If James Corden were to do an opening montage for this year’s Ex Awards, he’d have no shortage of killer material to work with.
From Target’s Imagine Dragons concert for a few hundred fans that ran live as a four-minute TV spot during the Grammys, to the world’s first hydro-interactive tennis experience set against a 60-foot wall of water for American Express, to the otherworldly “glamping” experience for Opel dealers erected on an arid desert landscape in Spain, the content-rich and visually stunning “wow” moments were plentiful in this, Event Marketer’s 14th annual Ex Awards competition.
The Ex Awards are the world’s only recognition program for the experiential marketing industry. This year’s winners and finalists submitted their work across 23 categories for review by a panel of 26 brand-side judges, and winning campaigns were selected based on their originality and measureable impact on the objectives set out for their respective brands. The programs you’re about to see were chosen from among more than 1,000 entries and represent the most innovative and strategically sound brand experiences in the world.
FULL LIST OF WINNERS
GRAND EX
Client: American Express
Campaign: 2015 US Open Activation
Agency: Momentum Worldwide
BEST CAUSE/COMMUNITY PROGRAM
Ex Award Winner
Client: Google
Campaign: Building a Better Bay Area
Agency: 72andSunny
Gold Winner
Client: Citi
Campaign: Share Our Strength
Agency: MAC Presents
Silver Winner
Client: Ford
Campaign: Drive 4 UR School
Agency: Team Detroit
BEST SPORTS ACTIVATION
Ex Award Winner
Client: American Express
Campaign: 2015 US Open Activation
Agency: Momentum Worldwide
Gold Winner
Client: MasterCard
Campaign: #44DaysOfCrazy
Agency: Octagon
Silver Winner
Client: Hyundai
Campaign: Super Bowl 50
Agency: Advantage International
BEST ENTERTAINMENT ACTIVATION
Ex Award Winner
Client: PepsiCo
Campaign: Pop Open Music
Agency: Motive
Gold Winner
Client: Target
Campaign: #MoreMusic Grammy Live Commercial
Agency: Deutsch
Silver Winner
Client: HP
Campaign: Meghan Trainor “That Bass” Tour
Agency: Infinity Marketing Team
BEST BUZZ MARKETING/INFLUENCER PROGRAM
Ex Award Winner
Client: WestJet
Campaign: 12,000 Mini Christmas Miracles
Agencies: Studio M, Mosaic
Gold Winner
Client: Neiman Marcus
Campaign: Make Some Noise
Agencies: CAA Marketing, NCompass International
Silver Winner
Client: Procter & Gamble
Campaign: Old Spice “Make a Smellmitment”
Agency: Fluent
BEST B-TO-B ENVIRONMENT
Ex Award Winner
Client: Adam Opel
Campaign: Mission Astra
Agencies: Uniplan, Grass Roots Germany
Gold Winner
Client: Target
Campaign: Fall National Stores Well-Being Experience
Agency: Touch Worldwide
Silver Winner
Client: Facebook
Campaign: IQ Live
Agency: Momentum Worldwide
BEST CONSUMER ENVIRONMENT
Ex Award Winner
Client: GE
Campaign: BBQ Research Center
Agency: New Creatures
Gold Winner
Client: HGTV
Campaign: CMA Lodge
Agency: Pop2Life
Silver Winner
Client: Hulu
Campaign: The Seinfeld Apartment
Agency: Magnetic Collaborative
BEST TRADE SHOW EXPERIENCE
Ex Award Winner
Client: Audi
Campaign: Frankfurt Motor Show 2015
Agencies: Schmidhuber, Mutabor
Gold Winner
Client: Intel
Campaign: CES 2015
Agencies: Taylor Group, Milk Studios, LeadDog Marketing Group
Silver Winner
Client: SAP SuccessFactors
Campaign: Success is Simply Human
Agency: Group Delphi
BEST SHOPPER EVENT PROGRAM
Ex Award Winner
Client: Target
Campaign: Made For U
Agency: Periscope
Gold Winner
Client: Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day
Campaign: Whole Foods Pop-up
Agency: On Board Experiential
Silver Winner
Client: Air Miles
Campaign: Smile Booth
Agency: T1
BEST MOBILE MARKETING TOUR
Ex Award Winner
Client: Intel
Campaign: InsideOut
Agency: Manifesto
Gold Winner
Client: LinkedIn
Campaign: Picture Opportunity Tour
Agency: Manifold
Silver Winner
Client: Anheuser-Busch
Campaign: Bud & Burgers
Agency: Fusion Marketing
BEST MULTICULTURAL EVENT CAMPAIGN
Ex Award Winner
Client: Kia Motors
Campaign: Inspirationally Crafted
Agency: LimeGreen Moroch
Gold Winner
Client: The Hershey Co.
