201 2 event tech no logy aw ards · honda last summer decided that it wanted more from its auto...

45www.eventmarketer.com NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 EVENT MARKETER

COVER STORY

2012 EVENTTECHNOLOGY

AWARDS

It was just a decade ago that we lived lifewithout so many of the high-tech tools andgadgets that we can’t imagine living withouttoday. There were no iPhones, no iPads and notouch screens. (Fingers were used to pushactual buttons. Buttons!) Data collectors hadyet to discover QR codes, RFID, NFC orgeolocation. Holograms and large-scaleprojections were cool theater tricks, but neversaw the light of day in a marketing context.And 3D, well, it was still stuck in vintage movietheater photos of screaming audienceswatching “The Blob.” Probably the hottestevent technology going in 2002 was the clunky15-pound laptop where consumers could fill in20 data fields to “register” at events. Soundsawesome, right?

Thanks to the ingenuity of event marketerseverywhere, times have changed. And thoselow-tech experiences have gone the way of theCommodore 64. What follows is our secondannual Event Technology Awards report,where we bring you the industry’s 30 bestdigital+live campaigns as voted on by 12brand-side judges–all the cool tools, smartapps, websites, bits, bytes and lumens thathave transformed today’s best technologiesinto immersive, ROI-generating programs.Congratulations to all of this year’s winners.

THE YEAR’S TOP WINNERS FROM THEONLY RECOGNITION PROGRAM FOR

“DIGITAL + LIVE” CAMPAIGNS

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THE 2012 EVENT TECHNOLOGY AWARDS

EVENT TECHNOLOGYAWARD WINNER

CAMPAIGN: Mobile Trivia Game

CLIENT: Cisco

PARTNERS: ten23, Snakblox

Event marketers have joined the ranks of thesmartphone obsessed, unlocking thebusiness potential of the ubiquitoushandheld through programs that trade funincentives for consumer data. But few havemastered the art of using smartphones inconjunction with events to tackle multiplemarketing objectives at once. Until now.

The industry standard smartphonestrategy got a big-time upgrade this summerwhen event marketers at Cisco used themobile device to not only incentivizeattendees to engage in the brand’s on-siteactivations, but also to engage on ameaningful level with the company’s on-sitepartner activations. The resulting programgave event organizers deep attendee datathat surpassed the typical badge scan andenabled the company to prove to itself andthe paying vendors at the Cisco PartnerPavilion just how knowledgeable participantswere about the products on offer.

The winning technology was a custommobile game called the Cisco Cloud MobileTrivia Game and from June 10 to 13, itprovided attendees at the annual CiscoLive!user conference in San Diego with a fun andorganic way to experience the event.Attendees got started by scanning a QR Codeon their device. The scan downloaded a triviaquiz that challenged participants to earnpoints by answering questions correctly.Answering questions quickly and spendingtime at demo stations and partner booths

throughout the event helped boost theirscores. Partner booths were outfitted withQR Codes and users received bonus points forchecking in at each one. The highest scorerswere eligible to win one of 20 iPads.

To address any potential compatibilitysnafus among smartphone models and toeliminate the need for a slow and bulky appdownload that would definitely turn offattendees, tech partner Snakblox leveragedHTML5 to create the gaming experience. Notonly was the resulting game fast and fluid forattendees regardless of their device type,Cisco staffers could easily and quickly updatequestions on the backend by uploading themto an admin panel.

Post-event data generated by the gamerevealed that theater presentations at theevent boasted 100-percent attendance, withmany attendees standing in the aisles. Triviagame players spent an average of 13 minutesin the game and participants visited anaverage of nine out of 14 partner demostations. Thanks to the new game, Cisco wasalso able to close the show with an in-depthanalytics report that revealed just how muchparticipants knew about the products onoffer—both in the Cisco footprints and in thePartner Pavilions. The data can be used tocraft more efficient event experiences for thebrand and help Cisco’s sales team prove thevalue of its event to its paying sponsors—andkeep those revenue-generating partnershipsrolling in.

EVENT MARKETER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 www.eventmarketer.com

Sporting events have long been fertileenvironments for brands that want toconnect with passionate fans. But many ofthe activations have started to look the same.Toss a ball here. Spin a wheel there. And then,badabing, badaboom! Everyone goes homewith a t-shirt.

Honda last summer decided that itwanted more from its auto racingsponsorship, so it created the Honda TriviaRacing Game for the 2012 Indy Races inToronto. Visitors to the automaker’s tentwere invited to grab one of four iPods and racevirtual cars around a track on a large-formatvideo wall. But it wasn’t just a passive racinggame. Multiple-choice trivia questionscontrolled the virtual cars, going faster forcorrect answers and slowing down forincorrect ones. Sound effects on the iPodcontrollers matched the cars’ speed changesand reinforced whether the answer wascorrect or not.

A “Top 10” ranking on a leaderboardencouraged people to return to defend theirposition, and the whole experience fromregistration to checkered flag took only fourminutes, enabling Honda to engage,educate and capture data for more

attendees in less time. And yeah, fans could still win that

perennial event t-shirt, but they probablylearned a little bit about Honda along the way.

Hollywood is getting in on experiential likenobody’s business as movie studios discoverthe value of live experiences that bring theirentertainment franchises to life. Last March,Warner Bros. joined the trend when ittransformed its “Harry Potter” trilogy into a150,000-square-foot self-guided, three-hourtour that gave consumers in London a behind-the-scenes look at all of the unique artifacts,sets, costumes and props created for themovies.

An iPod touch-based Digital Guidetransformed what could have been a passive

museum experience into an interactive one.The guide featured photo galleries, behind-the-scenes video footage, interactive mapslinked to hotspots throughout the exhibitand exclusive interviews with the films’directors, makeup artists, costumers andmore. Tom Felton, the films’ villainous DracoMalfoy, narrated the guide, which was offeredin eight languages.

Nearly 4,500 people were surveyed aftervisiting the tour and 86 percent of them ratedtheir experience as “Excellent” or “Very Good.”Muggle approved.


SILVER WINNER

CAMPAIGN: Warner Bros.Studio Tour London: TheMaking of Harry Potter

CLIENT: Warner Bros.

