KidZania the kid's fun, learning and entertainment global indoor theme park has recently announced the RJ Hunt auditions to be held in KidZania Mumbai. KidZania promotes role playing activities, amongst which one of the activities is going live this Children’s Day. Everyday a kid will be shortlisted and the RJ from the radio station will select the final winner who will get a chance to go live on Radio City with RJ Sucharita on Children’s Day Role play a RJ on a radio channel live this Children’s Day only at KidZania Mumbai!!! To participate one can call call 022 3955 3700 or email at info@KidZania.in The audition starts: Nov 6th, 2015 to Nov 11th, 2015 Where: R City Mall, Ghatkopar Workshop Period: 6 days (Friday to Wednesday) Timings: Between 10am to 3pm or 4pm to 9pm
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As the year 2015 is drawing to a close, it is safe to say that we have pretty much seen all the experiential marketing campaigns that brands rolled out for their TG throughout the year. Yes, we have seen a significant increase in the investments being shifted towards the domain of experiential but has any brand rolled out a campaign which can be termed as an inspiration to follow over the years by others? Well, sadly the answer to all such questions is no. And the ‘No’ shouts out an important question, “Are marketers playing it safe when it comes to experiential?” Experience driven campaigns are not a new marketing practice for brands anymore. Local hatts, exhibitions, sampling and mall activations have always been a part of their selling practices. I still remember stalls of Lux soaps and Medicare hair care oil at local exhibitions, complimentary Milo shakes by the brand on annual days, Maggi and Colgate activations in school during festival times, being a popular practice by brands in the year 2000. Cut to 15 years later today, the brands have pretty much continued with the same practices to give an experience with their products. Clearly marketers are playing it safe when it comes to experimenting with experiential. Brands like Cadbury which recently created a giant Christmas calendar in UK, Red Bull which has made its presence felt even in the space, Starbucks which created a multi-sensory red cup installation, Heineken which has its own star constellation now are some of the most popular brand names in India. India is definitely an important market for them as it contributes majorly to their global sales figures but do these brands invest the same amount of money for experiential in the country as they do outside it? No they don’t. Marketing gurus believe that experiential is still at a very nascent stage in the country but have no concrete idea on the reasons behind it. Is it technology? Well, it can’t be. Is it the lack of resources? No, it isn’t. The main reason behind the reluctance of marketers to invest and experiment with experiential is deep rooted in experiential’s inability to calculate ROI and thus it not being seen as a direct contributor to the sales registered for the product. Hence, most marketers tick off experiential from their long list of “to be used marketing tools” by opting for mall activations rather than doing something thoroughly engaging with the same budget. What brand custodians do not understand today is that much the clutter in ATL, BTL too is filled with malls having brands lining up next to each other with fancy kiosks and shiny lights. As a result, even most mall activations are going unnoticed by audiences today as it is very difficult for them to distinguish between which mall activation to pay interest to as they all have the same style, same location and same strategy. For an experience to truly engage a consumer it has to be innovative at first and innovation can only come when a brand allows agencies the authority to go all out on creativity with a firm belief and a generous budget on the offer. Event agencies too, have a big role to play here as they need to make marketers understand how experiential is the only practice which will help a brand to create a difference in the minds of consumers. No matter how much does a brand pumps money into experiential but without innovative experiments with it they cannot expect it to churn out ATL benefits for them. A consumer is very smart today and in order to wow them a brand marketer has to be smarter
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Let’s face it; the life of an event planner is not a cakewalk. From keeping a tap on multiple expenses to dealing with an array of vendors & curators and from managing a 100 people at one go to having a keen eye on arrangements, event planners have to do it all and still not collapse (even if they wished to). But thanks to technological advancements and the invention of smartphone’s, existing in the market today are several mobile applications that are absolutely god’s gift to event planners. We at EE, are sharing a few must have mobile apps to make the lives of event planners a little easier. 