A few weeks after her wedding, international pop sensation Katy Perry was heard quoting, “The press is just not your friend when it comes to a marriage, that’s why we didn’t sell the pictures of our wedding, and we got offered millions of dollars for them, millions!”. Well, our wedding photos may not excite the paparazzi as much, but we do have something common to Katy-Russell- The grandeur of an Indian wedding. And who does a popular celebrity couple first approach to plan out their most magical day- someone who knows weddings like the back of his hand. Hence, Chetan Vohra of Wedding Line came as a strong contender in this category. Interestingly though Vohra declined the offer due to differences over moral principles. And the wedding did not even last a year. But that’s another story. Former Executive Vice-President at Wizcraft, a premier event management firm, Chetan Vohra left his job to start a venture of his own in the year 2009. His company Line Communication has come a long way since then. In conversation, he lets us in on his business sensibilities, his vision of success and the inside scoop from the industry. You were with Wizcraft at a pretty senior position. You were obviously earning big bucks and doing world-class events. What was it that you set out to achieve by forming Line Communications? Firstly I’d like to clarify, when you’re working for someone else there is almost always a limitation on how big the buck gets. So, yes the number one reason I ventured out was because I wanted to be the highest beneficiary of my hard work. I joined Wizcraft at a fairly young age, I had big dreams and ambitions and was fortunate that the roles and responsibilities I was given allowed me to learn a lot about the events industry. I moved my way from the bottom up and whilst in the executive board I soon realised I had pretty much seen it all. It couldn’t get any bigger or better. Also as an individual I wanted to challenge myself because I could see myself getting too comfortable. Fortunately, I had age on my side so I decided to move out, wipe the slate clean and challenge myself to create what I had envisioned. You started out four years back. What has been a pivotal factor in helping you gain popularity? How did you market yourself as a new brand people should have faith in? I took comfort and inspiration from the success stories of people who left large organizations to start something of their own. I had the experience and the exposure but the time I decided to start out the market was in a particularly bad state. Therefore, it was decided that as an organization we are not going to chase numbers. We decided to position ourselves as a brand that could not be categorized as a ‘ME TOO’. So we marketed ourselves as a communications business as opposed to simply an event planning firm, and immediately we came into picture as competition to the larger sharks in the market. It wasn’t only about light, sound, decor and stage. We wanted it to be about the ‘touch and feel’ of our brand. Our idea was to go into the market and say ‘we understand what you want, we’ll tell you how to do it more cost-effectively, in a more fun way, and somewhere down the line lets try and innovate’. We landed our first contract from Fiat with the launch of the Punto. How much of your events business is ‘corporate’ and how much of it is ‘social/weddings’? When we started off, we pitched ourselves for fifty percent corporate and the other half for weddings. But over a period of time we have come seventy percent in favour of weddings. I love the corporate side of it since I am from that trade but the drawback with it is that the company has fixed budgets and there would be fifty approvals to take before a cost is finalized. Weddings, on the other hand, seldom work on a fixed budget. You negotiate budgets on a one-on-one basis and, frankly, there are no limitations on the spend. So, well lets just say that once you’ve tasted blood theres no going back. That being said, with weddings there is a business side to it and also an emotional side. And between me and my partner, Arpita, we have tried to strike a balance between the two. What are the marketing strategies that have worked for you? I am not a big protagonist of advertisements. I think our most effective marketing strategy has been word-of-mouth. In the experiences space it is usually others experiences that define the credibility of an events organizer. Social media has also spread our name across the spectrum to quite an extent. You claim to conceptualize tailor-made intellectual properties for your clients. But sometimes when you start something new there are big chances of it going bust. What has been your experience? The easiest thing to do is to follow someone else’s shoes. There have been some great guys who’ve come up with extremely interesting off beat ideas. For example, one might say that he’d like to do a music festival and puts in a lot of effort to conceptualize and execute. But someone from the outside may think that ‘hey, this is so simple I like music and I can do it too’. So if it has previously been done at a beach, he would now do it on a mountain or someplace. But it is this ‘Me too’ syndrome that leads to the disaster that usually comes from it. Besides, planning, hard work and execution there is also the investment. In fact, every IP today requires years and years of ploughing of funds. Then there is also the boredom factor to look into. As the competition increases the novelty slowly begins to wear off. So there may be several fantastic ideas but you need to to dwell upon them and ensure they are feasible in the long run. The