We asked a few event marketing agency execs to talk about their techie wish lists and their picks for the year’s best work.
Q:What’s the best event you’ve done this year?
BURKE
Taste of Lexus. It combined consumer experiential marketing, sales training, p.r. and loyalty. It put 45,000 attendees in 12 cities behind the wheel of the featured vehicles.
GLASS
The Suave “Can You Tell?” Studio was our biggest challenge: We designed, installed and operated temporary full-service salons in New York, Chicago and Minneapolis. The salons looked like they’d been there for years, but were only open for a few days in each market.
LENDERMAN
The 25 Axe-themed parties. Axe Ambassadors — college kids who volunteer to be Axe evangelists — throw a party each semester that supports Axe’s positioning. It’s grassroots, the kind of brand evangelism that’s the future of our business.
MANNIX
Country Home Magazine’s Be Creative New York! festival, and Sephora’s 100th Grand Store opening. Both used high-end with outdoor and mass-consumer elements.
Country Home‘s daylong Central Park festival had performances and demonstrations from stylists, authors and chefs. Sephora hosted 50,000 attendees in Union Square, across the street from the new store, and showcased partners’ products with makeovers and stylist sessions. It drove consumers into the store.
NEISSER
The Hi Def Experience for Panasonic, one of our best ever. This five-market, tented experience traveled with the Action Sports Tour and balanced entertainment, free goodies and gee-whiz technology. An instant-win game on a state-of-the-art Panasonic Plasma TV with touch-screen play board gave every player a prize. Another set of touch-screen Plasmas carried stop-action viewing of 18 different action sports stunts. Panasonic hosted autograph sessions with action sports stars.
NIERENBERG
Nestle’s partnership with Napster gave consumers in a live environment the chance to buy candy and win free music downloads. We retrofitted an old beverage truck that traveled the country, with download kiosks that let consumers browse Napster’s music collection.
PARRINELLO
Glenlivet City Links, the largest-ever pop-up retail exhibit with a 10,000 square-foot, nine-hole golf course and clubhouse. The four-market tour spends up to three weeks in each city. During the day, the course is open to the public for free; private evening events let media partners (GQ, Playboy, The New Yorker) invite subscribers.
What’s the best event you’ve seen, but not done, this year?
BURKE
The ESPN X Games; the target market is so well defined that every element of the production is rooted in a very specific demographic. Branding messages are crystal clear and the action is extremely entertaining…even to a Baby Boomer like me.
GLASS
The Target Vertical Fashion Show in Rockefeller Center. It was an obvious technical accomplishment, but I was most impressed that Target secured all the necessary permissions. Marshall Field’s [2003] vertical fashion show in Chicago was done on the facade of their own building — getting Rock Center was certainly a coup for Target.
LENDERMAN
Swivel Media’s work for Wells Fargo may be one of the first steps toward virtual event marketing. They built a virtual online world, Stagecoach Island, where players use Wells Fargo products to have a good time. We’re not far away from virtual event marketing becoming as prevalent as physical marketing. It won’t be unrealistic to someday host events for millions of people around the world without putting up a single Port-a-Potty.
MANNIX
Target’s “runway show.” It was very cool.
NEISSER
New York Jets football training camp. The sponsors’ section offered modestly entertaining football-related games, including a field goal setup. I made a 20-yarder on the first try — in loafers.
NIERENBERG
Camp eBay, for bringing a virtual product into a live event. Placing an online component into the hands, hearts and heads of consumers is difficult, but eBay did it.
PARRINELLO
American Express’ U.S. Open Live. They transformed World Financial Center and Madison Square Park into a replica of the U.S. Open, with stadium seating, a Jumbotron screen with live simulcasts, on-court lessons and skills clinics, appearances by Monica Seles and Chris Evert. AmEx cardholders got V.I.P. seating and could win tickets to the U.S. Open.
What new technology has been useful to you?
