2015-01-13

When we rolled out our inaugural Event Technology Awards program four years ago, event marketers were eagerly grabbing hold of the most cutting-edge technologies out there, and integrating them into their events. Today, they’re not only making those technologies their own—they’re literally making the technologies.

It’s an incredible evolution to witness, as event marketers, their technology partners and a growing cast of niche experts transform the experiential industry from technology “borrowers” into technology creators, building new products and innovating ideas so cool and sophisticated, other industries are lining up to borrow them, too.

The Event Technology Awards is the first program established to recognize the power of integrating technology across events and trade shows. In this, our fourth annual special report highlighting the year’s top award-winning programs, we spotlight the best use of event technology across 22 categories and hundreds of digital platforms.

More than 600 entries were received this year, making this our largest, most competitive Event Technology Awards to date. And after a two-week judging by a panel of brand-side marketers, top honors were awarded at a Gala event at the fourth annual EventTech conference at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nov. 3-5.

The Event Technology Awards represent what happens when possibilities and passion combine to become reality. It’s the best of the sky’s-the-limit kind of thinking this industry is known for. And one exciting point in an evolution that we are honored to acknowledge and follow in the months and years ahead.

Congratulations to all of this year’s Event Technology Award winners.

Full List of Winners

BEST TOUCH- OR GESTURE-BASED EVENT INTERACTIVE

Gold Winner
Campaign: Ecomagination Centre

Client: GE

Partner: Imagination

Silver Winner

Campaign: Jordan XX9 Interactive

Client: Nike

Partners: Mosaic, M1 Interactive

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Texas on Tour

Client: Texas Office of the Governor, Economic Development & Tourism

Partners: RedPeg, Pearl Media

BEST USE OF PROJECTION MAPPING

Gold Winner

Campaign: Worldwide Sales Conference

Client: Adobe

Partner: Ideas with Impact

Silver Winner

Campaign: Adult Swim Meatwad Dome Experience

Client: Turner Broadcasting System

Partners: Vortex Immersion Media, Golden Wolf Ltd.

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Rockit Event

Client: DealerSocket

Partner: Multi Image Group

BEST USE OF GAMIFICATION

Gold Winner

Campaign: Big Shot Game

Client: American Express

Partners: Momentum Worldwide, Colorfield, Astound Group

Silver Winner

Campaign: EDGE Game

Client: Verizon

Partners: T.D. Wang, Zugara

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Touchdown Drive Challenge

Client: Nissan

Partners: TrojanOne, wonderMakr

BEST USE OF A/V

Gold Winner

Campaign: Redefine Possible

Client: EMC

Partner: City Creative

Silver Winner

Campaign: 2014 NewFront

Client: AOL

Partner: Barkley Kalpak Agency

Bronze Winner

Campaign: 2014 Upfront

Client: Discovery Communications

Partners: DePalma Productions, LMG Show Technology

BEST AUDIENCE INTERACTION

Gold Winner

Campaign: 2014 Gaming Awards

Client: South by Southwest

Partner: Audience Entertainment

Silver Winner

Campaign: Get Your Billion Back America

Client: H&R Block

Partners: Ketchum, Decibel Management, M1 Interactive

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Tic Tac Presents: The My Pack Tour

Client: Ferrero USA

Partners: Legacy Marketing Partners, MoZeus

BEST USE OF HANDHELD TECHNOLOGY

Gold Winner

Campaign: Digital Landscaping

Client: Nissan

Partner: George P. Johnson

Silver Winner

Campaign: Working from “Home”

Client: Microsoft

Partners: Geometry Global

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Galaxy Mega at Life is Beautiful

Client: Samsung

Partners: MAC Presents, Eyes and Ears Entertainment

BEST EVENT APP

Gold Winner

Campaign: Cannes Lions

Client: Lions Festivals

Partners: Eventbase, Urban Airship, Gimbal

Silver Winner

Campaign: Worldwide Owner/Operator Convention

Client: McDonald’s

Partners: Kindle Communications, Urban Airship

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Game Developer Conference

Client: UBM

Partners: DoubleDutch

BEST EVENT CAMPAIGN MICROSITE/WEB PAGE/HUB

Gold Winner

Campaign: Hampton Hotels Ultimate GM Huddle

Client: Hilton

Partners: agencyEA, Tagboard

Silver Winner

Campaign: To Be Loved in Seattle

Client: Delta Airlines

Partners: MAC Presents, The Uprising Creative

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Cadillac Microsites

Client: General Motors

Partners: Jack Morton Worldwide, eshots

BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY FOR DATA-COLLECTION AND/OR MEASUREMENT

Gold Winner

Campaign: PinPoint Social

Client: Ford

Partners: Team Detroit, Flash Point Communications

Silver Winner

Campaign: Adult Swim Fun House & Meatwad Dome Experience

Client: Turner Broadcasting System

Partners: Thuzi, Vortex Immersion Media, Hadley Media, Golden Wolf Ltd.

