Lots of people used to come up to me at gigs or even ahead of the gig and ask me “what’s on the playlist tonight?” or “what are you planning to play tonight?”
The fact of the matter is I usually had no idea 😬
You read that and thought I’m full of 💩, but hear me out. I’m not saying I wasn’t prepared for an event. Nor that I didn’t have a few songs I knew would win over a crowd when mixed together.
DJs often refer to this as a set or a crate. We use these sets as sort of frameworks to guide us through specific parts of the night - or to set a specific vibe.
In general, I knew the night was going to be a series of puzzles to put together.
There is no way for me to know at 10pm what exact song I’m going to play at 11:57pm because I can’t predict the future. But what I can tell you, is that I’m gonna be experimenting all night long with a rough plan in my mind.
What most people don’t know is that DJing a party is one big, ongoing experiment. Not in the sense that the night might be good or bad. But also in the sense that every transition from one song to the next could be successful or fail. Sometimes in epic fashion.
If the test is successful, people keep dancing, the vibe stays strong, and the bar continues to make money. You hope for this result over and over, of course 😎
If the DJ fails in this moment, some people will leave the dance floor. Next, the DJ will have to work to restore everything that was working fine a few minutes ago. People will leave the venue, which means the party suffers. Finally, the bar makes less money (more on this stuff in later chapters).
That’s the thing - DJs know it’s an experiment and we’re willing to test our hypothesis over and over again. Every single hour of every single night, I should add!
We are willing to chance it – especially because the feedback loop is immediate. And this ongoing risk taking is the underlying basis of being a good DJ.
In any given night a DJ is actually running hundreds of experiments. The cumulative result of those hundreds of experiments can be summed up as a good night or a bad night. Call us mad scientists!
To sum that last part up: parties and events live and die by the DJ’s ability to run experiments.
Marketing, as we’ll come to find out more and more in this book, is no different.
People think marketing is magic and success is sometimes a fluke or stroke of luck. Yet, every good marketer knows that their job is to try stuff and see if it works. And it if doesn’t work, try something else.
That’s it.
If someone wanted me to explain my job as a marketer in one sentence, I’d say “I try stuff, and if it works I keep doing it. If it doesn’t work, I stop doing it.”
Marketing consists of many sub disciplines and job titles, some of which need an agency to do well a lot of times. The thing that ties them all together is the underlying theme of experimentation.
“I’m a copy writer” - cool, so every bit of copy is an experiment that you hope will get people to react.
“I’m a designer” - cool, so every design element is an experiment that you hope will catch someone’s eye.
“I’m a social media manager” - cool, every piece of social content is an experiment that you hope will get people to stop scrolling and pay attention.
“I’m in advertising” - cool, you’re testing one ad against another to see which one gets more people to your website. Lucky you, your experiments are quite easy to prove.
And so marketers, too, are mad scientists. No matter the experience level, at some point you were running an experiment wether you know it or not.
Someone who is writing their first headline is taking their first experiment. This book chapter is an experiment wrapped in another experiment wrapped in another one.
Like having a good night or bad night, the cumulative results of a marketer or marketing team’s efforts are usually summed up. Quite often as “good marketing,” or “bad marketing.”
Marketers have frameworks and structured campaign ideas much in the same way DJs might have sets. The difference is this: DJs will admit they are freestyling all night and figuring it out as they go. most marketers would be afraid to admit that nobody knows what they’re doing and are figuring it out as they go along.
When it comes to marketing, there are plenty of risks that can lead to failure. When done right, the payoff will make up for any losses.
So, cheers to the ones who aren’t afraid to fail – at least you were willing to try and make something work.
Here’s some music to experiment to, for the ones who aren’t afraid to go left and throw a curve ball into the mix from time to time: the late MF DOOM. Enjoy!