Campaign: Reese’s Spin Your Beat Tour
Agency: Marketing Werks
Silver Winner
Client: AT&T
Campaign: Live Proud
Agency: The 360 Agency
BEST MULTI-MARKET EVENT (B-TO-B)
Ex Award Winner
Client: PayPal
Campaign: Listing Day
Agency: PBJS
Gold Winner
Client: BASF
Campaign: Creator Space Tour
Agency: VOK DAMS
Silver Winner
Client: NASCAR
Campaign: Fuel for Business
Agency: JHE
BEST MULTI-MARKET EVENT (CONSUMER)
Ex Award Winner
Clients: National Park Service, National Park Foundation
Campaign: Find Your Park
Agency: Grey Activation & PR
Gold Winner
Client: Mercedes-Benz
Campaign: Evolution Tour
Agency: Engine Shop
Silver Winner
Client: Progressive Insurance
Campaign: Flo’s Chop Shop
Agency: Match Marketing Group
BEST P.R. STUNT
Ex Award Winner
Client: Fox
Campaign: X-Files UFO Crash Landing
Agency: Creative Riff
Gold Winner
Client: Burger King
Campaign: The Return of the King
Agencies: Scout Sports and Entertainment, ABPR
Silver Winner
Client: Red Hat
Campaign: The People-Powered Billboard
Agency: Division Black
BEST POP-UP STORE
Ex Award Winner
Client: Motorola
Campaign: The Moto Shop
Agency: Engine Shop
Gold Winner
Client: Kiehl’s
Campaign: The Derek Zoolander Center for People Who Don’t Age Good
Agency: Night Agency
Silver Winner
Client: Target
Campaign: Wonderland
Agency: David Stark Design & Production
BEST PRESS EVENT
Ex Award Winner
Client: Daimler
Campaign: World Premiere of Freightliner Inspiration
Agency: OSK
Gold Winner
Client: Unilever
Campaign: Axe Find Your Magic
Agency: United Entertainment Group
Silver Winner
Client: T-Mobile
Campaign: Un-carrier 10.0
Agency: Jack Morton Worldwide
BEST PRODUCTION OF AN EVENT (B-TO-B)
Ex Award Winner
Client: Intel
Campaign: CES 2016 Keynote Experience
Agencies: Clarity Creative, John Halloran and Associates, WorldStage, Mystic Scenic
Gold Winner
Client: Tinder
Campaign: Tinder Plus Launch Event
Agency: NVE: The Experience Agency
Silver Winner
Client: Sherwin-Williams
Campaign: Celebration 150
Agency: LEO Events
BEST PRODUCTION OF AN EVENT (CONSUMER)
Ex Award Winner
Client: Hormel
Campaign: The Black Label Bacon Strip Show
Agencies: Serino Coyne, BBDO
Gold Winner
Client: Anheuser-Busch
Campaign: Stella Artois Sensorium
Agency: Mosaic
Silver Winner
Client: Tommy Hilfiger
Campaign: #TommyXNadal
Agency: NA Collective
BEST SINGLE-MARKET EVENT (B-TO-B)
Ex Award Winner
Client: Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Campaign: Discover London 2015
Agencies: i4D Event Services, Sparks
Gold Winner
Client: MobileIron
Campaign: Mobile First Conference
Agency: InVision Communications
Silver Winner
Client: MasterCard
Campaign: Sales Leadership Meeting
Agency: Barkley Kalpak Agency
BEST SINGLE-MARKET EVENT (CONSUMER)
Ex Award Winner
Client: Prudential
Campaign: 4.01K Race for Retirement
Agencies: Droga5, IMG LIVE
Gold Winner
Clients: Lexus, Pandora
Campaign: Pop-Up Concerts
Agency: Team One
Silver Winner
Client: LG Electronics
Campaign: LG Training Facility
Agency: Advantage International
BEST USE OF GUERILLA/STREET MARKETING
Ex Award Winner
Client: Google
Campaign: Pay with a Photo
Agency: Deeplocal
Gold Winner
Client: Marriott International
Campaign: #AppYourService
Agency: IMG Live
Silver Winner
Client: FX Networks
Campaign: Baskets
Agency: Hadley Media
BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Ex Award Winner
Client: Pernod Ricard
Campaign: Electrik House
Agency: Sid Lee, MKG
Gold Winner
Client: Under Armour
Campaign: Chicago Brand House
Agency: agencyEA
Silver Winner
Client: Cisco
Campaign: Cisco Live
Agency: In-house
BEST VEHICLE DESIGN
Ex Award Winner
Client: Sun Products
Campaign: Share-A-Snug
Agency: Inspira Marketing
Gold Winner
Client: Trane
Campaign: Comfort Experience Tour
Agency: Performance Marketing Group
Silver Winner
Client: Comcast
Campaign: XFINITY Zone
