Jack Rebney had a really bad day about 22 years ago. And we plan to celebrate Jack’s bad day during our next Red Tuesday event on September 7th. That’s right kids. We’re screening Winnebago Man. The documentary film explores how Rebney’s profanity-laden outtakes from a Winnebago promotional video have become a viral phenomenon (even before YouTube—the clips first circulated on VHS tape).

Here’s a safe-for-work trailer of the film. And our poster for the event.

I hope the delicate ears around our agency handle this well.

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We live for great advertising. It changes the game, moves popular culture and makes brands famous. So when we first heard about the documentary film Art & Copy, we got kind of choked up. Finally, someone made our Rocky. Our Karate Kid.

ART & COPY is a powerful new film about advertising and inspiration. Directed by Doug Pray (SURFWISE, SCRATCH, HYPE!), it reveals the work and wisdom of some of the most influential advertising creatives of our time — people who’ve profoundly impacted our culture with campaigns like “Just Do It,” “I Love NY,” “Where’s the Beef?,” “Got Milk,”  and “Think Different.”

We are super pumped to be bringing the film to our agency for a special Red Tuesday. The noon screening will be for agency personnel only, and the 6 pm screening will be for students and invitees (and any Red Square kids who want to see it a second time).

Jimmy Greenway, the film’s co-producer, will be at both screenings for Q&A. It’s going to be all kinds of inspirational.

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Yesterday was the first Tuesday of October. You realize what that means, right? You don’t? Well you best get with the program. It was Red Tuesday. This month we were lucky enough to have Greg Lawson of the New York Times Regional Media Group come down and speak to the brains who live and work here at the Square. The topic was behavioral targeting, and, trust us, there were many mystics spilled and tricks revealed.

Basically, we know what you are doing right now. Yes, you. In the snuggie. Watching Glee on Hulu. We know that you have been thinking about taking a vacation with your girlfriends in Florida. And now we are going to sell you a vacation in Florida. BOOM.

Now you know we know.

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If we are to continue to sling brand fame and create work that you talk about, we’ve got to be sponges for any and everything related to our craft. That’s what Red Tuesdays are all about. In case you’ve not read our fair blog, here’s the idea: on the first Tuesday of each month, we host a speaker to educate the Square on a particular topic, in an effort to keep us abreast of the latest and best practices and to spread brainwaves throughout the agency. So far, so good.

This past Tuesday, Wagner from Beloved Experiential visited us. Not to get too off-topic, but first things first. Wagner is his name. Like Madonna or Cher or Prince. Not just anybody can pull this off–you have to be great at whatever you do, your job has to be something to write home about and you need an interesting name. So, check, check and check for our pal Wagner. By contrast, the most incredible salesguy in the world has still got to go by Bill Smith. Sad, but true.

Beloved is headquartered in Orlando and specializes in experiential marketing, which is loosely defined as an event, promotion or some other live experience that engages and interacts with the consumer. You’ve most likely seen or taken part in one of the following: product sampling, publicity stunts, wild postings, guerrilla tactics, mobile tours. These events are carried out by brand ambassadors who deliver the brand message to the consumer. Wagner’s team works with names like Coke Zero, Google, McDonald’s, Ford, P&G, Red Bull and many other blue chip brands.

Having collaborated with Beloved on street team projects over the past couple of years, we always look for ways to add experiential to the mix in our integrated campaigns. Still, Wagner’s talk opened our eyes to some new technology, new possibilities and some interesting consumer stats:

70% said participating in an experiential campaign would increase purchase consideration

80% who participated in an experiential event told their friends about it

57% said that participating in an experiential campaign led to quicker purchases

9 out of 10 said an experiential campaign made them more receptive to advertising

In a nutshell, adding an experiential component consistently accomplishes two of our favorite things quite well: it sells product, and it generates word-of-mouth. What’s not to love?

When we launched the “Hello Life” campaign for Brookwood Medical Center in 2007, we spent the first three weeks working with Beloved to seed the market with teaser materials–posting fliers, passing out stickers, t-shirts and tons of other “Hello Life” branded swag. Coupled with some traditional media used in non-traditional ways (2 second radio spots that simply said “Hello Life” and about 26 different outdoor designs), this approach built buzz and generated a good deal of press when the full Brookwood branding campaign was revealed. How often do hospital ad campaigns land on the front page of the newspaper in a major metro market? And after six months, Brookwoood Medical Center advanced to first (from fourth) in top-of-mind awareness in a crowded, competitive environment. The experiential tactics played a major role in this success.

Why? Why does experiential create such brand affinity?

Very simply, it creates an emotional connection through a sensory experience. The name should tell you enough, right? You experience the brand in living color. And that perceived one-to-one interaction increases the likelihood of establishing a strong bond with the consumer. As the Chinese proverb goes, “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand.”

We plan to continue to bring all kinds of experiential moves to the streets in the future (and who are we kidding, we love the P.T. Barnum-type atmosphere these things create…remind me to tell you about the elephants sometime). As far as we’re concerned, experience is required.

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This month’s Red Tuesday presentation was all about TV production. Diana Nichols, our fearless ACD, presented on how we make magic for screens big and small. As the title implies (“From 0 to :30″), the gamut was covered, with examples from the Red Square archives. Good show!

I would tell you more, but that would be spilling mystics.

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