Godrej has collaborated with Subhash Ghai’s institute Whistling Woods International to create a series of innovative videos. The institute will be conceptualizing videos for Godrej, which will redefine the concept “Ideas that make us smile”. The brainchild Abhishek Chandra, a WWI student says, “it is always great coming back to Whistling Woods, and it feels even better when you actually are working in collaboration with the school for a brand like Godrej.” Godrej, which have previously featured bollywood star Aamir Khan in their campaigns are quite optimistic with this unique academia-industry tie-up. Shireen Joshi, Chief Operating Officer, Strategic Marketing Group of Godrej says, “The success of this activity can be seen in terms of the quality, diversity of interpretations, popularity as well as the beautiful way that the brand and its products have been showcased by the students of Whistling Woods.” Meghna Ghai Puri, President, WWI is elated and said, “we believe are the next generation of filmmakers and media professionals, with the ability to create in-depth, aesthetic videos. This campaign showcased Godrej’s spirit.” The videos created by WWI will be the heart of digital marketing campaigns for Godrej and display a variety of innovative campaigns by consumers of the brand.
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Collaborative consumption. What’s that? Simply put, it’s a concept that involves sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting and swapping goods instead of purchasing them. And with the advancement in data and technology it can be done much more easily and effectively. One great example of a company built on the model of collaborative consumption is Uber. An on-demand, app-based car service, Uber entered the Indian market in September 2013, starting with Bangalore. It began operations in Delhi 6 weeks later and subsequently moved into Chennai, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad. Uber’s business model manifested from the idea of creating a simple mobile app that allowed idle limo cars to be put to better use. With bidding options and location based cab finders, Uber eliminatedthe typical wait involved and gave consumers a bit of luxury. ButUber isn’t a cab company. They simply offer companies and individuals who own ‘luxury’ cabs the ability to allocate those resources to Uber to take advantage of idle time. So Uber is dealing strictly operates in the space of collaborative consumption, taking resources that would otherwise sit idle and putting them to work. Although most cab companies could be examples of collaborative consumption, mamplifying the service. Not only does the app reflect real-time location and availability of cabs,estimated time of arrival and eliminate security issues but also relaysdata back to the company about high-traffic locations, demographic, trends etc. With access to such big data, Uber soon attracted other companies that wanted in on the perks of collaborative development. During the months since its arrival into India, Uber has extended this philosophy to partnerships with several other brands. Here’s a fewworth interesting ones worth noting- Uber partnership with Amattra Spa, Yum Yum Tree and The Manor Hotel for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day Using Twitter and Instagram as platforms, Uber launched exclusive campaigns for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day where participants stood a chance to win spa treatments, meals, cocktails, free rides and hotel stays at Amattra Spa, Yum Yum Tree or The Manor Hotel. Uber Partnership with Citibank Restaurant Week India Every reservation at a partner restaurant during Restaurant Week India was eligible for a to-and-fro ride with Uber. Uber partnership with NDTV On voting day, Uberpartnered with NDTV to offer free rides to get to the polling booth and back during polling hours. Uber Partnership with CricHQ Using the Uber app to enter a contest, fans stood a chance to have cricket superstars Brendon McCullum&FafDuPlessis pick the up in an Uber ride and take them to the CricHQ India launch party at the New Zealand High Commission. Uber Partnership with Johnnie Walker Blue Label, Deccan & High Ultra Lounge Uber teamed up with Johnnie Walker Blue Label to deliver a rare experience of a helicopter ride that could be booked using the Uber app for Rs 4999 (including door-to-door car service, chopper ride and brunch). Customers could snatch the experience of an aerial tour of Bangalore’s iconic places and then a sumptuous brunch at the High Ultra Lounge. Uber has so far been offering its premium service UberBLACK in India but Just last week it has announced the arrival of its lower-cost service, UberX. This move will put the cab-rental service in direct competition with other cab companies such as Meru and Ola cabs. I think its safe to say more affordable partnerships will soon be underway. So, will your brand ride with Uber?