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Test Our Metal

Client: Harley Davidson

Partner: TabbleDabble

BEST USE OF VIDEO STREAMING

Gold Winner

Campaign: Hot Wheels Track Builder Challenge

Client: Mattel

Partners: TrojanOne, wonderMakr

Silver Winner

Campaign: Makeover Day

Client: Mary Kay

Partner: BestBuzz

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Virtual Systems Engineer Conference

Client: EMC

Partner: INXPO

BEST USE OF RFID/NFC

Gold Winner

Campaign: Insider Band

Client: Esurance

Partner: ClearHart

Silver Winner

Campaign: All-Star FanPass

Client: Major League Soccer

Partner: FISH Technologies

Bronze Winner

Campaign: MyOpen Pass

Client: American Express

Partners: Momentum Worldwide, HelloWorld

BEST USE OF FACEBOOK

Gold Winner

Campaign: PinPoint Social

Client: Ford

Partners: Team Detroit, Flash Point Communications

Silver Winner

Campaign: Whatever, USA

Client: Anheuser-Busch InBev

Partners: Mosaic, dwinQ

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Oprah’s The Life You Want Weekend

Client: Harpo Studios

Partners: WME Live, LeadDog Marketing Group, Thuzi, PixMob, Harpo Live

BEST USE OF TWITTER

Gold Winner

Campaign: #WhosGonnaWin

Client: Verizon

Partners: Wasserman Media Group, Soso Limited

Silver Winner

Campaign: Cisco Live

Client: Cisco

Partner: GolinHarris

Bronze Winner

Campaign: JiveWorld

Client: Jive Software

Partner: Quickmobile

BEST USE OF INSTAGRAM

Gold Winner

Campaign: Scion Swag Machine

Client: Toyota

Partners: Spinifex, George P. Johnson

Silver Winner

Campaign: #BKLovesMayer Contest

Client: Citi

Partners: MAC Presents, The Uprising Creative

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Beauty Garden Party

Client: Target

Partners: Caravents

BEST OVERALL USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA (B-TO-B)

Gold Winner

Campaign: Cisco Live

Client: Cisco

Partner: GolinHarris

Silver Winner

Campaign: Worldwide Partner Conference

Client: Microsoft

Partner: In-house

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Tour de Cure

Client: American Diabetes Association

Partner: Tagkast

BEST OVERALL USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA (B-TO-C)

Gold Winner

Campaign: 2014 Winter Olympics

Client: Visa

Partner: MRY

Silver Winner

Campaign: Rising Stars

Client: Abercrombie and Fitch

Partner: Caravents

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Essence Fest 2014

Client: Essence Magazine

Partners: Solomon Group, Postano

BEST USE OF A SINGLE TECHNOLOGY (B-TO-B)

Gold Winner

Campaign: E3 Bullet Time Experience

Client: Wargaming

Partner: Inhance Digital

Silver Winner

Campaign: HIMSS iPad Video Wall

Client: Siemens

Partners: Live Marketing, M1 Interactive, Fred Blurton Productions

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Virtual Environment

Client: The Marketing Scope

Partner: InterCall

BEST USE OF A SINGLE TECHNOLOGY (B-TO-C)

Gold Winner

Campaign: Into the Storm Oculus Rift Experience

Client: Warner Bros.

Partner: Omnicom Media Group

Silver Winner

Campaign: Larger Than Life Connect Interactive

Client: MINI

Partners: Czarnowski, Acme Design

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Drone Selfie

Client: Sony

Partner: Isobar

BEST COMBINATION OF EVENT TECHNOLOGIES (B-TO-B)

Gold Winner

Campaign: AdWords Performance Forum

Client: Google

Partner: FreemanXP

Silver Winner

Campaign: Worldwide Owner/Operator Convention

Client: McDonald’s

Partners: Kindle Communications, Urban Airship

Bronze Winner

Campaign: 2014 Client Summit

Client: Experian

Partners: Apple Rock Displays, PSAV

BEST COMBINATION OF EVENT TECHNOLOGIES (B-TO-C)

Gold Winner

Campaign: Oprah’s The Life You Want WeekendClient: Harpo Studios

Partners: WME Live, LeadDog Marketing Group, Thuzi, PixMob, Harpo Live

Silver Winner

Campaign: Power House

Client: Verizon

Partner: Wasserman Media Group

Bronze Winner

Campaign: The Bentley Studio

Client: Bentley Motors

Partners: Momentum Worldwide, Your Majesty

BEST DIGITAL+LIVE CAMPAIGN (B-TO-B)

Gold Winner

Campaign: Worldwide Partner Conference

Client: Microsoft

Partner: In-house

Silver Winner

Campaign: Bosch Experience

Client: Bosch

Partner: FUSION Marketing

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Makeover Day

Client: Mary Kay

Partner: BestBuzz

BEST DIGITAL+LIVE CAMPAIGN (B-TO-C)

Gold Winner

Campaign: Happiness Flag

Client: Coca-Cola Co.

Partner: ignition

Silver Winner

Campaign: Trophy Experience

Client: Heineken

Partner: United State of Fans/TBWA

Bronze Winner

Campaign: Puppy Bowl VIP House Party

Client: Animal Planet

Partner: House Party

BEST COMBINATION OF EVENT TECHNOLOGIES (B-TO-B)



GOLD WINNER
Campaign: AdWords Performance Forum
Client: Google
Partner: FreemanXP

Google’s AdWords Performance Forum (APF) is a gathering of its most high-profile and important clients. They are the top 150 customers and industry leaders who represent billions of dollars in Google advertising revenue. No pressure, right? To make sure these attendees had a top-tier experience, the search giant set out not only to educate, entertain and directly connect these high- profile clients with Google product managers and executives, but to also provide insights that would fuel real-time course corrections to the event and future AdWords products.

The event ran over two days at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay resort, just south of San Francisco. Of course, a brand like Google integrated technology everywhere it could, including a custom-built registration site built on Google’s App Engine and a custom APF app, which attendees got on a brand new Nexus 7 tablet upon check-in. Through the app, attendees could answer polls or ask questions with Google Product Managers and other attendees engaging in real time. At the end of APF, the app self-destructed (how cool is that?) and wiped the devices clean of proprietary content, so attendees could take their devices home without the sensitive material.

