A lot of event agencies determine the success of their event on the basis of the number of attendees present in the gathering; a few others feel the success of the event can be directly allocated to the number of tickets sold. However in reality both the metrics cannot really help an event organizer in correctly analyzing if the event they just executed was a success. Come to think of it, all the 100 crore films that you see in the Indian film industry are massive money spinners but are they good films? Similarly a wedding which has been attended by over 500 guests but bores them all, cannot be termed as a successfully organized wedding. So what should be the parameters of determining the success quotient of an event? Event industry experts say it has to be ‘emotions’. The event and experiential marketing industry is fascinated with the word ‘experience’ today. Every time a new event mandate is handed over to them, all they want to do is to elevate the experience quotient of the brand in picture through the event. However what most event organizers do not understand is that no experience will ever be memorable for an event attendee if it fails to create any emotions in them. Even getting beaten up by a goon is an experience but is that something that would emote a positive emotion in people? Is that something a prospective consumer would want to remember? No, similarly the centerpiece of an event or a campaign designing process today has to be solely the intention of generating positive emotions among people, failing which an experiential campaign or an event, irrespective of its budget will not be able to serve its purpose. Taking an example from some of the best experiential campaigns like ‘Unlock the 007 in you by coca-cola’ where a prospective customer had to bring out the bond in them through a challenge, brought a lot of positive emotions in people who completed the challenge successfully. As a result the campaign even though touched only a few people at a time but is still considered as one of the most effective experiential campaigns by the brand ever. Similarly, Burger King came up with an interesting campaign “We are all the same inside” to extend its support to homosexuality. The campaign saw homosexuals entering the burger king outlet and all were given burgers with different customized packaging. However when one opened the burger they were all the same in taste and appearance inside, illustrating the premise of every human is the same inside irrespective of their preferences. The campaign brought out the emotional best among people and also won a Cannes lions for the same. Many people fail to understand what has brought in such unprecedented success for EDM festivals in the country? Well, the answer is simple, all of them have captivated the emotions of music, friendship and enjoyment for the people who attend them. Brand marketers and event agencies need to understand today that all events have experiences and they can be good or bad but it is only emotions that truly affect people. Hence, an event or campaign design today has to be able to move and touch people first before wowing them with all creative and experiential elements.
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Bharti Airtel Limited and Uber have recently announced a first-of-its-kind strategic partnership in India. As part of this partnership, Uber riders across India can now pay for their trips using Airtel’s mobile wallet service - Airtel Money. Additionally, Mumbaikars will now be the first in India to enjoy free high-speed internet from Uber, powered by Airtel 4G. This service will soon be rolled out for Uber riders pan India. “Our partnership with Uber is directly in line with our commitment to offer innovative and relevant services for our customers. Now, Uber riders can enjoy the convenience of paying through their Airtel Money wallets, while also experiencing the power of blazing internet speeds with Airtel 4G on the move. We are excited that Uber has chosen Airtel to fulfill its telecom needs, and look forward to supporting the company’s rapid growth across India”, said Srini Gopalan, Director – Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel. “We are thrilled to join forces with Airtel to deliver solutions that elevate the Uber experience for riders and drivers throughout India. This unique partnership is built on our shared visions and strengths of broad, reliable networks and connecting people to their world, anytime, anywhere,” said Amit Jain, President, Uber India. “Airtel is leading the way for wireless connectivity, and as our telecom partner, will help us in our quest toward transforming urban mobility for hundreds of millions of commuters in India.” This integration will provide riders with another hassle-free payment option and will make Uber the first technology platform to officially launch Airtel Money. For a limited time, new Uber riders who top up their Airtel Money wallet will earn up to Rs. 500 for free. Additionally, starting with Mumbai, every Uber vehicle in India will soon be equipped with free WiFi, powered by Airtel 4G. Whether riding to work or a night out in the town – Uber will offer commuters high-speed internet at no data charges, powered by Airtel 4G. Airtel will also become Uber’s official telecom partner across India, and support the company’s rapid growth in India by offering mobile, data and device plans to Uber driver-partners. As part of this alliance, Uber will also offer exclusive promotions, discounts and experiences to Airtel customers - including Rs. 500 off their first ride upon using Airtel Money. Airtel’s subsidiary Airtel M Commerce Services Limited (AMSL) launched the company’s flagship semi-closed wallet under the brand name Airtel Money - India’s first prepaid mobile wallet by a telecom services provider. RegisteredAirtel Money customers can link their account on Uber’s mobile app now. To do this - select “Payment” from the menu in Uber app, tap “Add Payment”, tap “Airtel Money” to add account. Afterwards, they can select Airtel Moneyas their payment method and take a ride. To sign up for Airtel Money, customers can now know more by visiting http://www.airtel.in/money/.