1-Evernote – It is a no-brainer that the most crucial need of an event planner is to always be more organized. Just imagine, you have some ideas in your mind but you are not in a state to pen it down or give it a proper shape, or you suddenly remembered of a task that has to be done or you have to coordinate travel document or make research notes about the venue; what do you do? Well, you have Evernote to the rescue. The app serves as a general filing system where you can file documents, share them with people, set reminders, sync them with other devices and update them all with one change. Isn’t it great? 2-ScannerPro – Are you too frustrated about the phenomenon of keeping receipts in your pockets as they come in and never find them after the event? Well then scannerpro is the answer to your problems. Breakout from the worry of keeping a track of all paperwork when you are just bustling with things to manage as the app allows you to scan documents with a click, convert them into PDF and mail them right away to wherever you want them too. Well, why worry even if you lost the receipts then? You have them saved already. 3-Heytell – We know of all a lot of event planners in India, who use whatsapp to communicate with your team during events. And as convenient as whatsapp is it still has its limitations. Heytell is an alternative to whatsapp that most people do not know about. The app turns your smartphone into a walkie-talkie. When you need something even snappier than texting or email, get the app, choose a contact and start talking over all free of cost and forget the worry of signal drop outs! 4-Hootsuite – During executing a live event every event manager wants to capitalize on the social media to amplify the event content however managing all different platforms is a big challenge. You have to be on your toes with multiple apps and websites opened which can be chaotic at times. But luckily there is Hootsuite as an app today which helps you manage all your social media that lets you create streams for each platform and keep you up to date with the latest buzz. Best part about the app is you can schedule tweets and updates prior to the event at strategic times to stay ahead. 5-Meetup Time- Do you have to deal with international clients, performers and speakers at your next event but always lose out on when to communicate because of the time gap? Well, no worries now as you can always keep a track of contact time zones with Meetup Time’s intuitive interface. The app helps you to call people at the best time without having to check the internet or ask somebody about the time in a different continent, the app does that for you free of cost.
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Nearly 1,000 marketers, event specialists and most innovative marketing agencies gathered at Las Vegas for Event Tech, a conference and exposition on using social media and technology to optimize live experiences. With over 100 insightful sessions, opportunity to test-drive multiple technologies, discussing & decoding successful case studies and the ultimate chance to network with the most creative marketing minds on the offer, Event Tech ’15 was certainly a place to be at. However, for those of you who could not make it to the event. We bring to you some interesting updates directly from the confrence. Day 1 of Event Tech began with 30 attendees hopping on the morning shuttle to the Mojave Desert for a two-hour hiking excursion. The content of program however started with three workshops which were Drone University, Instagram Power Workshop and Viral Video Workshop. The Drone University session was headed by Expert Drones CEO Brett Velicovich, who discussed about how drones could be creatively integrated into events safely. Author Jason Miles then, led a workshop on brand building through Instagram, and viral video architect Rob Bliss offered his tips, insights and strategies to create viral content for the social media. Day 2 of Event Tech started off with Allen Adamson, author of the book Brand Digital, giving a keynote presentation on the challenges of communicating a brand story. Talking about it he said, “Precision is the key, there is very little that distinguishes your brand from its competitors and how you decode that 2 percent of difference is the secret to break the clutter.” Later, the attendees headed to the EventTech campus from wherein they could choose from 5 learning labs for crisp, 30-minute sessions. The topics of these ranged from Anatomy of the viral video, digital+live strategies: creating ‘liquid’ experiences, neuromarketing-driven tech planning for b-to-b events, real-time video content: supercharge event buzz, the 411 on periscope and meerkat, lessons from mastercard: upping your b-to-b meetings tech game, live streaming events: inside coke’s e-sports playbook, virtual reality: best practices for using VR and choosing the perfect hashtag: the power of # and others. Next, the Event Technology Awards saw the best digital and technology integrated events winning top honors. In the most popular categories, The Gold in the Best Use of a Single Technology (B-to-C) was bagged by Merell for its Trailscape campaign that used oculus rift to make people feel like they were walking around a crumbling ledge and over a treacherous wooden bridge high in the mountains. The sliver in the same category was won by