the lounge group trend report 1: discovery
TRANSCRIPT
peelable bottles, painting rainbows, hidden music and finding the future/a lounge group trend report on discovery
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This month’s theme of Discovery is all about prompting consumer investigation, building intrigue and creating the desire for further understanding.Whether it’s a ‘peel and reveal’ sampling mechanic, a novel approach to opening packaging or a journey through interactive alternate gaming, this month The Lounge examines the topic of Discovery and highlights the rise of the curious consumer.
Lounge view/The fact that the tracks are fixed to a
specific area is definitely limiting, but this
could be an interesting concept for the
“sound branding”, allowing consumers to
unlock music and messaging based on
their location.
Technology/Location-aware concept album for Washington park
U.S. band Bluebrain have just released the first music album that changes its track according to your location. The album “National Mall” is only available as an iPhone App, using the phone’s GPS tracker to identify the listener’s location.The catch is that the music will only play in the iconic open park at Washington Monument in the USA where hundreds of points have been geo-tagged. Each point plays a specific part of the album, rewarding the listener for taking the effort to find them. The music coordinates are fixed and will be the same in ten years from now - in this sense, ‘National Mall’ is an innovative combination of a regular LP and an audio guide, leading people to discover areas of the park and the album at the same time.
©2011 The Lounge Group / theloungegroup.com
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Lounge view/Are product samples considered more
valuable if consumers have to work to
receive them? Catering towards the
satisfaction of having received something
for acting out of curiosity is a nice way
to engage customers, prompt trial and
increase WOM.
Trial/Sampling/Kate Spade Twirl Perfume Underground Sampling
Kate Spade New York took ‘Peel & Reveal’ to a new level by covering entire walls in two Tokyo subway stations with peel-off sample cards of their new perfume, Twirl. Passengers needed to peel off the sample cards, with time unveiling Twirl print ads hidden beneath reiterating the product message.Whilst the cards came in a traditional sample format, the activity was designed to activate consumers’ curiosity. As there were no instructions, consumers had to find out themselves what to do or follow others’ lead to receive a sample. The concept was inspired by a local Manga magazine which had stuck taster copies to subway station walls to help promote new issues.
©2011 The Lounge Group / theloungegroup.com
Creative/Akay’s Rainbow Robot
Swedish street artist Akay has built a “graphmobile”, or a “rainbow robot” to help him create his street art. The construction consists of spray cans mounted onto a telescopic arm, which is then mounted on a bike cart. All he needs to do is stop his bike close to a wall and press a button to make the arm create a 180 degree half-circle, leaving a neat, beautiful rainbow on the concrete. The device can be adapted to create any kind of shape or stencil. Akay says he created this rather complicated technical solution to help him commit “simple acts of vandalism”. It obviously also helps him to quickly move his equipment from place to place.
©2011 The Lounge Group / theloungegroup.com
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Lounge view/The rainbow robot is a mobile art
installation in itself but bears interesting
potential for brands who want to use the
power of tagging (with washable paint,
preferably!) to build intrigue and prompt
consumer investigation in the run up to
a new launch or campaign activity.
Lounge view/The visual and tactile features of this
packaging concept are highly entertaining.
This is a really nice way to engage the
consumer and reiterate the qualities of the
product in the opening ceremony.
Packaging/Smirnoff Caipiroska Peelable Bottles
To introduce three new fruity flavours of Smirnoff’s popular mix drink Caipiroska, JWT Brazil have created a range of limited edition packaging.The bottles are sealed in a foil that resembles the texture of the three fruit flavours lemon, passion fruit and berries, and has a diagonal perforation. This way, consumers have to peel their bottle before they get to discover and drink the Caipiroska. The bottles were even shipped in a wooden crate that resembles the way local fruit produce is transported in trucks, reinforcing the new product’s fruity flavour benefit.
©2011 The Lounge Group / theloungegroup.com
Lounge view/A great use of experiential marketing to
promote a crowdsourced item. Ultimately,
this concept shows how brands can
harness the power of user-generated
content to encourage interactivity both
on and off-line.
Experiential/Find the Future/ The Game
On 20th May 2011, New York Public Library will host a scavenger hunt. It will give 500 people the chance to roam the building for one night on a quest to ‘find the future’, writing an entire book together in one night by solving clues linked to the archives using their mobile phones and laptops. ‘Find the Future’ is an alternate reality game (ARG) combining on- and offline clues, and the first ARG to include crowdsourcing. 100 objects are hidden in the library that gamers must find in order to write about them. The game’s aim is to produce a book on 100 ways to make history and change the future, inspired by 100 intriguing works of the past.
©2011 The Lounge Group / theloungegroup.com
Click here to check out the video/
Click here to check out the website/
a lounge group trend report on discoveryThis month’s theme of Discovery is all about engaging consumers by prompting curiosity. This can be as simple as the following:
Withholding direction so that consumers have to explore in order to understand how or why to do something
Building buzz and excitement by teasing consumers with drip-fed content and visual clues
Generating a marketing strategy that creates a gap in information that the consumer will seize the opportunity to solve
For consumers long used to (and annoyed by) what they see as unwanted marketing messages, having some level of control over how they interact with content allows them to take on board the brand message with genuine interest.
For brands, ensuring that marketing activity allows the consumer to approach things in their own time removes barriers of intimidation. It also allows the opportunity to see just how much time and effort an audience is willing to give to you.
A discovery-based strategy may make consumers work harder, but take-out is stronger and more personal as consumers feel rewarded for their efforts and are more engaged as a result.
We’re a creative communications agency with a network of 10,000 consumers at our heart. And we’re passionate about understanding their world and connecting with them in the right way. If you’d like to know more about how we do it, email [email protected] or call her on 020 7940 4381.
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