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Music and movie channel, B4U, has launched seasonal online digital properties for its audience this monsoon. The digital campaigns are being leveraged on Facebook and have resulted in a humongous jump in the number of followers and fans. The first of the campaigns is B4U Monsoon Mania and is an initiative to engage music lovers. Viewers can participate by uploading a photo from their mobile phones of any rain song being played on the channel B4U Music, on to the Facebook page www.facebook.com/b4umusic , while using the hashtag #MonsoonMania. The person who uploads maximum monsoon songs would be crowned as the Monsoon Queen/King and would be gifted exclusive branded merchandise. The other initiative is B4U Predictor where fans can expect to see a Facebook post every Thursday on www.facebook.com/B4UMoviesTV giving them a chance to guess the box office opening of the film. The person who predicts an amount closest to the actual box office amount will win exclusive merchandise.
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From old school usage of graffiti as floor and wall tiles, the trend has eventually moved to hi-tech applicability of the art form. Brands these days have adopted riveting experiential marketing strategies to connect with their buyers as they have reason to believe that besides drawing attention to it, the art form can act as a great medium of engagement. Here are some interesting consumer-engagement examples that used graffiti as inspiration: Digital Graffiti Wall by Coca Cola In the festive spirit of Fifa World Cup, the official sponsor Coca Cola and Fifa World Cup Trophy Tour 2014 managed to make an impact and stand out with the help of a Digital Graffiti Wall in London, Glasgow, Cardiff and Manchester. Visitors present at the event had the opportunity to improve their expertise in the game with the help of professional ‘football tricksters’ and use the Digital Graffiti Wall to create customized Coke bottles and win coke merchandise. The company behind the activity, Spray Paint Wall, managed to engage audience with their software that enabled guests to use a ‘digital graffiti can’ to colour and create extravagant designs using coke stamps and stencils. The next move helped the brand to directly connect with the guests as they printed the customized designed bottles for them to take home. This digital initiative invited audience of all age, to participate in a football shootout contest and compete in the dribble time trials and self-examine how fast they could kick a football in the speed trap. Reebok Cross Fit- 3D street art The Reebok Cross Fit created the largest 3D street art that holds the Guinness World Record. The painting by 3D Joe and Marx, measured an impressive 1,160.4m² and was disclosed at London’s Canary Wharf. An experiential marketing activity was carried out by inviting public to take part in the Reebok Cross fit –‘Workout of the day’ on the remarkable artwork made on a street in London. Officially declared as the largest piece of street art, it attracted people to be an active part of this magnificent piece and its celebration. The House of Vans evening at Bluefrog showcased ‘live Graffiti’ The House of Vans was hosted at Bluefrog, Mumbai in February. The evening featured bands playing different genres of music, engaging in street art, photography and extreme sports. What appealed most to the crowd was the live graffiti by the multi-media designer Jas Charanjiva on the backdrop of the stage while the musicians performed their show. Another engaging move on the part of the organisers was to let the guests create their own graffiti on a graffiti wall outside the club. Style your Drive at Auto Expo At the Auto Expo 2014 held at New Delhi, Maruti Suzuki conducted “Style your Drive”, wherein the audience was able to virtually graffiti a car via Infrared devices acting as painting guns. Flare 3D software proved to be an engaging initiative at the event. This modern form of graffiti attracted several customers at the Auto Expo. People present at the event designed cars to the best of their imagination. Nike AirMax, on its 27th anniversary showcased Graffiti artist Zeke’s art on one of its store walls in Mumbai. This unusual celebration of sneakers by Nike caught the attention of many in the suburbs of Mumbai. This eye catching art embellished the walls of the store and a reality projection captioned as ’27 Years of AirMax’ escalated the beauty a little further. Sameer Kulavoor designed the official poster for the event. Certain elements from the poster were printed on the button badges and given away. Graffiti has certain edginess to it. But it must be noted that only a few brands can connect with the art form and efficiently use it in their marketing strategies. However, one thing is clearly established, old school style or with-a-twist, the art of Graffiti will continue to exist and brands will continue to leverage it in a range of different ways.