Agencies: GMR Marketing, Craftsmen Industries
BEST SAMPLING CAMPAIGN
Ex Award Winner
Client: PepsiCo
Campaign: DEWShine Tour
Agency: Motive
Gold Winner
Client: Garnier
Campaign: #GarnierMusic
Agency: AMP Agency
Silver Winner
Client: Beam Suntory
Campaign: Jim Beam Devil’s Cut Take a Ride on the Sinister Side
Agency: Geometry Global
GRAND EX WINNERS: AMERICAN EXPRESS & MOMENTUM WORLDWIDE
At a time when too many brands are changing too many sponsorships too often, American Express continues to teach us the value of staying the course.
Its 23-year partnership with US Open Tennis, one of the longest-running in the history of sports sponsorships, year-after-year delivers fresh experiences that engage tennis fans on-site and outside the stadium gates, in New York City and beyond, elevating the practice of sports sponsorship to championship levels.
In 2005, American Express and agency of record Momentum Worldwide scored our coveted Grand Ex award for a US Open activation that included transforming New York City’s Rockefeller Center into a mini National Tennis Center complete with stadium seating, a Jumbotron, live matches, demos and a grass lawn. It would become the poster child for experience extensions and amplifications. Eleven years later the dynamic duo aced the competition once again, snagging another Grand Ex for a fully integrated program that began with incredible off-site events (including a hydro-interactive tennis rally on the Hudson River) and went into full effect with a massive on-site fan experience at the two-week Open competition (in Flushing Meadows, Queens) that included tennis demos, branded moments and a virtual reality experience unlike anything this industry had ever seen.
Then there were the fan favorites—the US Open radios with exclusive content, the tennis clinics, player meet-and-greets and other perks inside that 20,000-square-foot US Open American Express Fan Experience, all designed to connect American Express cardmembers with the action and give them a heightened experience, exclusive access and customized content.
Truth be told, our editors always figured it was inevitable that a brand would end up winning our Grand Ex twice. But in an age of RFIs, RFPs and fickle marketers who seem to change agencies way too often, we figured the odds of a brand and the same agency winning the Grand Ex twice were slim. But after 14 years, they did. You gotta give it up to American Express for its commitment, focus and for staying in the game with the sport of tennis, with the US Open property and with its longtime agency of record Momentum Worldwide.
The two-story fan experience at the US Open offers lounge seating, social media engagements, open courts and a club for cardmembers that overlooks the action.
“Twenty-three years ago when we started this partnership, we were a name on a wall. Now we’re pervasively on the grounds, whether it be the fan experience, the radios, servicing, or ticket access for our members,” says Deborah Curtis, the company’s vp-global experiential marketing and partnerships.
And if American Express gleans a few new cardmembers along the way, so much the better. The Open is the largest attended sporting event in the world (per Forbes), with ticket revenue of roughly $100 million and nearly 700,000 attendees with an average household income of $161,000. A good number of those fans whip out their American Express cards to land seats offered by the company before they go on sale to the public or to access special American Express-sponsored pre-events. On-site, an exclusive cardmember club and customer care representatives answer questions and attend to service needs. The other non-card-carrying fans are a potential source of new business for the financial services giant.
