Experience Manifesto

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Gotta be honest, I like how AI updated my bio! And I'm excited to be getting out and speaking more, so if you're looking for someone who can help with any of these topics, Please email me for pricing & availability and you can find additional information about my speaking here.

From Disney Character to VR Pioneer to Emerging Technologist: David Captivates Audiences

David's journey isn't your typical marketing path. He honed his storytelling with his degree in theater and as a performer in the WDW Tencennial Parade, a skill that electrifies his speaking engagements. With over 30 years of experience, he's challenged industry giants like Razorfish, Microsoft, and Pepsi to craft more compelling brand narratives.

Recreating the Retail Experience: David has has spent over two decades immersing himself in the world of retail. By deeply understanding both consumer behaviors and retail trends, he has developed a unique perspective on how these factors shape the future of shopping. As AI and new payment tech continue to revolutionize retail, David's insights are more relevant than ever. He'll equip you with the knowledge to navigate the changing landscape, from understanding how AI will influence consumer discovery to grasping the implications of new payment technologies and the rise of unattended retail. Join David to gain a competitive edge in the evolving retail industry.

VR Visionary: David's vision isn't limited to the stage. Since 1991, he's been a pioneer in VR for marketing, even producing some of the earliest VR promotions ever. His work has earned prestigious awards like a Cannes Lion, and his "AudienceGames" for Volvo was hailed as "one of the best marketing ideas in the world." By putting tens of thousands through VR experiences, he's developed an unmatched understanding of what truly engages audiences.

Bridging the Gap: His experience as Director at both the AT&T AdWorks Lab and the PwC Experience Center allows him to seamlessly blend corporate savvy with theatrical flair. David doesn't just talk about creating experiences, he makes it real, creating unforgettable presentations that empower marketers to leverage technology for authentic brand experiences.

Creating New 3rd Places. David's most recent topic - How do you create better value from your physical experiences in a digital world?As we become more digital, our physical environments becomes even more important, for both employees and customers. Given how crowded the retail world is today,and given the number of brands reaching out to consumers, the ability to touch and engage consumers in a place where you control the entire message has incredible value. He and his daughter Sydney Polinchock have started writing a book together on this topic which should be released in late 2025.

Technology to Create Better Stories

With over 30 years of professional speaking engagements, David has challenged marketers to create better stories and to understand how consumers want to hear and be engaged by those stories. He has given presentations for a wide range of companies, including Razorfish, Microsoft, msnbc.com, MTV Networks, the Newspaper Association of America, Nokia, GSK, Pepsi, Nike and Ogilvy, among many others.David's journey isn't your typical marketing path. He honed his storytelling with his degree in theater and as a performer in the WDW Tencennial Parade, a skill that electrifies his speaking engagements. With over 30 years of experience, he's challenged industry giants like Razorfish, Microsoft, and Pepsi to craft more compelling brand narratives.

Media Consumption Gen Z

During the Covid break, Sydney and I had the chance to speak with Alyssa Mullin from NUMA New York on a variety of Gen Z topics. In this section, Sydney talks about how they're using things like Instagram and, of course, TikTok. She also talks about her general media consumption and how right now, they're looking for things that make them feel nostalgic. Let us know what you think in the comments!

Media Consumption Gen Z from NUMA New York on Vimeo.

Propelify 2017 - Think Killer Experiences

The good folks at Propelify have done a great job putting together a highlight of the presentations from the 2017 event over at their Dispatch. I think they did a great job (typo in my name not withstanding!) taking my talk and turning it into a nice, easy to watch, 4 minute video.

I was at my first volunteer planning meeting this week and I'm looking forward to seeing how I can make the 2018 event even better! I've included a brief overview of the piece here and you can read the full piece at Stop Thinking Killer Apps - Propelify 2017.

