“Technology is integral to everything we do”

Portland, July 3rd, 2024

Goodbeast is an award-winning experiential marketing agency founded in 2017, with offices in Portland, Oregon, Washington, D.C., and clients worldwide. They imagine the extraordinary and bring it to life with immersive brand activations that leave audiences in awe. Its team combines empathetic and iterative design with precision engineering.

Jay McDowell is the CEO of Goodbeast. In an interview with TIA, he described the reasons behind starting his own agency and explained the importance they place to experiential marketing. He also walked us through some of their most successful projects and explained how they measure the success of real-world connections and emotions.

What do you love most about living in Portland?

The thing I love the most about the city of Portland is the strength of the creative and artistic communities. Whatever your creative passion, you’re probably going to find people here who share it. If you’re in town I would recommend checking out Fathom, the new immersive art pop-up (where we have an exhibit) in the heart of downtown. It’s summer here now, so it’s a great time to explore the amazing wilderness surrounding Portland– mountains and beaches, deserts and rainforests, we have it all within an hour’s drive!

Can you tell us about your journey and what led you to specialize in strategy for experiential marketing?

First and foremost, we just believe this is a more effective way to reach people in today’s media-saturated environment. Brand activations that incorporate real world elements lend themselves to more powerful, emotional moments, which in turn foster a deeper connection to your brand.
One recent study found that experiential marketing campaigns were 5X more effective than traditional passive, digital marketing.
As far as my personal journey… well, to be honest, we started Goodbeast because we were also tired of doing the same old things over and over again. And as the old saying goes, if you’re bored, so is the audience.

As the CEO at Goodbeast, what does a typical day look like for you?

LOL, I’m not sure any agency leader has a typical day, but that’s part of the attraction! What I love about my job is one minute I’m workshopping augmented reality concepts, the next I’m installing an LED exhibit at an immersive art pop-up, and then I might be overseeing the deployment of an educational mobile game for students in low-bandwidth regions of MENA. I suppose every day also has its typical administrative demands, but I’m lucky I get to spend so much time working for clients with the rest of my team.

Goodbeast has offices in both Portland, OR, and Washington, DC. How do these locations influence the agency’s creative process and approach to experiential marketing?

Portland’s creative energy and artistic community has been a source of constant inspiration. We’ve been fortunate to get involved with the Portland Winter Light Festival, a citywide event that brings art and technology together every winter. PDXWLF gives us a chance to try out new ideas and tech and also work with other artists and creative firms in the city.
DC was an interesting catalyst for our experiential work, as there is very limited outdoor out-of-home advertising (billboards) allowed, due to federal regulations. Our first experiential campaign in 2018, “Light Up Dr. Bear,” was conceived as a way to deploy out-of-home elements that were tasteful and allowed by the regulations. The result was 300+ internet-connected, LED-lit statues placed all over the Greater Washington Region at prominent gathering places, events, and participating retailers.

One of your notable projects is the “Share Dr. Bear Everywhere” AR mobile app for Children’s National Hospital Foundation. Can you tell us about the concept development and execution of this project?

The initial challenge was, how might we expand “Light Up Dr. Bear” at an even larger scale? The team landed on using augmented reality to “share Dr. Bear everywhere.” We used 8th Wall from Niantic (also a customer), the makers of Pokèmon Go, to drive the core AR experience. Working with the Children’s National team and our partner SmithGifford, we created a virtual Dr. Bear that was true to the Children’s National brand in a mobile experience that was streamlined for donors on the go during the busy holiday season. The AR experience was delightful, and we heard a lot of feedback that people really enjoyed crafting their own Dr. Bear scenes and selfies– all tailor-made for sharing on social media, of course.

Another significant project you directed is the UNICEF “Cranky Uncle Vaccine” mobile educational game. What were the unique challenges of deploying this project globally, and how did you address them?

Cranky Uncle Vaccine is currently live in Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, and Kenya, including several low-bandwidth areas in those countries. To ensure performance for all audiences, we upgraded the Cranky Uncle Vaccine infrastructure to utilize Amazon Web Services (AWS) global load-balancing capabilities. To date, the AWS backend has performed as expected and the app is performing well across the MENA region.

Experiential marketing is often seen as more impactful than traditional or digital marketing. In your opinion, what are the key elements that set it apart?

Our thesis is that EM is more impactful because it provokes more powerful emotions, which leads to a deeper brand connection and ultimately, loyalty.
We’ve seen studies that found these tactics are up to 5X more effective, and 74% of consumers were more likely to purchase products promoted by experiential marketing than those that weren’t.

What role does data analytics play in informing decision-making and strategy formulation?

We start every project with a detailed understanding of the audience, using quantitative and qualitative research.
Analytics and telemetrics are integral parts of everything we do, from planning through maintenance.

You mentioned the importance of real-world connections and emotions. How do you measure the success of these connections in your campaigns?

In our business, it’s usually quantitative measurement– increased donations, revenue, email sign-ups, etc. We establish measurable outcomes of success at the beginning of every project– even when just bringing something forward into the world is a success, we still define quantitative metrics.
That said, the qualitative impact is just seeing the faces of the people there, the sense of wonder. We even had one couple get engaged inside one of our PDXWLF exhibits, so we would count that as a success!

What role does technology play in enhancing the experiential marketing campaigns at Goodbeast?

Technology is integral to everything we do– not only to create the experiences but to maintain that connection with the audience afterwards. The experiences we create often begin as clever/new uses of technology. Our differentiator is that we aren’t just dropping art exhibits, we design interactivity and connectivity into virtually everything we do. For Children’s National Hospital, we integrated the light-up Bears into the hospital’s Blackbaud donation platform. For our installation at the immersive art museum, we used cutting-edge computer vision to power the game. For Nationwide Children’s, we used AWS’s IoT Core to execute coordinated light shows across 120+ figurines.

What’s the most fun or unusual experience you’ve personally had while working on an experiential campaign?

Hosting our first light festival installation in Portland’s Pioneer Square during the 2023 light festival. It was so fun being right there on the square with a massive crowd back in downtown Portland. The other installations were incredible, and we made so many new connections. But my favorite part was interacting with the crowd and managing the unexpectedly long line to get into our exhibit!

Can you share a bit about the future of Goodbeast?

We’re continuing to expand our experiential offering. Wherever people are gathered in person, we want to be there– whether it’s reimagining a trade booth, installing fresh and unique brand activations at summer festivals, or re-energizing your next philanthropic event.

As someone who enjoys challenges, is there any lesson you’ve had to learn multiple times?

The importance of prototyping– experimenting with rough, low-stakes versions of the idea and then testing them with real users. I’ve integrated prototyping into my own creative process, but I am constantly amazed how often teams skip this vital step.

When you’re not immersed in work, how do you like to spend your time and what activities help you recharge?

Can you name the global issue you are most passionate about and why?

I’m passionate about the issue of climate change. Unfortunately, I have watched the climate crisis develop over the course of my lifetime and I’m concerned about the world my children will live in. It was for this reason I originally approached John Cook, inventor of Cranky Uncle and renowned expert on climate science misinformation, which resulted in us collaborating with John on the original Cranky Uncle mobile game, which educates students of all ages about the techniques of climate science denialism.

Thanks Jay!

Learn more about: Goodbeast

Follow Jay McDowell on social media:  Linkedin

Follow Goodbeast on social media:  Instagram

ARExperienceBrand ActivationsCreativeCommunityEmotionalMarketingExperiential Marketing