Experience Matters: George P. Johnson on Creating the Impossible

Thousands of people. A gateway to a world you’ve created. An endless number of unpredictables that somehow need to be predicted. Grabbing attention and holding it there. 

This is the assignment of experiential marketing. 

Trying to fathom the size, scale, and history of experiential marketing agency, George P. Johnson (GPJ) is an ambitious task. Few and far between are the establishments that can say they’ve survived the tumult of the past century. Yes, you read that correctly. 

GPJ was originally founded in 1914 where its namesake established the company as a flag maker and sales repairist in Detroit. Originally involved with automobile shows, the company later assisted with producing such events, where in 1961 they introduced the spinning turntable to present cars – a brainwave that would soon become the industry standard. By the ‘90s the company was working with names like Honda, Toyota and Nissan, and had begun to expand across the United States, and Europe soon after. Flashforward to the 2000s and their presence had been solidified across APAC. 

The psyche and the zeitgeist 

To say a lot has changed since then would be an understatement. Today, GPJ calls many cities ‘home’ with 33 offices across the globe, and a remit extending far beyond automotive. Its clients now include giants like IBM, LinkedIn, Zoom, as well as, of course, some four-wheeled icons like BMW and Nissan, nodding to GPJ’s roots. 

I spoke to Jonathan McCallulm SVP and MD of GPJ UK to find out more about where the agency is today. Jonathan joined GPJ eight years ago after a vast career and over a decade at Ogilvy. “I think the most exciting thing about being in communications, whatever channel that may be, is the work that we do creates an intervention in people’s lives in some way,” says Jonathan. Whether that be in a professional B2B sense, or a consumer campaign, the fact that behaviour can be influenced is something that drives him. “You can tap into the psyche of the individual but also the zeitgeist of what’s going on; operating on a storytelling basis,” Jonathan explains. 

But it’s live environments that create the most opportunity for expansive creativity. “In a live environment you can borrow equity from other things that are happening in the world, society and business. Being able to put that in front of people in a circumstance where you can control the whole ecosystem,” is the thing that keeps GPJ hungry. Jonathan explains that there aren’t many disciplines where you can control a threshold where people walk through and are exposed to the tactics you deploy. 

The sheer complexity of putting on a live event, especially considering the production side of things, shouldn't be underestimated. The scaling capabilities of the GPJ teams mean pulling off events attended by 20,000 people. “If you aren’t just relying on a channel where you can supply film or story, it's more involved, because you're putting a human at the centre of it – you have a live person right in the middle of what you’re creating,” Jonathan explains. There aren’t many other channels that come face to face with that level of live, dynamic feedback. 

Experiential has undergone quite a rigorous metamorphosis over the past few years, with no sign of slowing down. Innovation has meant that GPJ’s ability to get to an original idea or draw upon information in order to get there has been expedited. The actual production capabilities haven’t just scaled, but so too have the new approaches to sustainability; though in Jonathan’s opinion, “not fast enough in terms of the global impact we face. But there certainly has been a big sea change in transitioning mindset and capability within the industry in this area.”

Technology-enabled narrative 

As is true for so many businesses, overcoming the difficulties resulting from the covid pandemic was no easy feat. An agency that up until that point had thrived on bringing physical bodies to a physical space, was facing a set of circumstances that could have rendered their services void. Instead, they decided to adapt: “It meant getting into the realms of broadcast, and of course, we aren’t inventing anything new there. But we were deploying it for the first time at a drastic scale, which has to become much more mature in terms of how it's done and the programmatic side of things is sorted,” Jonathan tells me. 

In live formats, technology enables GPJ to build a whole new layer of narrative around the experience. “We use technology not for the sake of it, but because it allows us to tell the story in a more compelling way,” Jonathan says. “We did a Cisco Live event in 2019 where there was genuine immersion. When you were in a self-contained part of the event, there was nothing else to experience apart from that moment.” 

Jonathan says that technology also works to expand GPJ’s ability to time narrative, “because what we are telling are complex stories.” B2B stories tend to be quite complex and often dense, especially, as Jonathan notes, if you’re asking people to invest a lot of money in things that don’t necessarily seem the most exciting on the surface. “So the more we use the tools at our disposal to enhance that storytelling environment, the better.” 

Cisco is one of GPJ’s many clients that showcase the longitude nature of their relationships. This year the major annual tech community event was spread across five days, spanned event spaces beyond 100,000 square metres and attracted around 16,000 attendees. While pulling it off is a tour de force, I’m more impressed by the fact GPJ has been Cisco Live’s experience partner for almost twenty years. The collaboration runs over all 12 months of the year to ensure delivery in thousands of sessions, exhibitions, halls, demos, meeting villages, ancillary programmes, keynotes, culminating in a huge celebration. 

Sustainability being an issue at the forefront of the GPJ team’s decision-making meant the event, reduced waste, ensured nothing was sent to landfill, and increased recycling. 

Also earlier this year, Starbucks in collaboration with Alshaya, marked its 25th anniversary in the Middle East with the launch of ‘Dalah’s Treasure Blend’. The new coffee, which paid homage to Arabic coffee cultures, was launched through an immersive experiential activation at Dubai’s Museum of the Future. It worked to hold innovation and transition in tandem, delivered via a multi-sensory journey through the abundant heritage of Arabic coffee.

Clients can’t fail 

At GPJ, there’s a long-standing heritage of having enduring client relationships, many of which the agency has worked with for over 20 years. “The dynamic within the client’s business changes of course. It’s not as if the same people sit around the table having conversations for 20 years,” says Jonathan. “But you build that trust from being able to demonstrate consistent empathy for the client’s changing needs, wants and business. It’s about being able to align our output to target those needs.” 

Jonathan believes that being able to demonstrate a balance of consistency and trust, while pushing for change is the sweet spot. “The best way I’ve heard it put is that the best client relationships are based on safe adventure. They want to be able to progress and push boundaries while knowing they are doing that in a safe environment; because the clients we’re working with can’t fail.” 

It’s no easy feat balancing delivering on what is in front of you while establishing long term relationships. “What you can do immediately isn’t always as good as what you can do over time,” he explains. But the agency is committed to balancing the short term with the long term goals, and doing so with the clients’ best interests in the driving seat. 

Learning and experimentation

Within GPJ exists what they call ‘the Lab’ which Jonathan describes as “both a physical space and a metaphorical one in terms of philosophy.” He continues, "We do have a physical space where we do testing – we invite pioneers and innovators to come in, present to us, present to clients, showcase latest trends, physical products or development of such that may be useful to us.” Within this space they work to understand both the capabilities and boundaries of technology, while working continually to understand how it can be utilised to convey messaging rather than “technology for technology’s sake.” The team often tests live events in the lab before putting them into action too. 

Philosophically speaking though, the Lab is also a representation of the way GPJ works. It’s about constantly pushing forward and refusing to stand still. It’s about believing that the discovery of new ways of thinking are always worth the investment. “We use the Lab as an emblem of how we keep pushing boundaries.” 

The team has mastered a skill that many fail to. That is, being able to look back in order to pay homage and learn lessons, while staying laser-focused on the road ahead; even the bits you can’t see yet. It’s safe to say I’ve never met a centurion that feels so young – and the best is yet to come.