Stop Thinking Killer App, Start Thinking Killer Experience

David Polinchock has worked in the VR and experiential advertising space since the 1990s, and he’s seen the good, the bad, and the ugly for using VR and AR to create marketing events and experiences. At the Propelify 2017 Innovation Festival he gave a talk about three big ways technologists, marketers, and companies need to improve their use of VR and AR to create amazing experiences in the future:

• Include elements of the real world to create a more engaging VR experience. Instead of just focusing on the tech, Polinchock wants companies to use real-world elements in their VR set-ups to enhance the total experience.
• Possibilities for the Future of AR. To Polinchock, AR is a totally different world that VR. The key to creating a great AR experience? “We don’t want to walk down the world and see virtual billboards jumping at our faces. But, we do want interesting information that helps us get through the day.”
• Complete the Experience. Rather than just plopping a headset on anyone, Polinchock wants companies to educate users in advance on what they should expect to see, hear, and feel from the VR experience – before the experience begins.

Immersion & Escapism - Is this the Future of Video?

Take a look at the video from our panel during Advertising Week on the how we can move VR forward. Great group of folks and an excellent discussion!

Virtual reality enables you to step into another world – a stimulated environment brought to life by a marketer’s control and imagination. Once there, consumers can suspend belief, interact, move, and be totally surrounded by a brand. That’s what makes it irresistible to advertisers. Yet, it’s a solitary experience that’s costly to create and consume with specific hardware requirements needed by the end user. So, when should you initiate a VR project? What goals does virtual reality help achieve? Could 360 degree video also meet your objectives? Will you gain something from using virtual reality that you couldn’t through other mediums? How will mixed reality affect video in the coming years? We’ll put those questions to our panelists.

• Anthony Iaffaldano, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, Business Insider
• Sarah Bachman, Vice President of Mobile Strategy and UNCVR, Horizon Media
• Chris Helm, COO & Co-Founder, Blend Media
• Bryn Mooser, Co-Founder & CEO, RYOT
• David Polinchock, Founder/Chief Experience Officer (CXO), Experiential Advertising Group
• Miheer Walavalkar, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer, LiveLike

Talking Experiences at the Adobe Think Tank, Advertising Week 2017

I had a chance to sit down with Don Bennion from Adobe during Advertising Week to talk about what makes a great experience, the value of data and the importance of authenticity!

Propelify 2017

Earlier this year, I had the chance to bring my thoughts on Stop Thinking Killer App, Think Killer Experience to life at Propelify 2017. My presentation covered several key thoughts:

• Stop with the limitations. We need to stop focusing on the limitations. Everyone knows they exist, but we still need to make great content. I've had so many conversations with friends who were doing VR/AR 10 or 20 years ago and they were all doing awesome, cool things, even with all of the limitations we had back then.
• Add the other senses. We're slowly starting to see more experiments with other senses coming into the space and I hope that continues. That includes spatial sound, scent and touch.
• Set the environment and bring in the physical. So often we walk into a brightly lit room, with no cues at all to enhance the experience. There's nothing there to set the mood of the experience or at least break us from the reality of being in a plain space. Make it a set and see the difference in the experience.
• Think cycle time. This point is specifically for location based entertainment and promotional efforts. After doing tens of thousands of events and watching many, many people waiting in line, I can tell you that you need to complete a story arc in no more than about 7 minutes total. It's very hard for guests not familiar with either video games or VR to step into an experience and then wander around trying to figure out what to do. They need to have a story that's easy to understand and navigate. The need to feel like they completed something or they will walk away frustrated with the technology.

So take a listen as I talk VR from 25 years ago and how that work can help us navigate the VR/AR today. You can ready all of my thoughts about VR/AR here.

Using Innovation Labs to Amp Up Attendee Engagement

Last week during the Experiential Marketing Summit, Danielle Gorman from Cramer and I presented on Using Innovation Labs to Amp Up Attendee Engagement. The discussion was not simply how do you move your Lab to the various events that you might support, but how to use the six pillars shown below to incorporate the guts of innovation, not the output.

During our presentation, we explored the big trends and examples behind why brands are expanding their investments into their own labs, innovation hubs and experience center. We hope that our attendees walked away with strategies, examples, and a sense of the fun and engaging experiences that can be created by tapping into their brand’s internal labs.