PARTNERS: Thinkwell Group,Antenna International

GOLD WINNER

CAMPAIGN: 2012 Honda IndyToronto

CLIENT: Honda

PARTNERS: The Taylor Group,Globacore

BEST USE OF HANDHELD TECHNOLOGY

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CAMPAIGN: Workout in thePark Social Game

CLIENT: SELF Magazine

PARTNERS: In-house

It seems that everyone and their dog has anapp these days. (Seriously, Google “dog apps”and see what we mean.) But few brands havean app that delivers on multiple marketingobjectives, across multiple channels, at oncewhile still being fun and, most importantly,addictive for its customers.

SELF magazine delivered on all fronts thisyear when it launched its SELF Workout in thePark Social Game, the first-ever social gamefrom a magazine brand. Workout in the Parkis a 19-year-old live marketing program thatinvites consumers to engage with themagazine and its partners for free fitness,nutrition and health-inspired activities. TheSocial Game was designed to extend theprogram’s live elements digitally and sociallyin order to increase brand awareness, boostthe magazine’s database and drive revenuethrough advertising and sponsorship.

Through the game, women can create andcustomize their own workout park, createavatars that reflect their physique, playfitness, nutrition and wellness challenges,mini-games and puzzles, and deck out theiravatars in hip workout gear and fashionaccessories, among other activities. The morethe consumer plays, the more they cancustomize their avatar, for instance, chiselingtheir bodies up or down based on their activitylevel. (Finally, those six-pack abs I’ve beenwaiting for!) Virtual coaches—Jasmine thefitness trainer, Chloe the nutrition guide and

Mia the wellness coach—serve as hosts of thegame, and players get access to real-worldbenefits, including merchandise offers fromsponsors in beauty, fashion, fitness andwellness. Perhaps the best part of the gamecomes from the mobile app, which enableswomen to log and track real-life fitness goalsand then watch as their progress impactstheir in-game avatars. (But wait! I said Iwanted six-pack abs!) The mobile app alsolets players earn rewards for their real lifeactivities.

Self-improvement is at the heart of thegame’s mission. The app and other socialcomponents make it easy for players to sharetheir in-game activities with friends. It alsogives the magazine’s marketers a constanttouch point to keep the program and thebrand top of mind between live events. Thegame environment features ongoing updatesthat tie real-life events to the virtual world.

The SELF Workout in the Park Social Gamewas launched on Facebook on April 7 and inthe two months that followed, the game wasdownloaded over 250,000 times and playersspent an average of 14 minutes per session.The game has generated more than 200million media impressions, including a hit inthe Advertising column in The New York Timesthat read, “SELF’s arrival into social gaming isone of those landmark events, seeing the newmodel embraced in such a big way.”

Note to SELF… well played.


BEST USE OF A CUSTOM APP

Custom apps have been replacing paperconference schedules for a while now. Butnew to the scene are event apps that bringthe worlds of show content, geolocation,

social media and traffic generationstrategies together all in the palm of theattendees’ hand.

Technology provider Red Hat lastsummer used a QuickMobile-basedtechnology to provide attendees with asmartphone-compatible show app thatdidn’t leave a single objective untapped. Atits core, the app was a seamless, singlesource for real-time conference information.It enabled the show’s organizers to pushreal-time notifications and up-to-the-minute changes while conference-goerscould have instant access to their personalconference schedules (sessions, labs andmeetings) right from their mobile device.

But the app’s “killer app,” so to speak, wasits “gamification” function that invitedattendees to check in to sessions, visitsponsor booths and tweet using the event’shashtag to earn points for their participation.Attendees could compare their scores onglobal and business-unit specificleaderboards with the top three scorers eachday receiving prizes.

Red Hat’s mobile app earned an 83percent adoption rate at the event. Paperschedules: zero.

Childcare franchise Kiddie Academy lastsummer traded in its old school direct mailcampaigns for a series of live activations thatleveraged technology to drive enrollment.

At its Storytime LIVE! events, KiddieAcademies hosted children’s story timeswhere the lead character from each storymade an appearance. A customizedapplication enabled franchisees to track andexecute outreach, registration andenrollment activity around the events,automating and centralizing many of theprocesses via a real-time dashboard that

Kiddie Academy had been handling manually.The program tracked QR codes, emailmarketing and activity on personalized parentmicrosites and instantly assigned anddistributed leads to the appropriate localfranchises. Reports and analytics enabled thefranchisees to automate and track theirprogram’s success, improve ROI and ensure amore timely response to warm leads beingmonitored in the system.

The program generated a 39 percentconversion rate—65 percent higher than theprevious year’s.

50 EVENT MARKETER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 www.eventmarketer.com

BEST USE OF A CUSTOM APP

SILVER WINNER

CAMPAIGN: StorytimeLIVE!

CLIENT: Kiddie Academy

PARTNERS: WebbMason

GOLD WINNER

CAMPAIGN: Red Hat Summit &JBoss World

CLIENT: Red Hat

PARTNERS: QuickMobile


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CAMPAIGN: High School Grand Prix

CLIENT: Nike

PARTNERS: TrojanOne

There are few brands with a bolder attitudethan Nike. The company that was once asimple sneaker brand has conquered nearlyevery sport in the spectrum, emblazoning itssignature swoosh on athletes ranging frombasketball stars and surfing pros to tennischampions and golf masters. There aren’tmany niches left untapped by the Portland-based brand, but when an opportunity arisesto make a new connection, Nike strikesswiftly—creating events where there are noneto sponsor and innovating new ways to winloyal fans through a mix of live experiencesand technology.

Such was the case when Nike set out totap into the 115,000-athlete strong highschool track and field market in Canada bypartnering with the organization School SportCanada to launch the Nike High School GrandPrix, the first-ever Canadian invitational trackand field meet held May 10 through 13 at theUniversity of Toronto.

Nike recognized it needed a centralcommunications and promotional hub for the250 participating student athletes andteacher-coaches who were selected across 10Canadian provinces and territories, as well astheir supporters. So it createdhighschoolgrandprix.ca, a microsite dedicatedto the program and its participants.