“Our goal is to engage our cardmembers in ways that make them feel more loyal, more connected and more in love with their relationship with American Express. And certainly, it also gives us a platform to showcase what membership means to prospective customers who may not be as familiar with us,” Curtis says.
A US Open kickoff event featured appearances by tennis pros Maria Sharapova, John Isner and Monica Puig, comedian Kevin James and musical guest Chromeo.
Tapping into its cardmembers’ passion for tennis and extending its reach to hundreds of thousands of potential new ones is a strategy that’s become the signature of American Express’ US Open partnership. “It’s about keeping it fresh, original and meaning something to the changing environment and the changing consumer,” says Momentum chairman and ceo Chris Weil. “What we’ve found over the years is that cardmembers expect their experience at the US Open will be better because they’re cardmembers—and that encapsulates the value of being a member.”
And as the 23-year-old program has evolved, its one-of-a-kind activations have become so compelling across traditional and social media, they’ve essentially broken through the confines of the stadium where they take place, giving the program exponential reach on a national scale among customers and prospects alike.
The US Open American Express Fan Experience figures prominently on the Open grounds. The custom-built, two-story structure sits atop three full-size courts where fans can play heated matches against friends, watch live-streaming matches on a Jumbotron screen, meet tennis idols and share epic photo match-ups socially. A cardmember club with food, drinks and massages overlooks it all. Throughout the grounds, guest information booths help fans navigate the Open.
So, just how does American Express keep the experience fresh year in and year out? Part of it, Curtis says, is working with the US Tennis Association (USTA), the tournament’s governing body. Three additional factors also help keep the experience feeling new. “Listening and being keenly aware of the latest technology that helps to fuel that fan experience, listening to our gut and what we know about our customers and the notion of wanting to deliver year-on-year for our cardmembers,” Curtis adds.
And so it began. The activation kicked off with American Express’ first Rally on the River, a free VIP and cardmembers-only affair on New York City’s Pier 97 on a lovely Wednesday night before the Open that featured appearances by tennis pros Maria Sharapova, John Isner and Monica Puig, comedian Kevin James and musical guest Chromeo. But the real star of the event was the technology that brought it all to life.
“We didn’t tell people what to expect, so they came looking to get some good food and an evening on the pier, and what we gave them was a hydro-interactive experience,” says Christine Shoaf, svp-global business lead on the American Express account at Momentum. As guests arrived, the back of the staging blocked the stadium seating and tennis court on the other side.
Tennis pros and a few lucky guests swung live-wired racquets that translated moves into 3D graphics projected on a wall of water at the Rally on the River.
After about 20 minutes of mingling, photo ops, interviews and the press energy buzz, brand ambassadors handed each guest a tennis ball and brought them to the stadium at the end of the pier. The host congratulated American Express and the USTA for renewing their ongoing relationship, then, once it got dark, a 40-foot-tall by 60-foot-wide truss came to life with about 30,000 gallons of water pumped in from the Hudson River (which was returned to the Hudson, later, of course) forming a water wall that glowed with color and graphics in response to the on-court action. As the players—first the pros, then some of the fans in the stands—competed, their interactive tennis racquets translated their moves into 3D graphics, animations, sounds and video projections onto the wall, all in real time, with custom-tracking software built by Momentum. At the end of the event, everyone joined the action as they descended onto the court and threw their tennis balls into the wall.
“We gamified the playing experience,” says Jason Snyder, Momentum’s chief technology officer, who with a team of lighting, audio and computer engineers put the experience together in less than four weeks. But despite all the technology, brain power and planning, ultimately the end result was out of his hands. “In many ways we were at the mercy of the wind, because if it exceeded 15 mph, the water curtain would bend and not only make the court wet but distort the images,” says Snyder, who throughout the event nervously waited in the catwalk above the structure, his wind meter in hand and praying very hard. “In the end, Mother Nature cooperated,” he says.
