Life sure ain’t easy for technology brands vying to capture consumer attention in today’s world. With the industry evolving at an incredible pace, every single day new products are bursting on to the marketplace that promise better, faster, slicker and more powerful user experiences.
To stand out from the crowd and be seen, tech brands have to work very, very hard indeed. High product price-points mean that consumers will think long and hard before digging into their wallets, yet a limited window of opportunity to get ahead of the pack before a competitor can do so means that every second counts.
Creativity is key to winning over both new and existing fans, and inventive experiential marketing campaigns provide great reasons for people to speak positively about brands. With word-of-mouth a key influencer in purchasing decisions for 74% of consumers, reaching out directly in memorable fashion is a prime route to go down to build brand love.
Allow us to turn your attention to three tech brands that show just how it’s done.
1. Sony Mobile takes fans under the sea
Sony well and truly made a splash with an impressive experiential approach that accomplished a whole lot more than just getting attendees talking. The tech brand managed to deliver a genuine once-in-a-lifetime experience when it unveiled “the world’s first underwater store” in Dubai.
Bringing Sony’s brand proposition to life in unforgettable fashion, a host of VIPs, competition winners and members of the press received invites to the incredible Xperia Aquatech store: the ultimate way to tangibly demonstrate the waterproof capabilities of Sony’s handsets first-hand.
Donning scuba gear, delighted participants swam out into the big blue sea to test out the handsets (all housed within an aquatic bubble, of course) and take selfies of the experience. Captured in a stunning video and picking up scores of media coverage, Sony Mobile’s commitment to experiential excellence gave its marketing messages instant credibility and left behind a lasting impression.
2. The “best bus stop ever” from Qualcomm
Qualcomm wanted to show that “life is better with mobile.” No easy feat – which is why the mobile-technology manufacturer pulled out all the stops to create the best bus stop ever.
Passengers patiently waiting at the bus stop for their daily commute were presented with a stark, simple billboard bearing a URL; not exactly a compelling introduction to a brand experience. But for those that took the initiative and visited the website on their smartphones, a whole host of incredible surprises lay in store.
A ride in a bright yellow Lamborghini, a husky-led sledge travelling through the city streets, and a bus filled to the brim with a travelling circus. These were just a few of the hard-to-forget moments that Qualcomm served up, all brought to life in one hugely fun video. Quickly going viral and notching up over 4 million YouTube views, the manufacturer’s fun approach made sure that its message reached a worldwide audience loud and clear.
3. WATCH_DOGS’ incredible street hack prank
Saving the best for last, developer Ubisoft’s super-sneaky smartphone prank on innocent LA shoppers created huge social buzz for the launch of its WATCH_DOGS video game.
To build excitement for the game, which centres around a highly-skilled hacker, Ubisoft set up an intricate prank involving actors, a bunch of hidden cameras, and some very impressive staged car crashes. Unsuspecting participants wandered into a mobile phone repair store to meet what they believed to be a very helpful vendor, who surprised each visitor by installing a special new app onto their smartphone free of charge. To demonstrate the power of the new app, the store’s owner took his guests on a walking tour of LA, using their phone to turn street lights on and off, unlock parked cars, and even withdraw stacks of money from ATMs. Events soon took a sizeable turn for the worse, but don’t let us spoil the surprise – seeing is believing…
A costly prank, yes, but one that more than delivered a return on the investment, racking up close to 20 million online views and bringing the concept into a very real setting, allowing delighted viewers to live vicariously through the experiences of others and ‘hack’ LA – without incurring a criminal record in the process.
Want more tech-tastic inspiration?
We’ve selected 10 of our favourite creative experiential marketing campaigns from tech brands, and pulled them together into one eBook, just for you. Download your copy today and discover why these brands were so successful and what we’ve learned from them.