The grand prix homepage accommodatesa prominent welcome video (it now features arecap video from the meet), as well asFacebook and Twitter feeds. Logos from each

participating region scroll horizontally acrossthe page. The website allows for coverage ofall event activities with a page for teamprofiles, news—ranging from track and fieldtraining tips to newspaper articles, to blogposts about travel and sightseeing inToronto—an FAQ, event results, sponsormessages and photos.

Social media tie-ins promoted a series ofactivations before the event that included amedia launch, Nike gear fittings, seminars,banquets, keynote speakers and organizedtours of the host city.

Nike streamed the entire event usingUstream on the microsite’s main page andthrough a tab on the event’s Facebook page,enabling those who couldn’t attend thephysical event to participate virtually.Immediately after the event, the results wereaccessible on the website. Participants andsupporters could continue to follow the actionlong after the Grand Prix, as brandambassadors attended three high schoolprovincial championships in order to promotethe Toronto event. Updates continued on thesite and through social media.

Thanks to the activity generated by itsmicrosite and social media efforts, Nikereached more than half a million Facebook“friend of likers”—friends of those who had“liked” its Facebook page. The campaignwebsite was deemed so successful, it isalready serving as the starting line for nextyear’s Grand Prix, set for May 2013.


Following the success of its inaugural 2011Solve for X event, a forum where top thinkersin science and technology come together todiscuss radical ideas for solving globalproblems, Google created a microsite wherethese conversations could be logged andshared with the outside world.

The site (wesolveforx.com) usesresponsive design so it can be accessed easilyacross viewing platforms, from desktopcomputers to tablets, to smartphones.Visitors of the site are immediatelyintroduced to a checkerboard of eventinformation, speaker bios and video linkshosted through the Solve for X channel onYouTube. Every time the page is refreshed anew set of videos or links appear.

Users are encouraged to engage primarilythrough Google+ with tags to use with eachpost that identify a theme (Huge Problem,Radical Solution, Breakthrough Technology,Video). In addition, users can share via Twitterand Facebook.

Google uses only its own products for thesite and streamlines manageability with acontent management system centeredaround the Google Doc. Content is loaded intoa Google Spreadsheet and automatically

updates to the site. Google’s resources helpedsupport the flood of traffic into the site afterit launched, handling 100 requests per secondwithout issue. Problem: solved.

E3, the world’s premier trade show forcomputer and video games and products, thisyear attracted 45,700 industry professionals,investor analysts, journalists and retailersfrom 103 countries to its show June 5 through7 in Los Angeles.

To assist in the enormous undertakingof selling to and assisting these industryprofessionals, the show’s owner,Entertainment Software Association andits partner IDG World Expo, created awebsite that serves as both a show andmarketing resource. Participants in the

trade show are given a password to enterthe site and unlock access to links onsignage, sponsorship, custom floor spaceand advertising opportunities, as well asinteractive floor plans, so they can decideexactly where they want to be on the showfloor.

The site is designed so exhibitors can plantheir show presence with ease and itencourages them to develop a marketingstrategy with one-on-one help from E3marketing mavens—a win-win for E3 and forits partners.


SILVER WINNER

CAMPAIGN: E3 2012

CLIENT: EntertainmentSoftware Association; IDGWorld Expo

PARTNERS: In-house

GOLD WINNER

CAMPAIGN: Solve for X

CLIENT: Google

PARTNERS: TBA Global

BEST WEBSITE/MICROSITE

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CAMPAIGN: Pen Ready Project

CLIENT: Olympus

PARTNERS: Mullen, GrandCentral Marketing

In our era of Instagram, traditional cameramanufacturers have to work harder than everto stay relevant. Olympus last September tookthe smartphone shutterbugs head-on toprove it’s still a player with its PEN ReadyProject—a program that put its PEN E-PM1camera into the hands of 1,000 consumersacross North America. The campaign targetedsocial media influencers and everyday people,inviting them to snap photos and upload themto a website where they could share theirthoughts, their images and give consumers ataste of the photo quality the PEN provides.Because hey, if you can’t beat the technology,leverage technology to your advantage.

To kick off the campaign, Olympus handedconsumers in undisclosed locationsthroughout Los Angeles, Miami, New YorkCity, San Francisco, Toronto and near itsheadquarters in Lehigh Valley, PA, a kit with afree camera. The consumers were invited toregister on the custom-designed PEN ReadyTumblr site (penready.com) and join thecommunity of PEN Ready folks uploadingphotos and videos to share with the world.The best photos were incorporated into anonline ad campaign and on in-store displays.

Olympus relied on key partnerships to fuelthe campaign, involving both organic andtargeted approaches. The brand teamed upwith JetBlue Airways, handing out cameras toan unsuspecting flight of passengers, as wellas providing a $1,000 JetBlue Getawayspackage to one PEN Ready photographer. Free

cameras were handed out to a studio audienceduring “The Ellen DeGeneres Show’s” 12 daysof giveaways promotion. Through thepartnership with Tumblr, Olympus had accessto Tumblr’s Top 100 bloggers, all of whomreceived free cameras. Top Instagram andFlickr users, celebrities, musicians and athleteswere seeded to be advocates for the camera. Inaddition, working with Yamaha MotorCorporation, Olympus provided free cameras to25 “scooter blogger” participants in the 2012Zuma 50F Press Event in San Francisco. Othersocial partnerships in the repertoire includedTwitter, Facebook, Google+, StumbleUpon,Unruly Video, AOL Portrait and spongecell.

You can still check out the gallery ofimages at penready.com. Scroll over an imageand a message appears describing the type oflens or setting on the camera used to capturethe image, a caption, or details about thephotographer.

In an age where it seems smartphonecameras are replacing traditional cameras,Olympus proved otherwise, selling its entirePEN E-PM1 inventory by the end of the secondquarter. The camera manufacturer saw a 178percent rise in its social media reach during thecampaign and also saw an increase in brandawareness of more than eight percentagepoints. As a testament to the power ofleveraging content across social mediaplatforms, the campaign received more than622 million media impressions. Talk aboutpictures being worth a thousand words.


