‘Plus One’: 20s at The Guild

Consulting Project
Experiential Concept
October - December 2023

How can ‘The Guild’ be used to connect young adults through charity?

The Guild Theater, a nonprofit concert venue established in Menlo Park in 1941, was looking for ways to become a central pillar of the community known for giving back and doing good. I worked alongside three other Stanford students to design ‘Plus One: 20s at the Guild’, an event series where postgraduates can come together, be paired with a stranger, and enjoy a live show. Each event’s cover and drink fee would be donated to a different charity, and would attract a younger crowd to the space than the Guild had historically seen. This also serves as a low-barrier means for getting young people involved in philanthropy.

Skills:

Needfinding Interviews
Procreate
Video Editing
Prototyping

Needfinding

Takeaways:

Conducted 15 needfinding interviews asking South Bay residents ages 19-55 about their experience with the Guild Theater
Most young people had never heard of the Guild, and those who had said the shows felt inaccessible because they were too expensive
Young people were unlikely to go out to Guild concerts in downtown Menlo Park due to the lack of night life for young people in the area
Parents echoed that they would go to the Guild if they had someone to look after their children

“If the goal is to make the Guild a place of community do-gooding, partner with niches. Target specific populations with tickets, and make them feel special, not called out.”

- Katie Pieschala (Stanford ‘24)

Target Audience

1 Post-Graduates

Significant amount of post-graduates in Silicon Valley are working in large tech companies like Meta, Google, and Tesla
Remote workers struggle to find community when moving to a new area, mostly resort to dating apps
Many experiences in the area are catered toward parents and children, while there is a need for young community in the area

“If I didn’t have family in the area, I probably would have gone on dating apps to make friends, to be honest.”

- Phillip Tran (Stanford ‘23)

2 Parents and Children

Feels like the “safe” option, as there are a significant amount of wealthy parents in the area
Parents in the area likely have higher income and are more likely to donate to the Guild Theater

Moving Forward

We decided to focus on designing for post-graduates in their twenties because we saw more need within the area. Rather than entering a saturated field of family-based events, we felt that part of “doing good” with the Guild meant bringing in communities that wouldn’t otherwise have access to the space. In our interviews, we found a growing anxiety around college students and new post-grads around not finding friends when moving from a familiar, structured community into the working world.

Prototyping

1 How might we encourage somebody to talk to a stranger?

Went to a popular on-campus trivia night to try and incentivize teams co-mingling
Offered to draw a portrait of anybody who found a member of another team with some thing in common (i.e. star sign)
Handed out flyers to 6 trivia teams of ~5 people

Results:

Only two participants tried to meet people on other teams, and were unsuccessful in finding somebody with the commonality
“Group-think”: often, either the entire group would buy into the experiment, or the entire group would stare blankly as I explained

Takeaways:

Rigidly group-structured events like trivia may attract a large group, but makes it difficult to encourage socialization
To build community, it’s important that all people entering a space “buy-in” and want to participate for optimal output

2 Which communications channels do young adults find most compelling?

Most people in the needfinding interviews had never heard of The Guild Theater
The Guild’s primary advertising channel is their email newsletter, and we wanted to test this against other ad methods to see what the target demographic prefered
Presented post-graduates with three channel prototyped: a paper flyer, email, and Instagram ad

Results:

Young adults were more likely to find out about a local event on an Instagram ad than as a flyer or email
Generally enjoyed tear-away flyers over flay flyers, felt it was more memorable to keep a physical memento from something

Takeaways:

For a post-grad centered event, the Guild would need to expand its marketing to be more social media-heavy
If advertising on company campuses, do so using tearaway flyers so potential patrons have a physical token to remember the event by

Final Pitch

Plus One: 20s at the Guild

Come alone. Leave connected.

A monthly themed, philanthropic concert for post-graduates in their 20s to come together and form community
Profits of each “Plus One” night go to a “charity of the night”, which rotates every month
Patrons pay a $5 cover fee to get into the event, and are given a colored wristband upon entering
During a “cocktail hour” before the show starts, people are told to find somebody in the same colored wristband as them to receive a discount on their first drink
Younger people are encouraged to participate in philanthropy on a small scale, while also being welcomed into a previously exclusive space, building the Guild Theater’s reputation as a pillar of the community

Future-Facing:

Connect with dating apps like “Thursday” to sponsored certain plus-one nights and hire higher-demand performers
Form partnerships with local companies bringing in new cohorts to sponsor Plus One nights, providing a social hub for new hires