other thing we’ve noticed over the years is that the target audience is being underestimated. People are now traveling abroad extensively. They are increasingly being exposed to new and innovative stuff so they don’t want to settle for anything substandard. Therefore, besides having a good idea you should also be able to deliver it to the expectations around it. How critical is ‘thinking’ in the business of weddings? I feel ‘thinking’ is important in every business. In our case, weddings have a very high level of personal involvement. You have a person who is possibly ready to spend his life’s savings on just one day. This fact leaves little room for error. So you are forever working with this thought at the back of your mind. Also, each family member will have their own individual inputs to give and you are supposed to carve an event around that and deliver it successfully. What do you have to say about the integration of technology at events? I think in the events business when you talk about innovation people have a general tendency to follow trends. A couple of years back the in-thing was to go green and today all the talk is about Technology. Technology is great, but there is positive technology and there is negative technology. For example, in lighting, everything has become LED today, in sound, the crude speaker technology has been replaced by relatively sleeker versions of sound systems. But a lot of times people market technology saying its expensive and needs to be imported, so essentially the west has found a big market in India for suckers. We should try and use technology that is sensible and not prohibitive. While we can make great use of technology, it is often used for the purpose of ‘show’ and I think thats just plain silly. How do you measure ROI? It is important for me to know that what I have delivered to my client has translated into more than just a sumptuous meal. It is that 5 hours of captivity of the client that we are trying address. I measure ROI with the feedback I get, the compliments, complaints, the email of gratitude post the event. The events industry strives on a dependency factor. We aim to be the trouble shooters. If someone is in a crisis or wants to avoid a crisis at his show then he should come seeking us. The wedding business is people driven and for someone who has put in a lifetime’s savings into his child’s wedding he should be given his money’s worth. At the end of the day its value at every step that matters. The brand name will follow. I know that if I’ve been in the business 25 years, I will be a known name. But I want to have value associated with my name. We don’t bribe. We also have a very high attrition rate. The reason being that we have an ideology and a strong set of principles and it is imperative for those who work for us to have the same vision and ethics. What has worked for you? Line communications as a company is very strong in its consultancy approach. We have played on our corporate communications skill to position ourselves as an in-house talent to conceptualize an idea and deliver it to you. We let our clients know that we want their phonebook and not their wallet. And yes we do charge them a fee but that fee is for our time and service but no fluff. Every individual for us is the same. It doesn’t matter if hes rich or poor. If hes called you hes probably heard about you from somewhere and it is our responsibility to deliver to his expectations. We try to make our fee flexible. We say ‘you tell us how much you want to spend and we’ll make you spend it well. After all, if you don’t want to buy a Mercedes, you don’t ‘have to’ buy a Mercedes. You can buy yourself a Toyota and be as happy’.
Read More
WeChat the ‘All-in-One’ social communication application launched ‘WeChat Games with version 5.1 release’ and ‘AskMe Official Account on WeChat’. The event was managed and executed by events and activations agency – Vibgyor Brand Services. ‘WeChat Games’ allows users to discover new games, share scores, post their achievements and compete with their fellow WeChatters. There are 4 games which have been rolled out – ‘GunZ Dash’, ‘2Day’s Match’, ‘Craz3 Match’ & ‘Pencil Pilot’. Users can discover the games on WeChat or download them on their smartphones separately from the respective platform App stores. WeChat users can play the games, share their scores, post their achievements & invite their friends to join the excitement. The games are also enabled with location based services, by which the users can challenge their nearby friends and other users on WeChat. WeChat also announced a partnership with AskMe with the launch of ‘Official Account – AskMeSearch’ on WeChat. As a part of this tightly knitted experience, WeChat users will be able to access online information on SMEs across local search, deals and classifieds through their WeChat application. AskMe from GetitInfomedia is a local search engine available across mobile, voice and web. People can post their classifieds through voice apart from web and mobile and these ads will now be available to WeChat users in India. AskMe will also provide information on the trending restaurants, deals of the day. It will also feature classifieds on vehicles, mobile, property and jobs. For the first time SME/Merchants would also be able to reach out to their audience on WeChat. The event saw thepresence of NilayArora, Vice-President, Marketing & Business Development, 10c India; Himanshu Gupta, Senior Marketing Manager, 10c India; Jack Lau, Business Operation & Global Alliance Head of WeChat at Tencent, JaspreetBindra, CEO, GetitInfomedia and popular Indian columnist, VirSanghvi.
