Is there such a thing as bad publicity?

For those of us involved within the creative and promotional industries we all appreciate the power of print and the value in checking grammar, word flow and spellings before a big event. Occasionally slogans can get lost in translation with computers formatted slightly differently, not to mention the less Shakespearean versions of English used throughout the world.

But imagine our surprise when we heard about the latest news from multinational electronics company, Samsung at this weeks CES conference in Las Vegas.

We've all heard about Hollywood Producer Michael Bay leaving the stage during the launch of Samsung’s new curved TV, but the experiential side of the launch revealed a technological rain wall, sadly containing a misspelled ‘Experiece’; an otherwise inspired concept which looked great but sadly also captured the attention of social media.

Perceptions of brands have never been formed or altered quicker than they are right now with the accessibility of the internet and social media.

Both of these occurrences have gained huge exposure for Samsung, so you could argue that they have received more coverage than they could have dreamt of, albeit not directly about their product but it certainly goes a long way for brand exposure. So is it true that 'there's no such thing as bad publicity’?

See previous Blog entries for some of the experiential escapes The MotivAction Group have provided.

Remember… join the conversation and let us know your thoughts; follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.

Brand Christmas

It’s that time of year again when the nations biggest brands unveil they’re multimillion pound Christmas blockbusters in the hope of sending sales, awareness and social media hits through roof in a bid to rule the media waves.

Ads are now purposely released during prime time ad breaks for mass exposure and aimed directly at the social media obsessed demographic. A tactic that has worked so well for John Lewis that its cartoon bear and hare characters now have they’re own twitter accounts with mass followings, see @JohnLewisBear and @JohnLewisHare! 

And this year's ad has already had twice as many views on You Tube than last year’s snowman ad, doubling the hits to the tune of 9.8 million views so far and dwarfing the theme packed M&S advert in the process.

So what are the crucial elements to a successful Christmas marketing campaign? The fresh thinking required for concepts that are both current yet classic whilst still original is a definite must and something we pride ourselves on here at The MotivAction Group.  This got us thinking about the many Christmas adverts over the years, Coca Cola, John Lewis, The Famous Grouse, or maybe Ant & Dec are a new Christmas winner.....but which is your favourite? 

Join us on Twitter to keep up to date with our blogs and discussions or leave a comment below.  We'd love to hear from you!  

Merry Christmas from everyone here at The MotivAction Group!

Street art hits the event world

Street art has always caused a stir, dividing the community into those who consider it an unlawful act of vandalism or those who rejoice in the name of arts and culture. Regardless of the on-going Tom and Jerry styled saga, graffiti has worked its way into the events industry with a subtle bang!

Street artists often hold the same aspirations as us here at The MotivAction Group, to not only ‘wow’ our clients but to truly engage on an experiential level, taking expectations of what’s deemed 'normal' to the very edges of its understanding. Bristol’s very own mysterious Banksy has been doing this for years, occasionally in the most obscure and even dangerous of locations, forcing the world to look and think a little deeper. Most recently he caused a stir in New York where he sold original canvases incognito for just $60 (£38) when they are said to be worth up to £20,000.  See more on this story here.

Within the ever developing events Industry a live graffiti demonstration or even digital graffiti wall can add an excellent visual impact to any event, pushing those corporate boundaries and bringing the flavour of a ram shackled, down town 1980's NYC to the conference hall to wow, shock and stir the imagination in the best ways possible.

Graffiti Workshops also offer an excellent experiential team building option with hands on and artistic twists.  And with Wi-Fi instant streaming capabilities allowing event delegates to share their fantastic experiences via social media, it can cause real ripples throughout the twittersphere adding further value and exposure to the event. 

The most exciting and inspiring variation of events industry graffiti fun is served up by the Graffiti Van. Offering events attendees a novel yet fresh way of creating some potential ‘art’ along with plentiful laughs and lasting memories. The contradiction of using an ex-ice cream van as a black board providing an experience that’s both a little naughty and a little nice.

So regardless of your personal views on whether the action of using spray paint onto walls is a crime against the eyeballs or innovative opportunist art that allows creativity to thrive in places where it should not, the utilisation into our events can prove a pivotal feature that will keep your attendees singing your praises long after the paint is dry.

