In such stiff competition, all brands are competing in the race of standing out from their fellow competitors and making their events larger than life. What helps them in achieving this goal is by integrating technology in their ventures. Technology that keeps changing every minute every second holds immense potential in amplifying an event. By integrating the most appropriate technology in your event, it can create wonders. Marketers repetitively face challenges in order to break through the clutter to create brand experiences which seek appropriate emotional and rational responses from their target consumers helping them to accomplish their objectives. When we talk about making our events better and different from our competitors, we need to think out of the box and provide our target consumers with a platter full of fancy, special and unusual dishes. Today what a potential buyer wants to invest in is something that is new, latest, and beneficial as well. Just by partnering with technology, events can become all the more engaging and welcoming. Technology is present everywhere and it can become insurmountable distraction to help brands achieving indelible experiences that can spark long term relationships. Samsung PROM audience measurement system is a great technology which if incorporated can be highly interesting and engaging. This system uses a camera along with facial recognition software to identify the gender, reaction and ethnicity to advertisements shown on the screen. Just by considering this data, this interactive system can showcase different advertisements catering to the audience standing in front of the monitor screen. This is a great technology that can be used for demonstrating products at trade shows, by displaying features and benefits of a product based on demographics and reactions of the potential audience. Another bright way of application of this technology can be at events where participants put on their web cams, giving the organizer the liberty to customize content based on the information received through the attendees on each screen. It is a great way to make an event virtually interactive and engaging. Kaon V-osk is another interactive technology that can amplify an event to a great extent. Kaon creates three dimensional high definition models of products to assist the sales and marketing department of brands in showcasing the features and benefits of their products. This virtual kiosk provides an interactive touch screen that enables users to interact with a product virtually. Salient features can be programmed into each layer of the high definition, 3D image. This is a great feature to be incorporated in tradeshows, corporate events and museums etc. It eliminates the need to ship or store products at events. It’s a game changer technology for brands, who intend to sell consumer appliances, food processing machinery, medical equipments or any other small or big equipment that needs storage capacity which can be avoided by displaying the products on this kiosk. The V-OSK presenter is a great medium to provide in-depth and engaging sessions. Also by making the solutions available on web, it helps in building great ROI. Using RFID in your events is another great opportunity. Alliance Tech’s ‘Intelligent’ series of products allow brands to comprehend attendance, manage surveys, understand demonstration visits, create leads etc. Adding more to it Alliance Tech is also exploring pre and post event behavior of consumers along with media monitoring to give a 360 degree view of audience behavior to its clients. Once brought into existence for application RFID can be a great technology to enable brands to collect real-time data that can be used to customize experiences and generate long term analytics that will lead to consistent brand performances. Last but not the least is MIT’s six sense augmented reality that combines visual and 3D environments with virtual information creating a fusion of the real world and its relevant data. Several companies have invested in creating augmented reality applications for smart phones but the most compelling example is from a wearable computer from MIT. It lets you interpret attendee, brand, speaker and product information instantly through a personal projection onto any surface. Other versions can include audio cues through headphones or displays into eye glasses. Quite an interesting and cool technology as such can add immense value to an event once ready. This shift in the way a brand hosts its events these days as compared to earlier times is largely designated to the usage of technology. Technology has beautifully amplified today’s events and simply made them larger than life.