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As humans, we all look for categorizations. They make our lives easier and more manageable.Therefore, it’s only natural that we at EE, after careful scrutiny, bring to you the list of Top 10 Experiential agencies in India today. For marketers and newbies in the experiential world, this list provides the top 10 agencies in India that have made their mark and given an excellent show as far as experiential is concerned. Keeping in mind the scalability factor, the brilliance in innovation, and the management of the audience, we have compiled a list of top 10 agencies. And the winners are – 1. Wizcraft Established in 1988, this agency is responsible for all the magic behind the IIFA Weekend and Awards, Green Globe Foundation Awards, Global Indian Music Academy Awards and the Film & TV Producers. Some of the prestigious projects led by Wizcraft most recently include the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, the ICC World Cup’s Opening ceremony in Dhaka, the Oman Tattoo and the celebration of 150 years of India-South Africa friendship. 2. Percept Founded in 1984, Percept Limited, they are responsible for some of the biggest shows such as Sunburn (with over 1,00,000 attendees), Bollyboom, Filmfare, Ad Films, Feature films, Fight Night, GOD, Champions of the world, Windsong, and the list goes on. Celebrating 30 years of excellence, they provide creative services, media services, digital and mobile services and and also have a vertical that handles sports and entertainment for their clients. 3. LIVE Viacom 18 LIVE Viacom18 is a subdivision under Integrated Network Solutions (INS) whose mandate is to create LIVE IP’s in the Music & Entertainment space. They are the ones responsible for creating MTV Xtreme, the Comedy Central Chuckle festival, Supersonic, MTV Bollyland, Nickelodeon KCA India, etc. 4. Only Much Louder The guys behind the multi-city, multi-day Bacardi NH7, A Summer’s Day, The Scene, NH7 Smash Up, and NH7 Shake Down, MTV Bring On The Night, and producing the Cannes Lion-winning show – The Dewarists, OML has made their mark in the events industry. 5. Fountainhead Having commenced operations in 1995, Fountainhead has worked with top global brands like MTV, Philips, Hutchison Max Telecom, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi and solid domestic brands like Tata, Blue Star, Aditya Birla Group and Bennett Coleman. They have also handled international acts such as Akon, 50 Cent, INXS, Spyrogyra, Buddy Guy and have created very successful music festivals like The One Tree Music Festival and The Mahindra Blues Festival. 6. DNA Networks A name synonymous with Entertainment in Sports, DNA Networks are the big guys behind events such as IPL, ICC Cricket World Cup Tour, ICC World Twenty20, Champions League, Athens Olympic Torch Relay. Besides sports they have also a number of music festivals such as Sound Awake, Rock’N India (an international annual music festival) and it prides itself on being the only events company in India to have produced live concerts with Music Greats such as Sting, Roger Waters, Lionel Richie, Iron Maiden, Katy Perry, Bryan Adams, Shakira, Aerosmith, etc. 7. 70 EMG Established over a decade ago, 70EMG, they are the curators behind festivals like the India Bike Week – a first of its kind biking festival in India, and the The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai since 2002 with over 6,50,000 visitors each year, the AAAI Goa Festival, South Asia’s answer to the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival – since 2007, the Nokia IndiaFest with over 12,000 visitors and the GJEPC India International Jewelry Week (over 800 exhibitors & 50,000 business visitors) amongst many others. 8. Encompass Events Having been in the industry for over 15 years and having more than 10000 projects in their pockets, Encompass events are the brains behind the award winning campaigns such as the P&G Thank You Mom mall activation, Gillette Shave For The Soldier campaign and the world launch of Toyota, Etios, People’s Gateway Movement, Mercedes Benz-Star Drive, etc. 9. DDB Mudra Max Founded in 1980, DDB Mudra Max has dabbled in experiential in a way that it successfully executed the 46 day long Grand Kerala Shopping Festival with the Government of Kerala, grabbed the South African Tourism OOH duties, IAA Olive Crown, and many more such properties along with handling experiential campaigns for a number of corporates such as Volkswagen. 10. Showtime Group Having been in the industry for over 30 years now, the Showtime Group has successfully executed events such as the BMW 3 Series launch, BMW Xperience, BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe Launch, DLF Mall of India launch, Swiss Unlimited launch, the Finacle Conclave, Hero Insolito, Jodhpur One World Retreat, MINI Countryman launch, Starbucks launch, etc.
