FEBRUARY | COVER FEATURE
Experiential
potential
Event/consumer
trends have peeked
Imagination’s,
erm, imagination,
says Christophe
Castagnera, head of
connected experiences
at the agency. Here are
his top three recent
innovations:
Immersive
Playgrounds
Brands are showing
up to more events
with immersive
environments,
presenting products
in more creative ways
to explain practical
product points -
Google's ride at CES is
a great example.
Chatbot
conversations
Use of chatbots
for engaging with
audiences is becoming
more popular as a
way of delivering
information at events
while creating an
atmosphere of
connection and
service.
Brand Homes
More brands are
looking to develop
brand homes. Inspired
by the popularity of
temporary experiences
like Museum of Ice
Cream and Fa La
Land in LA, people
are seeking out more
permanent immersive
space to engage with
brands and products.
30
screens altogether. The reality is, both are true,
creating an interesting paradox. To connect
with consumers, a brand must be active in the
screen and connected space, yet the content and
proposition must encourage inquisitiveness,
exploration and worthwhile interaction –
otherwise, consumers will move on.”
“Considered use of screens does work and it
works even better when it’s a relevant part of
an engaging story. Effective user experience
enshrines the need for memorable, meaningful
and relatable touchpoints and screens can
certainly add value to this journey. But to do
this well, screen experiences cannot be crafted
as stand-alone entities within a bigger picture.
Instead, they must occupy a clearly-connected
space within an entire story, their own chapter
within a book, if you like.
"Consumers must feel the need or desire to
interact with the screens and there must be a
reward for time spent doing so. Outcomes from
the interaction should be relevant, enjoyable,
memorable (and hence sharable) and should make
sense in relation to the full story being told.”
Anderson points to the ExploreTheNew
event that Avantgarde created for the launch
of the new Lufthansa brand. With more than
155 screens, there was an abundance of screen
space and the agency connected more than
2,500 guests and their phones together as an art
installation, whereby guests shaped the event
space with content they helped co-create from
their phones. In effect, their phone became their
host and guide through the entire story.
“The adage 'content is king' remains true.
But content without a story is just a collection
of noises, something that no consumer wants.
When it comes to experiential, story is the true
king and taking great care to ensure that the
story is crafted first is key – the content can
become the characters within the story and the
tech is how those characters communicate."
So, will the screen continue to have life
as technology and consumer expectations
change? “No-one can predict the future, yet it’s
safe to assume that whilst screens will remain
integral to experiential solutions, their role will
adapt. Indeed, with the rapid rise of voice-based
interfaces there will be some problems for which
a screen will not be a solution. This in turn
creates a whole set of challenging scenarios –
for example, in a world where voice interfaces
dominate, there is no place for a visual brand, so
“Interactivity is a sure-
fire way of getting
attention and creating
lasting impact,”
GPJ’s Zara Kerwood
an audio brand and a physical way to experience
the brand become even more important.
“In addition to screens taking new forms and
roles through the creative use of real VR and
AR, holographic projection systems becoming
more high fidelity and screen-based interfaces
changing through the evolution of chatbots,
we are very cognisant that visual screens need
to work in conjunction with our other senses.
So, we’re actively involved in crafting user
experiences that touch all our senses – touch,
scent, taste as well as sound and vision.
“Crafting brand experiences that engage all
the senses in the most relevant and impactful
way helps deliver something that the consumer
doesn’t expect. User experience needs to be at
the heart of everything and crafting engaging
stories that uses the most relevant and effective
technology is one of the ways this manifests
itself. The use of screen technology is changing
and diversifying all the time, with more and
more opportunities for creating remarkable and
unforgettable moments.”
Storytelling has shifted through the ages, from
spoken, to written, to printed, via the stage and
screen. Its new paradigm, experiential events,
are also an evolving beast. Access is here to
document this journey.