BURKE
Taste of Lexus used a video centerpiece that used multi-channel high-definition video and the latest in real-time image processing. It was flown above the audience for easy viewing from all sides. Wireless microwave transmission from remote cameras allowed real-time event hosts to communicate product and event information to guests via plasma screens around the event space.
GLASS
We used LED environmental lighting on the ship Peking for the Hanes Perfect T Party. The lighting grid was hooked into the sound system so lighting effects were choreographed to the music. We projected the colors onto the ship and a canopy draped over the dance floor; the entire venue pulsed with light. LED has an almost limitless color palette, so the results were great.
LENDERMAN
We’ve developed online project management tools that improve real-time measurability and response. Customized measurement for each client is paramount for deeper qualitative analysis. We’ve used video turnstiles and floor sensors to measure foot traffic and flow at entry/exit points. Motion-detecting technology lets us free up brand ambassadors for more meaningful engagements than counting heads.
MANNIX
Accenture has a pen that lets you capture data on the spot, by writing on special paper. It saves many hours of inputting data.
NEISSER
We used an interactive video projection system at concert events for Panasonic Oxyride batteries. As concertgoers walked towards the screen, one of four Oxymites characters responded to their movements via infrared triggers. We also tested text messaging, dangling back-stage visits with headliner Jason Mraz. Response rates were pretty good; we’ll try bigger text messaging programs down the road.
NIERENBERG
In 2005, we’ve used human kiosks, text messaging, online reporting systems, Bluetooth and our own in-house green-screen e-photo capability.
PARRINELLO
Our brand ambassadors use Dolphin handheld computers to capture consumer data at retail events. The technology has been around for a while, but it continues to evolve. We scan consumers’ driver’s licenses or military ID cards and enter their responses to a few questions. Data is verified and transferred via wireless uplink to our system for follow up with customized branded e-mails. The system also lets us track our field reps in real time.
What new technology are you waiting for?
BURKE
I’m hoping that 360-degree projection will become more cost-effective so we can include it in more events.
GLASS
Inflatable truss systems, but this is a pipe dream (so to speak). We’re looking forward to advances in flat-panel video technology, especially for outdoor use; the cost of using LED panels to show video in direct sunlight sometimes precludes the use of video at smaller outdoor events. Daylight plasmas would give us a cost-effective way to create dynamic backdrops without worrying about creating shade.
LENDERMAN
Whatever I wish for already exists — that’s the beauty of the technological halcyon we’re living in. Look at Brand Experience Lab, the International Experiential Marketing Association, the discussions on blogs like Adrants and Adverblog. It’s rare to have to wait for a tech solution — but I wish it were less expensive, or I wish the client would take the leap.
MANNIX
Something that makes it easier to capture info and sign people up for online promos — quickly. Also: automatic counters for foot traffic — and a device that measures attendee’s “experience” with the brand. When we develop that, we’ll be sitting on the beach enjoying the royalties.
NEISSER
Vizoo has created some incredible freeform holograms; one let consumers use a touch-screen laptop to control the hologram of a Lexus in motion. I can’t wait for them to figure out how to have consumers interact directly with the hologram outdoors.
NIERENBERG
Flawless, uninterrupted wireless technology so marketers could perform programs anywhere, at anytime.
PARRINELLO
We’re anxious for cell phone technology in the U.S. to catch up to Asia and Europe, for more targeted messages and instant information downloads. Automated parameter controls, GPS mapping, bar code scanning and higher bandwidth over wireless could bring another level of interactivity to experiential marketing. Cell phones with geographic-based text messaging would be great for college marketing programs, to send a branded text message blast about an on-campus event.
BRAIN TRUST
Tom Burke director of business development, AMCI
Matt Glass managing partner, Eventage
Max Lenderman creative director, GMR Marketing and author of Experience the Message
Dan Mannix president, Lead Dog Marketing Group
Drew Neisser president/CEO, Renegade Marketing Group
Brad Nierenberg president, RedPeg Marketing
Vince Parrinello president, Legacy Marketing Partners
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