Survive the Strain of FX networks. The campaign was VR Experience to promote season two of the FX Networks horror drama series ‘The Strain’ and followed the story’s character as he lead viewers on a 360º journey through an abandoned warehouse, while under constant threat of attack from vampires. In the category of Best Use of a Single Technology (B-to-B). The Gold was awarded to Microsoft for its initiatives at Worldwide Partner Conference 2015. The computer brand at the conference had used technologies like Hololens, Project GigJam, Cortana Analytics Suite and LiveTiles to create a surreal life like experience. The Best Digital+Live Campaign was won by Verizon #WhosGonnaWin. The campaign WhosGonnaWin gave all NFL fans a chance to let everyone know which team they are rooting for. Fans could visit WhosGonnaWin.com and use Google Street View to decorate houses in team colors and share those decorations socially with friends. On NFL Mobile, fans could also claim territory for their team by rapidly clicking within their designated zip code to take over the #WhosGonnaWin map. The Silver in the same category was won by #DellLounge Powered by Windows 10 by Dell, Microsoft. The campaign featured a lighting lounge created by Lacy Maxwell Productions. The Bronze in this category was won by Untameable Tour of Bacardi created by GMR Marketing. The Bacardi Untameable Tour combined the latest beats with killer cocktails to ignite the most passionate music fans in the bar, at music festivals and at the after-party. In another category of Best Audience Interaction Gold was awarded to Coke Zero Drinkable Billboard. For the campaign Ogilvy & Mather installed a "drinkable billboard" that shot soda through a massive straw into a public drinking fountain. Coke Zero in the campaign activity was flown through 4,500 feet of straw to spell out "Taste It." Then the liquid traveled from the bottom of the billboard to a sampling area with six fountain spouts where people can taste the soda. The Silver Winner in this category was Ignite Launch by Puma. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0whqsvHPw5E The campaign saw New Yorkers harnessing running energy in Times Square with an epic group run. Their energy was collected, and upon reaching 100%, Usain Bolt, the World’s Fastest Man, appeared to officially reveal Ignite. The day 2 of event tech continued with more sessions and ended with EventTech group networking dinner at Carmine’s. The final day of the conference concluded with 35 final sessions on topics ranging from geofencing technologies, particle photons, internet and others.
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Acclaimed as the ‘Paulo Coelho of the East’ by Businessworld, the best selling Indian author by NDTV and amongst the 100 most influential Indians three times in a row by Forbes, Amish Tripathi’s upswing as a writer was neither planned nor speculated. The author of The Shiva Trilogy launched his writing career with The Immorals of Meluha, a book that broke into the top seller charts within its first week owing largely to its creative marketing strategies. At the exchange4media CMO League Conclave held at hotel Leela Gurgaon on 4 November, the IIM Kolkata graduate delivered an address on ‘The art of marketing and the science of story telling’. Here are 10thoughts that every event marketer can pick up on to tell his story even more persuasively. 1-The most irritating thing to hear is “how can we try this, this has never been done before”. Ignore this. Never succumb to this. 2-Best ideas will come from people outside the industry. These people don’t have blinders on and are free from set notions. 3-Based on the trial pack strategy often used by FMCG brands for products such as shampoos, I compressed the first chapter of my debut book into a small free booklet that I placed at bookstore cash counters. It was a cost effective idea that worked wonders. It worked simply because it was unique. 4-Bollywood portrays the essence of ‘real’ India therefore readily evokes emotions. Marketers should capitalize on this; it’s a sure shot winner. 5-The universe is not made of atoms, it is made up of stories. Do not try to understand these stories. Surrender to the universe and let the stories flow through you. 6-Great marketing means striking a balance between rationale, science and pure emotions. 7-After the launch of my first book I knew I had to steer people towards my book in order for them to experience it. So we played its trailers in movie cinemas to drive the traffic into bookstores. You may have a good story, but you need an audience to hear it. 8-Remain detached from failure and also success. Let neither affect you. This is the only way to produce the best output. 9-When I write a story I do not create the characters, according to me the characters already exist in a parallel universe and I’m simply reporting their lives. Consumers should also be approached in the same manner. 10-People will often not remember what you said or did but they will always remember how you made them feel, said Maya Angelou. This is exactly what every brand communication should be based on. Remember- every purchase decision is based on emotion.
