Over three decades of being in the game, we have created some extraordinary brand experiences using creative tech. Here are a few of our favourite examples from recent times.
The use of cutting-edge creative technology undoubtedly elevates a campaign for a B2B (and B2C) audience. Humans are naturally intrigued by the new, and ours is a truly digital world. So, brands and businesses that embrace new technologies are more likely to cut through, get heard by their audiences and be seen as innovative and forward-thinking in outlook.
That’s why we’ve always championed the cause of using relevant creative technologies to connect brands, businesses and consumers, in a way which is memorable and meaningful. This has meant that we have invested in developing an expert team of tech coders and developers in-house at Because. Over three decades of being in the game, we have created some extraordinary brand experiences using creative tech. Here are a few of our favourite examples from recent times.
1. The full tech suite for Centrica
Centrica is a global house of brands that provides energy solutions, and includes household names such as British Gas, Direct Energy and Hive.
To drive lead generation and engagement among high-value customers (HVCs), and help define Centrica and its brands as innovative energy pioneers, we reimagined their live events. Over the course of four years we have covered, quite literally, hundreds of different events and venues, and of varying scale, incorporating a suite of innovative tech solutions from Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), interactive touch screens and iTables, to e-CRM, and more. Some highlights include:
- Drone races at trade shows – gamification appeals to one’s competitive nature and has worked time and time again as a very effective hook to draw people onto a stand, and increase dwell time as it’s a participative brand experience
- A Giant iTab for live product demonstrations of Panoramic Power to show viewers how to track and monitor their power consumption – to ensure maximum standout and talkability, it was connected to a prominent building in London in a high–traffic area
- Interactive touch screens with gesture recognition – this is a great way to showcase engaging content, allowing for self-exploration and to bring messaging to life in a much more immersive way than simply using video content
2. A gesture-controlled trampoline game and interactive projection walls for the Changi Airport Group
To showcase innovation, drive engagement and highlight their ambitious growth plans, we turned Changi Airport Group’s exhibition stand at the Singapore Airshow, Asia’s largest aerospace and defence event, into a high-tech interactive showcase.
A gesture-controlled trampoline game which used a bullet rig camera, allowed players to bounce through the airport exploring the different terminals’ highlights, while collecting digital butterflies to ‘release’ back into the airport’s unique Butterfly Garden. At the end of the game, players could pose for a personalised 360° GIF of themselves, designed to be shared on social media to amplify the interactions outside the walls of the show. This approach was so popular at the event, even the President of Singapore, Halimah Yacob, had a go at getting her name to the top of the leader board!
Interactive projection walls brought the Changi Airport Group’s plans for the future to life in an engaging way. When visitors touched certain parts of the wall, animated stories were triggered to deliver key information about the airport, its future goals, and sustainability projects.
3. Interactive photo booth and quiz app for Manulife
Manulife, a global financial services and insurance company, asked us to help them introduce their new vision, values, and visual identity to thousands of their employees across 13 different countries. The company wanted to align everyone to the same goals and brand mission, and be inclusive of their different office cultures and environments.
We created Mission Mosaic, an interactive exhibition of bespoke digital photobooths with a pre-programmed quiz app. These were installed in prominent Manulife offices globally. The quiz introduced employees to the new brand values in an inventive, engaging, and highly memorable way.
At the end of the quiz, the employees were able to take a fun photo which paired them with the brand value that resonated with them most. The next step: employee portraits were combined to create a fantastic mosaic, which was then broadcast in all offices across the world for everyone to see. This tech-based artwork installation helped everyone to feel part of one big family, and to put faces to the names of people that they’ve only previously dealt with on email.
4. 3D digital scanning for Reebok
Reebok’s ZPump Fusion trainer uses a unique pump technology (an air-filled cage that pumps up inside the shoe) which enables the shoe to mold to any runners’ foot for a locked-in custom fit.
To launch the shoe to staff at Reebok’s head office (and later to the people on the street) and communicate its unique feature, we created a branded, inflatable dome. Inside the dome we used 3D digital scanning to scan visitors’ feet, and educate them on their foot shape and how exactly the new ZPump Fusion trainer could support them.
5. A VIP APP and an Augmented Reality table-footy game for News Corp
For News Corp’s VIP guests at the Australian Football League Grand Final, one the biggest tickets on the country’s annual social calendar, we created a Club Room app that housed a detailed itinerary, a map to help them navigate the venue, and an Augmented Reality table footy game.
