Having just attended the AACS 24th Annual Scientific Meeitng in Orlando, this is the perfect time to discuss a marketing concept called “The Shared Experience.” You get it at conventions, meetings like this one, sporting events, concerts/shows and other public events. In short, The Shared Experience elevates the value of an event and deepens connection you feel to it.
This ties in directly to why we think our new Post-Operative Health and Fitness DVD series will be such a great marketing tool for cosmetic surgeons that try it. The Shared Experience is built into it. More on that later.
Mark Cuban had a great blog on The Shared Experience on blogmaverick.com a few months ago. In explaining the concept, his example was a contrast of the live movie-going experience as opposed to watching a movie release on pay per view or DVD. I’ll use the Super Bowl to illustrate, since it’s right around the corner. Each year, the Super Bowl is the most watched television event. And, for hard-core football fans for me, it is one of the most frustrating football days of the season as Super Bowl parties and fair weather fans jumping on team’s bandwagons for that one day. You know what I am talking about… the people who watch one game a year in the Super Bowl just to be part of the big day. (I have noticed that many of these people are the ones complaining that there is too much football on Thanksgiving but that is another topic).
These people jump on the pile on Super Bowl Sunday to be part of the party… to be part of The Shared Experience. In itself, the experience of Super Bowl is more popular than the game itself. Over the past 20 years this has been so ingrained into our culture that some businesses give Super Bowl Monday off to employees, the television network carrying the game sets their biggest show premiere for after the game and there is a movement afoot to make Super Bowl Monday a national holiday.
The glue that holds all of this together is the fact that we all want to watch the same live events unfolding at the same time. If something happens, the world is watching and you can be part of that if you are dialed in. This is the essence of The Shared Experience.
Broadcast media and the tools that bring it to us created a quantum jump in the potential of The Shared Experience. In the old days, and I mean the real old days, you used to have to be there. Once The Shared Experience could be broadcast, radio and then television brought us the world. Look at The Shared Experience of the OJ Simpson Bronco chase. Don’t you feel like you had a ringside seat for that if you watched it? Surely the compelling action did not lock you in that June night. You had to see what happened… along with everyone else.
In a The Shared Experience, everything seems bigger, better and more accessible. The part that relates to our DVDs is the “more accessible” part.
Now, with our customized DVDs, your patients can make a referral in a Shared Experience with friends. Pretty much everyone abides by the “Birds of a Feather” factor of referrals. (One of the reasons why referrals happen in the first place is that people with like interests tend to hang out together.) So throw our Post-Surgical Health and Fitness DVD into the mix and give them an experience to share related to one of your surgeries.
Now, you can leverage the power of The Shared Experience between your patient and the friend they choose to show the DVD. The program offers all kinds of details on recovering from and maximizing the benefits of the surgery. It is an easy way to let interested friends into the experience. The viewing is The Shared Experience. The packaging is the referral mechanism.
Our goal for this DVD series (from a marketing perspective for the doctor) is to create an easier-to-refer atmosphere. All you need to do it put your face on it and get them into the hands of your patients in order to make the power of The Shared Experience work for your practice.
We are extending the price special of $20/DVD that was offered at the meeting. Now is the time to take advantage of this new marketing tool.