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In order to connect and engage with their flyers in a more experienced, innovative and immersive manner, most airline brands across the globe today have done away with the advertising clutter. These brands are becoming more sophisticated in their marketing activities and are finding new ways to secure a special memory in the mind and hearts of their travelers. Today at EE, we look at 4 airlines that wowed their passengers with innovative experiential campaigns. 1-Southwest Airlines in-flight fashion show In order to spread the word about the Chicago shopping festival and engage their travelers in an immersive in flight experience, Southwest airlines associated with the organizers from the Magnificent Mile to host the first ”Runway in the Sky.” Held in the aisle of a 737 traveling from New York to Chicago, the event featured models wearing styles from Macy's, a reputed fashion expert. Additionally, the flight also had Wi-Fi, and organizers kept track of the number of social media impressions that were generated during and after the stunt. There were, 143 unique tweets with the hashtag #RunwayIntheSky; these posts were retweeted and ultimately created more than 1.7 million impressions for the airline brand and the shopping festival. 2- JetBlue ‘chain letter of human goodness’ JetBlue airlines through this initiative started a long-term campaign by awarding one free JetBlue ticket to several deserving individuals involved in humanitarian efforts. After one such person had been selected then the airline allowed that person to select another deserving recipient of a free ticket, and so on and so on. The first Fly It Forward ticket recipients included Tameka Lawson, who represented her Chicago non-profit I-Grow at a UN conference in New York, and Louis Elneus from Haiti. These initial recipients were found and picked by JetBlue employees, and now the airline is asking people to submit their own nominations for the next round. 3- KLM ‘seat cover’ greeting KLM is often known for surprising passengers with unexpected experiences however this particular campaign featured on showcasing the varieties of stories of the passengers travelling on the same aircraft on a given day. The campaign ‘Cover Greetings’ involved placing a personal message from loved ones staying at home to their relatives on the headrest of their KLM aircraft seat. The airline spotted people saying goodbye to their families and then asked them to decorate a seat cover with their own message. This brought out the emotional side of the passengers as they saw a headrest cover made especially for them. 4-EasyJet- recognize 10th million passenger campaign Capitalizing on childhood memories ‘Guess Who?’ game, EasyJet created a live version of the popular board game to celebrate the 10 years anniversary of the airline carrying 10 million passengers through the southern France airport. As part of the activity, passengers were invited to participate in a game to guess the 10 millionth passenger who was hidden in a group of extras. The rules were same and passengers had to ask questions about the passengers physical attributes to eliminate as many of the 24 people with one question. Those participants who correctly identified were given free flights with EasyJet. The campaign was an instant hit among the passengers with over 1 million impressions on social media on the same day.
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After 13 editions of this fundraiser by Genesis Foundation (GF), the 14th edition of CEOs Sing for GF Kids will be held in Bengaluru on Saturday, August 22, 2015 at ITC Gardenia. On this evening, 12CEOs of India Inc. will not only turn rockstars, but will sing for a cause to give 10 little GF Kids-A Chance to Live. An evening of musical performancesby leaders of boardrooms guarantees fun galore. The CEO performers who promise to enthral a gathering of more than 120 people with their singing talent include: Ajay Kaul, CEO, Jubilant Foods; Ajit Saldanha, CEO, Eventually International Entertainment; Arati Rao, Founder, B-Flat; BirenGhose, Country Head, Technicolor India; Dr. Harsh Mahajan, Founder & Chief Radiologist, Mahajan Imaging;Dr.ThomasChandy, CMD & Chief of Orthopaedics, HOSMAT Hospitals; Manoj Nair, President, Novel Office Space; Natarajan Vishwanathan, CEO - Paramarth Consulting; Philippe Haydon, CEO, The Himalaya Drug Company; Ramesh Jude Thomas, President & CKO, EQUiTOR Value Advisory; Shireesh Joshi, COO, Strategic Marketing Group, Godrej; and Sulaiman Jamal, CMD, Bevel Gears India. Some of the songs that will be sung at this event are –Yehnayandareydarey, O’ mere dilke chain, Jab koyibaatbigadjaye, Beatles medley, Break Free (Queen), Just the way you are (Billy Joel), Tears in Heaven and Scar burrough Fair on flute & Over the Rainbow on Harmonica. The curator of this initiative, Prema Sagar, Founder Trustee, Genesis Foundation expressed her gratitude and delight.Looking forward she said, “Bengaluru has some serious talent and we are really looking forward to an enjoyable, musical evening. As always, we are overjoyed with the support from our singing CEOs! Their love for music and their commitment to our cause of supporting critically ill children’s treatment, makes this event both, fun as well as meaningful.” Over the years, CEOs Sing for GF Kids has become aplatform for supporting critically ill children from under-privileged backgrounds to Give Life a Chance. In keeping with the Foundation’s purpose to build a participatory culture of giving, musically-inclined CEOs come together to raise funds for these children. The uniqueness of CEOs Sing for GF Kids lies in its ability to give otherwise busy corporate honchos an opportunity to indulge and showcase their own passion while raising resources for the lesser privileged in the same beat.