Read More
Brandscope India, an outdoor arm of Posterscope Group, performed a digitally led interactive campaign to bring alive the soul of new music based travel show ‘SoundTrek’ launched by Fox Traveller, a travel & lifestyle channel. The campaign was undertaken in an ambient location of malls in Mumbai and Delhi making optimum use of technology for capturing the target audience. This activity was supported by flash mobs, where groups of youngsters composed fun loving music by dancing over the virtual keys of a piano in a mall. Haresh Nayak, Managing Director, Posterscope Group, commented, “The changing out of home landscape calls for innovative ways of connecting with the consumer. As an agency that is at the forefront of innovation and technology, we are glad to be associated with clients like Fox Traveller who understand and are willing to use technology in the OOH space to connect with consumers digitally.” Debarpita Banerjee, VP – Marketing, Fox International Channels, said, “With the increasing clutter in media and communication, there is also a rise in innovative ways of reaching out to one’s desired TG. Our show promises to be a visual and melodious treat for music and travel buffs alike. It is this value proposition that we thought of bringing alive through the activation and flash mob. Instead of simple information dissemination, such initiatives compel involvement from the TG, and make for a more memorable message.” The activation works on augmented reality, wherein the patron walks over the defined area making music on the floor with the flow of the footsteps. This created a lot of surprise amongst the mall visitors as they walked by the sensor. Fabian Cowan, VP, Brandscope India, said, “The expanding out of home ecosystem demands that we serve solutions in an interesting, interactive and shareable manner, thereby allowing brands to become part of consumer conversations. We were privileged to be part of this activity with Fox Traveller as this exhibits our collective belief of creating and being part of immersive experiences in the out of home space.”
Read More
CRY – Child Rights and You and BBH India, CRY’s creative partner have joined hands to spread awareness about the importance of voting for child rights in India as part of CRY’s nationwide campaign ‘Vote for Child Rights’. CRY works towards sustainable change, by ensuring all children receive their rights. ‘Vote for Child Rights’ campaign aims to pursue political candidates to ensure due emphasis is given to child rights in their party manifestos. The mission was to make politicians stand up and take notice. Instead of a simple pledge, BBH India did something unique and created a vote bank. Strength in numbers encourages the audience, and a vote bank in itself is what politicians pay attention to. BBH created a campaign around the childmark, a yellow dot symbolising your vote for child rights. The campaign was driven online and on ground. Subhash Kamath, CEO and Managing Partner BBH India said, “Child Rights is a very real issue. People don’t fully understand the concept so we wanted to bring it right upfront. Not with a predictable lecture on the issue, but with an inspirational film. We wanted to make it interesting so people will engage and share it with friends.” The film demonstrates, in the most simple manner, how the yellow childmark and a vote bank can make all the difference. Essential child rights were highlighted including the right to education, nutrition, protection and most importantly, the right to a childhood. On the making of the film, Russell Barrett, CCO and Managing Partner BBH India said, “The first bit of creative thinking was to suggest that to get politicians’ attention, we have to create a vote bank. That’s exactly what we set off to do. Having a lovely idea is great, but having the in-house talent to make it come alive is truly rewarding. The team worked their fingers to the bone for weeks and weeks to get the writing, illustration, animation, photography, direction and post-production just right. We have to thank the client though, for the immense patience they had while we developed, scrapped and redeveloped things. ” Emphasizing on the importance to reach out to politicians and public through this campaign, Anita Bala Sharad, Director, Resource Mobilisation, CRY said, “This campaign aims to urge politicians to put children first and the general public to vote for a party that does so. While several nationwide initiatives and policies are in place to protect children against violation of their rights, there is a visible lack of political will to implement the same. We wanted to highlight the support we can garner from public to ensure that the parties take notice and that the best interest of the child be put at the centre of all policy, legislation and practice. BBH has beautifully depicted the rights of the child and how a vote in support of the same can bring about a lasting change in the child’s life.”