Brands no longer have to rely on models andcelebrities to be the faces of their campaigns.Thanks to social media, they are able to createplatforms where everyday consumers canspread the message of the campaign and, inmany cases, lead it.

For its fifth year as sponsor of ESSENCE,the largest African-American music festival inthe country, Procter & Gamble reinvigoratedits My Black is Beautiful initiative withImagine a Beautiful Future—an activationdesigned to engage women in its targetmarket at the festival and online withmessages of empowerment.

The brand engaged consumers with freehair and makeup services as well asskincare and teeth whiteningconsultations. The highlight of theactivation, however, was a professionalphoto shoot. Participants could have theirphoto taken, visit a Social PIX kiosk, loginto Facebook and share the image on theirpersonal page. The slogan “Join theCelebration” accompanied each sharedimage. In the process of uploading theirimage they were automatically invited to“like” the Procter & Gamble Facebook page,connecting consumers to social media yet

one more time during their visit.The brand reported that 50 percent of

attendees created sharable content on theirFacebook network through the activation.

While television broadcasts deliver live action toconsumers wherever they may be, social mediaallows consumers to be a part of the live action.As Sprint Nextel demonstrated during thisyear’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, social mediais not just about connecting consumers to a liveevent—it’s about engaging them in real time.

Fans of the series, which wrapped Nov. 18,were able to submit questions online atsprint.com/speed, Facebook via the Ask MissSprint Cup tab and on Twitter (#AskMSC).Sprint Nextel brand ambassadors thenhunted down drivers, crewmembers and

industry experts to find out the answers andrespond with a video answer, giving fansinsider access to the track in the heat of themoment. In addition to Ask Miss Sprint Cup,the brand used social media to engage fansthrough brand offers, photo and video postsand series updates.

The connection made through theprogram was strong: Miss Sprint Cup’sFacebook following ranks third in theNASCAR industry with 1.26 million fans,behind the NASCAR brand itself and DaleEarnhardt Jr.


SILVER WINNER

CAMPAIGN: Miss Sprint Cup

CLIENT: Sprint Nextel

PARTNERS: Octagon

GOLD WINNER

CAMPAIGN: Imagine aBeautiful Future

CLIENT: Procter & Gamble

PARTNERS: Jack MortonWorldwide

BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

56



CAMPAIGN: Olympic Trials

CLIENT: USA Swimming

PARTNERS: FISH Technologies

FISH Technologies’ RFID-enabled social mediatool enabled fans this summer to explore theUSA Swimming Aqua Zone experience outsidethe U.S. Olympic swimming trials at theCenturyLink Center in Omaha, NE, like neverbefore. Aqua Zone offered fans the chance toget autographs and pictures taken withOlympic swimming champions, compete in aMichael Phelps Swim Spa Challenge, race in aMutual of Omaha “simulator,” explore theAT&T Fan Zone and more. With the tool, whichwas branded to Visa and called the Visa AquaBadge, fans could share their experiences,photos and activities on their Facebook pagesvia a simple scan.

Fans registered the badge to Facebookand/or email accounts using their mobilephones or onsite PCs. Once they authorizedtheir Facebook profile, they agreed to sharetheir Facebook data, including alldemographic information, and email address.The fans’ profile data was automaticallyshared between USA Swimming and thebrand sponsor each time they tapped theircredential on “tap towers” distributedthroughout the event at sponsor activations.Automatic Facebook photo post stationsdeployed throughout the venue allowed fansto post branded photos to their Facebookwalls in real time.

Sponsor brand ambassadors registeredguests, activated the badges, deliveredcontent and facilitated likes and check-ins viaRFID Read/Write capable tablets. Brandsleveraged fan data to created customexperiences such as interactive games wherea guest taps the credential to trigger acompetition where their name and scores are

automatically delivered to a leader board.The Visa Aqua Badge reduced the

“environmental friction” caused whenindividual brand sponsors deploy their ownunique data collection process, which createsbottlenecks and limits the number ofactivations a fan is able or willing to engage.The technology leveraged the distribution of asingle credential to facilitate all brandengagements and supported the followingobjectives:

ENGAGEMENTS: Attendees spent less timefilling out paper and electronic forms as theyengaged with brand sponsors.

AMPLIFICATION: Through social media,fans organically amplified their engagementswith the brand sponsors and USA Swimming.

REDUCED COSTS: Using a single credentialdecreased staff and technology expenses forbrand sponsors.

MARKETING INSIGHTS: Understanding theimpact of specific inputs such as footprintsize, promotions, experiences and other datapositioned USA Swimming as a strategicpartner with brand sponsors and enhancedtheir ability to selectively attract and engagespecific demographic targets.

MEASUREMENT: The badge provided real-time dashboards and post-event reportingthat allowed stakeholders to betterunderstand the efficacy of their spend.

ROI: The badge improved measurable ROIby engaging more fans and providing betteractionable data and linked engagements tosocial media campaigns that drove fans andthe global community on Facebook to thepoint of sale. In other words, they createdquite a splash.


BEST USE OF A SINGLE TECHNOLOGY

Facebook is all about connections, a themethat literally came to life via the ConnectionsExperience during Facebook’s F8 developersconference in September 2011 at the Design

Center in San Francisco. Using multipleoverhead projectors that mapped visuals tothe floor and an array of 3D cameras, theinteractive Connections installation broughtonline social networking connections into thephysical world.

Attendees swiped into the space using anRFID-enabled event badge that linked to theirFacebook profiles. Once logged in, they weresurrounded by glowing circles constructedfrom their social data, creating a unique“fingerprint.” Colored lines extending fromthe circles connected them to others in thespace who shared one or more of theobserved metrics, such as mutual friends,interests, workplaces, schools, locations,birth sign or non-English languages. Whentwo or more people who shared mutualconnections stood within close proximity, aslideshow of mutual friends and interestsappeared between them. Behind theConnections space, a large screen sharedaggregate data about the collective group,displaying common interests and profilingthe most connected of the group. Oneattendee described the installation as “the21st century equivalent of a disco ball.” Itsafter-party vibe was pretty sweet, too.

