Greg Plata – WestJet Experiential Marketing Team Lead

Greg Plata’s a great guy! Almost looks like a Ryan Gosling look alike, but don’t let the good looks fool you. His work speaks for itself.

Winner of 2 Cannes advertising awards for his experiential content development with WestJet, he understands the human condition, and could probably build a campaign within… seconds. That’s what he did with mine.

He started off with interviewing me.

1. What’s my background

2. I’m an engineer? How long out of school? Did you work at all?

3. What was the “aha” moment with this business?

Cool and Smooth
His points were great, and it stems from his 9+ years experience in pitching advertising & marketing ideas. He has completely shaped WestJet’s campaigns, from video flash mobs, Christmas giving, to their latest “April Fools” campaign. Who knows what it will be?! But here’s what he had to say:

1. Start simple in your presentations. A strong pitch. This cup is distributed at over thirty locations downtown. It’s intimate and tactile. Highly visible.
2. Emotional triggers as a call to action. Investigate that. Investigate Sunshine!
3. Use the augmented reality as the “kicker” at the end. Don’t throw that at them up front!
4. Contact the media buyers. They are your friend.
5. Develop a one-pager. Your cheat sheet to help you execute.
6. He loves the idea and sees the value. A no brainer.

Meeting more and more people who are “makers” in the field, they all share this crazy fascination and openness to ideas. I really enjoy meeting more people who share this type of enthusiasm. It’s clear to me at this point that something’s going right with regards to my mentality. Hopefully… I have yet to see someone that I reach out too, who is in a position of seniority, that doesn’t have this extra “oomf” in their eyes. Maybe it’s just they type of people who are willing to respond to cold calls.

Oh yeah, and he’s interested in helping me build this.

Dope

Thoughts of a Ho. Now you know…