Ticketbud Tidbits Ep 18 – SHOW NOTES… Immersive Art Installation Pop-up Event
With Jimmy Carilo from World of Light
Overview
In this episode we talk to Jimmy Carilo the Creative Marketing Director for World Of Light, an immersive art installation pop-up event debuting in Los Angeles in June. Jimmy shares the challenges and learnings from putting an event of this nature together – working with artists from around the world and transforming a space into an experience that people haven’t seen before.
Jimmy talks about the need to schedule bookings for an experience like this to ensure everyone can enjoy it. He shares some unique marketing tactics for getting the word out about the event. He also talks about his experiences working with different ticketing companies and why Ticketbud’s approach made all the difference to his team.
Listen now or read the show notes below
About Jimmy
Jimmy Carilo has a background in events and marketing. He runs Hint Creative Group a boutique agency with an emphasis on visual and conceptual business strategy. Their event services include complete branding development and marketing execution.
About World of Light
World Of Light is an immersive art installation event debuting in Los Angeles in June and running until August, 2019. The experience is described as an otherworldly journey of visual imagination, with the transformation of a 50 thousand square foot space. Designed to be the world’s first fully interactive exhibition, with immersive installations, mixed media, live art and 360 VR mapping incorporated into the experience.
Discussion Topics
- Designing a unique user experience
- Key challenges and learnings – testing ideas, event production and logistics
- Long distance event management
- Research on immersive experiences
- Ticketing for immersive events
- Promotional tactics
- Encouraging an interactive experience
Designing a unique user experience
The first part of the conceptual planning process for this event was working out how to create a unique user experience. Jimmy and the World of Light team got together to share their research and experiences of these types of immersive art installation events. They looked at what had and hadn’t been done before, to help them work out how they could offer something different.
Key challenges and learnings – testing ideas, event production and logistics
- Working with artists to tailor their art to the needs of the experience. Its a balance between their creative expression and what you need for the experience.
- Testing ideas in production to figure out what will work in the space.
- Bringing all the different elements together into a cohesive experience.
One of the key learnings was the importance of spending more time in the conceptual phase. Understanding the restrictions and capabilities that you have to work within before heading into production. Particularly if you’re doing something you haven’t seen done before, its valuable to test your ideas before trying to find funding, or the space or getting art developed.
Long distance event management
Jimmy explains that with the technology available today it’s easy to manage events and collaborate with people in different cities. He says that even looking at an event space can be done via facetime or having a walkthrough recorded and sent to you. You don’t have to be physically be there anymore.
However Jimmy said that he did find that press seems to be more responsive when you are in the same city as the event.
Research on immersive experiences
Prior to undertaking this event, Jimmy conducted research on what people are looking for in these types of experiences. The research showed that more people are driven toward experiences that are different, something that they don’t see regularly. There was particular interest in short availability experiences, which has given rise to the pop-up market. There has been a trend for brands to host pop-up experiences, with the limited time experience tending to drive more people to act sooner so they don’t miss out.
People are also interested in seeing things from different countries and have experiences they can’t readily have access to at home or where they live.
The idea behind World of Light was to not only have a multisensory immersive experience, but to bring art from all over the world that people can view and interact with. Something that people may not have had the opportunity to see before.
Ticketing for immersive events
The reality of these types of immersive experiences is that people are going to want to stop and interact, take it in or take a photograph. You have to allow time for that, it’s part of the experience. However, there are certain times in the week that are going to have more demand than others. Having ticket programming that allows people to book a specific time slot becomes very important. It gives everyone time and space to have the full experience. This also included designating a time limit, for the experience, with premium tickets available for an unlimited time.
World of Light plans to tour multiple cities across the country, so for the initial event in Los Angeles the pricing was mainly about covering costs and getting people in to talk about the experience. The team wanted to create a brand they are proud of, that gives a platform and recognition to artists from around the world.
Promotional tactics
World of Light is using social media channels and local publications in their event promotion. As well as trying different methods including wheatpasting with event posters, as well as soliciting local businesses to promote with branded collateral at their shops. Then in the spirit of the event, they have organized the illumination of City Hall in downtown Los Angeles. This promotion will include a ten minute light show, where City Hall will be illuminated with visuals inspired by the home countries of the artists involved in the event.
An important part of the promotion for World of Light has been to ensure the promotion was in line with the event experience. This meant incorporating highly visual design, using video, animation and light where possible, avoiding static ads.
Encouraging an interactive experience
In addition to the art installations themselves that visitors can interact with, take photos and share. World of Light have looked for other opportunities to increase engagement. This includes:
- A World of Light app, with interesting and fun photo filters.
- A photo booth with some interesting technology included.
Jimmy’s career advice – Don’t take the shortcut
“If you ever shortcut anything, you are only ever going to get that much back. If you really believe in something that you’re working on, be diligent and do your part, research and test it”.
“Learn everything you can about it and always be challenging yourself…You will inevitably see the return on that”.