Read More
Clutter. We are constantly trying to eradicate it from our lives. The way we operate, the systems we set up, the surroundings we live in; the one basic principle people live by universally is- more simplification, less complication. Riding on this theorem and with the aim to systemize the largely disorganized Indian events industry is tech driven solutions provider- Cvent. Posed as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, Cvent is an event management platform that was set up in the year 1999 in Virginia, USA, by a man of Indian origin- Reggie Aggarwal. Originally founded to meet the needs of the more developed, metric driven countries of the world where people were few, time was short and labour was expensive, Cvent offered a web-based software for event registration, venue sourcing, event management, email marketing, fee collection, web surveys and a host of other services with the aim of improving the life expectancy of an event planner through simplified solutions. It quickly captured the interest of several large scale organizations with the likes of Rolls Royce, Walmart, Volvo, Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, Nokia etc. and currently employs over 1400 employees globally. With the swift arrival of multinational companies into India over the last decade, more and more marketers have begun embracing experiential marketing techniques. Brands are beginning to realize the importance of engagement towards building their businesses. With this increased the frequency and scale of events within India and several small to large scale event management agencies cropped up in a short span of time. Cvent now recognizes the meetings and events industry in India as a large, potential market that could clearly use some expert assistance; its disorganized structure serving as just the ideal consumer base for its product. In a bid to break into the Indian market Cvent hosted a seminar for the benefit of event planners on 4 March at Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi, demonstrating the functions of what the company claims to be ‘an indispensable event planning tool’ and illustrating the scope of the software towards effective event planning. Brian Ludwig, Senior VP- Sales, Cvent commented, “In India event organizers are still using time-intensive, traditional methods of sourcing event venues, registrations, maintaining inventories, individually serving hotel and travel needs, and after all the effort, still not being able to accurately compare data. Agreed labour may be readily available in the country but certain things can simply not be achieved manually. Our software ensures seamless event planning right from the get-go.” While conducting the seminar Senior Account Executive, Kevin Singh, stated, “Event planning cannot get any simpler once you’ve hooked up with Cvent. Through the Cvent Supplier Network, event planners can send request for proposals to multiple venue options who then compete with each other and quote the most competitive price in the market; almost impossible to achieve if done manually. Once the venue is selected, our professional email invitations feature allows attendees to register at the click of a button, registrants can view the agenda and choose the sessions they wish to attend. They can also schedule meetings with attendees they wish to meet at the event. The system allows payment to be instantly collected and the refund process is automated. Real-time reports and event metrics can be easily retrieved and analysed at the click of a button to help evaluate trends or manage big data. Besides our, award winning customer support team is always there to assist 24/7, 365 days a year”. A unanimous issue faced by most event planners across the country is- justifying ROI to the sponsors. Afterall it is undeniably challenging to scope out an experience. In response to this Kevin Singh stated, “Our mobile apps- CrowdTorch and CrowdCompass- engage users and improves attendee experience at consumer oriented events and business related events respectively. Besides it also delivers clear metrics that allows event planners to justify ROI to sponsors. Cvent provides over 100 standard reports and unlimited custom reports ranging from registration reports, travel reports, financial reports, contact reports, email reports, cross-event reports etc that help greatly in measuring event ROI and speaking to sponsors in the language they best understand”. So the question remains, is this value for money in an Indian set-up? Can technology actually replace the comforting voice of another human being across the phone? Can automated solutions outshine the laborious methods of personalization? Will the Indian events industry embrace Cvent or reject it? We await the throw of the dice.
