This tutorial will help advertising creatives to develop meaningful and engaging branded experiences. See how seven time-tested experience stories can be used to find and structure your ideas.

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Brand Experience Tickets
How to create meaningful and engaging
experiences for brands and people.
Mario Gamper @ideaswilltravel

2. Everyone agrees that “experiences” win clients.
But how do you create them?
Branded experiences are gaining an ever-greater share of
consumer attention. But writing them isn’t easy.
I’ve been a Creative Director for more than 15 years. During
that time, I saw many tools that teach Creatives how to write
copy, or a TV-script. I didn’t find any that helped you write an
experience.
So I interviewed more than 25 experience creators. The
Brand Experience Tickets are the result of what I learned.
They are also the basis of a class I teach at the Miami Ad
School in Berlin.
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3. These 7 Tickets will help you create branded
experiences that are meaningful to people.
1. The Mountain
2. The Rebellion
3. The Barnraising
4. The Temple
5. The Game
6. The Wonderland
7. The Campfire
3Copyright © 2014 Mario Gamper

4. What these Tickets are, and what they are not.
The 7 Tickets create storylines for your brand
experience.
Stories are how we understand whether something is meaningful, whether
it‘s a movie, a life, or a branded experience. Each Ticket is based on a
simple, time-tested experience-story.
The 7 Tickets are open to change.
I tested them for myself, I tested them at the Miami Ad School. But you‘re
free to modify them and add elements that inspire you.
The 7 Tickets are a heuristic tool, not the truth.
Heuristic tools are like great guesses. They work fast, for most people, in
most situations. They are never the only way to do things.
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5. Every Experience Ticket is defined by 4 elements.
Motivation
Why do people find this experience meaningful?
Motivation is the most important element of any experience. It’s why people
join it. That’s why every Ticket has a subtitle that tells you the motivation
behind it. There is also a quick explanation of the motivation before the three
elements that you have to create: Goal, Action, and Reward.
Goal
What do you promise to make people engage with the experience?
Action
What kind of events do you need tp combine for the experience?
Reward
What validation do you have to give people at the end of the experience?
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6. Expand your Brand Experience Ticket by asking:
What would X be?
Explore the Ticket story
If you are looking to add elements to your experience, don‘t be afraid to dive
deeper into the story that’s behind each Ticket. To kickstart this process, you‘ll
find a list of items under the name of „What would X be?“ at the end of each
Ticket.
Experiment and add
Feel free to personalize your list by adding new items that inspire you.
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7. The Mountain
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Overcoming Resistance
“Is this the summit, crowning the day? How cool and quiet!
We're not exultant; but delighted, joyful; soberly
astonished. Have we vanquished an enemy? None but
ourselves.”
George Mallory: Climbing Everest. 1923

8. Overcoming resistance
The Motivation behind the Mountain Ticket
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Goal Action Reward
The Mountain-Top Overcoming Challenges Signs of Effort
Define a clear mountain-top.
Show people how to get there.
Tell them it won't be easy.
Define whether the mountain
has to be climbed solo, or
whether teams can be built.
Develop segments or levels of
increasing difficulty.
Ensure that potential of failure
is always present, but also
make sure enough get
through.
Make sure you show respect
to those who begin to climb
the mountain. Validate their
effort.
Treat the ones that reach the
top like an elite. Honor their
resilience.
The Mountain Experience reaffirms our sense of self. Passing challenges of ever-
increasing difficulty proves our resilience. Therefore, practical reasons for taking on those
challenges aren‘t really needed.

9. What would X be?
Expanding the Mountain Experience.
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Example: „What would yodeling be in my experience?“
Climbing solo
Great Views
Yodeling
Mountain height
Basecamp

10. The Rebellion
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Causing Change
“Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history,
is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that
progress has been made, through disobedience and through
rebellion.”
Oscar Wilde: The Soul of Man under Socialism, 1891

11. Causing Change
The Motivation behind the Rebellion Ticket
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Goal Action Reward
The Defeated Empire Breaking the Rules Signs of Bravery
Explain why the status quo
needs to change.
Define an enemy, an evil
empire.
Create a battle to be won.
A rebel wants to be brave.
Offer opportunities to do
something difficult or risky.
Something normal people
would never dare.
Once heroes achieve victory,
offer them a parade.
But rebels don't want to look
like they were in it for financial
rewards. Instead, let them
carry the head of the enemy
on a pike.
We all want to change the world for the better. By giving us a clearly defined evil enemy,
the Rebellion Experience grants us certainty that we are on the right side. And let‘s not
forget that breaking rules is great fun.

