Uprising: For Mollie James, No Detail is Too Small
Experiential marketing has had its fair share of changes for the past three years and today, brands are more likely than ever to tap into the space through personalised experiences and tech integration. Hybrid events and, at one point, fully web3 events were the gateway for those first trying out experiential - both from the brand and customer side - and collaborations between businesses weren’t lacking either. With the challenge of keeping experiences sustainable, engaging and powerful, the sector is attracting more talent in creative hub cities and beyond.
Mollie James, today an event producer at The Park, however, moved into experiential somewhat accidentally. Upon returning from a Bali holiday, she was still unsure if she wanted to move to London from New Zealand, where she is originally from. One thing led to another and as she was looking for a job, her mum introduced her to experiential through their friend’s small business that needed some help. “I began there,” she says, “and I absolutely fell in love with it.” Ultimately, the decision she took then led to her moving to London (four years ago now) and pursuing it as her full-time career.
Growing up a shy and introverted kid who had New Zealand as her perfect playground to share with her two closest friends, Mollie had no idea what her ‘thing’ was. Kayaking, boogie boarding and swimming in Matapouri, a small beach up at the top of the North Island took up most of her time, so she didn’t really get the mobile reception or the chance to think about a career in the creative industries.
Overall, growing up in New Zealand, life was “pretty cruisy,” which made her quite the chilled out person. “I don’t stress very easily, and have this weird thing where I quite like stressed out people. They present a bit of a challenge.” Probably the reason why she also found the move to London to be a breeze.
Eventually, Mollie did go to university, but she admits she didn’t love it at the time. “I did a degree in communications, majoring in creative industries. Looking back, a lot of the things that I learned were definitely helpful, but I just didn’t get into it at the time. A lot of my friends had moved to university and I found myself feeling FOMO.” Out of university, Mollie found herself in an interior design role, managing the fit out of large hotels across New Zealand, Australia and Fiji. And while it seems like her love for creativity hadn’t blossomed quite yet at the time, she believes that role and her current one are similar. “They’re both all about managing tricky timings, people, locations and budgets.”
In London, Mollie’s first role was at Forgather, an events services company, where she went from event producer to event manager. “I was in a team of three, which then dropped down to a team of two. It was in this role where I really developed my skills in the experiential industry. Being in a team this size, you have to learn how to do everything,” she explains. “No job was below, or above me!”
On top of this, lockdown had just begun and everything, including experiential marketing, was moving online. Web3 hadn’t quite arrived just yet, so Mollie found herself having to navigate a new city, a new job role and an entirely new world of lessons that came with online experiential.
What did she learn from all this? That no detail is too small and nothing is satisfactory if it’s only ‘good enough’. “I remember early on saying a comment along the lines of ‘that will do’ and getting absolutely grilled for it. In the experiential world, every tiny thing matters. Especially when you’re dealing with big brands whose identity and how they present themselves means everything to them.”
This was also a time when Mollie started leaning into her own strengths and characteristics. “I think there is a lot of noise around standing up for what you want and I find that sometimes people are quite aggressive on this. Personally, I’ve found that being kind and polite means people want to help, and go above and beyond for you.”
In her last role, one of the more substantial projects Mollie took on was the ‘CEO Retreat’ for one of the company’s venture capital clients, during which the team had to bring together 85 CEOs of the portfolio companies for two days in the Bavarian Alps. “There was so much to it - finding speakers that 85 of the top European CEOs would find interesting, creating a selection of activities that guests would want to take part of. And all with the added bonus of being in a remote part of Germany, with 110 people flying from all over Europe and wider. It was huge. I’ve never been so busy in my life. The second the last guest got on the plane home, I immediately broke out with a huge flu - I loved every second!”
Reminiscent of her first ever project back in Auckland, ‘The Big Screen Symposium’, Mollie’s easy going nature seems to genuinely thrive under stress (minus the flu). For the New Zealand-based two day film festival she had to gather directors, actors, producers and pretty much anyone from the film industry with the goal of connecting and networking. Mollie, as a speaker liaison, was involved with a lot of the running around from talk to talk. “But I still remember loving being so busy. I felt a real sense of importance,” she says.
