Bennie F. Johnson

Hello, and thank you for joining us for another special episode of AMA’s Marketing / And. I’m your host, AMA CEO, Bennie F. Johnson. In today’s episodes, we explore life through a marketing lens, delving into conversations with individuals that flourish at the intersection of marketing and the unexpected. We hope to introduce you to visionaries whose stories you might not yet have heard of, but are exactly the ones you need to know.

Through thought provoking conversations, we’ll unravel the challenges, triumphs, and pivotal moments that have been shaped by marketing. Today, our special guest is Michael Voida. Michael is managing director for North America of Elevate Global, and has spent his career helping brands connect with audiences through memorable real world in-person experiences. Based in Atlanta, he has led Elevates North American business since 2023. Before joining Michael founded an experiential marketing agency and served 10 years working with leading brands like Gillette, Planet Fitness, and Atlanta United. His work has included major activations at the Super Bowl and national mobile marketing tours for the National Hockey League and the Truth Initiative. Michael, welcome to the podcast today.

Michael Vajda 

Thanks, great to be here.

Bennie

It’s really good to have you here in some ways in person. And that’s where I’d love to start. You know, we talk a lot about marketing and our world of technology and space, but your push in space and marketing is really at the nexus and the heart of our in-person experience. So talk a bit about how you think about in-person marketing in today’s world.

Michael 

Yeah, look, I think the human connection is really where I’m really focused and I think brands and agencies are really focused. We live in a world that is hyper fast. Every other day there’s a new technology, AIs on the scene, things of that nature. And I’m just a big believer in what they’ve called the experience economy. And that’s where we live.

You know, my career has been in the experiential marketing ecosystem ever since I started. I’ve worked both on the event side, running major events, to the property side, to the strategy side, you know, working with brands on what their activation and marketing spend is going to be. And now I’m, you know, handling the staffing side, which is a new, you know, a new kind of ecosystem for myself.

Bennie

So events are often, and marketing events in particular, are not for the faint of heart. What led you to this space? When you started your career, how did you know that marketing events were it for you?

Michael 

Yeah, I wish I could tell you that it was like, you know, I hired someone or any of that type of stuff. Yeah, I mean, look, I always knew that, you know, I wanted to do something sports and business related. I didn’t know exactly what that meant. I had an opportunity early in my career to work on a PGA tour event and I really enjoyed it. And that led me to wanting to do more of that type of work. I’m a natural leader and an organization and time management and just kind of getting everyone to row in the same direction as a skill. So that really led itself to the event management business. And yeah, I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a lot of great things over the years, in probably every major city in the US and Canada and for different clients. But yeah, it’s kind of how it all started.

Bennie

Well, describe for me that first event that took your breath away. You walk in the arena, you walk on the field, you walk in the door. What was that first event for you?

Michael

Yeah, I mean, it’s funny. I’ve been able to go to a lot of events, but from a working standpoint, I’m going to bring up a sport that probably people wouldn’t think of when you ask that question. But I ran a pro cycling event. Now, think Tour de France type of event. And I ran it here in Atlanta and we closed eight miles of city streets and put on a world class event back in the days with Lance Armstrong and like the U.S. cycling was a big, was having a bit of a renaissance and I didn’t know the sport at all. seeing these guys going 50, 60 miles an hour on bikes, taking turns and just understanding the whole sport and riding over 120 miles in a day and tactics and strategy, that took a decent amount of my breath away from just how athletic and how determined and just what that sport was about. So probably not something everyone would be like, you know, Super Bowls or walking into the Masters or things of that nature. I’m a golfer by, you know, from a personal standpoint. And the first time I went to Augusta National took my breath away.

Bennie

Right. Wow. So I’m going to ask this question when you think about events and what’s changed in our world. So talk to me a bit about how, what’s changed from an event that you would have done in December 2019 to an event today? So kind of that, that window right before the pandemic to what our expectations are today.