See our previous blog entries for some of the experiential offerings we've found this year!

Remember that you can let us know your thoughts by following us Twitter or liking us on Facebook. 

MotivAction pack EE’s suitcase for the summer

If you’re travelling through Stansted or Manchester airport on your summer holidays over the coming weeks you won’t fail to notice the rather large suitcase MotivAction has produced for EE’s latest roaming campaign.

Our brand ambassadors are on hand to tell holiday makers about the fantastic roaming rates they can receive to make sure they’re in touch with family and friends whilst abroad.

If you’ve got a brief sitting on your desk for a live marketing or brand experience campaign then feel free to share it with our lovely team of creatives at MotivAction. We’d love to help!

Get in touch with Andy Cording: andy.cording@motivaction.co.uk or call 01920 458555 to find out more.

A Brand Experience Case Study: Gore-Tex demonstrate that technical clothes can look stylish

After the success of the PR launch MotivAction delivered for the Gore-Tex ® SURROUND™ Product Technology launch in January they asked us to deliver a new brand experience live event that would showcase garments featuring their Gore-Tex fabrics and treatments.

Gore-Tex has been providing waterproof and breathable membranes and finishes to clothes manufacturers such as Berghaus and North Face for many years. However, many fashion consumers don’t realise the range of cutting-edge fashion brands that feature Gore-Tex or just how ‘on-trend’ some of the styles are. Gore-Tex asked us to showcase some of these garments to fashion journalists, particularly the Japanese influenced brands, such as Bathing Ape, nanamica and Visvim, who have developed a series of very stylish clothes.

MotivAction took over the Future Gallery, a fantastic white studio space in London’s Covent Garden and produced a colourful and vibrant, modern Japanese-inspired fashion show. We created bespoke mannequins from brightly coloured Perspex which were used to showcase some of the key garments. On the walls we hung giant coloured frames at jaunty angles within which we hung branded shoes.

The focus of the day was two high impact fashion shows in the style of a photo shoot. Shot on a bright blue background, our stylish models paraded in front of the photographer and his shots were instantly projected onto the walls around the journalists.

The event created a real buzz with journalists exclaiming how much they enjoyed the brand experience and the opportunity to get close to the garments. In fact, by the following morning many bloggers (such as Hypebeast, the most read online fashion news and information outlet) and journalists had written about the clothes they had seen.

Posted by Andy Cording, Brand Experiences Account Manager

Some thoughts on powering an ancient brand

Select the satellite view on Google maps and search for a town in Morocco called Merzouga. If you zoom in really close in to the outskirts of town where it meets the red sands of the Sahara desert you may notice a very faint black line which, if you carefully follow it for a couple of miles, you'll see that it snakes out to a series of canvas covered buildings owned by the indigenous tribe of Morocco: The Berbers.

The Berbers have inhabited the hostile and arid desert for thousands of years - happily surviving in seemingly impossible conditions. Not only do they have the stultifying heat to contend with but they must look after their families and animals, ensuring they have enough food and water. In addition, they’ve had to achieve this amongst the backdrop of constant invasions: from the ancient Greeks, the empirical Romans, and most recently by tourists wanting to live a bit of the real life by taking camel treks out to their encampments and to spend the night living with The Berbers under the stars amongst the dunes.

The Berber story is quite impressive. In amongst all this change the Berbers have stuck true to their roots by always maintaining their identity, their traditions and lifestyle whilst adapting to new regimes, religions and, even, tourism. A good example of this is that faint black line I mentioned in the first paragraph. It’s an eight inch cable that feeds power to these seemingly isolated camps. It allows tourists to have hot water, a flushing toilet and stoves for the hosts to cook on. And do you know what? The Berbers make a tidy living out of it. Not bad eh?

It led me to thinking that The Berber brand is probably one of the longest brands to have survived. And the only way they’ve managed to do it is to adapt or die. I think many modern day brands could learn from that little black electric cable that heads out into the desert.

Posted by Andy Cording, Brand Experiences Account Manager , The MotivAction Group