Although the brand supplied a strong wireless connection, every seat in the house came with Ethernet cables, power cords and a variety of connectors so that attendee devices could always be at full charge. Since not everyone the brand wanted to reach could attend in person, a livestream helped Google reach an additional 20,000 investors, media and clients worldwide. Throughout the live space, the brand showed off its innovative technological products, including Google Glass and the Google Self-Driving Car. More to the point for the attendees was the NFC tag-generated custom AdWords Ready Creative samples and Beam Pro telepresence robots cruising around during breaks with AdWords experts driving the robots and fielding questions from the crowd.

Every piece of technology used at APF collected data, providing insights into everything from popular sessions to wireless connectivity levels, allowing Google executives to adjust the program on the fly if needed. And the results tell the rest of the tale. This was an immersive, technology-fueled, data-driven experience. Through the custom mobile app, the brand collected more than 100,000 different interactions and 6,000 data points from surveys and polling. These data points will ultimately turn into actionable items to create better products, and an even better conference next year.

The livestreamed press event resulted in media coverage from Forbes, Inc, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, and AdAge, as well as favorable analyst reports from both Citi and UBS. The attendees were impressed too, with one saying that, “They pulled out all the stops and delivered a conference that was the best I have experienced in my career.”



SILVER WINNER
Campaign: Worldwide Owner/Operator Convention
Client: McDonald’s
Partners: Kindle Communications, Urban Airship

The Worldwide Owner/Operator Convention brings together more than 15,000 attendees and draws an audience from more than 120 countries to network with peers and vendors and discover new ways to enhance their McDonald’s franchises.

For the brand, it was important for attendees to connect in three ways: with one another digitally, with one another in person and with the customer via social media.

To connect the audience like it had never done before, the brand created a pumped-up event website, mobile app and on-site engagement center. In the past, the event website was little more than a registration site, but this year it was loaded with content and a promotional email campaign to drive attendees to the site months before the event.

The Social Stream was the site’s social media aggregator that pulled categorized content from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Vine to create a mosaic that provided a timely and comprehensive view of the brand as seen through the eyes of the customer.

And while the website was a valuable resource for all attendees, the primary communication vehicle on-site was the mobile app. Key features of the app included a chat function, an interactive agenda, an internal professional networking feature to help attendees connect on-site and a virtual briefcase offering users a single location to collect and store important information from the event.

By the time the last order of fries had been served, the website had logged 404,491 page views and almost 11,000 users downloaded the app.

BRONZE WINNER
Campaign: 2014 Client Summit
Client: Experian
Partners: Apple Rock Displays, PSAV

Experian’s annual Client Summit in Las Vegas is the brand’s chance every year to engage current and future clients through individual stories from company executives and various celebrities. The main focus this year was learning and knowledge-sharing in a unique way: through personal success stories that relate to many marketing practices utilized in today’s high-tech world.

This event used several different forms of technology to produce an event focusing on individuality. Everything from projection mapping to wow the attendees, iPad kiosks for one-on-one interactions, a 47-inch interactive touch screen monitor and live video stream of the general session engaged attendees at the show as well as those who could not physically attend. For the general session, the brand pulled out all the stops with a six-projector blend of trade image magnification and video mapping to create different sets for each of the 20 different speakers. The projection system broadcast live Twitter feeds so guests kept the global feel of the event front of mind.

The summit hit its goals in style, with a measured increase in web traffic and social media buzz and a 10- to 20-percent increase in sales right after the summit. The brand is taking its learnings—and successes—and applying them to next year’s event.

BEST COMBINATION OF EVENT TECHNOLOGIES (B-TO-C)

GOLD WINNER
Campaign: Oprah’s The Life You Want Weekend
Client: Harpo Studios
Partner: WME Live, LeadDog Marketing Group, Thuzi, PixMob, Harpo Live

Oprah doesn’t know how to do anything by half measures, and her The Life You Want tour was no exception. It hit the road last year with a truly staggering list of objectives, including creating an unforgettable experience that made a data capture tool, the O Tour Wristband, a core part of the show. The wristband was designed to integrate all of the tour’s sponsors into an experience that amplified each brand across social networks, creating a social-by-design event that leveraged Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to ultimately achieve 10-times amplification. Because that’s how Oprah rolls, y’all.

The O Tour wristband served as the attendee’s fast pass to fun and connectivity. Upon entering O Town, the fan village featuring sponsor activations, attendees could tap their wristbands to engage with video booths, contests, product and information stations, instant win games and much more. With a dozen global sponsors all enabled, there was no shortage of places to tap. After spending the day in O Town, attendees got another surprise at the opening of the show when the O Tour wristband suddenly lit up. The wristband that served as a ticket to O Town also illuminated, changed color and was synchronized to the music of the show.

Social was everywhere on the tour. Attendees were encouraged to use their social credentials during the registration process to maximize their O Town experience. A Social Hub displayed Facebook and Twitter profile pictures of attendees, Instagram photos and tweets. Attendees were able to see their content prominently displayed by participating in event photo stations or posting with certain hashtags. The brand also implemented a single Facebook app i.d. across multiple environments to drive real-time analytics for the event. Bringing the sponsors into the fold was almost too easy. Olay ran a sharable video booth, Toyota did a dash cam photo activation, Crest had a DSLR photo booth with printing and instant sharing to Facebook, Ikea and Wells Fargo did a sweepstakes and Bounty rolled out roaming paparazzi. It was a spectacle of Oprah proportions, as was shown by the successful results.

The O Tour wristband was a huge hit with fans and sponsors, with more than 95 percent of attendees registered having received wristbands and using them, and all tour sponsors having leveraged the solution. Facebook amplification was off the charts and averaged over 300-times reach across all sponsor activations. And thousands of attendees downloaded the Oprah Tour app to self-register and receive their O Tour wristband upon arrival at the venue. This time, you get to find something under your seat, Oprah—a win.