Michael

I think I’ll go back to the human connection to, you know, that I mentioned earlier. I’m just from an experience standpoint, that is really where brands are trying to connect. You know, I think it’s important that, you know, you understand how to make your event property activation. How does that create a memory? And, you know, we’ve seen that people will, you know, pay anything almost and travel to deserts like Coachella and, you know, wait for something in order to have a unique experience. And not to say that in 2019 they weren’t, but I think once everyone understood post COVID that the human connection and creating those experiences needed to be top of mind and the driver, that’s definitely changed. And I think, you can see that when, you know, you look at the sphere in Las Vegas and, you know, an immersive experience versus just going to a game, you know, or going to a concert, that’s what’s changed.

Bennie

Right. It’s interesting. You know, I talk a lot with marketers on how everyone had the list of events that they did and they thought they had done well before that time period. But then we realized that you have such a higher bar now. I’ve got to leave my house. I’ve got to put on adult clothes, right? I’ve got to go into make real decisions in there. And so our events have to carry more weight now. They have to really, really have to show up.

Michael 

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, I’ve talked about this my entire career and I think it’s funny. I  even saw an article about this the other day, like it was something new. But, you know, brands get involved in events for a number of reasons. But the bottom line is there’s got to be a business connection to it. There’s got to be a business driver to it. Right. I mean, I when I had my company, I always used to say we want to make the conversation between the CFO and the CMO a polite, you know, a good one. Right? like, yes, brands have to show up in more innovative ways. you know, the, the, you know, the attention, that they’re trying to keep given everything that’s going on on a data day-to-day basis is, definitely a challenge. But if there isn’t a business driver, through these events and through these programs, they don’t last.

Bennie

Right. Is it so true. Now, when I think about the work you’re doing now, you’re really at the nexus of brand and strategy, logistics, and then staff. Talk a bit about the importance of staff in really bringing the work you do to life.

Michael

Yeah, look, I mean, when I had my agency, I would just hire staff and we certainly would want certain staff and depending on the product and all of that and the service. But if you think about it. Your staff is really the most important part of any activation because they’re the ones who are going to interact with your potential customers or existing consumers. So we call it like the consumer moment of truth, right? You can build a multimillion dollar activation and it can be you know, from a fabrication and from a look standpoint, award winning. But if that interaction with a staff person is not top, know, not, you know, not like the best experience, that’s what they remember. That’s what the customer remembers. So like, you know, our staff are there to enhance the brand and enhance the service. So I’ve really gotten much more appreciative and understand the importance of it having come to Elevate almost four years ago.

Bennie

Well, it’s interesting because when we think about it, that’s really what people are buying in to your execution. So many of these brands, they have the brand and the strategy, but they don’t have the ability to deploy it wide.

Michael

Right. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, are a lot of our, you know, 65, 70 % of our clients are agencies. So, you know, you’ve got the, you’ve got the brand who has, you know, the budget, you have the agency that they’re relying to on the strategy and the activation, know, where I’ve sat in those seats where, know, you have a budget and you’re trying to, build out activations that align with, you know, the brands, you know, purpose or what, you know, what they’re trying to do through, through a sponsorship or through you know, a marketing program. You know, the final rung of that is, you know, the human connection and staffing that is super important as it relates to like the final piece.

Bennie

And final piece in its space, Witt, have you seen much in change in the way that agencies are approaching you and the work that you do? And I know agencies are being tasked to deliver more as well.

Michael

Yeah, I think it’s, you know, what I’ve seen probably, you know, when I was an agency owner, the staffing side was more of a transactional vendor relationship versus what it is now, which is a partnership because, you know, we’re there again, you know, advocating and promoting the brand or service and, know, the agency is responsible to, you know, to the brand. So, you know, much like the CFO, CMO common, said, you know, we’re, you know, we’re tasked and our job is to make that conversation and that relationship very easy for the agency. And, for me, I’ve sat in those seats. like, I know what those conversations are when things go well, and I know what they’re like when they go, they don’t go well. And, you know, we’re, what I’ve seen is that, and what we want obviously is more of a partnership, whereas, if things don’t go well, you get another chance and you realize that you’re in it together versus they’re just shopping and there’s, just go to the next vendor. You know what I mean? That’s definitely a difference.

