Cirque du Soleil sails on Blue Oceans, described Mario D’Amico at last weeks CMA’s Advertising and Marketing Forum. A Blue Ocean is a marketing term described as a market in which demand is created by ‘changing the rules’, so to speak, of the product or service horizon, so you operate in a sea with no competitors.
Mario described Cirque’s life as a seafaring vessel sailing in a blue ocean, with a keel built from imagination. He discussed how Cirque could be viewed through three lenses, the latter being the most relevant to the lunchtime community;
- As an artistic organization
- As an organization which connects with its audiences, or
- As as business operation, wherein over 120,000 people will see a cirque production on any given weekend.
As a business, Mario described that Cirque’s success is based on the fact that marketing is not part of the creative process of production, but merely part of the overall business management. The truly artistic operation, says Mario, wholeheartedly believes that by
Injecting quality at the molecular level will return itself 10-fold at the molar level.
This quote is what audience members and non-attendees should take to heart, and exploring and implementing this thought in their own work environments. Success is built on strong foundation and ideation – as the day’s speakers constantly reaffirmed. A well-planted field, fertilized and watered regularly, yields high-return crops. Growing talent and ideas organically within an organization – a feat Mario described as being paramount to Cirque’s success – is paramount to them. He described how “taking risks and failing is part of the regeneration process of creativity”, and should be embraced. If audience members were not captivated by his presentation, then surely his enthralling introduction video for Cirque did!