The next big thing or just a voice in your head?

Marketing is evolving at breakneck speed as technology and consumer habits change. Ten years ago mobile was barely on the agenda for many brands; now it’s fast becoming an integral part of any multi-channel strategy. 

While it’s never simple to judge exactly where the industry is heading every time a new “seismic shift” is on the cards, it will be interesting to see how brands and consumers alike take to an entirely new advertising channel – and whether bone conduction really is here to stay.

German company Sky Deutschland plans to use the new technology to broadcast adverts on the nations’ railway network. Bone conduction involves passing vibrations through the consumer’s skull to transmit soundwaves to the fluid-filled chamber in the ear known as the cochlea. From there the information is transmitted to the brain and the subject hears the sound as though it is coming from within their own head.

It may sound reminiscent of a futuristic thriller, but bone conduction technology has already been in use for some years, particularly in headphones and some types of hearing aids which are worn behind the ear – which also indicates that even deaf people will be able to hear the adverts being broadcasted. 

What’s more, talk of Google using the technique in their upcoming Glass unit suggests that it could be set for widespread dissemination in the next few years. It’s certainly a bold new technique for marketers to add to their sizeable toolkits. But plans to employ bone conduction to broadcast adverts to passengers resting their heads against train windows have been proving controversial ever since they were first announced a couple of months ago.

According to the Daily Finance, the YouTube video demonstrating the technology had received more than a quarter of a million views in early July, of which seven out of ten had rated the concept with a thumbs down. That’s overwhelmingly negative, and comments going as far as to decry bone conduction advertising as an invasion of privacy are unlikely to be won over in the near future. A number of comments voice their sympathy for commuters who are unable to enjoy a quiet minute of rest after a long and arduous shift.

So, what are the chances of bone conduction taking off as a worldwide marketing tool? It isn’t too hard to see why the industry is fascinated with the idea, but it seems consumers will be harder to convince. Still, appealing to passenger’s wallets could make the difference. 

In the UK, years of fare increases as fuel prices have risen have left commuters facing ever-higher transport costs. It could be that injecting some much-needed revenue from advertising into the country’s rail network is just the ticket for passengers, especially if it prevents another price hike, pushes fares downwards or even pays for more and better services.

It remains to be seen whether bone conduction marketing makes its way over to the UK, or indeed whether it is taken up at all.

Either way, in the sense that it’s captured our attention and got us talking, it’s already working!

It’s all gone ‘Cirque Berserk’!

Roll Up! Roll Up! Roll Up!

The event theming trend of the year has caravanned its way to an event near you. It’s The Circus Theme!

Since its arrival the Circus has fascinated us Brits and as a consequence it’s no wonder that event agencies like The MotivAction Group are re-imagining ways to present everything you can do under a big top.

You’ll be pleased to know that you don’t have to spend the sort of budgets that Cirque Du Soleil have at their disposal to create a truly crowd pleasing performance.

A fantastic example of this is our local friends that organise the Standon Calling festival every summer. The weekend’s acts (including De La Soul – I’d forgotten all about them!) will be housed in a big top and the on-site bar, sweetly called the Strongman’s Arms, will be hosting a series of quirky sessions including ‘The Art of Whipping’ and ‘How to Conquer Your Fear of Clowns’. I can see that they might appeal to some of MotivAction’s employees!!

If Circus appeals then also check out London’s Southbank where the Wonderground Festival is now fully underway, with shows ranging from Canadian Lumberjacks to a traditional Parisian Burlesque knee’s up. There’s something for the clown or contortionist locked away in each of us. 

So, no matter what your stance is on clowns being funny or just plain creepy, it’s clear that the circus hasn’t lost its appeal.

Now, where did I put my whip?

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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.

The Olympic Park’s ‘Pop-Up’ Legacy

We don’t know if you noticed but a rather large sports festival popped up in the East of London last summer. And it seems that it’s set to become a firm favourite with festival and sports organisers wishing to ‘pop-up’ an event.