I worked with Danielle and the Cramer team while I was at PwC and was thrilled to have the chance to work with them at EMS 17. I'm hoping we'll have a chance to present together again!

Download EMS-2017-innovationlabs-updated-Final

Check out Cramer's review of our presentation here.

Experience WalkAbout

Over the years, I have developed several unique learning experiences that take place out of the traditional meeting rooms. One of my most popular sessions has been the Experience WalkAbout, using the streets and stores of the city to create learning sessions.

These smaller group experiences are designed to enhance the learning opportunities by allowing participants to see how experiences are delivered in physical environments (additional modules looking at online experiences can be developed as well). During these sessions, participants use an experience report card to rate the experiences on a variety of learning areas. In the past, they have included:

• The physical space. Does the space deliver on the brand messaging and promise?
• Guest/staff interaction. Is it forced? Am I able to get the information I need? Is it sufficiently staffed?
• Personalization. Is there anything about the experience that gets customized for me? Are there areas that should be personalized?
• Tech enablement. Would tech be a useful addition to the experience or a distraction? Is the tech in the space used to create a better experience or simply to save costs?
• Total over all experience. Did they deliver across all touchpoints? Would I come back? Did the experience speak to me?

These full day sessions include:

• A pre-tour briefing to discuss the overall objectives
• The tour itself. We usually visit 6 – 10 locations before lunch, take a lunch break and continue after lunch.
• A tour debrief. What were their observations? Most importantly, how can they relate the learnings from the tours into what they do? The debrief is done as an interactive whiteboard session so that actionable steps can be created giving immediate opportunities to be key learnings into practice.

I'll work with you to determine the key learnings from the walking tours and picks location based on the desired outcome. Prep days are used to do a pre-walk and make sure that the sites selected work from both a timing and learning point of view and multiple day sessions are available. One tour host is needed for each 20 people taking the tour.

I can do these WalkAbouts in any city, although I may need additional time to set the tour up if it's a city I haven't been to before. Please email me for additional information and pricing.

AR for Advertisers - PICNIC 2007

Found this video from a presentation that I gave in 2007 at PICNIC in Amsterdam. Yes, 10 years ago! It really was one of the most fun conferences I've attended and I met some really great people there. And thanks to this video, I've reconnected to both of the companies that presented with me. Of course, one of my demos didn't work right, but that's what it's like when you're on stage talking about emerging technologies! And damn I wish my hair stayed that color and that long!

During the session we cover a number of things that back then really seemed like science fiction and today are just really getting into the main stream. The work we were doing at Brand Experience Lab and ydreams in interactive cinema was just starting and we all thought that there would be a huge opportunity for AR in the future.

Here we are 10 years later, with Facebook just announcing a huge AR effort, it seems that AR, like it's cousin VR, may well finally be on the road to mass adoption! And hopefully the three of us will hit a stage at a conference in the future and talk about some of the cool ways we've brought AR and VR to our clients.

Augmented Reality for Advertisers from PICNIC on FORA.tv

SXSW 17 Recap and Presentation

If you had a chance to attend our session during SXSW 17, you got to hear us talk about what VR was like back in the 90's, as well as some of the lessons learned from those days that we can be using today. We'll actually have a video of the full presentation available in a few weeks and I'll post it here when it's ready.

You also got see to Jacki Morie give a great overview of some of the artist work that was being done back then. She's put them together in the Powerpoint that you can download below, complete with links and additional information.

We had many great conversations after the session, further exploring how that early work in VR can impact where the industry is going today. We talked about the need to create experiences that engage all of our senses; that there should be fun and playfulness and that we should stop looking at the limitations. And, we all agreed that if your VR experience is giving people motion sickness, it's probably your fault.

All four of us will be continuing this exploration and discussion, so check back here and connect with all of us as we continue to use the lessons learned from the first VR boom to make this one as successful as it can be.

Panelists:

• David Polinchock
  
• Jacki Morie
  
• Linda Jacobson
  
• Chris Stapleton
  

Download VR Learning from the Past