We want to participate

Hey, everybody. Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute this week, coming to you from London. While we are here, we got hooked on this crazy show called Google Box. And the premise of Google Box is ridiculously simple. Basically, the show is you watching people watch television and react to it. And so they would have two best friends sitting on a couch watching 90 Day Fiancé. Or they would have mom and dad and a daughter –adult daughter -watching Squid Games or whatever it was. So they had everything from, reality shows to game shows to talk shows to dramas and things like that. But the fascinating thing was how engaging it was to watch regular people reacting to something that you were reacting to. So they'd show you a clip of the show, and then they would show all these different people reacting to the clip. So you're reacting to it, and then you're seeing how different people react to it. And over time, as you watch a couple of these shows, it's the same groups of people. And so you get to know, oh, those two are sisters, or oh, those two are best friends, or that's a boyfriend and a girlfriend or husband and wife. So there's a couple takeaways from this.

Number one, that one of the things that we as human beings love is we love to participate. We love even when we're watching television. I mean, think about when you're sitting and watching TV with your family, how you're talking about it together. It's a participatory activity. So number one, we love that sort of participatory experience. And number two, we do like to, whether we're whether we realize we're doing it or not, we sort of like to check our reactions to things compared to other people's reactions. So when we think about the work that we do and we think about how we bring clients into our work, I think one of the things that many agencies miss is the opportunity to let clients participate. And another thing I think we don't allow our clients to do enough of is mingle with other clients, people who do what they do. We could be a convener of those kind of conversations. Would it be the same as the television show? No, of course not. But I think it takes into account two real human truths.

One, I like to be a part of something, even something that feels like you're doing it for me, or I'm observing. And number two, I like to discuss it with other people. I like to share my experience, and it actually enhances the experience when I share it. So as you're thinking about brainstorming sessions or maybe quarterly reviews or other things like that, I would ask yourself two questions. Number one, is there a way I can make this more participatory for our clients? And number two, as you're thinking about marketing, bringing people together, really part of your new business strategy, are there ways or places you could bring your clients or your prospects and clients together for them to participate in something together, a learning experience and growing experience, brainstorming, something around AI, whatever it may be. But is there a way for you to convene that kind of communal experience to enhance it for your clients? Also works with employees, so be thinking about that as well. When you're thinking about a strategic planning session or an offsite strategy session, how do you create that sense of almost a little bit of voyeurism, a little bit more participation? But how do we how do you bring it together so that they can enhance that experience by by sharing it with one another?

Okay? All right. See you next week.