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Gone are the days when traditional advertising techniques were used. Facebook and twitter have eaten a fair share of Billboards and print advertisements space, but in today’s scenario, QR codes are the next big thing. QR or Quick Response Codes are a type of two-dimensional barcode that can be read using smartphone and QR compatible devices, which will take the user to a website link that is embedded in the QR code. In this technology driven world, several brands are adapting constructive marketing stratagems to achieve their sales targets. The growing trend of QR usage as a part of marketing strategies has enabled brands to offer a unique experiential experience to their customers. The first being WECHAT’s 1,000 kg QR code cake, carried by Vibgyor brand services that read ” Scan Me Eat Me” at Ambience Mall, Gurgaon on this year’s Valentine’s day. Activities like paper dance, balloon dance, tongue twister and other love themed games were played to engage the audiences. Three lucky couples also got a chance to cut the QR code cake. Radio jockey Swati and Piyush of Red FM were roped in for better consumer interaction. On this well thought-out, engaging and creative campaign Ankur Kalra, CEO and Founder of Vibgyor brand services; Delhi said “We had created a gigantic QR code cake weighing more than 1,000 kg. The challenge was to arrange the thousands of cake pieces in the exact same pattern as the code so they could be scanned to download the application. If even a single slice was not placed in its designated place, the entire campaign would have collapsed.” He further added “Brands are yet to tap the full potential of QR codes as a medium. The medium seems to be limited by the hardware that supports it. Smartphones don’t come with a pre-installed QR code reader and the effort expected of a consumer- to download a special application and use it to scan a grid is not proportionate to the results.” On that thought another innovative and experiential campaign focusing on adding value to customer experience was The Buddy Stamp. Turquoise Cottage, Delhi in Alliance with Webchutney; Delhi, India initiated the campaign to enhance the clientele experience and boost sales. On entry people were stamped with a QR code instead of the traditional hand stamp. When scanned, it revealed discount deals on drinks, a list of taxi numbers for night hours and finally tips on how to recover from a heavy night. BMW and Liquid Campaign India made BMW3 Series prototypes with newsprint of QR codes on its bodywork across India. This experiential OOH campaign made use of QR codes to directly connect people to the central campaign platform: www.ultimat3.in. On the website the teaser video of historical moments of the 5 generations of the brands was available. Glimpses of the car, on-ground, camouflaged with QR codes was also available, building anticipation. Focused on building connection with the potential customer, several companies have joined the bar code trend. Shoppers Stop used a QR Code to push discounts to consumers. The bar when scanned, takes you to a mobile website with all their latest items carrying discounts. You could either buy the product or share it on social media platform. ‘Guess whose Flavour’ initiated by PepsiCo inc. for its product Lay’s, during the Indian Premier League, where you scan the QR code on the back of the Lays pack and fill up an entry form and then match and guess the cricketers with the flavours; who co-created them. 10 lucky winners won a trip to the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 and a luxurious hotel stay.
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Wills India Fashion Week in collaboration with Fashion Design Council of India came to a close successfully in the capital on Sunday. Wills Lifestyle, the premium fashion & lifestyle brand from ITC continues to be at the forefront of digital innovations at the recently concluded Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week SS’15.This edition not only showcased some inspirational runway glamour but also displayed the inevitable marriage of fashion with technology through multichannel innovations. In its 24th edition, 124 designers exhibited their creations on the runway and through stalls. While Péro by Aneeth Arora kicked off the fashion week with a signature romantic collection, Love on Foliage and ace designer Rohit Bal took hold of the grand finale with Qutub Minar as his backdrop, on the last day of the fashion event. Wills Fashion week this year brought to light a mix of fashion, glamour and splendor through the designer wear of the country’s ace designers. The real time activations have not only taken the fashion community by storm but also created waves with the showcasing of the drone, 360 degree selfie booth and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) installation. Celebrities Neha Dhupia, Sania Mirza & Gaurav Kapur were seen enthusiastically posing for selfies and updating their status’ by cheering for their favourite designers at the #WillsFashionTag booth. These three real time activations created massive buzz amongst the guests at the event. Taglabs, the agency behind the installation of these crowd engaging activities received over 1000 guests to experience the activation per day. Explaining the above mentioned activations in detail and taking technology and innovation to the next level WIFW debuts the #willsfashiondrone – Wills Lifestyle Drones that were fitted with GoPro cameras and took panoramic view of