Two ingredients contributed to the success of Rally on the River. “One, it was a celebration of the extension of our partnership with the USTA, which was a big, celebratory moment for both of our brands,” Curtis says. “And second, we wanted to bring new technology to build on the excitement leading up to the Open, but do so in a way that hadn’t been done before by putting the fan at the center of the experience.”
A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME
The You vs. Sharapova experience was a never-been-done-before engagement that pit fans against the tennis pro.
That strategy—putting the fan at the center of the experience using technology in a way that had never been done before—also played out at American Express’ on-site Fan Experience via a virtual reality You vs. Sharapova activation, a never-been-done-before engagement that pit fans against the tennis pro’s blistering serves, lobs and volleys and ran for the duration of the tournament. This industry had never seen anything like it.
“VR made a lot of sense, but no one had ever built a live action, fully active sport VR experience,” Snyder says. So he tapped into contacts at HTC to snag the new Vive technology, which wasn’t commercially available, and along with Valve lighthouse tracking, Steam VR and ReelFX technologies created a VR experience unlike any other.
“We weren’t going to make a passive VR experience, like most of what you see today,” he explains. “We wanted people to play tennis, so this was really the technology that facilitated that.”
Once Snyder solved that problem, he and his team jumped into production mode. First they captured a full body scan of Sharapova inside a massive 20-foot tall by 20-foot wide sphere, then shot her hitting balls and speaking lines (“Good try,” and “Now, let’s see if you can handle my serve!”) that the creative team wrote based on what she might say in an actual tennis rally. They also created a VR “coach” who would introduce players to the two-and-a-half minute experience and filmed an official USTA tennis court and its environment. “We worked with our animators to composite all that digital information together, and put that inside of a game engine and a physics engine, which we then tuned to the experience folks were going to have,” Snyder says.
Snyder and his team configured the audio, so players could hear the “swish” of the racquet strings moving through the air and other sounds activated through the gyroscopes and sensors of the controller in the player’s hand. “We would adjust the physics engine to make sure it wasn’t too hard, and that the balls were bouncing with the earth’s gravity,” Snyder adds.
Fans immersed themselves in a virtual reality match against Maria Sharapova, complete with the audible “swish” of racquet strings.
On-site at the Open, fans lined up outside the three bays for their chance to wear the headset with integrated headphones and swing a wireless controller that was weighted to feel like a tennis racquet as they played against a computer-generated Sharapova. “The lines were longer than anything we’ve ever had, but for most people it wasn’t bad,” says Shoaf. “At our highest point it was less than an hour and, given the nature of the space, there were plenty of people who would have been in there for an hour anyway because of the air conditioning and watching a match.”
The entire program was integrated with above-the-line media, below-the-line promotions, and cross-channel marketing. Rally on the River’s video recap became the most-viewed content in the history of American Express. The fan experience drew 210,000 visitors and led to 1.25 million on-site engagements. The program as a whole generated 1.7 billion p.r. impressions, and served up 4.9 million social engagements, 197 million broadcast impressions and 16.2 million video views.
A SPIRIT OF COMPETITION
Curtis calls You vs. Sharapova one of the company’s most exciting activations. “In the past we have done everything from swing analysis to our fan court,” she says. “It is really about trying to have them feel the Open in a new way, and the ultimate experience is actually feeling like you are on that court with a player, so that was incredibly exciting that the technology has actually caught up to make that feel so real.”
For Snyder, a high point of the experience occurred when Bill Gates asked to have one of the systems shipped to him. “He ended up tweeting a picture of himself playing a tennis game out to his followers. For me, as a chief technology officer, that was a really big deal.”
Inside the Fan Experience, attendees could play heated matches against friends, watch live-streaming matches on a Jumbotron screen, meet tennis idols and share epic photo match-ups socially.
Other on-site touchpoints included the radio earpieces pre-tuned to live play-by-play commentary and match updates available to cardmembers throughout the Open and to all fans on Sept. 7. Snyder describes them as “not high-tech, but important tech.” Fans also could star in shareable videos simulating a rally from the tennis court baseline at Arthur Ashe stadium and people at home could tap into the excitement of daily US Open-themed #AmexTennis debates on Twitter with tennis pros Isner and Puig.