Bennie

Right. Right. When you think about the work that you do in staffing, you also have an organization that has a true global footprint. How does that impact the way you think about events? Whether it’s an event in the mainland US or it’s an event in the EU, and you’re bringing that human capacity to bear, how does that change your strategy?

Michael

Yeah, I think it’s really interesting from a strategy standpoint, just on the biz dev side, you work with a lot of clients and brands that have a global footprint. I mean, it’s a global economy. It has been for a while. But it’s interesting because, you know, we’re a UK based business. We have offices in Berlin, here in the US, and then we have a partner agency group across the across the world. you know, we’re, you know, we just finished working with our client at F1 in Miami. There’s a global team that travels to all the F1 races. From a strategy standpoint, it’s about what our value proposition is and how we can offer that to clients. For us, we have a lot of work with FIFA. And as everyone knows, it’s not in just one city, it’s in 16 North American cities. So we’re uniquely positioned to offer you know, kind of seamless staffing in Canada, the US and Mexico on a daily basis because we do that every day anyways. So our strategy is to, you know, is to connect with agencies that need that expertise both in the US but throughout the world.

Bennie

So take me to that moment you win the FIFA account in this huge year for this America’s FIFA space and air. What’s the first thing that goes through your mind?

Michael

Elation and then how are we going to pull this off? I think, you know, it’s just a really, really unique ask. I mean, we’re working on like nine to 11 different FIFA accounts, right? You go to the FIFA page and you see all of their sponsors, both top tier and the next rung down. We have a connection with a majority of those on programs that we’re working on.

Yeah, look, it’s creating, we created a whole FIFA team that’s here, that’s separate from our core work. I just got off a meeting with our tech team earlier to make sure we’re going across every single project and if there’s anything beyond what we already know that we need to deliver, it’s from a staffing standpoint, you can just imagine, right? Payroll during FIFA, right? Mean, normal payroll week, maybe two, 300 shifts, now, FIFA could be 20,000, right, in a week. You know, are we capable, is our infrastructure there to support it? You know, all of those things go through your head, but look, I would be remiss not to say that one of the emotions is, you know, being very proud of, you know, the work that we did in 25 and 24 to get to where we are now.

But yeah, it’s, now, FIFA will be over in July. And then the next, next thing we’ll be looking at is, you know, the Olympics in LA. So it’s a great time to be a marketer and a brand in the U S over the next, you know, two to four years. That’s for sure.

Bennie

There we go. Yeah. So is there any competition between your clients as to who can level up each time you come together? We talked about that you got some folks that you’re touching bases with at each of these major events. Are they looking across to the left and right and saying, I think X brand really outdid it this time? Michael, what can we do?

Michael 

Yeah, I mean, we don’t get too much into those conversations because we’re kind of in the staffing side of it. Certainly, I’m sure there is that. I kind of take a look at all of the periodicals and the event marketer and things of that nature and top 25 brands of what they did at Coachella, things of that nature. I’m sure.

Even when I was at agencies like Octagon, we were always looking to see what we could do to better our competition from whoever the agency was with Lowe’s. Our client was Home Depot. So yeah, there’s certainly competition when it comes to all of that and what are they doing versus what we’re doing. And certainly healthy respect for all the work that’s out there. There’s some fantastic work out there, that’s for sure.

Bennie

Right, right. So, you know, we started off our conversation like many do with a reference to AI. How do you see an impact of AI on your work directly, but this part of the field in terms of experience? Where do you see AI coming in and making a difference or being accelerated for you?

Michael 

I think presently it makes a difference in time management and being able to multitask and be able to, you know, organize certain parts of events and certain parts of programs that that it can be a help and can definitely be, you know, the nature of marketing activations, brand activations and events is that you’re juggling, you know, so many different things at the same time. Right. So I think it’s very helpful from that standpoint.