SILVER WINNER
Campaign: Power House
Client: Verizon
Partner: Wasserman Media Group

Verizon’s Power House activation for the Super Bowl in New York City’s Bryant Park was monumental, both in size and impact. The brand set out to create awe-inspiring technology experiences showcasing its network, products and services, including the brand new LTE Multicast, Verizon’s future network technology. To do that, the brand created a 15,000-square-foot brand technology showcase filled with personalized, interactive experiences for Super Bowl fans that tapped into their passion for football.

The brand leveraged many technologies to bring Verizon Power House to life, including biometric scanning identification, robotics, LTE Multicast, Kinect sensored video walls, 50-inch touch screens, 270-degree projection mapping and augmented reality. It all began with the bio scanner. Each visitor would sign in with a thumb scan and create a profile with a name, photo, favorite team, year of birth and email address. These details then personalized each experience for the fan after they re-scanned their thumb at each touchpoint throughout the consumer journey. There was not one Verizon device throughout the whole space. Instead, the technology spoke for itself, translating the message to thousands of consumers that Verizon is so much more than a mobile service provider—it is a technology leader. With each new motion sensitive, responsive and personalized interaction, consumers felt the space coming to life around them.

By the end, 65 percent said they are more likely to purchase from Verizon because of the Power House experience.

BRONZE WINNER
Campaign: The Bentley Studio
Client: Bentley Motors
Partners: Momentum Worldwide, Your Majesty

Buying a car is only a purchase, unless you’re doing it with Bentley. To get that message across, the brand deployed the Bentley Studio, a luxury experience designed to upgrade the process and generate leads that would lead ultimately to the purchase of a Bentley automobile.

The campaign’s strategy was to highlight that not all luxury cars have to be identical and that one’s car should be a reflection of its owner, not its designer. The Bentley Studio was a pop-up store that created a singular buying experience based on input from the individual buyers. Built from scratch in a vacant retail space in New York’s trendy Meatpacking District, the store was active for two weeks. Appointments were made through dealer leads and other sources, with walk-ins accepted when possible.

The first part of building a profile began with choosing between three designed RFID cards representing three different Bentley interior veneer options. Next, a brand ambassador guided the prospect to display monitors and, by waving the RFID card on either side of the monitor, they would select between two images shown on screen. Every selection was used to distill the prospect’s personal design tastes and create a profile (and a Bentley) that was unique.

In the end, 59 percent of the attendees were converted into active leads, with each lead having a personal profile created to assist in the sales process that could be used when approaching them after the event.

BEST DIGITAL + LIVE CAMPAIGN (B-TO-B)

GOLD WINNER
Campaign: Worldwide Partner Conference
Client: Microsoft
Partner: In-House

The Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) is the premier, annual event for Microsoft’s Partner Network. Through keynote addresses, sessions and networking events, partners have the opportunity to hear Microsoft’s vision for the year, learn industry trends and best practices, meet with Microsoft representatives and—hopefully—form profitable connections with one another.

The goal for this year was to augment the in-person experience with a digital strategy that would connect attendees to the show, the show’s content and to each other earlier and more frequently before, during and after the event. The brand did this through a combination of social media and digital engagement strategies. The most complex of these digital strategies was the custom social media network, Connect. On this partner-focused platform, partners were able to connect digitally with one another well before the conference started in order to get a jump-start on networking.

It also allowed them to plan ahead and build their schedules. This way, attendees walked into WPC with their schedules planned and with potentially profitable relationships already germinating. After the conference, Connect was where partners could access session resources, including viewing on-demand videos. The brand knew that attendees wanted to have information at their fingertips, so the features and functionality of Connect came through the mobile app. In addition to the Connect features, Microsoft also leveraged more traditional social channels, including Facebook and Twitter, which the brand managed with a tool called Sprinklr, used to engage in conversations live at the conference with attendees.

A team of four used the tool to listen and respond immediately, whether that response was a simple thank you or a trouble-shooting escalation. One of the most important parts of WPC is the Vision Keynotes, so the brand streamed the keynotes live on its website DigitalWPC. In addition to the live streaming, Microsoft brought the keynote experience to the digital world through live tweeting of quotes, key announcements and posting live from the press box. For an exciting technological touch, the brand brought online conversations to the real world with a Live Wall that displayed a living infographic of social feeds, statistics and presentation decks. In the end, Microsoft’s digital additions helped transform its annual conference into a year-round conversation capped off with a better organized and more networking-friendly live experience.

Connect brought together many vendors, tools and features into one seamless experience for attendees to help augment their event experience. The app brought more than 8,000 users into the fold and almost 90,000 total app opens. Thanks to the brand’s careful social management, it increased its Twitter reach by more than a million over the year before, 61 percent of messages sent by the brand team were retweeted and mentions increased 219 percent. Not to mention the live streaming that had three times the viewership for the Vision Keynotes over 2013 with more than 20,200 viewers and from more than 100 countries.

SILVER WINNER
Campaign: Bosch Experience
Client: Bosch
Partner: FUSION Marketing

Bosch wanted to be seen as an industry innovator, not just in its product offerings, but also in the way it reached potential customers. To raise awareness and sales of Bosch’s Gasoline Direct Injection systems (GDI) and Quiet Cast Brakes, the brand launched the Bosch Xperience Mobile Tour. The tour targeted Bosch-Authorized retailers and drove awareness about the benefits of Bosch technology and the compatibility with most foreign and domestic automobile brands by leveraging one of the year’s hottest tech tools.

The centerpiece of the six-month tour was a 10-minute Oculus Rift virtual reality experience. The engagement allowed the viewer to get sucked into the engine of a moving car through the grill, travel through the entire engine system and get ultimately deposited back onto the road through the exhaust. The viewer was then placed into another moving vehicle where they got to see the mechanics of a braking system as the car goes through an emergency-braking situation. The VR experience was followed by a 15-minute classroom session, led by a Bosch-trained instructor.

