with your audience. But the way to do it, in my opinion, is take a look at what's working and duplicate, in your own way, what's working.
Dan:
what do I mean by that? We talked about Netflix, and the need for escape. Can you create the need for escape? And if you can't quite create an escape, can you create a story that immerses someone? Can we create social connection? Gaming is bigger than ever right now. And why is gaming so big? I think it comes down to a lot of things. One, there's that need for storytelling. And two, we need to have control over our worlds right now. We need control more than ever. Gaming is off the charts right now. So, take some of those concepts as a B-to-B marketer, and arm your sales force with these things that will allow that level of escape, and let that dopamine be released. And yes, I think there are some great ways to do that, and it's going to require thinking a little bit differently than the way that you thought. But you, as a marketer, know these things inside out. They just need to be applied a little bit differently right now.
Dave:
Yeah, no, you bring up a really good point I've noticed that it’s about giving somebody the ability to manage their own environment.
Dan:
It really is. I'm not the biggest gaming type person, but one thing that I've been doing a lot of is playing ping-pong with my kids in the basement. And I never played so much ping pong in my entire life, Dave. But in the moment, while you're playing, you sort of get in a zone where it’s not even about being competitive, but just whacking the ball back and forth. You sort of get an escape, and you feel like you have control over this little world that you're in for that moment. And it's really hard to focus on anything else when you're playing ping-pong. The second that you do, you're out of it and you make a terrible shot. So that's an example.
Dave:
That’s a great example. Talk about what that means to me as a prospect, and how you can allow me to do things within that environment that make sense without losing me.
Dan:
Let’s talk about a couple of ways that you can make that happen. One is through storytelling. I don't care if it's the most boring software product in the world or it's the most exciting, heart wrenching, emotionally engaging story that you can tell. There are ways to engage your audience. Think about storytelling more than ever. We can talk about examples of how to tell stories, how to write a great story arc that engages somebody emotionally. But think about that. Stories are more important than ever, and people want to be sold to less than ever. So that's one thing I think about.
Dan:
The other thing to think about is how to give somebody that control over their environment, in a game-like experience. And one of the ways that we've been doing it successfully is by creating immersive 3D environments. I'll give a quick example. One of our clients is introducing a new product that they were hoping to unveil at a huge trade show in May. And of course, the trade show was canceled. There were going to be 35,000 of their best prospects there. They were planning on getting most of their leads there. Now they don't have that.
Dan:
And this product is so revolutionary that it's a little bit like this company's iPhone. You can tell immediately by looking at it that it's revolutionary, just by the size of it and the way it works, and the way it sounds, everything about it, you know is a revolution when you see it. But now they don't have that in-person experience anymore. So what are we doing for them to help solve that? We're creating an augmented reality experience for them. And we're actually almost complete at this point. The client said to us, " thank="" god="" we="" have="" that="" experience="" because="" without="" show="" i="" didn="" t="" know="" how="" were="" going="" to="" the="" impact="" needed="" p="">
Dave:
Okay. So let's take a step back. There are probably some folks that aren't familiar with what the whole augmented reality thing is. So if I could kind of put that into perspective for somebody. When you're finished listening to this podcast, go to Google and type in "tiger" or type in "shark" and you'll get an experience of what a certain type of augmented reality would look like, where you can place an object within a room and kind of take a look at it, spin it around, place it on surfaces, and that sort of thing. IKEA has an app where if you go on your mobile phone, you can actually place a piece of furniture in the room, and see what that looks like, and adjust it, and turn it, and put in other places. When you're talking about augmented reality,it's kind of hard, through audio, to get that visual experience. But that's your reference point. So when you're done here, go looking at that. Dan, my apologies. I didn't mean to hijack what you were saying.
Dan:
Oh no, that's a great example. I want people to understand that if you've never done an augmented reality experience before, it may sound like, "Oh, that's a really heavy lift. Not something that I want to get into." And I will say it's on the extreme end of what you can do as a marketer, but it's not really a heavy lift. It's only because you probably haven't done it before that it feels like a heavy lift, but there are lots of experts at doing this kind of thing. And it's much less expensive than you think it is, to be able to do it correctly. But yeah, that was a great definition.
Dan:
So imagine that you're our client and you have this new product that you have to see to understand, but there's no way to see it because we can't see it in person. Well, what's the next best thing we can do? Imagine that you pull up your iPhone, or your iPad, or whatever your device is, and you aim your camera at a table or a desk or a couch, and then suddenly you can place the actual device right in your environment, right in your office, on your desk, and you can see it at actual size, and it looks real. The 3D artwork actually matches the lighting in your room, so it feels like it's really there. Then you can walk around the product, you see it at actual size, it looks like it's there. Of course, you can't actually touch it, because your hand just goes through it if you do. But it immediately has that impact as if you were seeing it in person, you can see it there, and people love these experiences.
Dave:
The biggest thing for me... I've been in sales a long time. and so when I'm talking to people, the worst thing you can absolutely say is, "Well, imagine this," or, "Picture this," or try to get them to get their mind around something. That's the worst thing that you can do, because people either are visual, they're data driven, or one of the other, maybe a mix of both. But when you're able to put something in front of them in the sales process, when you're trying to convey that, you remove that ambiguity of what it is you're trying to say, and how things can be interpreted.
Dan:
No question about it. With this device, you would have to read pages and pages of website copy and look at pictures upon pictures before you would even come close to doing what this app does, this augmented reality experience does, in two seconds. It really is that powerful. The looks on people's faces when they experience it is incredible. And you want to talk about dopamine being released, that's what does it. I think we can post a couple of links next to the podcast that give examples of those augmented reality experiences if you want to try it out for yourself, and possibly even some examples of great storytelling. That's what I want people to take away, is that you still have the power as a marketer to tell great stories, and you still have the power to immerse people, and you still have the power to empower your salespeople. That can happen. So there's no sense being a victim and thinking that the world has turned upside down. You can deal with it, you can handle it, and there are some things that you can do that are going to separate you from everyone else.
Dave:
All right, words of wisdom. Again, you're listening to Addictive Marketing. My name is Dave for Dan Greenwald, our CEO and chief creative officer. Look forward to speaking with you again. Until next time, over and out.