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With the year about to end, brands are going all out to charm their target audiences in more ways than one. The month of October saw some of the biggest brands names creating the most immersive experiences for their TG. Below mentioned is a roundabout of some of the most engaging campaigns to have been executed by brands in October last month. 1- Carlsberg's shave-off event with Ted Baker Carlsberg recently collaborated with the men and women fashion brand Ted Baker to host a shave-off event across London. As part of the event audiences were offered a shave as well as complimentary Carlsberg beer for just 99p and not is original price of 22.50p. The main idea behind the activity was raise awareness of the annual Movember campaign which features men not shaving for November and donating the money saved to The Movember Foundation, a men’s health charity that focuses its efforts on the four key areas of prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and physical inactivity. Now with this one campaign, the brand managed to give its audiences an experience with the brand, support a good cause and establish a unanimous style statement at the same time. All we can say is good job Calsberg and Ted Baker. 2- Aero creates prize bubble experience for Mousse launch The last week of October saw Nestle launching one of its premier products Aero Mousse chocolate bar through an engaging game show experience. As part of the activity consumers were being invited to step inside the Aero Mousse Bubble for a chance to win a spa treatment for two people. With 30 seconds on the clock the challenge was to get hold of as many discs as possible. If the participants were lucky enough one of those discs would have a ticket for the spa treatment. Also people were asked to create social media buzz through watching the participants perform and tweeting with the #AeroMousse hastag. Now this is one gaming experience everyone would love to participate in. 3- Bacardi LolaWolf gig in Miami For an alcohol brand that does mostly club music events, this experience driven initiative by Bacardi was certainly refreshing. For this campaign Bacardi teamed up with R&B/Electro pop trio LolaWolf to host a special gig in Miami. The event saw the band unveil its new creative platform known as Lolaloopz. Referred to as 'live special media effective lab', Lolaloopz offered fans the chance to use real-life analogue effects across their social media accounts. The show was the final event in Bacardi’s Untameable Artists Series, which also featured AlunaGeorge, Run The Jewels and Future. The main idea behind the campaign was to showcase the personality behind each artist, and saw the brand additionally hosting a number of 'house parties' across the United States. With most social media impressions made by a brand campaign in the state this month, this campaign was a well deserved entry to the list. 4- Haribo 'trick or treat door' activation at Victoria station Wow, finally an engaging campaign that got the best out of the Halloween celebration. The German confectionary brand as a part of this activity installed a branded trick or treat door within London's Victoria station. The 3.5-metre high structure resembled an old stone castle, and consisted a large door at its centre with the words ‘trick or treat’. Also bats and pumpkins were located to make the structure appear more real. In the activity commuters were being encouraged to knock on the oversized door, at which point it creaked open and they were handed a sweet treat from Haribo’s Halloween range. This certainly fits the bill for the perfect experiential campaign for the Halloween month. 5- Coca-Cola London Eye initiative and smile vending machine Last but certainly not the least, this initiative from the global beverage giant shows how important are experiential engagements for a brand. Coca-Cola in London had previously rolled multiple customer experiences to celebrate the Rugby World Cup and this engagement by the brand was the coolest addition to its initiative for the same. The brand lighted The London Eye to reflect the colours of the two remaining teams in the tournament . Also it has installed a 'smile vending machine' within King’s Cross station wherein passers-by can receive a free can of coke. So simple yet so impactful. Subtle experience at its best. .
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The month of November has a lot to offer to event lovers. With the season festivities just around the corner, people are already in party mood and brands alongside curators are set to capitalize on the same by serving a range of diverse and enthralling experiences. With multiple EDM, Rock, Art and Music festivals lined up to wow target audiences, we at EE are listing down our pick for Events to look out in the month of November. #1 Bacardi NH7 Weekender It is without a doubt one of the biggest EDM properties in the country and serves as the biggest platform for Indian independent music artists. With a magnificent lineup performers already advertised to appear, this celebration of music and dance is definitely on the must attend list of all music junkies. Date- Shillong 23-24 Oct | Kolkata 31 Oct-1 Nov | New Delhi 28-29 Nov | Pune 4-6 Dec | Bengaluru 5-6 Dec #2 Rider Mania A direct competition to Harley Rock Riders which is scheduled to take place on 30th and 31st October. Rider Mania is an initiative Royal Enfield and is one of its kind motorcycling festival in India that celebrates music, art, photography and lifestyle. Date-November 20 to 22 #3 Officers Choice Blue Mirchi Top 20 Live with Sunidhi Chauhan India's music countdown show, Mirchi Top 20 is set to make its presence felt in Gurgaon with a concert, featuring Sunidhi Chauhan! The concert promises to be a stellar experience for all fans of the Bollywood Diva. Date- November 21 #4 Sunburn City Festival A precursor to Sunburn Goa, the Sunburn city festival will showcase some of the most promising names in dance music. With the lineup including reputed performers like DJ Snake, R3hab, Chuckie and Matisse &Sadko, Sartek, Joshi, DJ SA, Mojojojoand Sunburn's resident DJ Shaan on the cards, this one has massive expectations riding on