The wow factor of the technology meant attendees paid closer attention to content and retained more information about the brand and the product, while seeing the brand as a tech leader. Word spread quickly about the mobile tour and the brand had very high levels of participation when compared against other marketing and training tactics used in the past. The brand averaged more than 95 percent success in capturing an email address per participant.

BRONZE WINNER
Campaign: Makeover Day
Client: Mary Kay
Partners: BestBuzz

The Mary Kay Makeover Day was the key digital experience during the Mary Kay Leadership Conference that encouraged Mary Kay Consultants to commit to hosting a party during Mary Kay Makeover Day 2014. It was set up to leverage and gather data that will help Mary Kay Consultants acquire new customers and provide consultants with a new channel for customer acquisition using digital platforms and emerging technology.

During the event on March 8, celebrity makeup artists worked with professional models using current and new Mary Kay products. The event was a vehicle to launch new lines of Mary Kay makeup, and to celebrate International Women’s Day. Hosted at Mary Kay headquarters in Addison, Texas, several hundred Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultants attended. The event was also streamed live to more than 11,000 hosted Makeover Parties, allowing participants to follow along with the celebrity makeup artists and perform 58,808 makeovers. This set a new record, surpassing the previous record by over 30 percent.

By using geo-location technology, new potential clients were able to easily locate the nearest hosted Makeover Day party so they could participate in the Makeover Day as well as visualize the scope and scale of the event on a map, encouraging them to share and invite others to participate. Being able to see all of the activity surrounding the event across the U.S. and Canada greatly increased participation.

BEST DIGITAL + LIVE CAMPAIGN (B-TO-C)

GOLD WINNER
Campaign: Happiness Flag
Client: Coca-Cola Co.
Partner: ignition

It’s a custom in soccer to present flags on the field or in the stands, typically representative of the teams or nations about to play. As an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, Coca-Cola’s marketing campaign around the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil was built upon the idea of making the World Cup the World’s Cup—transforming it into the most inclusive, engaging and participatory FIFA World Cup flag presentation experience to date.

The objective was to harness the power of soccer to bring together people from different races, places, classes and creeds all leading up to the FIFA World Cup. To meet this objective, Coke’s solution was the Happiness Flag, the world’s largest digitally produced photomosaic flag.

The idea for the Happiness Flag was to create a flag to unveil on the pitch that is representative of everybody, regardless of team or country. The brand invited soccer fans across the world to submit pictures of themselves through social media, email and the Happiness Flag website. Brazilian street artist Speto and Argentinian artist Tec designed and painted a beautiful canvas in collaboration with Coca-Cola, and once the canvas was completed, it was digitized, and all of the fan-submitted images were then put together as a massive photomosiac. The photomosaic was later unveiled on the pitch before the opening match in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in front of a global audience.

The Happiness Flag provided an easy way for users to engage—all they had to do was submit their pictures by sharing them on social media. The brand capitalized on the ease and popularity of familiar social channels and hashtags, and already common consumer actions, like selfies. Overall, Coke collected images from 207 different countries around the world, every single country that Coca-Cola is sold in.

After the opening soccer match, the Flag was uploaded to the Happiness Flag website, allowing consumers to zoom in on the Flag, find their pictures and share it again on their social channels, taking the campaign full circle. The physical flag was then leveraged as event décor in subsequent Coca-Cola FIFA World Cup hospitality events. Later, pieces of the flag were actually given back to participating markets after the tournament as a FIFA World Cup souvenir.

Through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the Happiness Flag website, the brand was able to leverage technology to reach consumers and gain participation all around the world. The Happiness Flag was comprised of over 3.5 million images and 223,206 fan photos, all voluntarily submitted by consumers. The Flag itself was printed on 192 nylon fabric panels; after 29 straight days of printing, the final product was 32,453 square feet.

The Opening Ceremony received about 2.8 billion viewers, meaning that the Happiness Flag unveiling created almost three billion impressions worldwide. And the campaign continued to thrive off of social sharing. After the unveiling, 22,000 posts generated an estimated 703 million impressions online. Coca-Cola’s real time Happiness Flag tweets generated over three million retweets, and the digital flag on the Happiness Flag website generated over 1.5 million views, just during the game. Goal!

SILVER WINNER
Campaign: Trophy Experience
Client: Heineken
Partner: United States of Fans/TBWA

As a key sponsor of the UEFA Champions League, it’s Heineken’s goal to share the experiences of the League with fans everywhere. But with matches only being played in Europe, it’s difficult for fans outside of Europe to get close to the excitement. So the brand set out to give those remote fans an opportunity to meet the trophy in person in an environment that captures the excitement of the Champions League.

An interactive consumer experience was at the heart of the tour that brought the Trophy to cities around the globe. The interactive setup was customizable to fit the dimensions in each host market, yet consistent in experience. It integrated stories from football greats, collector’s items, interactives and games, but the true power of the tour was only uncovered once fans took out their mobile phones. Through augmented reality technology, the whole experience suddenly came to life with videos and 3D animations popping up throughout the tour’s footprint.

Visitors who took out their mobile phones and made use of the technology showed deeper engagement and spent more time at the event exploring the different areas to unlock all of the “hidden” augmented reality content. Looking at it by the numbers tells the most compelling story, however. More than 30,000 fans experienced the tour and technology first-hand, and the brand earned more than 200,000 new Facebook fans and more than five million Euros in media value, mostly thanks to the 250 journalists in attendance and 20 hours of television coverage. We’ll drink to that.