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From a basic ‘tent wala’ till about a decade ago, the event industry has since witnessed a paradigm shift in customers’ minds and brands’ minds as well. Over a period of time it has transformed into a large and innovative platform. Feeding this demand for innovation are some great ideas let afloat ever so frequently. Here’s a closer look at five remarkable event start-ups of this year. Ola Cabs: Available in five cities at the moment, Ola cabs promises to expand to at least 10 more by the end of next year. It is always a delight to have a fleet of cars available at one’s ease after and before an event. An initiative by Bhavish Agrawal was born with the idea that it would be asset-lite and tech-intensive for its users. Only a free downloadable app or a phone call is what connected the customers to the service. They could also monitor their cabs via GPS. Another added feature, Heat maps enabled the company to track where their cabs are. Eat in my Seat: A simple yet great start up ‘Eat In My Seat’ provides a mobile application that enables users to browse the menu at the venue and order directly from their smartphones. It allows its users to pay within the app and choose to either collect the order or get it delivered. As soon as the order gets ready push notifications let users know that they can come and collect. This initiative is a fantastic way to save time as it rescues you from waiting in long queues. Crowd Mics: Crowd Mics has created a buzz in the event industry. The idea behind the start-up is quite simple yet engaging. It allows the attendees to download an app which turns their smartphones into a mic. The speaker can then plug his/her smart phone to the audio system and enjoy the technology. It came across as a powerful concept and a crowd engaging one. Floh.in: Finding the right match has always been a challenging deed and for young professionals its all the more tough. Floh is a platform that brings single people together at events with the objective of meeting like-minded people to build healthy connections. It enables members to have real, in person interactions at events and is mainly focused towards urban, educated and independent singles. More recently Floh has started allowing a selected number of people who apply for the service, an entrance fee of Rs. 7,500 for three months or Rs 15,000 for the whole year. This gives its users a chance to attend events in the company of compatible singles. CrowdCan.do: A U.K. based platform called CrowdCan.do utilizes crowd funding technology to eliminate the financial risk of conducting an event by allowing organisers to sell tickets in advance in order to raise funds. It makes work even simpler by allowing the organisers to download a free Android or iOS app that enables them to manage, scan and authorize tickets.This is a great opportunity for those starting out in the event industry as it enables them to test the idea before exposing themselves to the financial risks involved.
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1 As per industry reports, the shelf life of ATL campaigns have decreased from 6-8 months, coming down to 2 months. This makes it important for the marketer to create more engaging marketing strategies, which create a greater recall. 2. BTL activities ensure greater interface with the consumers and instant feedback. This gives rise to immediate ROI and on-the-spot sales, or immense recall value. 3. BTL is becoming a strong focus area for retailers. Catchment initiatives are seen as an integral part across retail segments, especially since the growth of modern and multi-brand retail. In order to combat declining walk-ins, store managements are resorting to deeper brainstorming sessions to evolve creative catchment engagement initiatives. This is sought to be linked to store managers’ KRAs. The organised sector of the Indian events and activation industry is estimated at around Rs 2,800 crore in 2011-12. 4. The segmentation between organised and unorganised players stands at a 40:60 ratio. 5. The BTL industry has grown at over 20 per cent during the last two years and is expected to grow to Rs 4,375 crore by 2013-14. 6. Spends dedicated to below-the-line activations are poised to increase by 20 per cent more in 2013-14. 7. The relationship between events and technology is emerging. Brands are deploying social media technology as well as unique tech-engagement on-site to create an integrated campaign. 8. Food brands, and other FMCG products, which fall under the impulse purchase category are dedicating more than 60 per cent of their marketing spend to BTL activations. 9. The electronics industry is investing majorly in in-store activations. The budgets of major electronics brands have upped 20 – 30 per cent between 2012-13. Since, the final brand choice for a customer depends upon how a specific model is demonstrated and explained to him at the point of sale, this BTL activity acquires most importance as a high percentage of electronics is sold via the multi brand channel. 10. The auto industry in India is very forthcoming and experimentative when it comes to BTL activations. This industry spends heavily on activation formats like road shows.