Indeed, the matches, and the spirit of competition fueled American Express’s 2015 Open activation, from the Rally on the River and You vs. Sharapova until the last fan left the tennis center. “We were not only looking at how we can immerse our cardmembers in new ways, but how do we get them to feel what a player would feel on the court, and to compete with themselves to elevate their own game,” Curtis says. “That was certainly a driving force of the virtual reality experience as well as Rally on the River—the competitive nature of the game and the energy and fervor of New York City.”
–Sandra O’Loughlin, Features Editor
BEST CAUSE/COMMUNITY PROGRAM
EX AWARD WINNER
Client: Google
Campaign: Building a Better Bay Area
Agency: 72andSunny
They may have looked like simple posters being put up around town, but behind each one was a cutting-edge “digital paper” technology that transformed a philanthropic voting program into a catalyst for engagement.
It was all part of an effort by Google to give away $5.5 million to Bay Area nonprofits by inviting local communities to vote on the causes that mattered to them most, either online or by pressing directly on the touch-to-vote posters. Partnerships with food trucks and local businesses brought the innovative digital posters to grassroots level, ultimately doubling the reach and impact of the program from the previous year. (And making us all wonder why voting for a president has to be so dang complicated.)
It started in early 2015, when The Google Impact Challenge invited Bay Area nonprofits to submit their ideas for how they wanted to make their neighborhoods stronger—and how Google’s financial support could help them achieve their goals. Key issues at stake included education and prison reform, creating career opportunities for minorities, growing small businesses through microloan programs, offering free legal aid to those in need and helping at-risk kids graduate.
In September, a board of advisors selected the top 25 finalists and then asked the community to vote for the top 10. Once the top 10 were selected, the integrated marketing effort to bring the voting into the community kicked off. The four organizations with the most votes were announced in October, and each received $500,000 in funding.
In addition to the digital posters, the 2015 program included a print campaign, a reengineered and simplified online voting website and video coverage. Thanks to the easy-to-use digital posters, Google was able to go hyper-local to target the communities that the nonprofits were directly impacting. From mom-and-pop shops and bookstores to food truck festivals and professional sporting events, the posters quickly became the talk of the town, serving as conversation starters in the communities where they were placed, and driving votes for the program. The buzz around the posters became so powerful Google’s partnership with weekly food truck festival Off the Grid jumped from 50 percent participation to 100 percent participation in 2015. They even ran out of posters for food truck vendors that wanted them.
By the time the last vote had been cast, the program had generated more than 400,000 votes in three and a half weeks—doubling the number of votes from the previous year and boosting engagement around the program in the communities where it mattered most.
Access to technology can often be a barrier to participation for those in in-need communities. In this case, it leveled the playing field. Well played.
GOLD WINNER
Client: Citi
Campaign: Share Our Strength
Agency: MAC Presents
How do you make a feel-good experience feel even better? Ask Citi, which leveraged its presenting sponsorship of the No Kid Hungry dinner event program to give its cardmembers a VIP experience within an experience that was all about giving back.
From exclusive pre-sale offers to skipping the line to carte blanche access to free drinks and other perks inside a Citi VIP lounge, cardmembers at the fundraising events enjoyed the benefits of card ownership while supporting the greater good. The strategy not only amped up cardmembers’ experiences, it amped up Citi’s social media impressions, favorability ratings and click-through rates—well beyond expectations.
The strategy was designed in part to drive awareness for Citi’s culinary offerings, specifically its Citi Private Pass (ticket access) and Citi Table (dining) platforms. Pre-sale efforts focused on existing cardmembers in each of the primary markets where the dinner events took place, including New York City, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.
Expedited VIP check-in, branded bike rack stations, special seating areas, a photo booth, bespoke cocktails and a social media vending machine (featuring free aprons, oven mitts, wine pourers and more) were among the many bonuses in the lounge.
#CitiTable represented all the action across social media, where the campaign generated seven million impressions from just two of the dinner events. Click-through rates on Citi’s splash pages were 10 times the average—on par with some of the brand’s most in-demand offerings, including Billy Joel tickets. And the best part, the No Kid Hungry program raised enough money to fund 60 million meals to children in need.