12. What would X be?
Expanding the Rebellion Experience.
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Example: „What would a revolutionary manifesto be in my experience?“
Enemy castle
Revolutionary
manifesto
Hideouts
Secret meetings
Traitors

13. The Temple
Finding Purity
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“A particular piece of ground is specially reserved, and marked off
from the remainder of the land. It is not used, is withdrawn
from all merely utilitarian ends.”
Josef Pieper: Leisure. The Basis of Culture, 2009

14. Finding Purity
The Motivation behind the Temple Ticket
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Goal Action Reward
The Spiritual Journey Reducing Distractions Signs of Enlightenment
Reveal a spiritual ideal that is
worth a journey.
Invite people to discover the
joy of focus and purity.
Leading people to focus needs
careful orchestration.
Reduce distractions, reduce
noise, reduce advertising.
Don't ever rush them. But offer
guidance when they need it.
Those who have been
enlightened form a society of
the chosen few.
Offer participants something
that feels rare, but simple.
The world is a hectic place, and we often become too hectic in it. The Temple
Experience reconnects us with a sense of spirituality and unburdens us. It’s a place of
simplicity that gives us the gift of calmness and clarity.

15. What would X be?
Expanding the Temple Experience.
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Example: „What would priests be in my experience?“
Secret knowledge
Holy book
Prayer
Incense
Bells, gongs
Chants

16. The Game
Being Childlike
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“We don't stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing.”
George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950

17. Being Childlike
The Motivation behind the Game Ticket
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Goal Action Reward
Winning The Game Alternative World Signs of Victory
This one is simple. Define how
people can win the game.
Offer a trophy to the winner.
Develop rules that constrain
people's options, make it
difficult, and require attention.
Start the game. Let people
play. Be the referee. Count
fairly.
The winner of a game
deserves a trophy. Give them
one.
Playing is a complex activity. The Game Experience demands that we treat it seriously,
and non-seriously at the same time. It’s giving us back the ability of children to lose
ourselves in an alternative reality, for a limited time. Tackle your boss, but don’t talk
about it later.

18. What would X be?
Expanding the Game Experience.
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Example: „What would the score be in my experience?“
Playing field
Foul/Penalty
Rackets
Referee
Half-time
Score

19. The Wonderland
Gaining Powers
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“Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic.”
Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future, 1973
Copyright © 2014 Mario Gamper

20. Gaining Powers
The Motivation behind the Wonderland Ticket
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Goal Action Reward
Magical Powers Being Amazing Signs of Unusual Power
Define a wonderful world of
magical opportunities.
Promise that it offers both
excitement and great power -
with no effort.
Begin by amazing participants,
but quickly offer them an easy
way to use the magical
powers.
Make it clear that those
magical powers have to be
used for the good of everyone.
Give people an object which
shows that they have special
powers now.
Make those objects look non-
threatening.
Humans are limited creatures. Adding skills not only takes time, it's often difficult, and
sometimes impossible. The Wonderland Experience presents us with an opportunity to
magically expand our experiences and powers.

21. What would X be?
Expanding the Wonderland Experience.
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Example: „What would a wizard be in my experience?“
Magic wands
Black magic
Potions
Spells
Wizard
Robes

22. The Barnraising
Helping Others
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“No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”
John Donne, English Poet, 1624

23. Helping Others
The Motivation behind the Barnraising Ticket
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Goal Action Reward
The Common Good Joining Efforts Signs of Common Success
Define a common good which
cannot be achieved alone.
While a significant amount of
contributions is needed to
succeed, the individual effort
required does not have to be
heroic.
Give people well defined easy
tasks.
Tell them they did well.
Show everyone how well work
is progressing.
Ensure working together is
fun.
Individually, participants of a
barnraising don’t need much:
A piece of cake. A smile. Any
small token of appreciation.
But make sure that the world
can see what they achieved by
working together.
As a species, we are able of astounding egotism as well as altruism. The Barnraising
Experience offers satisfaction by making us part of something bigger than ourselves. In
return for our efforts, we need to see a celebration of community - not personal benefits

24. What would X be?
Expanding the Barnraising Experience.
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Example: „What would building materials be in my experience?“
Building materials
Lazy bystanders
Cake
New barn owner
Hammer, Saw
Sweating

25. The Campfire
Sharing Stories
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“Man alone is the story-telling animal. Stories are how we create
belonging, how we define ourselves, our families, our societies.”
Salman Rushdie, 2011

26. Sharing Stories
The Motivation behind the Campfire Ticket
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Goal Action Reward
Community Respect Having a Voice Signs of Social Relevance
Define the core values of the
community.
Show how important they are.
Tell people their opinion needs
to be heard by others.
Build a space that is inviting,
comfortable. Invite people who
want to be heard.
To keep the conversation
going, add a little provocation
every now and then.
Throw out anyone who scares
away others, or breaks
campfire rules.
People like being influential.
Offer signs that signify how
much people contribute to the
values of the community.
We create our identities by telling stories. In a lively community, people take turns to tell
who, what and why the community is. Not all of the stories of the Campfire Experience
have to be smart, or polite. It's more important that the buzz of voices never stops.

27. What would X be?
Expanding the Campfire Experience.
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Example: „What would stoking the fire be in my experience?“
Getting wood
Last sparks
Children
Old storytellers
Stoking the fire
Dusk

28. Copyright © 2014 Mario Gamper
Permission granted to reproduce for personal and educational use only.
Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited. In all cases this notice
must remain intact.
If you like the visuals, they were done by the folks at eat, sleep + design
Berlin.
I am thinking about expanding this presentation into a little booklet with
examples and exercises. If you are interested in this, drop me a note at
ideaswilltravel@gmail.com.
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