Experiential Influencer: Improv Everywhere

Improv EverywhereYou may not know their name, but we’d bet our bottom dollar that you’ve seen their work before in a viral or on YouTube at some point. The New York improvisation group ‘Improv Everywhere’ have been creating quite a buzz across the pond and their work seems to be creating ripples over here too with their influence spreading into the experiential marketing industry like a tidal wave.

Improv Everywhere is a not-for-profit organisation that pulls off stunts and other guerrilla-style antics in the hope of one thing in return… a smile. Craig Todd, founder of Improv Everywhere and author of Causing a Scene said on the Today Show that, “It’s a website for fun. It’s a website where we go and do things that are out of the ordinary that are pranks…these are things that are designed to make people smile and have a good story to tell.” With the same desired outcome it is easy to see how this group of pranksters can have a huge influence on the experiential marketing world.

And, what stories they give people to tell! New Yorkers travelling on the 6 train were given quite a shock on their daily commute when their mundane journey to work had become quite a spectacle thanks to the pranksters. Improv Everywhere had hired 15 sets of identical twins, dressed each person identically to their twin and made them sit opposite each other on the train; they then mirrored their twin’s actions. Commuters were baffled as it appeared that one side of the train was a complete mirror image of the other. They left laughing and wondering ‘what just happened?’

This sentiment was shared by commuters at Grand Central Station when 200 people stood still at exactly the same time giving passersby the impression that time had stood still. Again, confusion prevailed amongst commuters but undoubtedly led them to go home and say ‘you’ll never guess what happened today…’ This stunt may ring some bells as a huge viral campaign followed. It was sent in mass emails in offices the world over and posted on every video-sharing site known to man. The result: tens of thousands of smiles.

However, smiles were not the only thing to come out of the Grand Central Station stunt; T-Mobile’s latest campaign has thrived off the buzz of a similar campaign. T-Mobile used a stunt idea that they spread across all of their marketing channels including advertising and a viral campaign. The idea was: to have hundreds of dancers dressed as commuters jump into a choreographed routine at the same time. The result for them was not only the buzz generated through word-of-mouth but also, a visual spectacle for their marketing campaign. The progression from the Grand Central Station stunt to the T-Mobile stunt shows the amount of impact Improv Everywhere has within experiential circles.

Although none of the work that Improv everywhere does is associated with a brand, it is very easy to see how it could be. Take a stunt that they did on the American subway again, where the intention was to brighten up the day of people going to work in the morning. So with the use of only six people, five pieces of card and an escalator, they set about to do just that. The group of actors held up signs saying, “Rob wants to give you a high-five. Get ready!” as they descended the escalator. Commuters going up on the opposite escalator anticipated Rob’s arrival and then he appeared with a card held above him saying “Rob”. Rob had his hand held high ready to receive a high five and he received 2,000 high fives in 45 minutes. So how can this applied to Experiential Marketing? Well, simple. We want people to talk, to go home and remember our clients’ brands. In this case, it would be great to associate the purpose of the mission with the brand’s key messages. As the pranksters were aiming to wake people up and put a smile on their face first thing in the morning, why not associate it with a cereal brand? Just have another card following saying “You have been woken up by (insert brand name here)”. This stunt is extremely low budget to implement yet brings about large-scale effects, the perfect combination for an Experiential campaign.

The opportunities are endless with this sort of activity and Improv Everywhere is really pushing the boundaries of creativity and guerrilla marketing. Their mission statement is “We cause scenes”, and they really, really do.

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