Read More
When it comes to marketing events using Twitter, planners go all out to experiment with this medium of engagement. As digital proliferation increases, Twitter is becoming a great addition to the event marketing mix in a big way. Here are top tips to get the best out of an upcoming event and ensure brand amplification. Harness Twitter’s power of a social medium:Twitter, at its core is a social media.This means that it requires more than a constant stream of updates like: “Registration is now open”.Using this medium to ensure a dialogue and encourage responses from the audience will be a winning strategy. Co-create content with key personalities: Another form of engagement can involve the active participation of key personalities speaking or performing at the event. Once a status is posted about the presence of a speaker or performer, that dignitary can follow-up with a Tweet of a one-liner or conversation starter. This makes the engagement more personalised. Building up the engagement: Before the event too, Twitter can prove to be a great tool for grab eyeballs. Running promotions and contests to include free passes giveaways as prizes, will generate more interest in the event. Another strategy can also be to post updates about the setting up stage, and even posting photos of that. This can bring about a more personalised touch with the audience following updates of the event. Live engagement:Including Twitter in the live event experience is the biggest engagement strategy. Creating a hashtag for the event exclusively and mentioning repeatedly about it live, can create more amplification of the event. Re-tweeting interesting posts by audience, and thanking them for their Twitter mentions also builds greater engagement. Also, including a live Twitter stream on screen, post censoring, is one of the most brilliant ways of using Twitter. In fact, speakers and performers can also be encouraged to react live to these Tweets. Post event engagement:By saving the hashtag, one can download an archive of the tweets using special applications after the event. This will allow for the instant details of the event to be an ongoing conversation post event as well. Besides, this will be a great tool to share with sponsors to showcase how many times their brand was mentioned via Twitter.
Read More
JCDecaux India recently created an outdoor display landmark at Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru (KIAB) for BREN Corporation. One of Bengaluru’s infrastructure developers, BREN wanted to craft a presence through outdoor media to promote its brand values of creation and progress. KIAB, being the gateway to Bengaluru, gave BREN the perfect opportunity to welcome travellers to the city of Bengaluru. Since the message required strong registration and impact, the company decided to innovate at a high visibility site. The premium location of Roundabout Two at KIAB, maintained by JCDecaux, was therefore the obvious choice. Recently revamped, KIAB is noted for its great outdoor branding infrastructure, in terms of state-of-the-art structures and aesthetic surroundings. Roundabout Two at KIAB is one of the most sought after locations by brands, with its visibility of 100% to airport audience, as well as people passing through the airport vicinity. KIAB handled close to 13 Million passengers in 2013. Partnering with team JCDecaux, BREN developed an iconic 3D structure at the roundabout, which has been generating excellent recall and recognition for the brand, since installation. Created by OpusCDM, soft lights illuminate the structure and the brand on top is showcased in a scenic art environment. The hexahedral structure is supported by ‘Headway Humans,’ made of raw iron. Pulling and holding the main unit on either side, the Headway Humans denote the human spirit of striving for progress and balance. With the block placed on a vertex, the structure forms an unusual shape calling attention to engineering ingenuity. Mr. Alok Duggal, Business Head-Bengaluru Airport, JCDecaux India, says, “BREN’s requirement was to enhance their Corporate Image and hence we recommended an Iconic installation at the Airport roundabout. We are keen to have a long term relation with BREN and would like to be associated with all the brands which are getting launched under BREN umbrella”. Mr. Boopesh Reddy, Managing Director, BREN Corporation says, “We are pleased to execute such an attention-getting campaign at Kempegowda International Airport. We have been receiving overwhelming feedback on the BREN iconic structure, which has been executed in association with JCDecaux. We thank the JCDecaux team for helping us implement this iconic campaign”.
