Assignment 5 Guide

New scripts are depicted in the origination of new experiences.

Hitting the Sweet Spot (4E model)
Based on the level of guest participation (the participation axis between passive
and active) and the connection, or environmental relationship, that unites guests
with the event or performance (the relationship axis between absorption and
immersion), experiences comprise elements across four realms of experience:
Entertainment
Educational
Escapist
Esthetic
All four experience realms are always in play; i.e., experiences cannot be placed
(or plotted) in just one realm. While the value of one or more realms may be very
low in some experiences and there may be some usefulness in thinking about
pure entertainment, educational, escapist, or esthetic experiences it is best to
always think about the nature of all four realms within any given experience.
There may be little esthetic value present, for example, but such should give pause
as to whether this needs to be the case. And some experiences may inherently
emphasize one particular realm, but that does not preclude opportunities to think
about enhancing the experiences through the other three realms.
The most engaging experiences richly draw from all four realms, hitting the
sweet spot in the center of the realms.
Ask yourself:

Entertainment: What should guests enjoy? What can be done to make the
experience more fun and enjoyable?

Educational: What should guests learn? What do you want guests to learn
from exploring new activities?

Escapist: What enabled guests to go from here to there? How can you
transport guests from one sense of reality to another?

Esthetic: What elements made guests want to slow down, stop, or just be?
What can be done to make guests want to hang out and just be?

2016 Strategic Horizons LLP

It can help to first select a single word that represents the one quintessential
element in each realm that defines the very experience. Then revisit the 4E
questions above.

THEME-ing
There are many misconceptions of theming, largely because Walt Disney was so
ahead of his time. Themes need not result in cartoonish, fantasy-based faades,
nor must they be so obviously in your face as at most so-called theme
restaurants. When we speak of a theme, were referring to the dominant
organizing principle influencing every staged element of the experience.
Ensuring such a theme influences the experience richly and thoroughly, the
following five design principles show how to design and depict experiences:

Theme the experience a theme is the dominant organizing principle (or

underlying concept) for everything being staged

Harmonize impressions with positive cues impressions are the takeaways of

an experience, the residue left on the brain afterward (that was. . . or that
made me feel. . .); cues are signals, either environmental or behavioral, that
create these impressions in guests minds

Eliminate negative cues the flip side of harmonizing positive cues, removing
alll that does not fit with the theme or otherwise detracts from the experience

Mix in memorabilia physical artifacts that guests want to take with them in
order to remember the experience, both for free and for fee

Engage all five senses incorporating elements for seeing, hearing, touching,
smelling, and tasting, for experiences are inherently sensory

All five practices are critical to successfully T-H-E-M-E an experience.

Some techniques to Theme the experience:
Create a three-word theme
Pick a magazine, or magazine cover
Select any pop-culture concept: movie, movie scene, TV show, TV show
episode, or celebrity
Pick a song, lyric, proverbial saying, witticism, or famous line
Chose an inspirational place, moment of history, historical person, or seminal
idea

2016 Strategic Horizons LLP