Lucie Sarif: what can American showmanship teach us about the power of entertainment?

Americans are widely known for being the ultimate entertainers. It’s the home of Hollywood, Disney, Las Vegas cabaret and Broadway.

No one puts on a show quite like the Americans.

Artists like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift not only have sellout concerts that make them millions of dollars, the accompanying documentaries that tell the story of their global tours have also become blockbuster hits.

The pinnacle event in the NFL, The Super Bowl, is watched by over 123m viewers in the US and an additional 62m globally. If the sporting finale itself wasn’t enough entertainment, the Halftime Show has become its own global spectacle. Legendary artists like Prince, Dr Dre, Madonna have all performed iconic sets during the break of the Super Bowl game.

At the Paris Olympics 2024, the US broadcaster NBC didn’t just roll out the notable multi-medalist athletes for their punditry (for which they had many to choose from), they had Snoop Dogg as their ‘special guest’ pundit, stealing the show with his comedic commentary – dominating the media coverage and content on the social entertainment platform TikTok.

It’s no wonder Americans are great entertainers. With ‘Show and Tell’ being at the heart of education, they grow up learning how to captivate audiences from a very early age. The result? Even in politics Americans deliver world-leading entertainment.

The 2024 DNC (Democratic National Convention), was not just the event that annointed Kamala Harris as the Democrat candidate for the US 2024 Presidential Election, it was a series of mini-shows across multiple days that brought joy, energy and inspiration to the Party and its voting audience.

Described by the broadcaster and former political strategist Alastair Campbell, as a ‘spectacle’, the DNC seemed to be curated like a mini-festival. The event organisers designed a line up of music performances, a ‘balloon drop spectacle’ and electrifying speeches by not only heavyweight leaders like the Obamas and the Clintons but also stars from the world of entertainment, like Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington.

The speeches by the politicians went beyond policies and political messages. They told real stories that mean something to people and are relevant in culture.

They wrote scripts, not speeches. They told stories with real human emotion. They entertained.

Following this year’s DNC, the Democratic Party received a surge in donations (of $82m), with nearly a third of those contributions sent from first-time donors; the most ever for any presidential campaign in that time span. Clearly a job well done in captivating their audience.

Harnessing the power of entertainment, means creating things people will want to spend time with and are more willing to spend their money on.

Contrary to the advertising model, you don’t pay people to watch a film at the cinema. The content is compelling enough that people queue to see movies, they buy tickets, and spend additional money on snacks to accompany their viewing experience. Sometimes they even purchase ‘movie merch’ (hello Barbie.)

Entertaining people means you’re capturing their attention and delivering an experience or story that is memorable and emotionally engaging. Entertainment moves people, it brings people together, it can spark action.

The Obamas also recognise the power of entertainment to effectively inform and inspire people around real issues, and as a result have launched their own production company, Higher Ground. By having an entertainment platform, it allows the Obamas to engage mass audiences around important issues (outside of traditional campaign messaging), such as society’s reliance on technology, which is explored in their film ‘Leave the World Behind’.

And it’s working. ‘Leave the World Behind’ received 121 million views in just over three weeks after the premiere. Their adaptation of the children’s book ‘Ada Twist, Scientist’, which reinforces Michelle Obama’s mission on empowering young girls, especially those from ethnic minorities, has won multiple awards. What better way, to bring this important societal message to life, than an inspiring and entertaining children’s TV show to win the hearts and minds of both children and their parents?! Their film ‘American Factory’, which explores the challenges of a globalised economy, won an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy; demonstrating their ability to translate another important complex topic into a story that resonates with people. All done by using the lens of entertainment.

Strangely, the world of business often sees itself operating in a completely different universe to the world of consumers. But businesses are made up of people. Whether CEO or Intern; Engineer or Designer. Businesses are solving problems for people, by people.

As Yuval Harari explains in Sapiens, companies like Peugeot only exist due to our ability to collectively imagine, and therefore businesses are inherently human. Employees work together in the factories, consumers buy into the brand, shareholders invest in the perceived value of the shares. They all rally around the collective idea of the brand/ business.

So to be successful, corporate B2B messages need to be compelling. Products and services need to demonstrate how they’re relevant to audiences. Business solutions need to solve real world problems.

Entertainment can mean serious business, not frivolity.

It simply means tailoring an idea, format or message into something your audience wants to spend time with (and share).

It means unlocking feelings. Not just of joy, but wonder, awe, shock, fear, sadness, fascination, inspiration.

It has the ability to translate technical or specialist subject matters into relatable, compelling stories.

Earlier this year, we helped Rio Tinto communicate the complex topic of Materials Science into a digestible format for their audiences to better understand. We created ‘Things you can’t live without’, an entertaining, humorous, yet informative podcast to educate people on our relationship with the material world. We used entertainment to demonstrate why the company’s operations are integral to our planet’s sustainable future and how it’s taking action to improve its processes.

The impact? It reached the top 1% of all podcasts listened to worldwide and the podcast content on social media received an Engagement Rate of over 60%.

So if you’re looking for the most effective way to engage people (whether colleagues, partners or customers), consider how you apply a lens of entertainment to ensure you deliver something truly memorable and worth talking about.

Because as the CCO & Co founder of Mischief, Greg Hahn once said ‘You don’t have the budget to be boring’.

Lucie Sarif is business director, Studio Art + Commerce.