Five lessons your company can learn from Tomorrowland

Five lessons your company can learn from Tomorrowland

4C Consult ing | The proof i s in the people

By Geert Martens & Geert Teunkens

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Waffles, chocolate, beer…

Tomorrowland. Ask a foreign youngster about Belgium

and these are probably the first things to come to

mind. People have marveled at our sweets and drinks

for ages, yet to have a music festival as an export

product would have been hard to predict ten years

ago.

Only nine years after its first edition the popularity of

the festival is overwhelming. In 2013 Tomorrowland

welcomed 180,000 guests from over 92 nationalities

while 16 million more viewers joined via l ive

stream TV. Facebook ‘l ikes’ exceed the actual

festival capacity with a factor 70. The festival was

voted ‘Best Global Festival’ two years in a row

and Tomorrowworld, a recently born sister-event

in Atlanta, serves as the ultimate evidence of its

international appeal.

How to explain this massive success? It is about so

much more than just electronic dance music.

At 4C Consulting we allocate the success of

Tomorrowland to the consistent execution of a

well-designed, deliberate and emotional customer

experience, and a continuous focus on improving this

experience year on year.

Should you ‘Tomorrow’ your business? Let’s take

a look at some of the techniques Tomorrowland

skillfully applies to deliver the best festival in the

world and how your company can learn from it,

...without having to dress up as a fairy.

These are the five lessons we think your company

could learn from Tomorrowland:

• Claim your Fame

• Choose your Audience

• Unlock the Power of Emotions

• Design your Customer Journeys

• Apply the Magic of Storytell ing

Image credit: mixing.dj

4C Consult ing | The proof i s in the people / 6

Claim your Fame

If you have ever organized a party you will

know that it is no rocket science to get the basics

right. Book a venue. Send invitations. Get drinks. Add

some music. Done!

Although this setting has a fair chance of being

successful among good friends you are stil l mostly

relying on yourself, the guests and maybe the alcohol

to make your party memorable. After all, people go

to these gatherings all the time and after a dozen

of them it becomes hard to distinguish one memory

from the other.

What does it take to have a party that truly sets you

apart? What do you want to be famous for? Many

options are available to distinguish yourself from your

competitors, but due to limited resources, choices

have to be made. Great companies don’t beat the

competition on all aspects of their business, but

they clearly outperform the playing field on some of

them, as advocated by Crawford & Mathews in their

bestselling book ‘The myth of Excellence’.

From the early days, instead of investing in low

prices, extended service or superior accessibility,

Tomorrowland has chosen to focus on a high quality

product - world class DJ’s - combined with an

exceptional customer experience. The festival has

continuously kept its promise of providing a magical

journey for their beloved guests, all based upon a

fairytale-inspired theme: “Yesterday is History, Today

is a Gift, Tomorrow is Mystery”.

Choose your Audience

The easiest way to fail is trying to please

everyone. A clear choice of your target segment and

a relentless effort to understand, connect, serve and

delight their specific needs is elementary.

Tomorrowland is not aimed at everybody. From the

early beginning Tomorrowland has been focusing on

the young (with a strict 18+ policy, though), higher-

end, trendy party lovers from Belgium and around

the globe with a shared passion for electronic dance

music. In a way this is a blue ocean strategy, since this

particular segment was previously not associated with

the rather ‘rock’-oriented festival culture.

This target audience, and especially its international

profile with over 92 different nationalities at this year ’s

9th edition, has become an integral and differentiating

part of the Tomorrowland experience: it is impossible

to talk about Tomorrowland without talking about its

people. At no other festival in the world do you find an

audience with a similar social and demographic profile.

Unlock the Power of Emotions

“People will forget what you said, people will

forget what you did, but people will never forget how

you made them feel” - Maya Angelou, American author

and poet.

Whether we’re discussing grocery shoppers,

banking clients or festival animals, each consumer

is continuously exposed to a series of emotional

cues, often on a subconscious level. Each customer

interaction, minor or important, adds to the

overall feeling customers have about a brand. Each

interaction impacts how they will remember your

business. An employee talking on the phone while

handling your payment subconsciously tells you

that you’re actually not that important, whereas

a personal call from your dentist just to ask you

whether everything is OK does exactly the opposite.

Both examples have a price tag and both are

manageable.

While reason leads to conclusion, emotion leads

to action. In the short term, customers feeling

‘annoyed’ are likely to complain, thereby occupying

September 2013Five Lessons f rom Tomorrowland


your employees or creating negative buzz. In the long

term, emotions color the way customers remember

things, having an impact on future behavior. Positive

memories will lead to recommendations, cross-sell

and loyalty whereas negative memories will trigger

churn and detractors.

A central step in customer experience management

is designing an emotional profile for your intended

customer experience: a predefined set of emotions

you want to elicit. Tomorrowland has clearly made the

choice to make visitors feel l ike the privileged cast

in a magical fairytale. For a whole weekend visitors

are immersed into a world where anything is possible

and where they are continuously reminded of how

young, free and important they really are. This overall

‘magical’ feeling breaks down into specific emotions

such as ‘excited ’, ‘happy’, ‘overwhelmed’, ‘ inspired’,

‘connected’ and ‘cared for’.