BRONZE WINNER
Campaign: Puppy Bowl VIP House Party
Client: Animal Planet
Partners: House Party

Believe it or not, it’s been 10 years since Animal Planet blessed us, football fans and animal lovers alike, with the totally awesome Puppy Bowl. In an effort to make it even more awesome for its anniversary broadcast, Animal Planet staged house parties for the Bowl’s 1,000 biggest fans.

Hosts received exclusive Party Packs with branded supplies, fun favors and information for the game’s premium sponsors, Twizzlers and Bissell. They managed their parties through individual pages on the brand’s platform, where they could invite guests, upload photos and videos, post discussions and share all of that activity across their personal social networks, like Facebook and Twitter. They could also tweet photos from their parties with the #PuppyBowlParty hashtag to win a variety of prizes.

Leading up to the big day, hosts invited their guests, shared party details with them and provided updates through the online invite and planning tools. They also posted discussions about their plans and downloaded branded party favors, such as a party-planning guide, Puppy Bowl Bingo, MVP Player Cards and more. Then, on party day and after, they uploaded photos, videos and discussions showing off all the fun they had while watching Puppy Bowl X. The campaign generated more than 40 million impressions, 95 percent of them consumer-generated, earned impressions. From the 53,000 consumers engaged through the House Party platform, word of the campaign spread to over 10 million people.

BEST TOUCH- OR GESTURE-BASED EVENT INTERACTIVE

GOLD WINNER
Campaign: Ecomagination Centre
Client: GE
Partner: Imagination

Just south of the Middle Eastern city of Abu Dhabi, construction crews are busy building a zero-carbon city from scratch. Its name is Masdar City and when it’s done, it will be home to some of the most innovative green technologies on the planet—from wind towers that can drop the desert air in the city by 20 degrees to fields of nearly 90,000 solar panels that will generate energy for the city’s 50,000 residents and 1,500 eco-friendly businesses.

It’s a bold experiment, this green city in the desert. And for GE, the perfect platform for “ecomagination,” the company’s technology brand that focuses on solutions to environmental challenges around the world.

But rather than treat its permanent home in this up-and-coming city like a demo bar for its products, GE transformed its GE ecomagination Centre Masdar City into a digital journey that takes attendees through 11 distinct stories, each showing through interactive and dazzling displays just how unsustainable the world’s current path is—and how GE’s cutting-edge solutions might help put the region, and the world, on a different path.

To bring it all to life, GE created the Madinati City Simulator, a fictional city of five million people set inside a 52-square-foot interactive table that combines an acrylic model 3D city with digital animations running on a massive bed of 16 Clarity Matrix screens. Visitors engage with the city at a series of high definition touch screens running custom Adobe Air Flash applications mounted in front of the Simulator. One attendee sits in the driver’s seat and interacts with the city to show how changes in water, electricity and pollution affect its residents. The real-time results of the model are displayed on edge-blended projections behind the table. One example: visitors can see how their decision to change street lighting in Madinati City to LED would result in a reduction in power from the power stations.

Each scenario visitors investigate causes the entire city to respond giving visitors a real-world feel for how their choices affect everything from future air traffic transportation to lighting challenges to public transportation in the city. Users at a bank of secondary touch screens can participate in multi-user quizzes, designed to engage them in the experience as it progresses.

By making their ecomagination story highly interactive and visitor-driven, GE created an experience where its product benefits could speak for themselves. The Centre took a long and complex list of more than 20 products ranging from oil and gas extraction to electricity generation to transportation and lighting, and gave them a single, integrated storyline where they could be explained in real life terms, and in a way that was fun and engaging.

On the business side, GE is happy to report that it earned large government and corporate contracts right after the opening of the Centre. Looks like they’re seeing green already.

SILVER WINNER
Campaign: Jordan XX9 Interactive
Client: Nike
Partners: Mosaic, M1 Interactive

A cutting-edge shoe demands a cutting-edge launch strategy, and that’s exactly what the Nike Air Jordan XX9 basketball sneaker got when it was released to the world at the World Basketball Festival. The killer app: a touch-screen-based interactive experience that drew large crowds, all anxious to explore the components of the shoe in a full 360-degree virtual format.

Shoe aficionados and athletes alike are serious about their Jordans, so the brand and its partners designed the app so that users could simply tap various parts of the shoe on the screen and “explode” it to reveal its core components. The experience was consumer-driven and progressive, so as they tapped on the screen, they revealed more levels of detailed information. After exploring the digital version of the shoe, consumers were then able to try on an actual pair of the new Jordans.

How did the technology all come together? On the software side, the team used a 3D model of the shoe created and textured in Cinema4D, then imported it into Unity3D, a game engine used for real-time 3D graphics and effects. The team wrote code for various actions that the user could take, and incorporated additional graphics, video and text for the user interface. The finished app was exported as a standalone executable file that was run on a high-end Asus gaming computer, a machine the team selected because it incorporated a high-end graphic card that could accommodate the extremely detailed and realistic textures of the shoe. The laptop was then connected to a 70-inch ELO Touch Screen display, which ran the application throughout the event.

BRONZE WINNER
Campaign: Texas on Tour
Client: Texas Office of the Governor, Economic Development & Tourism
Partners: RedPeg, Pearl Media

If J.R. Ewing and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are the only things that come to mind when you think of Texas, it’s high time you check out Texas on Tour.

To help change perceptions about the Lone Star State and get consumers excited about all of the natural wonders and cultural attractions Texas has to offer, the state’s tourism board rolled out a series of live activations featuring touch- and gesture-based interactives. To enter the experience, guests received a passport embedded with an RFID chip that enabled the Texas Tourism office to collect consumer data and later offer deals and special offers. Once inside, visitors could engage with any of six custom kiosks stylized to look like passports, each housing an 80-inch and a 55-inch HD screen. Each game was controlled by either touch or gesture interactivity to immerse consumers in Texas-themed adventures and attractions such as music, beaches, dolphin training, ranches/rodeos and rock climbing. And to elicit a little of that “Don’t Mess with Texas” competitive spirit, each game offered performance-based rewards.

