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.
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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.
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The 15th IIFA Celebrations will see the best of Indian cinema show up not only in Tampa Bay, Florida, but also on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and several other platforms in a live environment. Millions of fans would have a chance to steal a first-look at the IIFA events and green carpets as they unfold at the Videocon D2H IIFA Weekend and the Tata Motors IIFA Awards powered by LAVA mobile. Powered by Lava Mobile, IIFA has lined up a host of exciting interactive social media activities, teaming up with Twitter, reinitiating the very successful Twitter Mirror experience that made its debut at the IIFAs in Macau in 2013 and introducing for the first time ever, the Twitter Vine Booth @ IIFA, Facebook and Instagram (Booth and Stop), giving online IIFAians an All-Access-Pass across the 4 days of the Weekend. The Twitter Mirror placed strategically at the green carpet, backstage and green rooms will bring fans candid celeb moments and selfies showcasing many a mood of their much-loved Bollywood stars tweeting with the handle @IIFA. Having proven to be a hit last year among celebrities and audiences alike, the Twitter Mirror makes a comeback and promises to be even more fun and exciting with the possibility of a photo-bomb or two. Another green-carpet entrant in Tampa Bay will see Twitter debut its coolest photo booth yet -The Twitter Vine capturing the Bollywood brigade in a way never seen before. IIFA will lead the pack as it did last year with the Twitter Mirror, and be the first-ever film award ceremony to witness Twitter Vine create magic, after it did the same at the American Music Awards (AMAs). The camera will circle 360 degrees around celebrities to capture a six-second video giving a full view of who wore what and spoke to who. This first-time-ever photo booth promises to arrest the best fashion moments and candid expressions straight from the carpet. The Instagram Booth is an interesting variant to keep Instagram followers engaged with the candid selfies. Instagram Booth and Stop will also be present at the green carpets, waiting to capture all the glamour, fashion, sudden, and dramatic moments that the carpet usually witnesses. The official Instagram handle is @IIFAAwards. Instagram Stop is another social media activity in the line-up, connecting admirers from all over the world to their desired celebrity, the 15 second Q & A platform will enable the fan to shoot questions at the star and receive replies to their query. IIFA’s Facebook page will soon launch a campaign that would collect and screen questions for celebs. Running parallel to the telecast of IIFA’s main Awards ceremony will be a tight second screen engagement via Twitter Amplify. This extremely thrilling social media activity will reveal the highlights of the event in 15 second capsules during the broadcast for online consumption. The second screen engagement will enable online consumers to watch exclusive backstage footage to complement their TV viewing experience.
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In this fiercely competitive marketplace, driven by extreme consumerism, brands are forever struggling to make a recall in the minds of the consumers. And with novel avenues opening up creatively, brands are now closer than ever to their target audience. Experiential methods of marketing have made this possible. Whilst new technologies make our world more connected and personalised, it also opens up vast opportunities for brands to reach out to consumers with some engaging brand experiences. The past two years have seen unprecedented levels of technology adoption in experiential initatives. 1. Mobile Technologies The growing power and convenience of mobile devices have made them the platform of choice to communicate with consumers. Users are constantly sharing data and going online to search for information. The next step is to blend the social experience with immersion technologies to inform and inspire consumers. The mobile device is extensively seeing high penetration and it is only a matter of time that brands will optimise their strategies to concentrate a lot more on this medium. Internet content delivery network, Akamai, pointed out it its latest State of the Internet Report 2013 that mobile data growth is exponential, while voice traffic is flat. Another report released by Ericsson stated that the volume of mobile data traffic doubled from the fourth quarter of 2011 to the fourth quarter of 2012. Brands have a myriad of opportunities to connect with consumers via mobile platforms using augmented reality apps, QR codes, geo-location, and social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 2. Facial recognition Automatic face and gesture recognition is rapidly developing into a highly effective experiential campaign feature. The varying technologies are currently being used in interactive vending machines which allow brands to develop creative ways of dispensing surprise gifts and branded content. Adidas had used the technology in shopping centre screens to identify a person’s age in order to better serve ads that are most relevant to them. A 60-year old man or a 25-year old youngster were shown targeted products meant for their fitness requirements. 3. Audio Technologies A narrow beam of sound into a confined area, allowing only the select person to hear the message or sound transmitted, making it the perfect tool for communicating an intimate and targeted message to consumers. Other electronic devices such as Portable Vibrating Speakers can be attached to any objects that will project sound, acting as the amplifier for sounds pushed out by the object it is attached to.