Relative to a bank, insurer, telco operator, util ity

company or most B2C and B2B companies for that

matter, Tomorrowland has the advantage that music,

a dominating component of their experience, is

expressive of emotions and that it can easily convey

or elicit emotions in the listener. Studies indicate

for instance an association between fast tempo and

happiness or excitement and a smooth, consistent

rhythm may be associated with happiness and peace.

But Tomorrowland goes far beyond music to elicit

their intended emotions. And as you will see: you

don’t need magic to deliver a magical experience.

Design your Customer Journeys

What you need is an in-depth understanding

and alignment of all customer interactions: you

need to know exactly how to elicit the predefined

set of emotions that deliver your intended customer

experience. This is where customer journey design

steps in with a three step-based approach: map, align

and add interactions.

Map interactions

The first step is to get a complete overview of all

potential interactions in a comprehensive customer

journey map. You will be surprised when you realize

just how many interactions there are and that they

are often managed by different people in your

company. Hence the importance of a shared view

on exactly how your intended customer experience

should look like: your customer experience identity.

Align interactions

Now you can start matching the existing interactions

with the emotions you want to trigger. This will

quickly identify gaps and opportunities for alignment

and allow you to carefully streamline thousands of

small interactions.

At Tomorrowland purely functional objects are seen

as opportunities to engage visitors.

• This years central theme ‘the arising of l ife’

transformed main stage into a massive Volcano

as the centerpiece of a fully decorated scenery,

ready to be stared at for a whole weekend.

• Drink tokens are no longer boring but delivered

in a medieval ‘booze bag’ as if it were golden

coins.

• Huge flowers are used to point out specially

designed garbage cans.

• Entry-wristbands are no longer plastic and ugly

but nicely designed bracelets in the fairytale

theme.

• While leaving the festival area visitors are

surprised by the recorded sounds of singing

birds while the path is l ightened by fire-spitting

dragons.

• Regular lamp posts are replaced by nicely

decorated ones.

Traditional Belgian festivals used to be infamous

for rainy mud fights, shabby clothing and low fril ls

accommodation. Not much in line with the lifestyle



of the somewhat trendier dance-lovers. In order

for Tomorrowland to deliver their magical fairytale,

they have tackled some of the issues ‘the People of

Tomorrowland’ would probably encounter at your

average festival:

• The festival terrain is covered with wooden

floors to allow for trendy footwear even on a

muddy underground.

• Strategically stored supplies of free raincoats

are attempts to protect trendy outfits and

hairstyles from getting ruined by Belgian rain.

• Toilets and fresh points are staffed with themed

employees ready to refresh visitors with

deodorant.

• Food and beverages are somewhat to very

upscale, relative to the more traditional soda

and beer formulas at other festivals. Visitors

can even enjoy creations by Michelin Star chefs

such as Sergio Herman, Roger Vandamme or

Wout Bru.

• Empty smart phones are a problem from the

past with the creation of a rent-a-battery

service.

Take that Zeus!

Customer experience is about emotions. Emotions are

about perception. This year Tomorrowland announced

the installation of weather canons. When the festival

was hit with heavy rains, loud canon shots were

clearly audible. Meanwhile, big screens announced

that “A storm is on the way. Booming sound is weather

prevention”. Whether the canons actually worked, we

will never know. Fact is that the soaking wet visitors

stil l had the feeling that the festival was trying

everything in their power to keep the fairytale alive,

even if it takes fighting nature.

Add interactions

Apart from aligning existing interactions, we often

find significant improvement opportunities in adding

new, well-designed interactions to the mix. This

could entail expanding the journey and your span of

control by challenging the beginning and the end of a

customer journey: start earlier and end later. Or this

could simply consist of adding interactions at various

stages within the journey.

When does Tomorrowland start?

• The Tomorrowland journey begins months before

the festival, when pre-movies are dropped onto

social media to announce the yearly theme.

• When the festival first decided to organize

world-wide travel packages, planes were

equipped with grass floors and DJ booths.

• A grain circle shaped in the Tomorrowland logo

announced the proximity of the festival.

• Instead of handing out wristbands at the entry

of the festival, they are now being delivered

at home a few weeks in advance, in an again

specially designed box.

That ’s all folks... not just yet.

The journey doesn’t end either when you leave the

parking lot. A few weeks after the festival a thirty

minute long ‘official after-movie’ is created, having its

own launch event at the Antwerp Grand Square. The

end result forms the perfect example of a carefully

designed customer experience, with a major impact

on how the festival is remembered by its guests.

And let ’s not forget that the fairytale continues on

Facebook, Youtube, Flickr, Instagram,... and various

blogs, an attempt to bridge the gap between this

year ’s and next year ’s edition: “The countdown has

begun: next year the world will celebrate 10 years of

Madness…” A totally new interpretation of closed-

loop marketing.