Harnessing the nation’s feel good factor following our Olympic glory, the park has already played host to an array of outdoor cultural events, ranging from the Open East Festival, the Wireless Festival and this summer’s hugely popular Anniversary Games.

The sheer scale of these projects really does impress. Amid the on-going renovation works you’d never expect to find swing ball arenas, cultured catering, multiple stages and the largest chunk of astro turf you’ve ever seen! It’s no mean feat!  

So far, the immediate Olympic legacy has been most enjoyable, with the diverse nature of the Park’s Event calendar perhaps the most pleasant surprise. Yet, the best bit of the lot is the fact that this ‘Pop-Up’ perfect festival ground is wham bam in the middle of London’s east end bringing exciting arts programmes to the masses, a green playground which really shouldn’t be.

Keep your eyes peeled for more thought provoking ‘Pop Ups’ as the trend continues to sweep the industry.

If you’d like to hear about anything we have professionally‘popped up’ here at MotivAction, get in touch.

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Play to win, don’t play to play: launching Varo Foods’ Moinmoin product

“Play to win. Don’t play to play.” said the Managing Director of Varo Foods in amazement after first setting his eyes on the Westfield Stratford demonstration kitchen we had created for him.

It may sound like an obvious statement but sometimes it can be hard to hand over the keys to your prized brand to an experiential agency and just let them ‘get on with’ creating a sampling event.

It probably hadn't helped that we’d been planning the launch of his new Nigerian delicacy Moinmoin for nearly a year, discussing a range of different venues and events and having to cancel them as the product simply wasn't ready.

Moinmoin is a dish served at Nigerian celebrations (known as Owambe) and family recipes are a closely guarded secret handed down from generation to generation. So it’s no surprise that Nigerians are very outspoken about what makes a good Moinmoin. You can see why no one had yet dared to package it as a convenience food - there was a lot at stake. 

Getting the recipe just right and waiting for the glacial manufacturing process to complete meant that the product sampling activity just got pushed further and further back. After all this time dealing with suppliers it was evident Varo Foods’ Managing Director hadn’t realised just how professional the live sampling activity could look. 

That’s precisely why he got MotivAction involved at the outset. We would take care of the whole process, ensuring our brand ambassadors were fully briefed, that Westfield Stratford’s demonstration kitchen was bright and vibrant and most importantly that his shiny new brand was properly represented throughout the whole weekend. 

No matter the client, brand or budget, MotivAction are there to win; not simply to play.

And you know what? It all paid off. After trying our hot Moinmoin samples the Nigerian target audience couldn't believe Varo Foods had managed to create such a tasty product. During our three days at the demonstration kitchen we had sold hundreds of tins of Moinmoin, created tens of thousands of opportunities to see the brand and Varo Foods saw their social media activity increase three-fold.

It looks as though Varo Foods’ Moinmoin has all the ingredients it needs to win!

If you would like to know a little more about the sampling activity we created for Varo Foods please get in touch with me at ideas@motivaction.co.uk and I’ll happily send you a case study.

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

Interactive game proves a hit for telecoms brand experience

Queues of people formed up and down the country as people waited to take part in a game of batak for T-Mobile’s latest experiential campaign.

Reactions were tested to the limit as people competed to attempt to hit the most lights out in 60 seconds, with the top scorer at each location winning a Blackberry handset.

The brand experience game was not only fun but created an excellent visual using clever branding and design to turn the game into a phone. Most importantly, while people queued there was a great opportunity for event staff to talk to potential customers about their latest proposition and boost those sales!

Posted by Debora King, Project Manager, The MotivAction Group

‘Tis the season to get ‘fest’-ive for brands

It comes around just once a year and there are absolutely no snow covered scenes or cherubic choristers in sight. That’s right, the summer festival music season is fast approaching. And it’s not just the world’s music fans that are gearing up to see their favourite bands. The world’s biggest brands pay good money to attend the summer festivals because they know that when music fans aren’t moshing or doing air guitar, they have a captive audience that will interact with their brand.