the event. All 5 days of the Fashion Week, witnessed the Drone flying over the venue, capturing the best moments of the Fashion Week on a live feed. Not only this, the Drone became a medium to engage the audience by picking out people who were (best dressed, best smile, or who look like having a great time) and dropped a gift voucher for them. Another great social- technical installation was the RFID. Through RFIDs, people at the venue were able to share stories of their WIFW experience with their friends on social networking sites. They clicked selfies, told their friends about what they’re up to and what their mood is. They were also enabled to browse through the designer’s collections and share their favorite picks with their FB/Twitter friends. In a noble initiative for every Wills Fashion Tag that gets activated at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, Rupees 5 was contributed to the weaver’s society of India. Last but not the least was the 360 degree selfie booth. One of its kind activations at a fashion event to take place this booth captured moments from every angle. The selfie booth had a mechanical arm fitted with a Go Pro camera which rotated and captured a 360 degree video. Users could then share the video on their FB/Twitter handles. Apart from the activations another startup in the digital domain was the FDCI WIFW App powered by Sent.ly. This App enabled the viewers to connect and communicate with the designers by simply downloading it on their smart phones. This made it simpler and easier for the guests to chat and get their queries anwered by their favourite designers. Commenting on the success of the event, Mr. Sunil Sethi, President FDCI said “The trade event generated lucrative business opportunities for both greenhorns and illustrious designers. The event managed to strengthen the business of fashion in this country. This year too WIFW received a large turnout of designers and buyers from all over the world. WIFW continues to be a trend setter for forecasting fashion for the next season.” Wills Lifestyle being the Title sponsor along with Fiama Di Wills, the associate sponsor and Myntra.com, the platinum partner had also set up their lounges at the event. Other sponsors to name were Shree Raj Mahal Jewellers, Zoom, Radio One, Elle, Carlsberg etc. The activation kiosks were immensely crowded mostly during the break between the shows. In this age where digital has married experiential, such installations gather immense footfall. Everybody wants to share their encounters with others and these real time activations raised the ante and left the guests with an unforgettable experience. With such technological activations and massive footfall witnessing the ace designer collections at the Wills India Fashion Week, this year the event became a huge hit and set its standards even higher.
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The Kingfisher Premium Great Indian Octoberfest (TGIOF) in its 10th year gears up for a Tech-tonic dose of fun. Beer and music are the staples of the TGIOF but hi-tech is another arena where visitors to the festival will be completely wowed. For the first time Drones will be doling out beer. That’s right –beer cans dropping from the sky! In specially designated areas of the festival, remotely controlled flying devices will hover in the air and drop cans of beer at the command of the Beer Control Centre. So when you tell your friends that it was raining beer, it would be totally true and not just the beer talking. For the first time ever Octoberfest will witness the much talked about Oculus Rift in action at KFBeerCoaster. Visitors get to sit on motion chairs in a virtual reality booth. The visitors are taken for a roller coaster ride in a virtual reality environment. As the visitors go through the thrilling experience, pulse meters capping their fingers keep track of their pulse rate. This pulse meter sends a signal to a beer dispenser attached to the motion chairs. The Headbang Arena, a big hit from last year, is back! This time it is only bigger and better. It is now in a competitive 2-player face-off format. Two visitors, competing against each other, are strapped with the sensors which record their headbanging. The count is displayed LIVE on screens as the audience cheers. A bulb representing the competitor with the highest score lights up and the beer dispenser will dole out beer. The old-time fairground photo booth just got a makeover. It is now a ‘dynamic moving images booth’. These booths are installed across the venue and visitors can capture their static photographs which will then be converted into dynamic moving images. Once they have captured their photographs at the booth, it will automatically be uploaded on social media and tagged. So don’t waste time taking selfies, Kingfisher will do it for you. Kingfisher’s team have been working tirelessly to ensure that fans are able to experience the festival in every form – and share their experiences in real time. A crew of photographers will take photographs required for Instagram in specific formats. At the end of the festival, the photos are stitchedtogether to make an Instagram film. Tapping into the popularity of shorter format of videos, Kingfisher has tied up with a film production crew that will be capturing 6 second capsules of The Great Indian OctoberFest and will be uploading it as Vine Videos for online audiences over the three days of the festival. The 2014 TKGIOF recap movie will be released on social platforms showcasing the mood of the Octoberfest.