Texas on Tour is still on tour, and so far the touch- and gesture-based technology is delivering strong leads with 230,992 total impressions, 11,446 registered consumers, 10,395 games played and more than 5,036 Texas Tourism guides requested. Giddy up.

BEST USE OF PROJECTION MAPPING

GOLD WINNER
Campaign: Worldwide Sales Conference
Client: Adobe
Partner: Ideas with Impact

When design, creativity and innovation are the cornerstones of your brand, your live events have a lot to live up to. Adobe’s event team took on the challenge at its Worldwide Sales Conference with a projection mapping strategy that not only transformed the room—it transformed the audience, too.

Adobe’s Worldwide Sales Conference is a three-day event designed to educate and motivate the company’s sales force and partners. The show is used as a platform for executive leadership to deliver vision and business strategy and to recognize top performers. All attendees spend about half of the conference in the general session room, so it was critical to create a content plan that could deliver business-critical messages while also keeping content fresh and dynamic, and attendees engaged and intrigued.

A core component of the conference look and feel was the Adobe Ampersand, the “&” that is seen in most of Adobe’s marketing campaigns and the show’s symbolic representation of the connection between Adobe & (get it?) its customers’ success. The Ampersand was created in 3D block format (think: a stack of building blocks) as the focal point of the stage, and was flanked by multiple screens, providing a vast blank canvas that could support rich visual content, as well as provide interesting architectural surfaces for projection mapping. The stage was bookended by more 3D block scenic elements, further showcasing the Ampersand and offering yet more interesting surfaces for mapping.

From executive presentations and demos to keynotes and a gala awards ceremony, the stage was quickly transformed to create a unique and immersive environment that transported attendees from one type of experience to another. For the opening presentation, Adobe knocked attendees’ socks off with a custom video that was projection mapped and displayed at 720 x 5250 pixels—a larger than life experience that served as a motivational tour de force to kick off the conference. Guests were taken on a journey through Adobe’s customer verticals, with customer logos flying through the screen and ultimately settling on the 3D Ampersand (which incorporated all customer logos) at the end of the video.

For customer presentations, such as United Health Group’s, Adobe transformed the environment to match their brand guidelines and vision, using the canvas to emulate a feeling of nature and organic wellbeing. For the final evening Gala Awards, an Art Deco wallpaper design immediately transported guests to a lavish “Gatsby”-inspired ballroom.

Thanks to the flexibility and visual impact generated by the projection mapping strategy, particularly its ability to showcase partner brands and logos, Adobe was able to prove to its partners and customers how important their partnerships are to its success. Attendees couldn’t get enough of the stunning visual effects either and, according to the technology team, snapped and shared photos and videos throughout the conference.

Projections for the year ahead? Looking good.

SILVER WINNER
Campaign: Adult Swim Meatwad Dome Experience
Client: Turner Broadcasting System
Partners: Vortex Immersion Media, Golden Wolf Ltd.

From the outside, it looked like a giant Meatwad. Not an actual wad of meat, mind you, but a 36-foot Geodesic Dome designed to look like Meatwad, an Adult Swim fan-favorite character from the television series “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” But inside, the space was transformed into a seated theater experience where visitors could sit back, relax and go on a “mind-fudging interdimensional-space-coaster-love-canal” ride. (Remember stealing a joint from your big brother in the mid-’80s and going to the Pink Floyd laser show? This is that, but way cooler.)

The main objective of Adult Swim’s on-site activations at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2014 was to increase brand awareness and create a physical connection to otherwise intangible characters and worlds drawn from the network’s content. The Meatwad Full Dome Experience featured a state of the art digital projection system displaying 360-degree Adult Swim video content that enveloped attendees in their favorite “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” characters. Where many brands have used projection to create wow effects and ambient visuals, this activation ventured into storytelling territory.

At its debut, over 4,600 fans registered and experienced the Meatwad Dome show. Tickets were distributed at noon each day (first come, first served) and sold out all three days. The dome featured three viewings per hour, maximizing the number of fans who experienced Meatwad first-hand, and in turn, generated photos, check-ins and rave reviews to attendees’ social media accounts.

BRONZE WINNER
Campaign: Rockit Event
Client: DealerSocket
Partner: Multi Image Group

Software company DealerSocket wanted to make a big statement to cap off its 2014 User Summit. With clients to impress and a desire to map the ideas of innovation and technology back to the DealerSocket brand, the stakes for the perfect send-off were high. It doesn’t get much higher, or bigger, than the side of a six-story building, which is exactly what the company used as the canvas for its ROCKIT party and projection mapping experience.

With the six-story and 80-foot-wide façade of the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego as the blank canvas, guests below were treated to an immersive experience filled with light, sound, music and graphics. New Christie projectors provided a clear image that was so bright it could be seen from miles away. Mad Mapper was used to shape the video content and ensure that the images were perfectly aligned with the existing building. The team used perforated vinyl on the 48 windows to provide a clear surface on which to project. And an audio-syncing system was used to translate the ambient music and images of the audience into visually impactful, real-time graphics.

Attendees and internal employees were delighted by the results and, as a result, have already committed to another projection mapping event in 2015. Rock on.

BEST USE OF GAMIFICATION

GOLD WINNER
Campaign: Big Shot Game
Client: American Express
Partners: Momentum Worldwide, Colorfield, Astound Group

If there’s one thing all small business owners have in common, it’s a competitive spirit. It’s what drives them to turn their dreams into successful small businesses, and those successful small businesses into thriving competitors in their local markets.