Recently, a big moment for Mollie was building a stand for Pinterest at OMR, the largest digital marketing trade show in Europe. After spending months working on the design and hundreds of battles with their production partner, Mollie and her team had to push back on many decisions along the way. “There were a lot of very uncomfortable conversations,” she says. “However, seeing the real life stand, against the final digital render, you honestly couldn’t tell between the two! It was the ultimate reward for our hard work.”
Seeing the experiences come together and people enjoying them is part of what Mollie loves most about the job - being on site, being a fixer and exploring her weird affinity for stressed out people. “I love being the person that can find and resolve something before it becomes a problem.” Not only this, but when faced with wild creative ideas, Mollie is the first to go “Hmm, how can we actually execute this?”, rather than put it down instantly. Most recently, this became evident with Spotify at Cannes. The idea? A giant foosball table, an underwater stage set, an epic soundscape wall that would play top Spotify summer beats and meeting rooms that resembled music recording studios. All in two months.
While all this is challenging yet fun, Mollie struggles most with moments of conflict. “I feel like I’ve been lucky in things going my way. However, there have been a handful of times on particularly difficult project, which have required me to go way outside my comfort zone and be super confrontational when things aren’t right,” she reflects. “I know I have to, but it’s hard. I’m working on it!”
As somebody whose career truly began in the eye of the hurricane during the pandemic, Mollie is still acutely aware of the transitions experiential is going through. Regardless of her love of on-site work, she understands the debate between online and in-person experiences, but still feels quite strongly about missed opportunities with online. “The energy that comes from being together cannot be replicated. In saying that, I’m also passionate about making things accessible for all, and making those small changes to the way we plan events so that more people are able to enjoy them.”
She continues, “The world of technology is one that continues to amaze me in that sphere. One of the Grand Prix Cannes Lions winners - Apple’s ‘The Greatest' - showed all the features that iPhones now have to cater to those who are differently abled. It was incredible. We have so much more to do in making experiences readily accessible for all, and it’s so exciting to see where we can get to by utilising these technologies available.”
Another aspect that Mollie believes the industry should be thinking more about is the longevity of campaigns. With the recent Barbie craze, experiential didn’t fall far behind in creating incredible opportunities for consumers to immerse themselves in Mattel’s pink universe. “I saw quite a few posts on LinkedIn, however, asking where all this ‘stuff’ goes afterward,” Mollie says. What she wants to see is the special things that companies build live on post-event. That recently happened with Spotify’s Cannes foosball machine. Although it was three times larger than normal size, it got to live in Spotify’s offices forevermore.
A lot of experiential is about being immersed in the moment. But Mollie wants it to also be about remembering. “So many experiential campaigns are about all the talk and no walk,” she says. “At The Park, we’re all about brand proof - brands proving to their customers and consumers that they truly mean what they say and do.” She recalls a statistic - 96% of the £18.4 billion spent on advertising each year is forgotten, or worse, remembered negatively. “It’s frustrating to see these huge campaigns with extortionate amounts of money spent just be taken down and forgotten within a week.” So, it’s not just about creating - to Mollie, the bulk of the work is in preserving and building a legacy.
As a Kiwi in London, Mollie is truly somebody who’s speed of life is unfathomable for some. Travelling non-stop (and admitting to often fall for the lure of cheap European flights), exploring London’s vast cultural heritage, eating, drinking, loving her job and still managing to spend an incredible amount of time outdoors, she has her cup overflowing and that’s how she likes it. “I like people - I like stressed people, I like happy people. I like problems and problem solving.”
Whether at home or at work, bringing something to life and resolving a sticky situation is what keeps Mollie going. “I get so much satisfaction out of seeing someone or something come out the other side. It motivates me to do more for everybody around me.”