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[caption id="attachment_2103" align="alignnone" width="300"] A beautiful woman holding shopping bags in the mall[/caption] Experiential marketing that also goes by the name, engagement marketing is a form of marketing that lets potential consumers experience a brand personally. The engagement takes place through one of many human senses like emotions, smell, etc. Although most experiential activities take place outdoors at malls, stores and public places, many brands have taken it online with the rise of social media users across the globe. As the internet adoption by users globally grows at a lightening speed, especially in developing countries like India where it is expected to reach a whopping 500 million by 2018, as per some forecasts. More and more retailers and brands have taken the online route to sell their products, by introducing apps and websites. They primarily target smartphone users who are increasingly becoming internet savvy, as many of them do their shopping from their phones – call it a natural evolution. In fact, even Google has taken note of the fact that by year end, 50% of internet users will access it from their mobile devices. As our lives get increasingly busier in the the cost-cutting era, when it comes to shopping, we tend to channel our limited time shopping online. The convenience it offers is incomparable with the ability to place an order with few button presses, 24/7. We do our own research online or we tend to ask our friends for recommendations, rather than depending on advertisements entirely. We also go to review sites. But, there is a shift where consumers increasingly want to know what the product actually feels like when used, how it fares and what are its strengths and weaknesses. Even retailers benefit from putting their products online, they get to reach out to wider audience base and tap into the benefits of email marketing through discounts and sales. Does that mean the retail stores will soon be dead? Absolutely not, as long as we remain social animals, we would always want to interact, feel and experience products we use through experiential engagements. It is just that retail stores need to evolve with time and offer products through experiential channel. The craving for experiences such as touch, feel and smell will always influence our decision making. We would want to know the product better, how it relates to us and our needs, the story around the product etc. As online purchasing becomes more and more common, the retail stores need to get more creative in order to make customer interaction and purchasing, more experiential – than simply doing transactions. The stores need to make their space more social where potential buyers can come and experience the brand come to life. To cite an example, some of the Apple stores do not have a fixed cash counters, instead sales representatives roam around helping out people and when they buy, they can do so with an interactive bar or self checkout, making them feel more empowered that they hold the power from experiencing the product till buying it, just the way a buyer feels while doing online purchase. This is just one creative way to make a store interactive and engaging. The takeaway that experiential marketing brings is the surety that a consumer knows the value that the brand or a product will add, which brands are increasingly realizing. One such example to cite in India would be the Ford EcoSport Urban Discoveries campaign, where a brand directly got involved to make one of its products launch experiential. The people who took part in the campaign shared their likes, dislikes and everything else about the car while they actually traveled in it and experienced it. The users not only got a chance to participate in the campaign but to see, read and hear what common people like them thought of the product. This created a lot of excitement and buzz around the launch period. Even though product information such as reviews, specs etc. could have been made available online, getting first hand experience and opinions of those involved in the campaign adds value and personal connect with the product and the brand. As the phrase goes ‘survival of the fittest’, brands may not need to flex their muscular strength to keep up with the evolution in marketing, but their creative prowess.
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“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” – Steve Jobs. Famous quotes like this one leave a lasting impression on our mind. The reason why such contents strike us hard is because we somewhere, somehow relate to what the content conveys and expresses. An experiential campaign is no different, it aims to create an experience and connect with its target consumers who get some takeaway from it. If the campaign achieves its intended goal to create a brand or product experience with consumers, which they can relate to or that which evokes positive emotions. It is very likely that the brand recall will be more often and consumers will go through positive emotions associating with the brand or its product. If we simply study our lives, we constantly go through events that primarily dominate how we think, feel, do, interact with etc. These events consists of moments, memories and experiences. Most of our engagements happen over the TV with films, serials and textual contents like newspapers, books etc. And then there are some contents from one of these forms, which will stand out and we tend to remember them longer. These longstanding contents leave a mark on us and are very powerful. These days, if we talk about content, the first thing that comes to any marketer’s mind is social media. And, the most outrageously overused expression in the social media domain with respect to content is – ‘Content is King’. A king may be really worthy of praise and valour, but that may only as good as a regional folklore if the word about him doesn’t even get beyond his kingdom. Similarly, experiential marketing may create positive connect with selective audiences at a mall or an event, but the number of people getting impacted directly, first hand with the engagement is not even a fraction compared to the population of a city. It is the social media that propagates and propound such experiential engagements to millions of users who are sitting online and consuming digital data every minute. An experiential activity may be limited geographically, demographically but through social media, it can be brought to huge number of people at once, which helps in advertising and promoting the effort, which in turn can lead many to the brand that is doing the marketing activity. Social media may not alone bring the entire gamut of experiential element to a brand’s campaign but it certainly acts as an amplifier as well as a supporting experiential add on. Although there have been online engagement activities that have been conducted entirely using social media, but it is the content that always makes it interesting, creating an instant connect with the users. So, can good content alone fill for a mediocre on-ground experiential activity? No, it will not. A great experiential activity that evokes positive emotions will encourage people to happily contribute online on its own. Such initiatives will create enough buzz that they would want to generate great content for an upcoming event as well as after the event. Either ways, content is created that cuts through the complex web of information out there online and when personally shared by users with their friends, they tend to get more notices. So all in all, it is important for brands to not just run and complete a great campaign offline, but create enough excitement around it online using good content, which has the power to cause a chain reaction where consumers go on creating content for the brand on their own while engaging and sharing about the campaign, which they just experienced or are anticipating for. The experiential marketing initiatives and great content will always go hand in hand.