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Since its inception social media has been the hotbed of political discussion. And with the elections around the corner, the Internet is abuzz with conversations around the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. With 100 million potential voters on Facebook alone, political parties and candidates have decided to deeply invest and integrate Facebook into their strategies. The website, on the other hand, has decided to undertake a series of initiatives to engage and encourage the voter to make an informed choice. It kicked off its first season of Facebook Talks last month featuring election candidates talking to Madhu Trehan of Newslaundry. The Talks imitated typical townhalls, with audiences can share their views and questions at the venue or online. The second season of the Talks kicked off on 11th April and is scheduled to be held in three cities – Amritsar, Varanasi and Vadodara. Prior to each of these townhalls, citizens are asked to upload a 60s video on a Facebook group expressing what they think is important for India, what they feel needs to be the agenda and what will influence their vote. The topics discussed in the townhall will be based on the issues people raise in the videos. Citizens wishing to attend can register themselves on their respective city’s Facebook groups. ‘In Season II of Facebook Talks, we are going back to the core principles of the Founding fathers and taking the show to the people in some important constituencies. You – the Citizen of India will be the focus of the show,’ said Ankhi Das – Director, Public Policy, India & South Asia – Facebook. In order to beef up their effort for the elections, Facebook has also launched a list of nifty features on their site. The ‘I’m a Voter’ button allows voters to share with their friends that they are voting this season. ‘Know Your Neta’ allows users to access candidate information without incurring internet costs. ‘Election Lists’ are interest lists that users can follow to see what elected representatives are saying on Facebook and the ‘Election Tracker’ shows how these representatives are faring on Facebook.
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There was a time when the major focus of budgets relied mainly on distribution to score an edge. Today, in this competitive scenario, innovative marketing campaigns are stealing the thunder. It is more of a ‘pull’ strategy that the brands are looking to create so as to generate customer loyalty. The ultimate aim then becomes to retain the customer and make him loyal, such that he doesn’t settle for Product B, if Product A isn’t available. As per industry reports, more than three quarters of the money and time invested by major brands, goes towards acquiring new customers and subsequently retaining the same. From a seller’s marketplace, it has transformed today into a lively, customer-centric scenario, where a WOW factor is the buzzword. Experiential marketing effectively helps in customer retention and offers a high recall value. And if you’re lucky, this customer becomes your new brand ambassador. A dynamic step forward The convergence of experiential and digital could represent one of the most important steps forward in modern marketing. It is little secret that today’s consumers are demanding a much more personal relationship with the brands they choose, and this has been a key factor in the rise of experiential marketing. Experiential campaigns have a lot to thank the digital world for. Most digital campaigns are now seamlessly integrated on-ground. When digital and experiential campaigns are integrated, experiential gives digital the ability to master proximity, and digital gives experiential the power to extend its reach and add value for both the brand and the consumer. Says Vineet Gupta, Managing Partner, 22 Feet Digital, “There was a time when anonymity was the mantra of the digital world. Aliases were always sought after. But with the rise and rise of social media, everyone knows who you are, what you do, where you stay, what exactly you’re doing. Your opinions are being heard, broadcast and shared, and this is a make-or-break for brands. If even one consumer does not like the experience you provide him, he has all the liberty to showcase it on the social media.” The convergence of experiential and digital could represent one of the most important steps forward in modern marketing. It is little secret that today’s consumers are demanding a much more personal relationship with the brands they choose, and this has been a key factor in the rise of experiential marketing. People are now less concerned about brands violating privacy laws and bombarding them with promotional emailers, because they are engaging with brands they trust, thus the experiences are now richer and more dynamic. Competitive space, smarter consumers Every day, there are several products that are being launched. To make matters complex, there is category creation. Products are becoming congested with a lot of display information and features, making it difficult for the customer to distinguish one product from another. This environment is now forcing brand managers to find new ways to create and maintain a relationship between their product or service and the customer. This is where experiential marketing comes into place. “Customers today are more skeptical than before about mass media marketing campaigns and advertising of claims. They are more aware and have easy access to information,” adds Gupta. Integrating digital media by way of social media campaigns into experiential marketing is not as simple as throwing a link, hashtag or a QR code. The integration of digital communication needs to be seamlessly bonded to provide the brand experience. Brands are now realising the importance of creating a dialogue with the consumers to make them feel heard and validated. The integration of digital media with experiential campaigns thus helps achieve this.
