Barry Ross Rinehart’s mission has always been thinking about how to reach people with a specific message. It figured into his work as a jury consultant, as a documentary film director, and as a freelance creative director where his clients included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Now executive creative director of the Boca Raton, Florida-based Multi Image Group, Rinehart, 51, has started digging into the brain science behind the stories his company tells through live events, digital content, and exhibitions.
“How do you design the emotion of an event or experience?” Rinehart asks. “With each emotion, what are the chemicals you’re triggering in the brain? Can we change the way people remember events and experiences? The answer is absolutely.”
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A simple example is to send a video after an event with an upbeat soundtrack and key messages from the gathering. Or designing experiences at an event to engage all five senses—even taste and smell. The result, Rinehart says, leads proteins to fuse together in the brain and create long-term memories—and helps companies build long-term relationships with their target audience.
“For events, we do have the potential of creating memories that will last somebody for the rest of their life,” he says. “Instead of having people stand on stage and go on and on, we can create moments that remain in their hearts and minds.”
The company executes the strategies at events from large, pyrotechnic-filled corporate events in venues such as AT&T Stadium, home to the Dallas Cowboys, as well as at executive retreats and at retail events. One recent example was a 2014 holiday activation the company produced at outdoor sporting goods store Gander Mountain. The activation, set up in seven stores, included activities such as a “naughty or nice detector,” a green screen for photos of kids or pets, an arts-and-crafts station, and, of course, photos with Santa—all packaged as railcars on the “Holiday Express” train. Foot traffic, sales, and social media mentions grew as much as tenfold at each store.
The company’s in-house technological capabilities mean anything is possible. “I can say, ‘They want a video game. Santa is riding a snowmobile and passing logos on the mountain. Can we do that?’ The answer is yes. There’s nothing I can think of that someone down the hall can’t execute.”
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