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Social media can undoubtedly play a massive role in creating buzz around an event. It is increasingly being perceived as a vital medium when it comes to drawing attendance to an event, engaging the attendees during it and also to populate the content generated at it. However, simply providing attendees with a few social platforms may not be enough. The term ‘experiential marketing’ calls for an enriching and personalized experience. Therefore, to establish strong connections with the audience it is imperative to encourage deeper engagement. Here are 7 tips to ensure you are sharp as a tack when hosting your next event: Target a Relevant Audience “When targeting a specific audience, social media helps a great deal in allowing psychographic filtering”, says Pratik Gupta of Foxymoron. He adds, For example, when a company like Maybelline is segmenting its audience it knows it shares its consumers with Forever 21, Revlon etc. Through the use of social media it becomes easier to subset audiences”. Social media can also be integrated with registration to share the names of people attending and in turn lead to the involvement of many more. #Hashtags Always present the audience with a hashtag to get an early start to creating buzz. For example- to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their G-Shock range, Casio released a specific hashtag weeks in advance before a celebratory event. Attendees and non-attendees were encouraged to use the hashtag to upload photos of their Casio watches on Instagram. 3000 photos were generated which were displayed on a live-feed throughout the venue. Similarly Twitter profiles can be created for the speakers (if any) so the audience can get early access to them. Keeping the hashtag central will ensure content is not lost and audience remains engaged. Interesting Content People like to read, share and comment on interesting things. Make that available to your audience. Foxymoron executed a viral campaign integrating social media and on ground activity for launch of Maybelline’s SuperStay lipstick using a hashtag on Twitter- #DoesntLastLongEnough. Maybelline fans were encouraged to share their thoughts on what they wished ‘lasts as long as she does.’ The result was a high amount of cheeky content created by women across the country. ‘I have to do it again and again because #DoesntLastLongEnough’ and ‘I do at work because #DoesntLastLongEnough’ were some of the tweets. The topic trended #1 for 14+ hours in India and was discussed by Maybelline’s 1.7 million Facebook and 1500+ Twitter followers. Build a Community In the digital age, people are no longer willing to wait around. Ensure all questions and comments are responded to very swiftly. Act in charge before the onset of the event and remain in charge till the event is executed. Offer prizes to the most interactive and engaged attendees. Offer something extra for engaging on social media. It could be anything from a free book at a book launch, to a copy of an industry report, to free registration for a subsequent event etc. Social Media for a Social Cause There is a feel good factor in doing the right thing or contributing to a social cause. Tap that emotion through social media where applicable. Pratik Gupta, Foxymoron, states, “For Garnier Men’s ‘Powerlight A Village’ campaign last year, the audience on Facebook was encouraged to actively like, share and comment. Each activity contributed as a predetermined unit of energy which was eventually translated into actual ‘energy donation’ to bring electricity into remote villages of India”. The scale of the social cause may of course vary from event to event but there’s always a chance that the media might pick it up. Promotional/Recap Videos Teaser videos are a great way to capture the interest of a possible audience. Snippets of what the event has to offer, views of the speakers, subjects of discussions etc can be released before the event to entice the audience. Once the event concludes, highlights can be merged into a video and made available to a global audience through Youtube. Tireless Engagement Keep the community engaged for as long as you can. Share blog posts and write presentations that can be viewed on your own platform/website. Besides tying social network outposts together, a solid homebase can lead to even stronger engagement on the home site.
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