To invite people to play, QR codes were placed on tables inside News Corp’s marquee at the Grand Final, and we had a live leaderboard to show scores and drive friendly banter and competition between attendees.
6. A Virtual Reality home tour using CGI content for Hive
Hive Home offers a revolutionary way of controlling and enhancing the space in which you live through a suite of smart products controlled by one, easy-to-use, award-winning app. We needed to wow the seen-it-all-before, tech-savvy crowd at the world’s largest consumer technology show: CES in Las Vegas. So, we created a range of real-life scenarios, and a slick Virtual Reality home tour using CGI content to showcase the Hive products in action.
This two-pronged approach at the Hive Smart Home stand used the best of live selling techniques and slick digital tools to help promote the strengths of the products among the high-value customers, and the tech journalists.
7. Augmented Reality journey of a droplet for Water NZ
To engage attendees at the Water NZ Conference and Expo, we created a bespoke, interactive “Waterwall” using Augmented Reality. Holding a tablet up to the hand-illustrated wall launched an AR journey of a water droplet. Viewers could follow the droplet which triggered videos, images and voiceovers that created an engaging and educational pathway to discover how Watercare provides safe and clean drinking water to Aucklanders.
The AR Waterwall (and our beautifully designed stand – if we dare say so ourselves) allowed us to deliver important information in a memorable and engaging way, which created positive awareness around the brand and water as a whole.
8.Virtual Reality Racing games for KwikFit
To ensure Continental was top-of-mind for all KwikFit staff, we created a stand at their annual conference, that played to the competitive nature of the sales staff, with two high-performance Virtual Reality games.
The first was Radial G, a racing game that was rebranded to look and feel like a Continental game. Players wore VR headsets across four racing seats, and competed against each other for a place on the tightly contested leaderboard for bragging rights and the chance to win some big prizes (though in hindsight just a place on the company leaderboard was prize enough!). So many people were itching to take on their colleagues and frenemies that we had to introduce waiting times and queue controls to handle them all.
The second was a bike racing game which offered riders the chance to race the Prudential Ride London course on one of two VR-equipped bikes, at speeds of a pro! The games revved up engagement at the conference and entrenched Continental’s brand promise, ‘the future in motion,’ and road-traction USP in a way the KwikFit staff wouldn’t soon forget.
9. A Virtual Atom treasure hunt for one of the world’s leading finance software solution companies
We’ll shortly be releasing Virtual Atoms (VA) for virtual attendees at a finance-focused virtual event, to find while they explore the show (like a virtual treasure hunt). Every VA a visitor collects will give them an entry into a free prize draw to win digital prizes in collaboration with google.
This creative technology is channel-agnostic and can work on any device, which makes the digital token the perfect tool to engage customers across all touchpoints at fintech events, on social media, face-to-face interactions, and digital experiences. We also recently used digital tokens for a virtual redemption system we created for Carlton & United Breweries – a brief we received from the digital transformation team at CUB. Stay tuned for more on the digital treasure hunt when we go live!
10. A Virtual Reality interactive demonstration for EchoNous
EchoNous is a software development company that specializes in developing intelligent medical tools that “combine emerging AI techniques, with extremely miniaturized ultrasound for a highly frictionless experience.”
To help the sales team showcase how EchoNous Vein works, a tool designed to help medical staff quickly find and assess veins in order to accurately place an IV, we created an interactive Virtual Reality demonstration. With the VR headset, the user was able to use the hand-held device on a virtual patient to try the product firsthand, allowing them to experience its immediate benefit.
It’s tough out there…
With people suffering from chronic information overload, and no more so than at a crowded event, cutting through the clutter and really getting people to connect with your brand or your message is a real challenge at times. If you want to stand out from the crowd, particularly in a competitive B2B expo space, or if you want people to remember your name or your message, do something that’s going to be memorable, immersive or (but preferably and) engaging.
In our many years of experience, we have learnt that creative tech can help you do just that.
Our USP with all of this is we’re a bunch of quasi-technical marketers, and it’s very rare to find a group of folk well versed in both skillsets, able to work globally. Ours is an in-house technology team, dedicated to creating cutting-edge brand experiences, including: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Touch Screen Technology & Interactive Surfaces, Projection Mapping, Blockchain Platforms (Virtual Atoms) and Image Capture, Manipulation and Content Sharing.
This can be a daunting world to dive into, but we’re an experienced partner, who is happy to navigate you through the wonderful world of creative tech. And the results are well worth it. You’ll see. Ready? Steady? Go!