Michael 

Um, I don’t, you know, I don’t see it, um, impacting like the core, you know, connection with another human being. just, I just, you know, maybe I’m not there yet, but I just feel like from a, know, from a connection standpoint, which I’ve, which I’ve mentioned, um, you know, I think that’s always going to be there. I mean, you know, you’re going to go with your buddies if you’re a you know, a Washington Capitals fan and you know, you’re going to go to those events with your friends and, and, you know, if it’s through a sponsor or through a brand that, you know, you got tickets through, or you go to the, you know, go to the arena and have a great experience there. And, um, you know, where does AI affect that between you and your friends and that experience? I’m not sure I have the answer to that in, uh, 2026 and, but I do think there is definitely some positives that can help on kind of the back of house side as of right now.

Bennie

Definitely, in terms of that execution in the space. When you look at FIFA’s breakthrough, are there any lessons that marketers can take from thinking about staffing smaller events with the energy that you do with these big brand activations? It’s a…

Michael 

Yeah, certainly. I mean, you know, there are a number of sponsors of FIFA that obviously paid a lot of money to be partners with them. Yeah, what we’ve seen are, you know, our brands, we’ll call them challenger brands or other brands that, you know, are kind of riding some coattails on just the sport, right? You know, you know, youth soccer in the U.S. is massive, right? And so you know, we were doing a lot of staffing for agencies in the soccer space before, now, before the world cup is here and before that, think, yeah, I think there are unique ways. I mean, you know, a lot of towns, you know, I live in Atlanta and the town I live in, which is about three miles east of Atlanta is having their own watch parties. Right. And so, you know, redoing the town square and bringing in, you know, jumbotrons or whatever, and, and activating around that with local partners that aren’t FIFA sponsors, but are here. Because like any event, any program, they’re going to be here for a finite amount of time. But when they leave, the companies that are here that are local community partners will remain. Yeah, think I see there’s a lot of that. I think going around in probably all the cities that are hosting events and probably cities that aren’t. I mean, you’ve got… places to see sports, that isn’t going to change. How do you connect your brand to those opportunities?

Bennie

Right. Hmm, makes sense. When you think about brands and the work that you do, what do you wish brands thought about more when it comes to the contemporary fan experience? What are the things you wish they put more attention to?

Michael

You’re not. I mean, I think what I would say is don’t minimize or overlook the human connection, especially in today’s world. Um, it’s real easy to look at the shiny new, um, you know, marketing tool that may just be digital. Remember when, you know, digital marketing was like the end all be all, and every that’s what everyone needed to do. And I think it’s going to be a, you know, uh, an integrated plan when it comes to how you’re going to market your brand. And I’ll just keep going back because I’ve been in this industry for a long time and I believe in it. It’s probably what’s kept me in it, is that human connection. Then, excuse me, brands have a chance to create memories with people and they have to give them a reason to remember that brand.

Right. so, um, you know, that’s what I would say is, you know, and I think third, as I, as I mentioned, um, to me, there always has to be a business driver. mean, you know, I worked, I worked with Home Depot was a client of mine and I would get, um, you know, I was the gatekeeper of their sponsorships in the U S and I would get asked from, from properties, you know, major league properties and things of that nature would ask me.

Now this is a while ago, but they would ask me if they’d put a sponsorship together and it would be around, you know, there’d be a lot of signage and brand awareness and things of that nature. And I always said in a polite way, you don’t think people know who Home Depot is? know, and, you know, find me a way to help sell more lawnmowers or more Scotts turf seed or those things. Then we can have a conversation.

And sure, certainly, yeah, some signage and awareness is fine, but Coca-Cola isn’t looking for awareness, and neither is Home Depot or other big brands. So about putting an integrated package together that helps drive business, I’ve always been a proponent of that.

Bennie

So if you can, who do you think is getting it right these days? You’ve had a really great career in doing a lot of events of impact. But when you look at the marketplace today, who do you think is doing stuff that’s catching your attention? Like, OK, they really are getting this moment.

