Tina Walsberger on authentic experiential marketing

The CMO Show

Every January, as the weather hits peak wonderful and the city truly blossoms to life, Sydney delivers a summer celebration like no other.

For Tina Walsberger, chief marketing and customer service officer at Sydney Festival, it’s a race against time (and money) to create the cut through needed to pique interest and attract visitors. After all, what she’s selling isn’t physical; It’s experiential.

With more than 700,000 people in attendance across the 146 events held as part of this year’s Sydney Festival, Walsberger says she knew that traditional marketing methods just weren’t going to cut it in 2017.

“We’re in an era now where 89 percent of marketing falls completely on deaf ears,” she says. “Marketing in its traditional sense is just much, much less effective than it ever has been.”

Her response to this revelation? Authenticity.

Shifting gears to make the most of having a small team with minimal budget, Walsberger took to engaging influencers to spread the word. A strategy, which she says, paid massive dividends with more than 20 million views for one event alone.

Listen along as Mark Jones and JV Douglas discuss the changing role of influencers in marketing communications, how Walsberger uses surprise and sensory experience to increase participation, and why the most authentic messaging occurs when CMOs immerse themselves in the experience.