it. Date- November 12-15 #5 BuddyDaddy Family Bash BuddyDaddy Family has positioned itself as an entertainment family festival. With over 80 live performers and a line-up of kids and family activitieson the offer, Buddy Daddy promises to have something for everyone. Date- November 13-15 #6 Pushkar Mela The annual festivities of the 100 year old PushkarMelaattract more than 50,000 camels, horses and cattle, 8,00,000 tourists and 60,000 expats from across the world, to the tiny desert town of Pushkar, on the edge of the Thar Desert. The highlights of the mela this year are VIP Hospitality arena, Sky Waltz Café, an especially curated opening and flag off ceremony, fusion music performances, Hot air ballooning, 360* podium, adventure activities and Night glow music concert among other elements. Date- November 18-25 #7 MTVI Xtreme Festival MTVi Xtreme is a high on adrenalin rock music and adventure sports festival. With its its 2nd Season, being headlined by Saul Hudson, better known as Slash, featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, along with some high profile Indian Rock Bands; this one has high expectations riding on it. Date- November 7 at JIO Gardens, Mumbai November 14 at SUPERNOVA, Bangalore #8 Above and Beyond LIVE Viacom18 ups the excitement for dance music rock lovers as they bring Above and Beyond back to India for the highly anticipated Vh1 Supersonic Arcade. One of India’s favourite dance music trio is all set to perform in India across three cities Pune (27th November), Mumbai (28th November) and Bangalore (29th November). Date- Pune (27th November), Mumbai (28th November) and Bangalore (29th November)
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A report by Huffington Post earlier this year, revealed that if Facebook was a country then would be the most populated country in the world having 1.39 billion people logging in every month to find out the latest piece of information in their news feed. Such is the power owned by the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and others today. Not only have these platforms provided an opportunity for the masses to be constantly connected with their surroundings but also these are known to serve the purpose of reflecting democratized opinions and finding out what topic around the world most concerns the people living in it. Interestingly, the advantages of social media do not come without some disadvantages of their own. With no-filter to weed out the inappropriate and spammed content on social media domains, any particular incident or news can be easily manipulated to create havoc in the lives of ordinary citizens. So can we find a balanced use of the social media in the media and entertainment industry was the subject of an insightful panel discussion at the 4th edition of the CII Big Picture Summit 2015. The panel was chaired by Satya Raghvan, Head, Youtube India, Viran Jani, Head-TV Partnership, Twitter, Rajdeep Sardesai, Consulting Editor, India Today Group and moderated by Suhel Seth, Managing Partner, Counselage India and Founder, Equus. Rajdeep Sardesai started the session by delivering an address on the predicament of social media today. He established that instead of going out and finding the real news items to debate and highlight, a large number of media organizations look for the topics trending on social media platforms and then cover them in form of news as they are a reflection of what the society is speaking about. He said, “What’s interesting is how one perceives social media? As it has over all the years established itself both as a challenge as well as an opportunity.” With no filer in place, anyone with a few social media followers can create a negative propaganda about any issue or brand and can also influence others buyers in the process. Case in point, in late 2014 a war between Amul and an angry consumer Neha Tomar broke out on the social media where the latter posted updates questioning the quality of Amul Milk. The campaign went viral on the web with multiple shares and significantly impacted the sales of the product. Consequently, Amul took to social media too to prove how it had always maintained quality standards consistently. Speaking about how such negative and baseless hateful content can be removed from social media Viran Jani said, “Communicating fearlessly is the crux of the overall ethos of Twitter and this is how we have always wanted to position it. However, we do realize that with power in the hands of only consumers there are times when manipulation by a few will come into play and thus we are working towards addressing the issues of abuse.” Highlighting the same point, Satya Raghvan said, “Because the content created on social media platforms like YouTube is in such large quantity that it is impossible to police it. Yes, there are negative implications too however one simply cannot overlook the positive stories that are created through it. One has to work towards creating a fine balance between the two and that will only happen when stakeholders sit together and take steps in partnership.” Interestingly, the nucleus of Raghvan’s address can be directly related with brands like Nestle which has innovatively engaged its consumers in a damage control act after having its premier product Maggi banned from the Indian market due to excess of hazardous lead chemical was found in it. The brand has created a positive nostalgia campaign on social media which has often trended on twitter and facebook due to the massive positive response received by audiences. Suhel Seth highlighted that for most brands social media has become an indispensable part of their marketing strategy but they are not truly optimizing its potential and merely tick boxing it on their marketing plans. Viran Jani added to the same by saying, “Brands and everyone else who wants to use the social media to their advantage need to adopt a 360* approach to it which goes beyond a facebook page and twitter handle.” He added brands today need to leverage all platforms on social media by creating an innovative marketing mix through using different platforms available on social media to position its brands into the minds of its target consumers.
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