Interviewed by: Mark Tungate
The first time David de Bruijn grasped the power of experience was when he took a vulture to school.
His parents owned a furniture store and travelled a lot to source its contents. On one of these trips, the young David met a falconer, a man who wrangled birds of prey.
“At school we had to give a ten minute talk about something we loved, and I managed to hustle this vulture into school,” he recalls. Sensibly, the school board changed the venue from his classroom to the schoolyard. “More classes were invited to join, and even people from the neighbourhood started to get involved.”
David doesn’t claim his talk was the best, but it left a mark. “I think even today people still remember that story. And somewhere along the line I got addicted to making people feel something.”
An internship at a brand experience and event company fuelled his enthusiasm. “I saw that what we made touched people.” At art school, though, activations were still very much looked down upon. “The 60 second ad was the hero, you know?”
Still, David stuck to his guns and eventually became a designer, then an art director, in the experiential field. “I didn’t want to make ads, I wanted to make people feel. A few years later at WINK, my wings fully opened. My career took a leap – and I got my first tattoo. This is where I found my family.”
WINK was founded in 1997 and works across live experiences, content and merchandising. Its mission is to design and deliver “emotion-evoking moments” that build lasting relationships between brands and people. You can see why David felt at home when he joined the team.
A collective of performers
That was ten years ago, and since then he’s climbed the ranks from art director to chief creative officer. “And I’ve never been bored one single day. It’s a space that’s founded on creative freedom.”
Also on a diversity of talent. David compares WINK to a travelling circus. “We go around the world and we perform. But to do that we need different skillsets, from someone who’s a brilliant graphic designer, to an amazing lighting designer, or a badass choreographer. And so on.”
The main thing that unites them all, he says, is what attracted him to the industry from the start. “Wanting to make people feel something – putting the goosebumps first, if you like.”
The second element is an emphasis on craft. “For example, if you take the merch we create, we’d never just produce a hoodie with a logo. From the process to the end result, we’ll always create a great idea that’s executed in a very crafted manner.”
WINK has proved its worth to clients over and over again, working with brands such as Corona and Budweiser (for AB InBev), The North Face and Moët Hennessy, to name a few. Internally AB InBev’s marketing leadership views WINK’s work for Corona Cero during the Olympics as the “golden standard” for their brand experiences.
When WINK was tasked by Corona to help celebrate its 100th birthday during the free Lady Gaga concert Todo Mundo no Rio on Copacabana beach with the creation of a “sunset ritual”, the concert attracted 2.1 million people and was described by The Guardian as “like a religious thing.”
Seeking the human touch
Does the rise of AI mean that human experiences will become even more sought-after? David suspects so. “It was Mark Cuban who predicted that AI is going to make creating content so easy that you’re going to have a hard time distinguishing if something on screen is real or not. So the demand for real life experiences is going to increase.”
Not that WINK hasn’t embraced AI – as a design tool, for instance, or a sounding board for ideas. “The aim for us when we use AI is always to become a better human. AI is going to help us get to the experiences that fit your world sooner.”
Because an event is a one-off, I imagine social media and PR are used to ensure the experience resonates beyond its time and location? In fact, says David, there are different layers and phases to an event.
“First there’s the anticipation, the build-up, the emotional charge before the moment itself. The aim is to create something that adds to people’s lives, and that process starts long before the event, in the countdown and the conversations forming around it. There are already communities engaged, reacting and talking – so it’s about tapping into that energy early on.”
During the event itself, by using live content and social listening, WINK can respond to spontaneous moments that may spark wider conversations and amplify them instantly. Then of course there are the conversations after the event – and the anticipation around the next one. Events tend to be aimed at specific communities, so engaging with them at every stage is vital.
From Amsterdam to the world
Live events are definitely moving up in the marketing mix, although David feels there’s still “an old advertising muscle memory” that creates resistance. Even though “it’s been proven that the effect and engagement of real-life events is very powerful.”
He names AB InBev and Nike as just two of the major brands who are putting real budget behind experiences. “There’s definitely a shift. We’re now seeing people from the advertising industry wanting to join our world because there’s momentum and excitement going on.”
That’s likely to be enhanced by two big events next year: the World Cup and the Winter Olympics. The World Cup, of course, is a fantastic opportunity to engage with passionate soccer fans around the globe.
“Only about 1% of the world who watches the World Cup is actually going to be there. But there are so many stories around football culture. For instance, I read that in India there are almost as many Messi fans as there are in Argentina. What does football mean in people’s lives? I think that’s where the magic is.”
For the Winter Olympics, the Olympians themselves might be the focus. “These are not all celebrities. They are athletes at the top of their game. And they are about to become an Olympian – one of the greatest moments of their lives. So we can activate in the athletes’ spaces to help share those stories.”
While WINK’s experiences take it around the world, it has an office in New York is headquartered in Amsterdam. What makes Amsterdam the ideal European hub, as opposed to, say, London?
“Well, beyond the obvious, it’s central and so on, it’s also because we are a very small country with a very high density of experiences: high quality festivals, high quality events. The level of knowledge and innovation is very strong here, so it gives us a base that we can take out to the world. I know those skills also exist elsewhere, but here it’s very concentrated.
Post-pandemic, especially in the worlds of sport and music, the desire to experience live events seems greater than ever. I think the serendipity that can only occur at live events is something that human beings desire,” says David. “The need for experience is in our DNA.”