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Experiential marketing is the new standard of customer engagement for brands globally. Giants like Coca Cola, Pepsico, Nike have led the experiential space in terms of creativity and the ability to connect with consumers. They have put great emphasis on reaching out to their target consumers by providing experiences and engagement than the usual methods of simply printing traditional print ads, TVCs and OOH displays. In the digital world, social media has taken the precedence where the world is interconnected like never before. Information about an experience with a product or brand can spread faster than the fastest locomotive on earth. So, it has become really vital for brands to connect with consumers and shape their views on how they see the brand. In the earlier days, word of mouth was a way to get more customers buying, but that was slow and took time. Today, internet media can stir a conversation in a matter of minutes globally. This is why brands constantly come up with experiential activities around festivals and different occasions to create a positive feeling among consumers, who then share their experiences further through social media; a modern word of mouth form, by people who experience the activity in the first place. As much social media can act as a catalyst to make successful products, activities or brand message go viral, it can equally destroy a brand and its connect instantly if things go otherwise. So it is vital for brands to know few important things before they tread the experiential space. 1. Knowing the Audience A lot of experiential activities may not have got the desired result because they did an activity based on its popularity, without thinking how that would connect their brand with the audience. For an experiential activity, the marketer must think through what experience that activity will give to consumers and how that would relate to the brand. A little fun and quirky can make a campaign interesting but if gone too far, it may even as obnoxious to consumers. Knowing the sentiments of local population is important. What may be seen as cool in the west may be seen as intrusive in Asia. An activity must be sensitized as per the region it intents to target. Most important, it is the anticipation of what type of customers would interact with, how they would interact with and what connect they will get with the brand or a product must be taken into consideration. 2. Picking the Right Venue As much as it is important to know the audience, it is important to choose the right venue. A luxury car maker’s experiential activity may have zero impact in a festival like ‘Kumbh’ in India that is usually visited by the lower strata of income group. An activity that involves something to do with open theatre performance with high-power speakers may not achieve its intended goals on a rainy day. So, it is important to know what kind of audience will arrive at an event, where would they be spending most of their time at, what would be the likely environment at an event. In short, first, select the type of people you want to target for your brand or product, know the venue that receives most of your target group, know the time when a certain festival or an occasion brings targeted group under one roof and know the environment at the venue on a given date. 3. Give definitive Identity to your Brand With all the melee of choosing the venue, preparing for the campaign, budget etc., one may lose the core objective of the brand and the message that the brand wants to convey. One should always keep the message and engagement goal on top of the priority so customers feel connect instantly with the brand than just have an experience that they forget next morning. 4. Expand your Reach Experiential marketing outdoor is always limited to a small demographic but it is social media and various others forms of media that takes it beyond to many. An outdoor campaign supported by social media is always a good way of getting maximum reach out of a campaign. It also allows a brand to create an ongoing conversation that stretches before an activity to beyond it. Eventually, it is the conversation that creates most impact for any brand. 5. Stretch the Conversation An experiential campaign isn’t just about a phase or a cycle of activity. Like mentioned before, it should be an ongoing engagement and conversation. A brand can integrate aspects like instant consumer feedback so it gives a sense to people that it listens to them individually. It also nurtures accountability. A positive conversation works wonders for word-of-mouth marketing. It provides engagement that people would take it with them to their friends and family. Brands can also personalize their message and make it more human, which again will make consumers want to converse with the brand. Being social animals that we are, brands should make their experiential activity long term than a 7 day sale.