Michael

From a property side, it’s hard to ignore F1 and what they’re doing. It’s also hard to ignore, like I mentioned earlier, the Sphere. They’re really doing a great job in creating those immersive experiences. From a brand standpoint, from a B2B perspective, I really feel that folks like Bank of America, American Express just had a really nice activation for their customers at at Miami F1 this past weekend. You know, think, you know, creating those experiences for your key customers, you know, you go to arenas or stadiums where like if you own a Lexus for say you get free parking or things of that nature, I’m a big proponent of that from a loyalty standpoint. So yeah, those come top of mind just from right now, but this certainly so many great like innovative brands that are doing really good work, you know, and, you know, against their, you know, their marketing strategies.

Bennie

So one of the challenges that I know and it comes up often with tech companies is tech companies are always so technology first, systems first in the space. They often struggle with making a human connection. What advice do you have for those who listening who may be running tech brands that don’t naturally think about an in-person experience?

Michael 

Yeah, look, I live by the by the mantra that people do business with people they like and trust. So that’ll never change. You know, for tech brands, there’s probably a big education gap. And I, know, from, you know, if it’s a B2C tech brand, absolutely. You know, it’s you know, people are living longer, right? I have a friend of mine who’s got a business that caters just to like Gen X and boomers who are not as tech savvy as these other generations. So for me, I think from a tech standpoint, certainly it changes so quickly. Defining the customer from an education standpoint and from a human connection standpoint.

You know, B2B marketing, B2C marketing, B2B with the decision makers and B2C to the obviously your consumers, I still think is very relevant. And for tech companies, especially, you know, people will make decisions, know, you know, the algorithm necessarily doesn’t make purchase decisions all the time. So it’s, it’s the people and you know, they certainly have the data of where to go. That’s not, that’s not in question, knowing who their customers are and diving down into the data of where they need to be. I mean, I wouldn’t profess to be a marketing strategist for a tech company, but for me as a consumer, anything new that I’m looking at to adopt in my day-to-day life, it has to resonate with what my day-to-day life is and what those needs are.

Bennie

All right, so question, can it ever be too much?

Michael

Absolutely, Yeah, it’s only 24 hours a day and seven days a week, right? I mean, you know, mean, I, you know, I, I have a number of social channels, but you know, I be honest with you, I’m like, do I need them all? You know, from a social media standpoint, you know, I’m, I’ve got two kids, they’re both teenagers. You can imagine all the channels that they’re on and, you know, certain things are age appropriate for me as a, as a, you know, as an older marketer or older older person I guess but yeah, it definitely could be too much

Bennie

But Michael, we’re not we’re not embracing that Michael man. You’re young man. Stop it.

Michael

All right. Yeah, it certainly could be too much. you know, mean, I mean, think about just getting getting, you know, overwhelmed by the same people you see on ads all the time. Right. I mean, Kevin Hart, Peyton Manning. mean, good Lord, they’re on everything. Right. No, I love them both. Well, I’m a I’m a Patriots fan. So I like Tom Brady more than more than Peyton Manning, but I respect everything he’s done.

But yeah, it can definitely be a lot. And the attention of today’s consumers, as you know, isn’t a long one.

Bennie

And I mean, that’s one of the both challenges but beautiful benefits of this in-person conversation, right? Because you get for that moment, you get to create the true moment of truth between consumer and brand.

Michael 

Absolutely. Yeah. I you know, it’s, uh, I see it every day when I go on to event sites and I see our staff, you know, from the littlest things, you know, like telling people where to go in a conference to working with someone on the latest Samsung technology and showing them what, you know, why that is good for them. Now, I mean, think about customer service in these days, right? Like I think, you know, I live in Atlanta, right? Home of Chick-fil-A, right? And it’s the only, let’s call it quick service restaurant that I would, I typically go to. and a lot of it, yeah, the food’s fine and whatever, but a lot of it is around the service. I mean, just go through a drive-through at Chick-fil-A versus going through a drive-through somewhere else. Right. I mean, they have three or four people there. They’re smiling. They’re happy. They’re problem solving. You know, simple things like smiling and being nice go a long way.

