by Dawn Farrow, Founder and CEO of Boom
Have you ever done the Wiggly Woo? If not, why not?
I love marketing. In my opinion it is the one place where creative thoughts meet strategic thinking. That said, when I set off in my first marketing assistant role some 18 years ago, I did have a glossier outlook on what marketing was. In answer to the interview question “Why do you want to work in marketing?”, I said:
“I want to input on the design of posters and be creative.”
…I got the job and promptly spent the next two years reporting on sales and budget figures with the occasional opportunity to give my opinion on the colour or position of a logo - #trainingforlife.
Fast forward to 2019 and marketing is certainly not about a single poster design which you’ll get to plaster on Out of Home sites with no requirement to report on ROI.
When it comes to campaign planning I understand that as a marketing agency owner we could save time and resource by implementing the ‘it worked on this other similar event, so let’s use the same template, copy the ideas and put a new title on the page’ strategy, but the problem is that not only is this cheating your clients of your ability to market an event but you’d also miss a major step in the process…The Wiggly Woo!
So what is the Wiggly Woo?
It’s an approach, a frame of mind that allows you to acknowledge bits of a campaign that have worked before and then to ‘wiggle’ your way through what else you could do, question yourself, your ideas and ‘woo’ your campaign into Cage Warrior status.
So how can you implement the Wiggly Woo?
1 – Whack it all in. Start your campaign plan and add in all the ideas you believe you want. Try not to moderate yourself. Pull in ideas from previous campaigns on other events.
2 – Engage Wiggly Woo. Step away from your work for a while, read, research, be inspired by how other people have created campaigns – be bold and if possible ask other people to input to your work. (Don’t go over budget).
3 – Do it. Implementation and delivery is as crucial as planning. Do what you say you’re going to do and ensure that you have the right tools in place to record and analyse the results. You’ll need this for planning the next campaign.
4 – Deal with: ‘But I’m always right’. Be comfortable with not knowing all of the answers. Marketing and advertising constantly changes. Databases which sold 2,000 tickets last year might not shift 200 this year. That is just reality. As long as you’ve not entered into a decision only because ‘it worked before’ you’ll be fine.
5 – Be primed and ready. It’s always good to hold some budget and ideas back. Part of being a professional Wiggly Woo-er is knowing that you will always have tickets to sell.
Naturally your Wiggly Woo will be different to the next persons. Mine is kind of loud and unsubtle: imagine a baby giraffe attempting the 100m hurdles. You might prefer the Taylor Swift ‘shake it off, shake it off’ approach but ultimately the challenge is the same…
“Don’t presume that just because it worked before, it will work again. Challenge yourself and those around you to be inquisitive and question your ideas. Marketing is creative, not necessarily because of the colour of the poster but because it allows you to freely consider how to generate engagement and sales, to evaluate and then try again.”
Got to dash… I need to get my Wiggly Woo on!
Dawn Farrow, Founder and CEO of Boom ENTS and Boom SPORT, is a performance marketing specialist for some of the best known entertainment brands and live events and experiences in the U.K.
She founded Boom in 2012 to become the first female agency CEO servicing not just theatre but also outdoor events and festivals, family theatre, immersive entertainment, consumer exhibitions, venues, visitor attractions and celebrity social media. Find out more about Dawn and Boom here.