Apply the Magic of Storytelling

Since the very beginning, Tomorrowland

pulled the card of storytelling on two distinct levels:

their product experience and their marketing efforts.

Let your product tell a story

First of all the whole festival is organized as one big

adult fairytale, complete with vil lains, heroes and

miracles.

Every year a central theme is chosen and carefully

translated into every corner of the festival

terrain. The main stage serves as a larger-than-life

storyteller to introduce DJ’s. Festival employees

and dancers are dressed in matching outfits and

guests are continuously addressed as the ‘People

of Tomorrowland’; a clear invitation to take up the

central role in the story. A continuous chain of staged

miracles - rosebuds falling from the sky, large bubble

blowers - brings festival guests into a playful and

friendly atmosphere.

Let your marketing tell a story

Apart from the terrain being a fairytale scene,

the festival also successfully applies storytelling

techniques in its own marketing efforts. Starting

months in advance, social media is used as a preferred

channel to build up towards key moments, l ike day by

day announcements of new artists.

The ultimate example is the buildup towards the

announcement of a second festival location last

year. Instead of just revealing the new venue they

managed to engage dance lovers all over the world

by only announcing that it would take place on a new

continent. A symbolic crystal bottle was pictured to

be launched in the ocean and during weeks they had

social media worldwide buzzing with guesses about

where it would finally arrive. When the new location

of Chattahoochee Hills in the United States was finally

disclosed, the new festival sold out in no time.

Let your customers tell a story

In our connected world marketing is no longer about

the controlled messages you send out. It ’s about

truly engaging with your customers so they take over

the role of your marketing department. Customer

experience is not about social media, but social media

are about customer experience. Truly unleashing the

power of social media, requires following steps:

• Deliver great customer experiences that include

conversation-worthy components

• Make it easy to share

• Encourage sharing

Tomorrowland actively promotes storytelling by

their audience with a very different approach to

the usage of digital cameras and/ or video cameras;

Tomorrowland’s advice: “Make as much movies as

possible and upload them on Youtube!” And with the

roll-out of a ‘rent-a-battery service’, Tomorrowland

addressed the problem of empty smart phones,

enabling guests to continuously stay connected to

share their once in a l ifetime experiences on social

media.

Now, should you ‘Tomorrow’ your business?

Tomorrowland’s relentless focus on customer

experience has resulted in massive customer

engagement. Past visitors have turned into fans,

prepared to pay price premiums and even forgive

operational hiccups.

Before you start painting your bank branches or

stores in fairytale colors – although we don’t oppose

the idea – it should be clear that the point is not to

blatantly copy someone else’s crazy theme. These

techniques can perfectly be applied by any company

and with more neutral sets of emotions.


At 4C Consulting we believe that taking a fresh look at the way companies interact with their

customers can create long-term competitive advantages and unique value. By the work we do for our

clients, we contribute to build a customer driven society in an increasingly complex world.

“ The proof is in the people”: our consultants are seasoned business professionals that leverage

industry, domain and technology best practices and apply proven methodologies to tackle business

challenges in domains such as customer experience management, cross-channel management, CRM,

campaign management, sales force automation, customer analytics, business intell igence and change

management.

Our customer experience practices include customer experience strategy design, customer experience

maturity assessment, segmentation and persona design, voice of the customer research, customer

journey mapping, moments of truth design, customer experience metrics framework, governance and

cultural change.

4C Consulting | T: +32 15 281 281 | A: Stationsstraat 60/5 2800 Mechelen - BELGIUM | E: [email protected] | W: www.4cconsulting.com

Are you an insurance player trying to make young

customers feel ‘secure’? Or rather a util ity company

aiming to make family heads feel ‘smart’? What about

car manufacturers making car owners feel ‘socially

responsible’ or rather ‘unique’? You will notice that

merely describing the feelings you are after - and

those you want to avoid - will help you to align

decisions and customer processes more consistently.

We are living in the age of the customer. According to

Forrester, the only source of competitive advantage is

the one that can survive technology-fueled disruption

— an obsession with understanding, delighting,

connecting with, and serving customers: the ultimate

goal is emotional customer engagement. That is what

will set apart future market leaders from those who

come second. Customer engagement is the result of

delivering great customer experiences: experiences

that are deliberate, emotional and consistent.

So should you ‘Tomorrow’ your business?

No, if you would interpret it as playing dance music

in your bank branches, or setting off fireworks to

celebrate the reactivation of your nuclear plants.

Most definitely, if you would interpret it as clearly

defining who you want to be for your customer,

identifying which emotions you want to elicit with

your customers, designing your customer journeys

to consistently deliver your intended experience,

continuously focusing on improving your experiences

year on year and engaging your customers on an

emotional level.

Contact us

Interested to find out on how we might help you

deliver great customer experiences? Or just want to

talk?

Please contact:

Geert Martens

Partner

T: +32 15 281 281

E: [email protected]

Tw: @geert_martens

Geert Teunkens

Senior Consultant

T: +32 15 281 281

E: [email protected]

Tw: @Joeng_Teun


Five lessons your company can learn from Tomorrowland

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