With the theme “Connect to Life,” Intel’sbooth at CES 2012 in Las Vegas featured agiant ecosystem of animated creatureswhose interactions reflected the digitalworld in which Intel operates. But here’s thecool thing: this wondrous visual metaphorwas created by the attendees themselves.The experience began at input stationswhere cameras scanned their hands or anyother object and seconds later generated ananimated, bioluminescent organism basedon the scan outline. The animations thenbecame part of an intricate choreography of

abstract creatures on a 168-foot long,2,200-square-foot overhead wave-likeprojection map across the entire booth.Some of the life forms swam, some flew,others tumbled. The experience allowedattendees to contribute to a living worldthat felt simultaneously technological andorganic. People engaged with itcontinuously and enthusiastically, creatingmore than 30,000 life forms over four days,approximately one life form every 3.5seconds.

58 EVENT MARKETER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 www.eventmarketer.com

BEST USE OF A SINGLE TECHNOLOGY

SILVER WINNER

CAMPAIGN: Connect to Life

CLIENT: Intel

PARTNERS: Foghorn Creative,Stimulant, Worldstage

GOLD WINNER

CAMPAIGN: Connections forFacebook

CLIENT: Facebook

PARTNERS: Obscura Digital


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CAMPAIGN:Blue Oval Card

CLIENT: Ford

PARTNERS: Imagination

Ford’s blue oval trademark has symbolizedAmerica’s first car company since 1907, but atthe 2012 North American International AutoShow in Detroit it represented that and more.It literally became a key to an enhanced FordAuto Show experience for attendees whowanted to be able to influence theirenvironment, participate in its creation, owncontent and share it with their friends. And itpositioned Ford as a technology company asmuch as a vehicle company, which was amajor goal for the show.

Ford’s Living Connected Experience gavevisitors a peek of what might be in store fornew vehicle technologies. Leading up to theirvisit to “the Cloud,” groups of 12 people wentthrough five stations that explained how Fordtechnology is addressing future trends,including Changing PopulationDemographics, Emerging Technologies andLiving Green. The group then boarded a 20-foot-tall elevator that rose to “the Cloud,”where they viewed a 360-degree filmshowcasing the future of in-vehicletechnology from Ford. After that, through theuse of Augmented Reality, they could drivewith Motorsports star Ken Block, ride in aMustang on the “dyno” (short fordynamometer, which measures power) or usetrivia to plan out their next great “Escape.”

Using RFID technology, the Ford Blue OvalCard offered attendees a more focused,personalized visit they could share with

family and friends. Users registered on-sitevia a simple sign-in process or online beforethe show, then interacted with the standusing their card. They could vote onquestions and see their contributions writtenon large screens for everyone to view andshare. They could collect data such asdetailed car specifications, financinginformation and images for future reference.And they could save video and still images toan online profile and “like” vehicles on theirFacebook pages. After their visit, apersonalized email linked them to a souvenirsite containing all their memories.

The card enabled Ford to monitor the mostactive points on-stand, measure how usersmoved around the booth and the kind ofinformation they saved. Client librarieshoused the interactions in user profiles thatwere cached locally in the event space andsynced to the cloud ensuring no data was lostand providing information to cross referencelater, when an attendee eventually buys a car.

The result was a fully integrated showexhibit that complied with data protectionlaws and a sustainable delivery model thatcan be rolled out again and again. Tens ofthousands of visitors registered cards,collected personalized souvenirs and sharedthem with their friends through social media.Some of the shared videos have been viewedmore than 20,000 times, driving Ford’sexperience well beyond the show floor.


We all know what a smartphone is. Soon,soldiers in the field and military pilots will bewearing smart helmets and carrying portabledevices equipped with Aviation Warriortechnology from Raytheon that will keepthem as wired into their surroundings as anyteen trolling the mall. Only instead of keepingup with their friends, these guys will betracking enemies in combat situations.

Raytheon’s pavilion at the 2012Farnborough International Air Show broughtthis high-tech story to life via live actionvideography, visual effects, 3D modeling,graphic design, interactive programming andtechnology integration. Life-size interactiveAviation Warriors displayed on a 103-inchscreen caught the eye of attendees whocould rotate the figure 360 degrees with theflip of a finger. Visitors could touch hotspotsto learn more about the underlyingtechnology components by way of rotatable3D models, text and video. As a funtakeaway, they could have their photo takenwith an iPad and have it composited onto themale or female Aviation Warrior, then have itsent to their email and post it to Facebookand Twitter.

More than 1,000 attendees interactedwith or were briefed using the experience,which presented disparate technologies in afun and engaging way.

McDonald’s Marketplace presentedinformation about quality assurance in thecompany’s supply chain via an iPad app in a“Farmer’s Market” exhibit area. Contentincluded videos, photos, diagrams andgraphics highlighting supply chain initiatives.Brand ambassadors equipped with iPadsfacilitated personal discussions. TheMcDonald’s Place and Promotion introducedsocial media and technology promotional

concepts to franchisees using interactivegames on touch screens of various sizes.Games ranged from a six-person “Jeopardy”-style contest to timed competitions wherecontestants “de-cluttered” photos ofrestaurants. McDonald’s Portraits in Boldfeatured notable innovators throughout thecompany’s history. It all added up to anupbeat and interactive experience thatengaged attendees.


SILVER WINNER

CAMPAIGN: 2012 WorldwideConvention

CLIENT: McDonald’s

PARTNERS: Helios InteractiveTechnologies

GOLD WINNER

CAMPAIGN:Aviation Warrior

CLIENT: Raytheon

PARTNERS: Inhance Digital,The Boston Group

BEST COMBINATION OF EVENT TECHNOLOGIES

62



CAMPAIGN: Speed Trials

CLIENT: Nike Golf

PARTNERS: OgilvyAction, BlastRadius

If there’s one word to describe Nike Golfmarketing, it’s confident. That’s what it tookto mount one of its most robust consumer trialprograms ever, the Nike Golf Speed Trials,which from March through mid-May took placeat hundreds of golf courses and retailers acrossthe country. The Speed Trials gave consumersthe chance to experience Nike’s fastest lineupever, the VR_S club line. And the programprovided the brand a way to build awarenessand incite trial of the series, improve industryand consumer perception of Nike Golf Clubperformance and drive incremental sales.