American Express OPEN knows what makes these small business owners tick, so for its 2014 Consumer Electronics Show activation, the credit card company created a gamification experience that brought that competitive spirit to life in an attention-getting–and lead generating–way.

The centerpiece of the experience was the Small Business Big Shot Game, an eye-catching 21-foot-tall branded tower that featured four custom-built LED-lit cubes. Each cube on the structure corresponded to a digital playing kiosk where trade show participants competed in a trivia game on touch screens (created in Adobe Air) for a chance to win an iPad Air. The LED cubes visually demonstrated each participant’s progress by moving up and down the tower with custom light animations, feeding their desire to outwit their competitors. The interactivity and visibility of the experience drove foot traffic to the OPEN booth and generated leads.

A seemingly simple concept (a multiplayer trivia game) was, in reality, quite a technological challenge. Not only did a multiplayer game have to be coded and set up in such a way that the four playing kiosks were in perfect sync, but the digital screens each had to control a physical object—the LED cubes—in perfect sync. In addition, lighting animations had to be programmed in the LED cubes, the cube height and style of movement determined and it all had to be done in a way that kept the game even and fair to play. And all of this had to run continuously, for nine hours a day, during the four-day technology tradeshow.

To support the complicated backend required to keep the trivia games working without a hitch, the team turned to a mix of custom and off-the-shelf technologies. Each cube was custom-built and attached to a track. The cubes were built with Arduino (an open-source electronics platform designed to make it easier to build interactive environments), LEDs and stepper motors, and were tied together with a Node.js server. In addition to the main playing kiosks, a practice lounge featuring a modified single-player version of the game on an iPad was set up for attendees to practice on—also coded with Adobe Air.

Thanks to the huge physical presence of the Small Business Big Shot Game tower, American Express OPEN was able to generate the traffic it needed. Thanks to the gamification technology, folks stuck around. This combined effort resulted in over 1,800 game plays and generated over 1,600 leads for OPEN—as well as 100 percent of the new card acquisition goal.

SILVER WINNER
Campaign: EDGE Game
Client: Verizon
Partners: T.D. Wang, Zugara

To get its employees jumping up and down about its new Edge plan, which allows consumers to upgrade their Verizon devices without down payments, contracts or upgrade fees, the company turned to a motion capture technology game that invited them to literally jump up and down.

To play the game, attendees stepped in front of a red backdrop and then watched themselves on a video screen as a series of virtual objects were hurled toward them. Players ducked, grabbed for the air and swung their arms wildly as old phones in need of an upgrade and down payments, upgrade fees and contracts came their way (you see what they did there?) The Edge game used a webcam to track movements from those playing it and those movements helped the user earn or lose points in the game.

Revealed at the 2013 Verizon Multicultural Marketing Summit, the overall event objectives were to engage Summit attendees, demonstrate how to highlight the Verizon Edge plan to multicultural and total market audiences and show integration of Verizon products and plans into new or current technology via gamification. The technology ultimately helped achieve the objectives and, as a result of the excitement around the game, The Edge was used again at other Verizon events, including a Black History Month Event and an agent conference.

BRONZE WINNER
Campaign: Touchdown Drive Challenge
Client: Nissan
Partners: TrojanOne, wonderMakr

To increase awareness around its sponsorship of the 101st Grey Cup Festival in Regina, Saskatchewan (it’s Canada’s largest single-day sporting event and one of the most anticipated festivals of the year), and drive excitement around the debut of the all-new 2014 Rogue, Nissan created The Nissan Rogue Touchdown Drive Challenge.

Consumers were invited to jump on one of two trampolines in a race to see whose animated Rogue (depicted on a flat screen in front of each player) would cross into the end zone first. Accelerometers and micro-controllers were connected directly to the game application to translate force and motion from users on the trampoline to game play, so as players jumped on the trampolines, it propelled their Nissan across the screen. The faster they moved, the faster the car went. Each consumer had their own strategy: some ran in place, others jumped with both feet at a steady pace. But everyone, from toddlers to adults, had fun. And as a bonus, everyone got to warm up on an otherwise frigid Canadian afternoon.

The Nissan Rogue Touchdown Drive Challenge was pivotal in delivering leads to local dealers and generating excitement around the new car. Over the course of the five-day event, the game contributed to the generation of over 4,000 unique leads for local Nissan dealers, doubled Nissan’s average email opt-in rate and generated over 275,000 social impressions for the brand and its sponsorship investment.

BEST USE OF A/V

GOLD WINNER
Campaign: Redefine Possible
Client: EMC
Partner: City Creative

The media, analysts, bloggers and VIPs who attended EMC’s Redefine Possible launch event knew they were in for an experience from the very beginning. Maybe it was the location—London’s historic Old Billingsgate Market, originally a fish market built in 1875 that had been transformed into a high-tech meeting space. Maybe it was the TARDIS police box at the entrance, reminiscent of the police telephone box featured in the British sci-fi TV program “Doctor Who.” From the minute they stepped through the doors, attendees were immersed in a futuristic, modern space that incorporated a dynamic audio visual experience into a digital LED bridge that transported them to EMC’s hybrid cloud.

Inspired by Arthur C. Clarke’s quote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” the event raised the bar for future technology product launches. House band Madhen kicked off festivities before EMC’s leadership team and engineers delivered the company’s vision of the future of the industry. A live online broadcast amplified the reach to tens of thousands of online viewers from around the globe, garnering the widest exposure EMC has ever received from a large-scale product announcement.

But just as dazzling as the product launch was the event itself, which had guests enter via a tunnel structure in which a visual data stream effect on the floor and walls led to the main graphic used for the campaign—a cloud. The animated floor system, the same one used in the 2014 movie “Cuban Fury,” not only wowed attendees, it delivered the video cont

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