Read More
At a big medical conference in Nebraska, around the time when palm tops were the ‘big thing’ in technology, event managers decided to incorporate the latest gadget into their event. The idea was to present each attendee, doctors by profession, with a palm-top that carried complete itinerary of the event. The event was a complete failure as the doctors were not used to the technology that was thrust upon them and had no idea how to use it. Did technology really serve its purpose? We think not. This gave us food for thought and EE got in touch with industry experts to get their thoughts on technology and its not-so-talked-about downside. “I am not surprised few people talk about this. The key to a good communication is a keen insight into the target audience and a strong creative to engage the consumer. Technology is a mere tool to achieve this. Unfortunately, agencies and clients alike tend to get overwhelmed by the attractiveness of the technology and lose their way to the target audience. In such a situation, the target audience is likely to remember the technology engagement and even enjoy it but the brand message may well get lost. Often times, there is a desire amongst agencies and clients to be “the first” to use a technology and force fit into the event engagement, this too can be quite dangerous for the event / brand engagement,” says Atul Nath, MD, Candid Marketing. People need to start using technology in the right ways and not just because it sounds ‘cool’ without thinking what they’re trying achieve through that technology. We also need to dwell upon how much time we are going to spend trying to learn the technology. The time saved in learning the technology could be used to offer the attendees a great experience. We need to ask ourselves the questions on how technology can make our event more efficient, attractive, and use it to support our objectives. “Everything in moderation is good, you need technology when you really need it. You shouldn’t be forcing technology wherever you need it to happen. For example, for a small event that has about 200-300 people in the mall, I would like to focus my attention on the people. However, by adding a layer of live streaming, even though I’m able to increase the reach, I may not be able to do so as they may not be able to get the right product experience. But for a product like Bose, I need an increase in the level of technology. So it really depends on the product, type of audience and the number of people,” finishes Pratik Gupta, Director, Foxymoron.
Read More
An experience basically means stimulating the senses through various touchpoints- sight, touch, feel, music etc. But in certain cases these senses may not be fully receptive, such as among the less abled. How does a brand establish a meaningful connect and create value for such consumers? To address this issue within their brand Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM has established Mirchi Care, a CSR initiative and experiential campaign focussed at the visually impaired to allow them more flexibility in their daily lifestyle and a platform to experience the brand more closely. Pallavi Rao, Group Head, CSR, Radio Mirchi tells us more about it- EE: What is the purpose of Mirchi Care? Our main endeavour is to be able to provide audio help and entertainment to the blind and visually impaired. Most companies would donate funds towards the health and education of the disabled but our focus is to enhance their day to day experiences by providing substantial content that can help them lead a more confident and convenient life. EE: What are some of the things you have accomplished within this programme? We have recorded more than 470 audio books across various subjects- fiction, romance, entertainment, education etc. We have also helped develop a software for translating auto rickshaw meter fares which converts the meter readings into a blind friendly format. This endeavour is to ensure that the visually disabled can travel alone more confidently with reduced chances of being fleeced by rickshaw drivers. Our most recent efforts within this programme has been to record menus at restaurants for the visually impaired to be able to step out by themselves and enjoy a good meal. We have covered 20 cities so far and have a presence at several mid-range restaurants such as Mcdonald’s, KFC etc. We have also provided menu’s in braille format at certain restaurants such as Chung Wa at GK-2 New Delhi. EE: Does the investment justify the fact that it really just takes two minutes for someone else to read the menu? It is beyond our imagination the various challenges that a blind person is faced with on a daily basis. Even if they are escorted to a restaurant, small queries such as reading the prices off the menu and trying to remember them and the various possible permutations and combinations may dip their self esteem. So much so that it is seen a lot of them refrain from stepping out of the comforts of their home. We have received tremendous support and help from Prashant Verma, Joint Secretary at the National Association of the Blind. He himself does not have vision and explained that even though he has the purchasing power, he usually gets his food delivered home. The only restaurant that he feels confident enough to dine in is perhaps one that is equipped with a software for the blind. What is the kind of investment that has gone into this programme? The only investment from our end is our passion and dedication towards making a humble difference for the blind community. We mainly work on barter deals and help from volunteers. Being a popular radio channel we have the resources and accessibility to reach out to the wide pool of like-minded people who also feel strongly about this cause and are willing to help. EE: How do you gauge the ROI, in this case your time and effort? Within the National Association of the Blind there is a Women’s hostel and we got a call from its Matron a few days back saying that a group of women have stepped out of the hostel to eat at one of the restaurants that we have provided support to. Instances like these are very encouraging for us and bring tremendous joy ascertaining that we have managed to make a difference through our efforts. We still have a long way to go no doubt, but with time we are positive other companies are sure to catch up and there would be many more hands working towards building better lives for the disabled.