Bennie

Well, you’re leaning into my next question. I was going to ask you, how do you as a leader, how do you get people to reinforce trust while they’re on site in brand, right?

Michael

Classic. Yeah, that’s a great question. mean, we, you know, we have a massive database and we, you know, we grade all of our brand ambassadors and our staff and we have a great team that knows to connect certain staff with certain, you know, programs. Um, but if I could, you know, if I could, you know, have the perfect answer for that, you know, I lead a big organization and you know, I’ve got an entrepreneur entrepreneurial mindset, which just kind of means like, I’m not into hearing all the time, this is the way we’ve always done it, right? I’m not there to disrupt it for the sake of disrupting, but I want people to think for themselves and be able to problem solve and be resilient, right? Those are a lot of the adjectives I come back to. To build trust, you have to not over promise and under deliver. You have to do the opposite, right? You’ve got to under promise and over deliver and that builds trust in the good times and the bad times. Even when things go wrong, that’s when you can build trust the most. you know, they’re great teachers. You know, I mean, I, you know, I’ve learned way more from my failures and my mistakes than anything else. And you just hope the person on the other side is there. And, you know, like I said before, it wants to be a true partner versus, you know, moving on to the next thing after the first mistake. You know, I know for me, we’ve had our strongest relationships when we have failed, we’ve made, we’ve owned it, we’ve accepted it, and we’ve made changes to change it. And, and, you know, that’s, that’s what I think everyone from a business standpoint wants, you know, I mean, certainly, you know, if you keep making the same mistakes over and over, then, you know, that’s pretty hard to come back from. But, yeah, I mean, building trust is takes time and it takes genuine caring, right? You gotta care about your clients and about what you’re doing. And for me, the people, right? I mean, I have to care about the people that are on site doing this work. Yes, they’re getting paid and they’re making a good hourly wage and in some cases, that’s their living. That’s how they pay their bills. And if it’s hot out, you wanna make sure that they’re okay and then you wanna make sure that you’re there for them. Because everyone has their personal lives. We talked about it before, right? I mean, you don’t know what that person went through in the morning before they got to their shift. So care and be someone who is gonna be there for them. And that eventually builds the trust that you need.

Bennie

Right. I love thinking about the work that you do in the team as that handshake extension of the brand, of the trust, because your commitment to trust is really showing up in your client’s commitment to their brand and trust.

Michael

Yeah, it’s a good way of putting it. I were an extension of the brand and of the activation, an important part. But yeah, we are the ones who are making that contact, either by a handshake, a hug, or a visual connection. yeah, it’s nice to see when it’s working really well. It’s very fulfilling.

And we get a lot of compliments and a lot of post-event stuff about how they feel. We managed and treated them on site. It’s really super important. And then of course, it’s people, right? So things aren’t always great. people, you deal with people every day and you have to be able to understand that it’s not always going to be rainbows and roses, right?

Bennie

Right. Well, Michael, my friend, I think that’s an incredible sentiment to end our conversation with today. You know, really focused on in a world in which our conversations are all dominated by AI and technology. I love that we’re having a conversation about marketing that begins and ends with people. With people in all the ways that we show up, all the ways we show out, all the ways we build trust and the work that you do to extend the brand.

Thank you, my friend. Stay safe out here for FIFA. Don’t try to see all the games. I know you want to.

Michael

Yeah, it’ll be a little hard, but no, I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about that connection and thanks for all the work AMA is doing. I really appreciate everything you guys do.

Bennie

Well, we invite everyone to follow the work Michael and his team is doing for your brands, for the brands around you and how they show up and bring our brand activations to life. Such an incredible part of the future of marketing shows up today. Michael, can’t thank you enough for being here and leading such a valuable team and part and service in our community.

Michael 

Thanks, I really appreciate it.

Bennie

And thank you all for joining us. This has been another fun-filled episode of AMA’s Marketing / And. And I’m your host, AMA CEO, Bennie F. Johnson. Thank you.