George P. Johnson is the world’s largest event and experiential agency—the creative minds behind Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce event. Scott Kellner, VP of marketing for GPJ, shares with us additional insights from producing this 170,000-person experience. Learn more about the planning and execution of Dreamforce.
It sounds like you have had many successes with Dreamforce over the years. What didn’t work, and what did you learn from it?
Fortunately, we’ve had very few issues with the production of this event, especially in light of its scale and the number of years we’ve been partnering with Salesforce to deliver it. One lesson is this: Invest in your people up front. Ensure you have all of the right team players and a roster of backup players ready to go at any time, because chances are if you’re doing a good job, the client is going to want to expand the scope and you need to be ready to do so. We push the envelope all the time with new concepts. But these risks are calculated and well-designed, with a foundation of our experience and a strong client relationship. This spirit of constant innovation and continuous improvement is key to the success.
So, how do you measure this success?
We view success in two ways: short term and long term. Short-term success means we’ve met or exceeded our client’s expressed goals, and we’ve done so in a way that makes our agency proud. Long-term success is measured 1) by the relationships we have with our colleagues on the client side—do they view us as an extension of their team or simply a “vendor,” 2) are we expanding our client’s knowledge of the effectiveness of experiential as a component of the overall client marketing mix and 3) do we have a solid tenure/history with the client. We like to say that GPJ keeps clients for decades, not quarters. We have many client relationships spanning more than 20 years and one that’s been in place for more than 75 years. You don’t achieve that kind of tenure without prioritizing client collaboration, constantly adding value and consistently innovating.