Read More
For some time now, artists, programmers and marketers have been seeking innovative ways to collaborate, to blur the line between art and technology, thereby creating complex systems that merge the real world with the digital world. As the year comes to an end, we have brought a compilation of the best in experiential technology from around the world in 2013. Find out right here. Nike – House of Deadly Unless you’re Messi, Ronaldo or Neymar, in this instance, you would have never have had the experience playing a game of football under the floodlights, watched by millions of adoring fans. However, for 400 lucky participants, this is exactly what happened, as Nike created one of the coolest football user experiences that we have seen to date. Nike’s House of Deadly was a ‘stadium’ large scale installation in Bangkok that invited participants to immerse themselves in a truly remarkable user experience that merged the cool of Nike Football and the high-performance of Brazilian superstar Neymar. By using a combination of lights, motion graphics and infrared technology, they broke the experiential mould by bringing the video game experience into the real world. Pepsi Like Machine If you’re a sucker for vending machines, wait till you hear about this one. here’s a new Pepsi Sampling Machine from Belgium that dispenses a sample everyone time you like their Facebook Page. Once you get to the front of the line, the vending machine drives you to a mobile site, where you can like the page, and then chose your flavour, just hit the one you want and it will instantly pop out. Mind Reading Beer Machine Imagine being able to pour beer with your mind. Well, stop imagining! Castle Lite has made it possible by introducing the world-first Extra Cold Mind Reader. Conceived and developed by digital agency Hellocomputer, this awesome machine is designed to reward you for focusing on ‘extra cold’. The machine utilises an EEG headset, which is calibrated to record the brain waves along the scalp by measuring the brain’s spontaneous electrical activity over a short period of time. The Extra Cold Mind Reader headset detects specific signals, such as conscious thought, emotion and facial expression and uses these signals to control the operator’s experience. Users are absorbed into a unique sensory experience with interactive lighting, cold air effects, rich immersive visuals and sound in an interactive game, where they must battle hot, distractive scenarios to prove they can maintain their focus on ‘extra cold’. The reward is a minus 4-degree Celsius Castle Lite draught. And the longer you’ve concentrated on ‘extra cold’, the more beer is poured. Heineken – Departure Roulette On Monday, Heineken unveiled a marketing stunt in which travelers at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport were asked to ditch their current plans for a game of “Departure Roulette.” Travelers who happened to pass by Terminal 8 were given the opportunity for an adventure of a totally different kind, and asked to exchange their current plans for new ones. Those who decided to take the challenge were then asked to press a red button on a billboard showing them their destination. Those who were spontaneous enough to brave the unknown were rewarded with spectacularly exotic destinations such as Morocco, Thailand and Cyprus. They were also given $2,000 for expenses, along with two free hotel nights for their trip. Windows 8 – Live Tile Experiment Microsoft may be under legal fire for the Live Tile functionality in their Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 OS, but that will not stop them from promoting the hell out it. In honor of the Windows 8 world-wide launch, Microsoft executed a surprising marketing stunt in the street of downtown Oslo, Norway on the night of October 26. In collaboration with the popular Norwegian electro-rock band Datarock, a construction team and quite a few participating actors, a false wall was raised between two buildings and a specially designed Windows 8 music tile was accurately placed in front of it. When night fell, a loud party began behind the wall and the Windows 8 music tile lit up. Once stepped on by a curious person passing by, the wall immediately fell down, exposed the party and famous band and dancers spilled out on to the street.
Read More