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Though mastering, as a discipline still hasn’t caught up with the Indian audio and sound industry, the awareness levels have surely skyrocketed. Thanks to numerous institutions and well-heeled producers, composers, today we have tracks and albums mastered with great audio quality, leading to an excellent aural experience. Taking forward this very standpoint, Mastering World, a UK based online mastering network, has launched Audio-Pro, a new business website for sound engineers. Audio-Pro is a new online website for sound engineers which comes equipped with a custom website builder, social media integration, file transfer tools, invoicing, online payments, news and blogging tools and lots of other neat things. Audio-Pro lets freelance music professionals run their whole business from one website on any device, freeing up their time to make more music. Mastering World has further partnered with the Indian webstore Sudeep Audio for allowing easy access and response time for Audio-Pro. The partnership is aimed at a better reach and easy processing for the Indian customer base. This will help amplify Mastering World’s reach and add on to their current set of offerings. Audio-Pro’s founder, Donal Whelan has worked in the music industry for over two decades, starting out in London before freelancing and opening his own studio ten years ago. One can be assured that the online tools that are a part of Audio-Pro have been perfected by years of running studio business and collaborating with clients online by Whelan and the folks at Mastering World. The official launch at The Taj, Colaba on the 29th of October was hosted in conjunction with the reception of the First Minister of Whales, who also introduced the first look of Audio-Pro. Singer-Composer Kailash Kher, Vijay Benegal of OdBle, Ashish Manchanda of Flying Carpet Productions, Ashish Saksena of Purple Haze Studios, Composer Gulraj Singh, etc were present, extending their support to this new venture. The launch party at Indian Education Society, Bandra Reclamation on the 1st of November saw the presence of some of the top honchos of the industry including Composer Lesle Lewis, Music producer Tarun Shahani, Singer Vasuda Sharma, Atul Churamani, MD, Turnkey Music & Publishing, etc. The launch started off with a traditional lamp lighting ceremony and then was inaugurated by Kersi Lord, veteran music arranger. On the occasion of the launch, Whelan says, “We have a good core client base in Mumbai but we would like to reach further afield and find new clients – that is the vision with which we have launched Audio-Pro. Our long-standing association with Sudeep Audio is to ensure that our delivery and services are offered in the best manner possible.” You can have a trial of Audio-Pro by visiting https://audio-pro.com/
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Most marketers would agree that satisfying their potential consumers have become a tougher quest than ever. Digital and live events, when appropriately executed, can help lessen the battle and provide the most sceptical attendees an experience that sticks to their mind once and for all. It’s all the more lasting when that experience includes a taste of some of the newest technologies on the block. Some technologies if prudently incorporated can result in immense customer engagement and cutting-edge tracking and measurement. EE lists out some technologies that that are poised to shape the future of events and experiences. As our digital lives become more and more intertwined with our lives in the real world,technology has gained the potential of changing the face of events in times to come. May it be gesture recognition technology that allows users to manipulate an experience by waving their fingers or hands, or even their whole bodies, in front of a screen or virtual reality or display technology that begins from standard plasma screens to LCD panels and LED walls to laser phosphor displays, advancement in technology has no limits. Speaking to one of the experts in the field of sound, here’s what Warren D’Souza, Founder & MD, Sound.comhas to say. Certain technologies that can change the face of live experiences in the coming future in the sound-events domain are: Console technology will bring a lot of powerful features that were restricted to only expensive consoles now available in affordable models (not necessary the audio quality). Digital consoles usage in India is growing by the very minute and analog consoles will be obsolete in a few years from now even in satellite cities. There is continual improvement in features, speed and capabilities of the digital consoles. Digital audio transport technology will be much easily available and people will willingly accept it in time to come. The current trend is the ability to send multichannel audio over fiber optics over very long distances as well as the ability to provide redundancy. There is also a growing use of digital audio being transported on regular CAT6 cables, this too is multichannel and since this cable is easily available it is being regularly adopted by many manufacturers. Loudspeaker rigging and flying technology is going through a huge change in features, accuracy & safety standards. The first thing I see is that the rigging is nowadays designed to work very easily in the field and is integrated with the loudspeaker systems software to be able to give high degree of predictable coverage over large distances in stadiums and even to the smallest auditoriums. The rigging is also designed to be captive so the aesthetic look of the speaker is not destroyed. Plug-Ins and Recording technology for live sound will keep getting better with each passing day. Earlier the hardware required to do live recordings were big, bulky and cumbersome to carry around, moreover they were unreliable most of the time. Nowadays every console manufacturer provides protocols for recording straight of their console and recording interfaces have compressed into very small sizes