These days brands wishing to do their brand experience activity have so many festivals other than Glastonbury to choose from. Festival organisers have realised that festival-goers that used to enjoy them in their youth would still like to attend even though they now have children. Harvest at Jimmy’s Farm and Latitude are two great examples and many brands that target this audience benefit by creating standout brand experiences that entertain and engage them.

And don’t think that festivals are strictly the domain of trendy twenty-somethings. There are festivals aimed solely at the toddler market. Lollibop in Regents Park is a summer festival for kids under the age of 10 and features appearances Rastamouse and Peppa Pig. They even have Ministry of Sound put on a mini disco for them! Again, the brand experience or live experiential opportunities are endless.

Throw in some MotivAction brand ambassadors that are trained to engage and talk with enthusiasm and knowledge about your product and you’ll find it’s a winning combination.

So, if you want your brand adored and loved by a captive audience at this year’s summer festivals then you’ve still got time book some space. Give us a call, we’ll be happy to help.

In Brand Experiences we Trust

Every Monday a chap called Roy H. Williams (otherwise known as the Wizard of Ads) drops an email into my inbox. The week before last his newsletter informed us readers how customers aren’t gullible anymore – they can sense when you’re trying to sell to them. They aren’t interested in ‘positive thinking’ and gloss anymore; they’re all about action and doing. “Don’t tell us, show us!”, he continued. How true this is, given that these days household budgets are squeezed and every purchase is thought about long and hard.

Every year we hold a meeting with our Brand Experience Event Managers. It’s an opportunity for them to share their stories and experiences from the past year as they’ve toured the country doing store launches and promotional activity for our clients. We give them all manner of activities to do, from hosting product launches for our many and varied clients to a range of different promotional activities we manage for clients like T Mobile. The one thing that really stuck with me after this meeting was how they kept talking about how the activities we dream up for them to run encourages shoppers to queue and wait to take part in the activity. This, they tell us, gives them a chance to stand chatting to the shoppers, earning their trust, telling them about the brand and showing them the latest handsets and gadgetry. The shoppers soon forget about the potential prize they might be able to win on the wheel of fortune and, with the help of our brand ambassadors, ask to be ushered into the nearby store to purchase the product. How about that for delivering results?

It’s always been the case that brands require a solid marketing mix in order to get the best cut through for their products but with the right idea and the right people it really is possible for brands to genuinely gain the trust of their customers.

You are spoiling us (Brand) Ambassadors!

In the run up to the New Year the whole team at MotivAction have been working their socks off to win some fantastic new brand experience projects for some of the world’s best-known brands. In addition, Dave Turner our Operations Manager has been busy visiting universities and holding recruitment days to recruit the next wave of brand ambassador talent. I thought I’d catch up with him to find out what he and the team look for in great brand ambassadors.

What’s the most important quality you look for in a brand ambassador?

Being a brand ambassador isn’t an easy job. Imagine standing in a busy shopping centre and trying to encourage passers-by to stop and be engaged in the client’s brand or offer. You don’t have time to be a sales person, you only have time to be their best friend. So, what do we look for? Mostly natural charm and charisma.

What is the selection process like?

It’s actually quite tough. We only have a few hours with these guys so our interview techniques have to quickly identify those that are going to be great at the job. We carefully outline the nature of the job to each of the interviewees and we then give them the opportunity to leave half way through if they don’t think they are going to be able to do it.

You spend quite a lot of time on the road searching for brand ambassadors, what are the benefits to our clients?

It’s really important that our clients’ brands are represented properly so we work hard to find brand ambassadors that we know, that work well in a team and that will deliver 100% of the time. Then we can match specific brand ambassadors that will work best for a specific client.

If you’re interested in becoming one of MotivAction’s Brand Ambassadors visit fill in our recruitment form or drop us a line with a little information about yourself to crew@motivaction.co.uk.