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The most recent development in the domain of experiential is American Express announcing its partnership with the tennis sensation Maria Sharapova for a virtual reality game. The game will now allow the U.S. Open fans to return the tennis legend’s serves with their own moves, A strategic move to capitalize on the frenzy of the U.S Open, this particular experiential campaign by American Express is being lauded by critics and fans alike. Interestingly, this is not the first time that the multinational financial services company has used the technology of virtual reality to create customer experiences. Previously during the N.B.A. All-Star weekend in New York, American Express had invited basketball fans to engage in a digital video experience called Pivot. And it is not just American Express, most brands across the world today are actively using oculus rift and virtual reality at events. So what makes technologies like oculus rift and virtual reality tick for marketers? Well for those who do not know about it The Rift is a virtual reality head-mounted display developed by Oculus VR and is mainly used for gaming purposes and Virtual Reality (VR) replicates an environment that simulates physical presence in places in the real world or imagined worlds and lets the user interact in that world. Marketing experts believe that solely on the fact that oculus rift and virtual reality can provide tangible experiences to target audiences of a brand makes it a must use for marketers. How does a hotel or holiday company convince someone that it can offer an amazing experience when the person has never tried it in the first place? A brochure or website has their own limitations but actually taking them to the destination and allowing them to walk around the accommodation, to look at the views, to be in the experiences, that’s the sort of tangible experience that gives a real sense of what it would be like and sells it like no other medium. As an example, Marriott Hotels internationally has been offering newly married couples VR honeymoon experiences for quite some time now and they are a big hit. Also streaming content in a manner in which it appears absolutely live and directly in person has also become a possibility today. Thanks to the technologies in subject people anywhere in the world can have access to what it feels like to be at the event even if they are thousands of miles away. NBA currently is collaborating with Samsung to bring live basketball experiences to their global fan base. Another impressive use of oculus rifts and virtual reality is being done by online hiring companies and multinationals that is providing their prospective employees a real time experience of what would it be like when they join the job? Can experiences for people be any better? So basically these technologies are bringing the unthinkable and unimaginable to reality and that too without costing the time, efforts and monetary value of creating something real from scratch. Majority of brands in the country today who are willing to spend on BTL engagements opt for associations with large scale events. However, the current times call for a more dynamic and intimate relationships with customers. Something is which registers more to consumers apart from the logo pasted on every event branding. Oculus rifts and virtual reality serves this purpose as it helps brand customers develop a strong connect with the brand, an experience that they would always thank the brand for.