Nike challenged consumers to comparethe speed and distance of clubs in theircurrent bag, as well as other demo clubs, tothe new Nike VR_S products on a launchmonitor. Participants’ cumulative distanceswere tallied and recorded on a national leaderboard. Results also were amplified across p.r.,social and digital channels. To add even moreenergy, consumers could win prizes at variousretailers, including a VIP day on the coursewith Tiger Woods, a 2012 Chevy Camaro, NikeVR_S golf clubs and a spot in a Richard PettyDriving School.

iPads were used for data capture, consumerresults and pre- and post-surveys. Brandambassadors shared real-time eventhighlights with each other through Yammer. Acollateral piece/QR scorecard directedparticipants to their online results. Participantsalso received a post-event email withpersonalized stats and sign-in information forthe Nike Golf microsite, which was optimized

for desktops, iPads and iPhones and includedan event locator and leader board. While theentire experience was hosted at nikegolf.com,the entire website was also embedded onretailer partners’ websites.

Giving consumers instant real data thatcompared their performance using Nike Golfproducts versus competitors removed thesubjectivity of trying new clubs. The real-timedata motivated golfers as they were able tocompete for gaining distance on store,regional and national leader boards.

The digital component of the Speed Trialshelped Nike get the word out about the newclubs. There was virtually no paid mediaspend, so the company relied on “owned” and“earned” to drive awareness and store visits.It communicated using the Nike Golf website,participating retailer websites, its emailnewsletter, staff network, 600,000-plusFacebook fans and 380,000-plus Twitterfollowers. The digital component alsofacilitated immediate consumer registration,offered instant access for the participantsafter the event to see their results andenabled Nike Golf to connect with netpromoters and communicate with theseconsumers post-program.

The results were a hole-in-one. The 679events and 14,725 Speed Trials raised NikeGolf’s Net Promoter Score by 119 percent.And Nike VR_S sales increased by an averageof 72 percent during Speed Trials atparticipating retailers. No wonder Nike isstruttin’.


Semiconductor design innovator AMD createdthe Fusion Developers Summit to educatedevelopers about the power of AMDAccelerated Processing Units (APUs) andpromote concepts of heterogeneouscomputing. Its online platform, AFDS-D,extended the reach of the summit beyond thefour walls of the physical event. Simu-livetechnology helped provide pre-recorded videocontent (technical sessions), which wasrepurposed along with live Q&As with thespeakers for the digital audience. FMEStreaming/Live-cast technology streamed alive feed of keynote speaker sessions withreal-time chatting and Q&A. A RovingReporter utilized the same live-casttechnology as the keynote speaker sessionsso the digital audience could see andunderstand what was happening in thephysical experience center. The digitalaudience also had access to sponsor demos,digital badges and gaming for furtherengagement and learning.

It all added up to more reach and broadergeographies as content was extended with24/7 on-demand access. AFDS-D alsoenhanced audience communities for AMD,increased registered users on the digitalplatform and generated significant positive

press and social media buzz. The platformexceeded target registrants by 750 percent,total time spent by AFDS-D participants was9,036 hours and attendees clocked 7,365digital space visits and downloaded morethan 5,500 files of content.

The Command Center Alpha mobile tourimmersed visitors in the sci-fi world of theU.S. Air Force via Augmented Reality, 3Dcomputer graphics, games, videos, audio anddigital downloads. The objective was tochange people’s perceptions about the AirForce while generating qualified leads.Visitors registered at stations powered byApple iPads and were categorized intorecruiting classifications ranging frominterested in joining to not qualified to join.Wearing color-coded wristbands along with

an iPad and earbuds, they explored thespace, triggering 3D models of planes andsatellites that could be manipulated via theiPad’s touch screen. RFID technologytriggered the appropriate tour guide voice-over as they progressed from room to room.The upgraded Augmented Reality, interactivegames and the Airman Challenge game werea big success enabling recruiters to bettertarget prospects from the thousands ofvisitors who experienced Command CenterAlpha nearly every weekend.


SILVER WINNER

CAMPAIGN: Command CenterAlpha

CLIENT: U.S. Air Force

PARTNERS: GSD&M, InhanceDigital

GOLD WINNER

CAMPAIGN: Fusion DevelopersSummit

CLIENT: AMD

PARTNERS: George P. Johnson

BEST ONLINE + OFFLINE EVENT CAMPAIGN

64



CAMPAIGN: Chevy Sonic ClawGame

CLIENT: General Motors

PARTNERS: Goodby Silverstein& Partners, Starcom, PearlMedia

Chevy gave consumers in Hollywood a taste ofmovie magic last December when ittransformed the Roosevelt Hotel in LosAngeles into a three-dimensional AugmentedReality experience called the Chevy SonicClaw Game. The multimedia showstopperwas designed to bring the Sonic brand’sdisruptive and irreverent personality to life ona large enough scale that the local excitementwould turn into viral reach on a national level.

The automaker created the illusion of thebuilding morphing into the interactive gamewith a battery of innovative imaging tech and,moreover, used gaming software to make itplayable for consumers in real time, and withreal prizes, including a Chevy Sonic as thegrand prize. One lane of Hollywood Boulevardwas closed, and Chevy used the space to setup a four-foot joystick controller for the game,which was styled like a Sonic’s gear lever.When the event began, consumers lined up toregister for game play, and then got up on thepodium where they saw the five-minute 3Dtransformation of the building into the gamemachine. Once the show was over, the gamebegan. Players spent about 20 minutes tryingto snag a prize, and then the cycle beganagain until 11 p.m. each day.

