Some agencies work exclusively with big brands, while others tend to collaborate more with small and mid-sized companies. At Creative Allies we do both; our origins in sports and entertainment marketing have certainly given us different perspectives as we try to meet the needs of our small business clients.
Last summer, we had the honor of working with Feld Entertainment, a live event production company, on a graphic design campaign for the Monster Jam® World Finals, the season finale for the company’s signature series of monster truck racing. The culmination of a season-long battle for points, where the top earners are rewarded with a trip to Las Vegas to compete for the annual championship.
Staying on Message with Customer Engagement
The folks at Feld approached us for a graphic design project, for a limited edition event poster for the World Finals. We decided to check out Monster Jam for ourselves when the season wound its way to our hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina last summer. We wanted to see the secret to Monster Jam’s sustained success through the years, and we saw it in action at every turn during the Raleigh show.
Monster Jam® is a very fan-centric enterprise, and it’s very family-oriented, too. That’s easy to explain since the bulk of the sport’s fanbase is very young. We saw a lot of kids around 10 years old, with their parents along for the ride. The name of the game for Monster Jam® is fan engagement. As we met each of the drivers, who graciously signed the winning poster submission and sat for interviews, we were struck by how each was very much “on message.” You could tell that they had undergone extensive public relations training.
Finding the Perfect Experience in the Details
Our team also observed another wonderful truth: Feld choreographs every single detail of Monster Jam® shows with one goal in mind: ensuring families have the best night out they’ve ever had. They think of every last detail, which takes a lot of empathy, especially in seeing the world through the eyes of a child, and still making the experience enjoyable for their parents. From the music to the lights and noise–even letting youngsters have photos made beside their favorite trucks, the Feld/Monster Jam® team has it covered.
That ethos even extended to our working relationship. They were thrilled with our designers creating 130 pieces of explosive visual art for Monster Jam®, and they wanted to give the project as much support as their brand could offer. While some of our clients get involved to maximize the potential of their marketing campaigns, the Monster Jam team took this dynamic to the next level. To support the work of our community of designers, they created original videos for social media promotion, resulting in more than 100,000 impressions of their artwork, as well as more than 30,000 contest page views.
A Big Lesson for Small Business
The Monster Jam® story is highly applicable to our small and mid-sized clients. Creative Allies itself is a small business, and we found ourselves redoubling our communication efforts after seeing the seamless, steady communication that infuses the world of Feld and Monster Jam®. We started communicating our value proposition and other brand messages to every employee, so that we could all sing from the same hymnal, and driving our communications has also helped at a wider level, too, with our attention to detail in all that we do.
