5 Questions with Pinnacle’s
On the future of experiential, the makings of a great story, and what’s in a name.
There’s never been a more exciting—or more defining—moment for experiential. Audiences are craving connection in a digital world, brands are in a constant state of recalibration, and live experiences have emerged as a core love language of modern marketing.
To make sense of it all, we sat down with Jimmy Doucette, Pinnacle’s new Chief Creative Officer. Before joining Pinnacle, Jimmy shaped creative and communications strategy at Jack Morton, Racepoint Global, and Access TCA.
His track record is defined by big swings: opening an innovation brewery for Guinness, launching a rewards program for Under Armour, rolling out Pfizer’s post-pandemic GTM strategy, and launching the latest Five Nights at Freddy’s game. He’s known for turning incisive ideas into kinetically charged experiences and infusing his work with enough subtle rebellion to make it impossible to ignore—or forget.
What brought you to Pinnacle? Why here, and why now?
As a business, Pinnacle is at a really interesting point in its growth and evolution, and that’s happening at the same time experiential is growing and evolving too.
Because when I think of Pinnacle, I think of where the industry is going. We’re not a production house masquerading as a creative agency. And we’re not a creative agency white labeling a production partner to get the job done. That alignment between creative and fab is already native to who Pinnacle is.
It creates a fun sandbox with two diametrically different disciplines and lots of kinetic energy around ‘holy smokes, what’s possible?’ and that’s super fun.
And to have the opportunity to do that with the clients and stages we work with—video game launches, tech and sports brands at the Super Bowl, F1, Tribeca, SXSW, places where cultures, communities and conversations are happening—creates a lot of opportunity for the whole team to do a lot of great work. And that’s what Pinnacle is, right? It’s all about the opportunity to pursue the next highest peak.
What do you think the next era of experiential looks like?
It’s funny—when I first started, face-to-face marketing was like a ‘ok fine, I’ll do it’ marketing tactic. Something brands had to do but didn’t actually look forward to.
But over the last five years, it’s shifted: we’re in a world of digital saturation where people are drowning in one-way content, algorithms and noise. And in that kind of world, real, sweaty, tactile, face-to-face connection is the most important thing for a brand.
We’re seeing experiential shift from being on the outside to being at the center of lots of brands’ marketing strategies. And there’s plenty of data out there—data that shows CEOs and CMOs are actively investing in experiential over other channels.
That’s because experiential has become an engine capable of amplifying everything else: What better way to launch an influencer campaign? Release bonus content? Create audience feedback loops? Kickstart a UGC campaign? When it’s done right, experiential and the moments we help create can create, support, and amplify content that makes other marketing investments really successful.
Storytelling is a word we hear a lot in our world, and you’re a storyteller through and through. What to you makes a story a great one?
If you ask most storytellers, they’ll say great characters make great stories. Great stakes. Immersive worlds. And I think all of that’s true.
But for me, what makes a great story is progress. The push forward. To end up in a different place than where you started. And sure, to do that, you do need great characters, a setting, the craft—all of it. But what a story really is, is starting in one place and ending up somewhere different. And along the way, you’re changed.
And I think that’s the greatest question in the work that we do too. How do we craft a journey where someone walks into a space with one expectation of a brand and help them walk away different: more energized, educated, and entertained?
How do you balance creativity with strategy when designing experiences for different types of clients?
Honestly? I don’t balance them. That implies they’re on two different ends of a scale. And most agencies treat strategy like it’s the homework assignment before creative. But that’s wrong. Strategy is in the game. Strategy is creative.
Strategy is the first time in a project where something is created from nothing. Strategists will analyze audiences and trends and come up with an insight—one that never existed in the world before. It’s this act of shaping data, challenges and objectives, and building out an approach to win whatever it is we’re trying to win.
If you’re waiting for the “creative phase” to get creative then you’ve already missed the boat. So for us it’s not about balancing. We’re recognizing that the highest levels of strategy require incredible imagination and the highest levels of creative require a commitment to rigor. And we find the more often we break the silos, the more often we’re able to deliver world-class work.
What priorities are guiding Pinnacle’s evolution? Where do you see the biggest opportunities for us?
For me, our priorities are rooted in our name. Hearing “Pinnacle” folks might think, “Oh, they think they’re the Pinnacle of brand experience, the best of the best.” But I’ve been taking a more kinetic, action-oriented, open-to-dynamism approach to it.
I see our name – Pinnacle – as something we are constantly chasing. We’re chasing the next great brand experience. We’re chasing the next story our audiences are dying to tell. Of course we want to be the team to put out the best activation, build the best booth, create the most effective engagement. But in an industry where “the best” is constantly being redefined, there are absolutely no laurels to rest on.
So we chase the Pinnacle and then we do it again, and again, and again. And in that sense, our name is the ambition. And it creates this ‘never satisfied’ swagger that I think is really endemic to who we are. And when we have that ‘never satisfied’ attitude, we’re operating at our best.
I want us to continue to push that: get comfortable with doing something really kickass, celebrating it for a second, and then immediately asking, “okay, what’s the next thing we can climb?” That’s Pinnacle. And that’s what our clients have to feel.