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Eminent brand consultant in the country, Santosh Desai, has picked up stake in brand strategy and design firm DY Works. Mr. Desai picked up the remaining stake from the erstwhile promoter of DY Works, Mr. Sanjeev Malhotra of Alia Group. In 2009, Future Brands helmed by Desai picked up the majority stake in DY Works. Speaking on the occasion, Ms Alpana Parida, President, DY Works, said, "We'll be looking for future synergies between the work Future Brands is doing and design work DY Works does. Given Santosh’s in-depth knowledge and wide experience, we are confident of building synergies through culture-based design and rural-focused brand amplification strategies. We'll be working together on some projects. We'll be focusing much more and building design for India in product innovation and creating brands which are more India-specific." Commenting on the development, Mr. Santosh Desai said, “The synergy between strategy and design is relevant. DY Works encodes solutions through design, thereby creating designs that impact market shares and brand valuation, Additionally, an approach embedded in culture is common to us as well. For brands to succeed in India – we need an understanding of the Indian cultural context, of dimly lit kirana stores and changes in consumer mindsets.” DY Works has grown almost 3-fold in the last 6 years and has Corporate, Consumer and SME practices with offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. The firm also focuses on the rural market and is currently undertaking an extensive rural research to understand the emerging consumer – new behaviors and beliefs in over 150 villages firsthand. Ms Parida believes that understanding India is the key to building successful brands - and that building strong brands should not simply be an outcome of how large your advertising spends are. Understanding the deeper belief systems of Indian consumers, the retail environments and the shopper experiences at kirana stores, the understanding of why some products and brands are adopted in inner India and why some are not - and using that understanding to create solutions that grow market shares is what makes this firm unique. While Parida will continue as President; Desai will continue as an advisor with the company.
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One of the most amazing facts about the world of experiential is that it can bring anything and everything to reality. If a marketer can dream a creative thought then it can be weaved into a mesmerizing campaign through experiential and added to the marketing mix of a brand. It is in fact only due to this attribute of experiential that the domain of marketing today is more exciting than ever. Brands nowadays are even integrating environmental elements such as water to make their experiential campaign stand out from all others. We at EE are thrilled with this practice and below mentioned is our list of top 4 brand activations on water. 1-Land Rover floating rugby ball This particular activation by the notable automobile brand featured an oversized rugby ball being used to carry a Land Rover down the Thames in London. The 8.2 metre-high ball travelled 25 miles down the river, from the Tilbury Docks to Tower Bridge. The activation was symbolic of the brands association with the Rugby World Cup and the highlight of the campaign was Land Rover ambassador and Rugby World Cup 2003 winner Lewis Moody driving the vehicle out of the giant ball. Land Rover was also used to transport the Web Ellis Cup throughout the Rugby World Championship. 2-Airbnb’s floating houseboat Online hospitality platform Airbnb recently created a blue coloured houseboat and sailed it down the River Thames for five days in May, to celebrate the arrival of new laws that favour home-sharers. The floating house was designed Star Events and consisted two bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, doghouse, garden with real grass and an apple tree, and it took four months to build. Fans were called on to experience the floating home by way of a star-studded party and sleepover for one lucky competition winner and three friends, who were treated to spa treatments and a private dining experience. 3- Sharknado 3 stunt This was one of its kind activation that was used to promote the brand of a film series instead and featured John Grimes and Edward Grimes (actors) who joined in the experiential bandwagon to promote their film Sharknado 3. The activation stunt saw the pair race down the river in a boat with sharks attached, giving off the idea that they were being chased by the carnivorous creatures, comprising three species - tiger shark, hammerhead and great white. Specialized production studio Wild Creations created the intricate stunt and the activation was an instant hit among the fans who simply could not wait to catch the movie after the thrilling experience. 4- Microsoft stages cycle stunt For this experiential campaign Microsoft teamed up with renowned cyclist Danny MacAskill to create a loop-the-loop-style cycle stunt to promote its Cortana brand. The stunt involved MacAskill riding a five-metre, loop-the-loop structure with the Cortana signature illuminated in front of the London Eye. The Cortana software helped with MacAskill's training for the challenge by arranging his meetings, setting appointment reminders, playing his favourite music, providing bad weather warnings and finding maps. The event used the Twitter hashtag #MakeItHappen to reflect the idea that Cortana software knows what users want and how to make it happen.
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The jury for EEMAX Global Awards 2015 has been constituted yesterday. The jury members will deliberate on the winning entries competing for the various awards under categories such as Best Product Launch, Best IP, Best Wedding, Best Mall Promotion, Best use of technology at an event, Best Dealer Activation Program, Best Outdoor Event, Best Space Design and others. Call to submit entries for the awards was made last week. Agencies can currently submit their work at entries.eemaxglobal.com. Empanelled agencies have been called forward by the Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) to volunteer as jurors. However, the names of jury members have not been disclosed and strict adherence to secrecy has been advised to participating jurors. The jury will be conducted under the chairmanship of EEMA Patron, Michael Menezes, who will monitor the judging process and lay directives for the same. The Screening Jury session will be supervised and audited by the official auditors, EY. The jury is to be held simultaneously in Delhi and Mumbai on September 4, 2015, at Hotel Le Meridian and Hotel Taj Lands End respectively.
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