Agency activation
Not mere onlookers
GREGORY CRANDALL , SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT AT BRAND ACTIVATION SPECIALISTS PICO , OFFERS SOME INSIGHTS ON BOOSTING REMOTE ENGAGEMENT AT INTEGRATED EVENTS , FROM WORK WITH COCA-COLA , MIDEA AND THE RECENT TOKYO OLYMPICS
T he MICE industry is already on the path of integrated events which seek to equalise the experience between their online and offline audiences . Increasingly , it means engaging an online audience will no longer be secondary ; it will be as much a key to success ( or more ) as impacting the in-venue audience .
As any experienced event planner knows , there are real challenges involved when boosting online audience engagement :
• How to make online participation compact and worthwhile ?
• How do you bring the electricity and immediacy of the in-person experience to audience members that are physically absent from it ?
• How do you build connections between online and in-venue audiences ?
• In the long run , how do you make the online experience similar but ‘ equal ’ in value to the live experience ?
Some recent brand activations and events have come up with solutions to the challenge of drawing remote audiences into the thick of the action :
Offer unique pre-event engagement opportunities to create ‘ stickiness ’ An online ecosystem of event-themed games , activities , resources and content-sharing platforms in the run-up to the event ( and continuing through and even after ) will raise the event ’ s profile while pre-building an audience community .
Coca-Cola ’ s Play Nation platform was a clever way the beverage giant addressed the Tokyo Olympics ’ strict limitations on live spectators . Designed for the local market , Play Nation featured mobile-exclusive games such as a virtual torch relay , a paper crane hunt , and a baseball pitching game , each designed to both get users into the Olympic spirit and foster engagement with the Coke brand . The system allowed users to enjoy rewards and drive purchases .
A recent Pico-facilitated Midea event used similar tactics : the brand used a pop-up store with an Escape Room game in a popular Chengdu shopping centre to burnish its brand image among young consumers . Well before the pop-up ’ s appearance , audiences engaged with the brand via an online game on a WeChat H5 page . This created an Escape Room fan community and the whole event gained over 150 million impressions .
‘ Compensate ’ the online audience with exclusives Inevitably , online participants will feel
Above : Gregory Crandall
“ By taking advantage of technologies , online audiences could engage in events with a level of detail unavailable to the in-venue audience ”
Below : Midea - active in Chengdu some degree of remoteness from the full live experience . But ‘ different ’ does not have to mean ‘ lesser value ’. What online audiences lose in immediacy and sensation , they can gain with access to exclusive content .
Airbnb brought a huge online audience to its brand through a partnership with the International Olympic Committee . The big draw was an interactive platform offering Airbnb guests access to 200 ‘ Olympian and Paralympian Online Experiences ’ – and opportunities to connect directly with athletes during the Games .
Technologies such as multi-camera replay systems , 3D athlete tracking and biometric data displays meant online audiences could engage in events with a level of detail unavailable to the in-venue audience .
Give the online audience a form of offline presence Remote audience members will feel they are sharing a live experience when they can make an impact on it . Currently , this can be achieved by accompanying an event livestream with live polls or providing live comment boxes – and live responses from the in-venue host . But what if this was used to drive or impact the experience ’ s whole content direction ?
The recent Olympics which deployed innovative new ‘ virtual fan ’ solution has given us some pointers . Big screens at Olympic venues were harnessed by the Share the Passion campaign to enable fans from around the world to display their text and video messages of support to the athletes . The same campaign also brought the feel of a live audience to otherwise empty stadiums .
With online audiences becoming more crucial to the success of live events , integrated experiences will soon become an industry norm . Now is the time for planners to engage in the kind of innovative thinking that helped make online audiences feel like they were participants , not mere onlookers .
8 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / ISSUE 115