The effects were created using a GreenHippo HippotizerHD system that organized a3D map of the hotel façade created in 3DCAD with the animated effects that were

mapped onto the original surface andblended the real and virtual images into aseamless show. The Hippotizer (god, how welove that name!) is a data networkcommunications system, effects controller,media encoder, digital screen wrap, LED pixelmapper, systems synchronizer and mediamanager all in one. Chevy used theHippotizer system to organize the mediafiles, blend the projector images, warp thefinal animation playback image to match thehotel architecture and adjust the gameoutput to the architecture. The game itselfwas built with a custom gaming solution andthe image was output through Barco FMLHD20 high output projectors. The 24 Barcosproduced over 20,000 ANSI Lumens eachand together covered 16,000 square feet ofthe hotel’s exterior.

To outwit the 3D projection hurdle ofgrainy images because of the vast amount ofdetail, the brand projected an overlapping gridof images that were blended together tocreate one image output. This allowed theGreen Hippo system to alter small sections ofthe overall image output to perfectly align theanimated content, resulting in a super-realistic illusion of depth and movement.

Over the two nights of the event, morethan 20,000 people shared the experience,resulting in more than 200,000 social mediaposts.


CeBIT is one of the largest consumerelectronics exhibitions in the world, andMicrosoft is always looking for innovative andexciting ways to present new products toattending media and potential customers.For last year’s show, the brand’s Germanbranch, Microsoft Deutschland GmbH,deployed the MultiWall to inspire excitementfor its new Windows 8 operating system, andshow off its new workflow and structure.

The MultiWall was a way to viscerallyinstill the changes represented by Windows 8by acting as a 46-foot by 13-foot interactivepresentation surface. Presenters navigatedthrough the material with a flick of the wriston the surface. The Ventuz software thatunderlay the wall allowed the operators totake assets like images, films, 3D objects,text and external data, bring them together in3D space, give them logic and animation andplay them out. The results tell the rest of thestory: 75 percent of CeBIT visitors came to theMicrosoft booth and 90 percent of visitorswho were asked about the Multiwall statedthat they thought the interactions, live videoinput and live illustrations helped themunderstand the topics and increased the valueof the presentations.

IBM celebrated its centennial in 2011 and afocal theme of the year’s events was theTHINK program, which was a month-longmultimedia exhibition from Sept. 10 to Oct.23 at New York City’s Lincoln Center designedto showcase the ways that people make theworld work better through innovation. It wasfree to the public, and drew more than 25,000visitors during the run.

There were two distinct experiences: real-time data visualizations of the city’s public

utility systems rendered on a 123-foot wideLED wall, a 10-minute film played in a mediafield of 40 85-inch plasma screens thatconverted into touch-screen interactivemodules during the interactive portion of theexperience. The technology deployed in thedisplays helped the brand organize the flow ofthe visitor experience and made the singleevent accommodate both the theater portionand the interactive engagements.


SILVER WINNER

CAMPAIGN: THINK

CLIENT: IBM

PARTNERS: Ralph AppelbaumAssociates, SYPartners,Mirada

GOLD WINNER

CAMPAIGN: CeBIT MultiWall

CLIENT: Microsoft

PARTNERS: VentuzTechnology, stereolize

BEST USE OF VIDEO/AV/MEDIA

66



CAMPAIGN: 2012 Drug TrendSymposium

CLIENT: Medco/Express Scripts

PARTNERS: Barkley KalpakAgency

Medco/Express Scripts (MES) has hosted TheDrug Trend Symposium, a three-dayhealthcare thought leadership event, for thelast nine years, and in May 2012 at Disney’sYacht & Beach Club Resort in Orlando, FL, thebrand hosted more than 800 benefit andcompensation managers, corporate medicaldirectors and corporate pharmacy directors inorder to demonstrate its value as a partner tothese clients.

This was a crucial year for MES, because ithad undergone a large merger after the eventplanning had begun, and so the brand facedthe additional goal of heralding the newbeginning for the combined organization. Akey element to achieve success was asuccessful registration drive to make surethe most appropriate targets were reachedand signed up. To get it just right, MEScombined pre-event and onsite registrationtechnology to create persuasivecommunications for the targets, deliver clearexperience details for each guest and allowfor faster, more accurate tracking to betterplan the on-site portion of the experience. Todrive the registration campaign, the brandleveraged a whole compendium oftechnology solutions. For acquisition, thebrand delivered communications through anHTML5 and mobile-enabled website withdynamic splash animation. Five separateemails promoted speakers, registration andan array of on-site activities, and thesetactics led to the highest open and click-through rate in the nine-year history of theevent and to meeting of the registration

goals quicker than ever before. To help attendees craft an experience

unique to their needs, a custom registrationwebsite featured 46 different registrationpathways that could accommodate pre-meetings, dozens of client categories, customvariations in offerings and breakouts andactivities, while providing real-time click-through statistics and registration data. Forcheck-in, MES deployed barcoded namebadges for quick check-in via scanners. Thistechnique allowed for real-time informationsharing with sales to follow up on in supportof acquisition and retention goals.

The brand had to create an entirely newstrategy to accomplish all of its goals. Thesolution incorporated all of the datasegmentations and reporting that wasneeded, including internal pre-conferencemeetings, segmented invitations fordifferent types of attendees, travel andcontent variables for hotel dates and extra-curricular activity options, customconfirmation emails and automatic reporting.In the end, the cohesive registrationinitiatives allowed the brand’s event planningteam to stay ahead of the game in thelogistics process for the on-site experienceand the comprehensive data collection atevery step helped sales reps to manage thebusiness relationships. The event netted thehighest attendance numbers in its historyand post-event surveys indicated significantpositive impressions of the registrationprocess. No Prozac needed, ‘cause everyonewas already feeling good.


Monster’s annual Global Sales Conference,this year with the theme “mPower,” is one ofthe brand’s most important events of theyear. To get the information about the eventout to attendees that they needed to know,both before and during the conference,Monster deployed an all-new software by TBAGlobal called EventO to manage registrationand provide attendee communication pre-,during-, and post-event. It functioned as awebsite and was ready for any device throughresponsive web design, enabling it toautomatically and dynamically scale for eachdevice, providing the most optimal layout anduser experience.