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It is a well documented fact that there is a strong correlation between crime and darkness. The incidences of crimes like rape, muggings, carjackings etc are higher post sunset. Given this, Halonix – a leading lighting brand – hit upon an ingenious idea of converting advertising billboards (Hoardings) and bus shelters into street lights post sunset. The hoarding would carry an advertising message by day. By night, the lights of the hoarding would be turned outwards, pointed towards the street rather than just on the advertising message. So a dark, potentially dangerous street could be turned into a bright, well-lit one. To kickstart the effort, Halonix invited the citizens of Delhi to name streets or area in their neighbourhood that needed better lighting. The facebook page of Halonix registered many such suggestions. The top suggestion was identified by a poll. As a test run, a Halonix hoarding was put up in VasantKunj. Encouraged by the response, the company installed hoardings at more locations in Delhi. Given the encouraging feedback from Delhi, Halonix has co-opted outdoor companies to take this idea across cities. Currently Halonix has made some streets in Delhi, Mohali, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Mathura, Allahbad, Lucknow, Trivandrum and Chennai feel safer through this initiative. More cities are in the offing. Speaking about the initiative, Mr Rakesh Zutshi – Managing Director, Halonix Technologies Ltd said “We at Halonix believe that brands need to have a conscience and should continuously attempt to make the world a better place. Our brand idea – The Right Light – is not limited to the fact that we pursue excellence in our products and their quality. It represents a broader view of impacting life and society positively through the use of light.” Nima Namchu – Chief Creative Officer of Cheil, Halonix’s advertising agency, who came up with the idea added “This is a great example of the medium becoming the message. The power of the idea lies in the fact that, without spending a penny extra, every brand that takes a front lit or back lit hoarding, can implement this idea and make our cities feel safer. We hope more brands and outdoor agencies take this idea forward.”
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Are you overwhelmed by the sheer complications of finalising options of venue, catering, lodging, decoration and transportation when you are planning a family wedding, functions like sangeet, cocktails, etc, or a themed birthday celebration for your kid or family member? And you are stressed out with where to begin? Party Cruisers Pvt Ltd., India’s leading hospitality and events agency, has announced its foray into the ever expanding e-Commerce sphere with the launch of their website www.ideasdesignandproduction.com. Ideas Design Production is a unique offering which helps planning & executing events related to corporates, weddings, parties and other occasions easily and completely in just a few clicks! Launched by the vastly experienced husband wife duo – Mr. Zuzer Lucknowala and Ms. Rachna Lucknowala, the website allows consumers to get a virtual ‘touch and feel’ experience. It showcases the various themes that a consumer can pick & choose to plan an event at their own convenience. Apart from planning weddings and parties, the website also enables its users to plan corporate events and exhibition stalls in a few mouse clicks. “While there are no accurate estimates of the size of the event industry, it has been variously estimated at between Rs. 2000 crores to Rs. 5000 crores with an immense scope to grow. When we started Party Cruisers Pvt Ltd. about 20 years ago we had never heard about e-Commerce. But with the change in consumer buying pattern, it became imperative for us to take cognizance of the same. Our aim while launching a never-seen-before concept of www.ideasdesignandproduction.com was to bring the products/services closer to the customer and give the power right back to them. Through our numerous vendor tie-ups, we ensure successful completion of multiple events at the same time. From customizing minutest details like choosing a theme to selecting a floral centerpiece, catering, booking a make-up person and stylist, to finalizing the backdrop design www.ideasdesignproduction.com facilitates at various stages of event planning. The website will be especially useful for salaried consumers who have the resources but are always short at time”,explains Ms. Rachna Lucknowala, Director, Party Cruisers Pvt Ltd. Mr. Zuzer Lucknowala, Managing Director, Party Cruisers Pvt Ltd adds, “We are currently operational in Mumbai as we have roots here and can help order fulfillment within 24 working hours. We will be venturing into the markets of Pune, Goa and Surat by this year’s end. We are targeting a more evolved set of internet savvy shoppers who are heavy users of e-Commerce portals and largely access them to save on time along with enjoying the ease of product delivery. At the moment, our focus is on utilizing our impeccable supply chain for on-time service fulfillment which will ensure positive customer response and an obviously good word of mouth.” The website which is currently in the first phase of its launch, aims to create a more user-friendly, reliable experience for its consumers. As we go along, we will adapt to millions of customers’ needs and wishes. The company aims to further develop a loyal base of regular consumers and then amplify growth through both word of mouth and extensive reach of social media elements. The website, in its next phase, will offer consumers personalization, recommended products for a particular occasion and social networking integration.
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