Hi Andy
Post #1
I spent the first years of my career in investment banking.
Finance degree. Mutual fund. Running macros, building reports, grinding through weekends.
And I didn't enjoy a single minute of it.
One Friday night, my brother called.
He was in Las Vegas going to a party with George Clooney, Randy Gerber, and Cindy Crawford.
I was in Colorado working on a report due Monday.
I hung up and thought: this is not for me.
That was it. That was the moment.
I moved to Las Vegas, went back to school, got my MBA in marketing, and spent years working my way up through nightlife and hospitality.
Then Cirque du Soleil. La Perle by Dragone. Two Bit Circus. Now Museum of Illusions.
If I'd stayed in finance, I'd probably be a lot wealthier.
But I wouldn't have lived in Vegas, Montreal, Dubai, and LA. And I wouldn't have spent 20 years in rooms where people are actually feeling something.
After all these years in the industry, I keep coming back to the one thought:
Entertainment is entirely emotional.
You remember the Cirque show you took your kid to. The field trip where your daughter lost her mind at the museum. The night you met your spouse at that club.
You tattoo those moments on your brain.
Nobody remembers a spreadsheet.
Post #2
Every time I see experiential marketing done badly, it looks the same.
Static image. People high-fiving. Big smiles. Completely staged.
And when I see it, I think: that poor marketing team.
Because experiential is a FOMO business.
People imagine themselves in whatever they see on TikTok or Instagram. They want to feel it before they buy it. A static image can't do that.
The camera eats first. Everything else follows.
We have a video on TikTok and Instagram — just people hanging upside down, shot on a phone, no production value — that has 35 million views between the two platforms.
The things you think are going to work sometimes don't.
And the things you don't think about at all get 35 million views.
That's the job. Show the WTF. Make people feel it before they walk through the door.
Post #3
Everyone thinks the launch is the hard part.
It's not.
Construction, permits, PR, advertising.
We’ve got flare guns. We’re open!
You throw money at it and the doors open.
The hard part starts three months later, when everyone's forgotten about you.
When four new concepts have launched in your market. When you're in Vegas and the entire population turns over every 48 to 72 hours.
How do you get back into the conversation?
We're not a set-it-and-forget-it operation.
We view ourselves as always going to battle, always fighting for that next ticket sale.
Just because you're selling well today doesn't mean in three months you won't be panic-stricken wondering why nothing's working.
You're always plugging holes in the dam.
What makes your business tick today might not be the same thing tomorrow. Don't take that for granted.
Entertainment Industry Ghostwriter
Turning entertainment founders, investors and execs into personal brands that attract clients, investment, talent and deal flow @ Loge Noir.