EventO uses a Drupal CMS and integratesweb forms and Dropbox to support sign-ups,contact forms, survey forms, presentationuploads and document libraries. For Monster,the platform included event information(agenda, lodging accommodations,transportation details), event registration,maps of the venue, photo and video uploadsand downloadable presentations. It featureda virtual host who participated in the EventOvideos to create a conference setting andexperience regardless of whether the viewerwas at the event live. During the conference,

90 percent of the attendees accessed theplatform, and another 1,100 members ofMonster’s sales force who were not able toattend live used EventO to participate.

Forum Networking Events creates one-to-one meetings between buyers and sellers.Data collection in advance of the meetingsis crucial to success because the attendeesneed to be able to select appropriatepartners. Once data is collected through theregistration process, it has to be organizedso that the attendees’ itineraries matchtheir requests. To accomplish all of this,Forum deployed a Neo registration systemfor collection and Morpheus to organize thedata into itinerary lists for attendees for

their 30-minute appointment slots. Thewhole custom system is web-based andhoused in the cloud so it can accommodateseveral hundred registrations andappointment requests. Buyers decided inadvance which vendors they wanted tomeet and the vendors received a completelist of the buyers with details on theprojects they were planning and theproducts and services they were looking topurchase in the next few months. Done anddone.


SILVER WINNER

CAMPAIGN:Networking Events

CLIENT: Forum Events

PARTNERS: In-house

GOLD WINNER

CAMPAIGN:Global SalesConference

CLIENT: Monster

PARTNERS: TBA Global

BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY FOR REGISTRATION/ATTENDEE COMMUNICATIONS

68



CAMPAIGN: IFT 2012

CLIENT: Institute of Food

Technologists

PARTNERS: a2z

For the Institute of Food Technologists 2012Annual Meeting and Food Expo, the IFTwanted to expand its attendee base and helpexhibitors boost ROI, so it deployed theChirpE attendee acquisition widget. Thewidget was posted on exhibitors’ listingpages and home websites and allowedattendees to find and meet exhibitors thatthey were interested in and those whom theymight not have found otherwise. Specificgoals were to encourage attendees to visitthe event website and the exhibitor listings,and for attendees to build their personalizedplans by adding exhibitors as favorites usingthe widget, in addition to pushing liveattendance. To introduce the widget to theexhibitors, the IFT sent two marketing emailsto promote it and to educate them on thebenefits of embedding it on their websites.More than 100 exhibitors displayed thewidget on their websites, resulting in 315,000views, 691 visits to the Expo website and 276clicks to the registration site. In addition,exhibitors were added to attendees’personalized plans more than 350 times.

The ChirpE Mobile and Social Mediaplatform is powered by a .net framework, andprovided each exhibitor with the embed codefor a dynamic, personalized version of thewidget. All they had to do was copy the codeand drop it in their websites. The exhibitor’sinformation, including booth number and

location on the floor plan, was published andupdated in the widget automatically. Whenan attendee, or prospective attendee, clickedon the widget, it directed them to the IFT2012 registration site and event website andthe exhibitor’s eBooth profile. The attendeesalso could click and add the exhibitor to theirown personalized schedules without leavingthe exhibitor’s website.

The widget’s functions made it easy forattendees to build personalized agendas andhelped encourage new registrations. In thepast, each individual exhibitor had to createits own promotional content, but for the 2012event, the IFT needed to be able to betterprove the ROI. The ChirpE attendeeacquisition widget filled that gap, andbecause it’s a plug-and-play tool andexhibitors did not need special programmingor design skills to display a fully functionaland well-designed widget to their audience, itdramatically increased the adoption rates,and therefore success rates. Also, for the firsttime, exhibitors got data about the number ofvisitors who added them to their expo plan,both known and anonymous. The ChirpEattendee acquisition program brought moreattendees to the show, made exhibitors’experiences easier and more productive, whileincreasing brand recognition for them. TheIFT hit a homerun, and the partners on theexpo floor reaped the rewards.


A huge and complex event like the AmericasIncentive, Business Travel, & MeetingsExhibition (AIBTM) is a maelstrom oflogistical challenges, but this year’s eventwas a little less so, thanks to a preference-based appointment matching engine. Todeliver better value for exhibitors andattendees, facilitate a hosted buyer programand drive overall participation, ReedExhibitions looked to Certain, Inc. software tobring vendors and buyers together. Reedprovided exhibitors with a portal in which theycould set up appointment diaries based onthe capacity of their booth and staff and setpreferences for buyers they’d like to meet.Attendees were then sent to a website toidentify the organizations and the types ofexhibitors with whom they were interested.

The preference-based appointmentengine automatically paired the right buyerswith the right exhibitors. Then, exhibitors andstaff were able to make manual changes totheir appointments before delivering acomplete appointment schedule to bothexhibitors and buyers. The goal was to helpboth parties make the most productive use oftheir time at AIBTM by helping exhibitors plantheir involvement strategically based onknowledge of who they were meeting withand walk away with tangible results in terms

of number of leads and appointments withhighly-qualified buyers. The matchmakingengine was a success booking more than10,000 appointments among 2,250attendees and 194 exhibitors, for a fivepercent overall growth for the event.

BLANCO, a German manufacturer of sinks andfaucets, executed a tweetup event at theInternational Contemporary Furniture Fair(ICFF) in New York City in May with a goal ofdriving traffic to the brand’s trade show boothand to pull in external media attention fornew product launches. ICFF is a small regionalshow so there is no active press room, andmedia coming to the show needs to bedirected to the booth to get a press kit.BLANCO invited designers and bloggers to

come to the booth at a designated hour forthe Champagne and Cupcakes tweet up. Thebrand also worked with charity Water forPeople and for every BLANCO tweet, thebrand donated $1 to the organization for itswater conservation efforts. The charityportion generated $200 for Water for Peopleand the tweets generated 970,000impressions on Twitter (based on number oftweets multiplied by followers of thosedesigners tweeting).


SILVER WINNER

CAMPAIGN: ICFF Tweet-A-Thon

CLIENT: Blanco

PARTNERS: Frank Advertising,Modenus

GOLD WINNER

CAMPAIGN:AIBTM 2012

CLIENT: Reed Exhibitions

PARTNERS: Certain, Inc.

BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY TO BUILD EVENT ATTENDANCE

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