to become portable for travelling. However the biggest change I would like to see in India is the quality of the ‘Human Application Engineering’ of all these technology products. Humans need to pace up with the technology trends and evolve as quickly as the products are being developed. Commenting on the progress in use of technology in events & activation, Atul S Nath, Managing Director, Candid Marketing says, “Progress in technology and digital have brought astonishing changes in the last one decade. The evolution in technology has opened a range of avenues for the Event & Activation industry. Technology allows brands to arrest the attention of the consumers and interact and engage with them. And that is at the core of any experiential marketing campaign – engagement. Merging technology and on ground activation / events helps enhance the experience as well as boost consumer experience. Unfortunately, some agencies and brands are using technology for the sake of it rather than integrating it into the experience. Certain technologies that can enhance events are Interactive floors which is a new age interactive medium that easily turn floor spaces or unnoticed areas into an ongoing experience of movement, action, fun & excitement, stopping people in their tracks as they play , walk by and interact, thereby making the experience engaging. Also, interactive floors are attractive & eye-catching adding to the fervour of the campaign. We have been using it for Hindustan Unilever Limited events time and again. Another great technology that was used at Candid was 6 Axis IMU; Sensor based technology integrated with Kinect-based game development. The sensor based technology enabled a strong underlining of the features of the jeans thus enhancing the consumer experience. Another basic technology that has continued to beautify events and will do in times ahead is Croma screens which are being massively used for launch events these days. We have recently used Croma screen for Godrej No. 1 launch event to enhance the overall experience. LED screens will be taking over the hoardings markets very soon. Soon will come a time when there shall be only digital hoardings around. Also in the event space we see a rise in Mobile & digital Signage technologies and they being extremely pervasive. I believe these technologies will play a prominent in providing a 360 degree event experience, as they will facilitate marketers to connect with the prospects & share information in real-time.”
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Samsung is committed to develop new products and solutions that will help persons with disabilities access the benefits of the latest technologies, said Mr. Jinuk Shin, Vice President and Head of Corporate Citizenship Group, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Speaking at the international conference on “Role of ICTs (Information and Communications Technologies) for Persons with Disabilities” jointly organized by UNESCO and the Government of India, he elaborated how Samsung is extending its corporate social responsibility to its business and products. Samsung is an industry partner to the conference, which brings together experts in issues of accessibility for persons with disabilities from across the world. Speaking about Samsung’s focus on innovation, Mr. Shin cited the example of ‘Eye-can’, a Samsung solution which is an eye-controlled mouse that can be used by people affected by motor neuron diseases to control movements or enter text by blinking to an on-screen keyboard. Mr. Shin also discussed other Samsung solutions that improve ease of use for the elderly or the visually impaired, such as applications that read out what is on a smartphone or tablet screen, and hidden edge interfaces, where menus pop up easily by pressing the screen in any corner of a smartphone or tablet. “Samsung is working to develop products that ensure everyone can access the benefits of advanced information and communications technology,” said Mr. Shin. “We believe that everyone should be able to use technology to access the varied experiences it offers, and for the self-sufficiency that it can provide them. We are continuously innovating to make these technologies affordable for all.” Samsung also displayed at the conference exhibition some of its products and solutions developed to increase accessibility. The Galaxy Core Advance devices have several sensory enhancing accessories to improve accessibility for hearing or visually impaired people, such as an ultrasonic cover that detects obstacles up to two metres away or an optical scan stand that ‘converts’ printed material into text that users can listen to. In addition to improving accessibility for persons with disabilities through research and innovation, Samsung also supports their rights to lead a life of equality and dignity, and their ability to inspire. Samsung has been supporting the Paralympics since 2006. Samsung has, over the years, leveraged its legacy of innovation to open newer possibilities for people. Through its corporate citizenship platform, Samsung places significant focus on improving education, employment and healthcare for people across the world. In India, Samsung focuses on providing underprivileged children a chance at quality education and in helping bridge the digital gap. This is done through Samsung Smart class, set up in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas across the length and breadth of the country. The Smart Classes are equipped with an interactive Samsung whiteboard, Samsung laptops for the students, a printer, wi-fi and a power backup to ensure continuous learning. Samsung has also collaborated with Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and state Departments of Technical Education to set up technical schools where youth from underprivileged communities can gain vocational skills that will equip them to seek job opportunities in the growing consumer electronics manufacturing and service sector
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