SILVER WINNER
Client: Ford
Campaign: Drive 4 UR School
Agency: Team Detroit
They say that marketing is at its best when it matches a market need with a timely solution. Ford did it several times over with its Drive 4 UR School program that paired local dealerships with local high schools to trade test drives for much-needed donations.
The philanthropic program, deemed one of the most successful test-drive programs in Ford’s history, helped buck perceptions about intimidating car-buying experiences while giving Ford’s local dealers meaningful face-time with high schoolers and their parents. Not only did every one of the program’s 187,000 test drives drop $20 in a local school’s extracurricular account (totaling more than $4 million in donations), it helped Ford exceed every one of its KPIs. According to one dealer, “This event helped to achieve our dealership goals.”
Dealerships were given event kits filled with promotional materials and giveaways, plus access to a website offering an event-planning guide, a p.r. toolkit and other tips and ideas. High school representatives worked together with local dealers to plan their one-day test-drive event. A centralized Program Headquarters was staffed with Ford facilitators who provided the day-to-day resources needed to host a successful activation.
The program really revved up local dealerships, driving a 19 percentage-point lift in favorable opinion and boosting the conversion rate from test drive to purchase to 1.39 percent.
BEST SPORTS ACTIVATION
EX AWARD WINNER
Client: American Express
Campaign: 2015 US Open Activation
Agency: Momentum Worldwide
One of the longest-running sports sponsorships in the industry became one of the leading sports sponsorships in the industry when it unleashed a series of technology-fueled “firsts” that gave tennis fans unprecedented access to the sport they love.
The 2015 American Express US Open Activation kicked off with Rally on the River, the first-ever hydro-interactive tennis experience that projected real-time on-court action onto a massive water wall on New York City’s Hudson River. Then, once inside its two-story fan experience at the tournament, consumers could play You vs. Sharapova, the first-ever active virtual reality experience to let people play against a professional athlete. The program served up 1.7 billion p.r. impressions—and even earned a rave review on Twitter from Bill Gates. (For more, see pg. 26.)
It’s all reflective of a new kind of sports sponsorship strategy that’s become a calling card for American Express events: one-of-a-kind on-site activations that are so compelling they’re both shareworthy and newsworthy, giving the program reach on a national scale among customers and prospects alike—and busting out of the confines of the stadium where it all takes place.
For select cardmembers, it all started at Rally on the River at Hudson River Park’s Pier 97. As fans munched on snacks, they watched tennis’s biggest stars (and a few lucky members of the crowd) step onto the court to use responsive tennis rackets designed to translate, in real-time, the players’ every move. As the athletes played, every stroke and movement of the ball was transformed into 3D graphics, animations, sounds and video projections projected onto a 60-foot canvas made out of water.
At the US Open, the two-story, 20,000-square-foot American Express Fan Experience served as the centerpiece of the activation. Inside, fans could grab a haptic responsive racket and HTC Vive virtual reality headset and try to return a serve with live-action and CGI versions of Maria Sharapova. The experience also offered the only fan-accessible tennis courts that featured clinics and meet and greets with their favorite tennis pros. Fans could also relax in the space and watch matches streaming on a Jumbotron. Cardmembers enjoyed special amenities in a second-floor lounge that overlooked it all.
Outside the Fan Experience, American Express cardmembers could listen in on matches via branded personal radios. And fans that couldn’t make it to the Open could still get in on all the action, engaging in lively tennis debates through social media.
While the program delivered more than 210,000 visitors to American Express’s US Open experience, it over-delivered on its objective to get America—and the national media—talking about its brand to the tune of 4.9 million social engagements, 197 million broadcast impressions and 16.2 million video views. Rally on the River’s video recap became the most-viewed content in the history of American Express.
GOLD WINNER
Client: MasterCard
Campaign: #44DaysOfCrazy
Agency: Octagon
MasterCard isn’t known for its heritage in rugby, so to give its brand a boost throughout its sponsorship of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, it unleashed #44daysofcrazy—a series of surprise and delight experiences that engaged fans over the 44 days of the tournament. From impromptu rugby anthems sung on the steps of the Paris Opera House to double decker buses staffed with face painters to athlete surprise appearances, MasterCard gave its “priceless” moniker new meaning with new and existing customers, earning a $45 million uplift in card usage as a result.
The strategy focused on three peak moments in the customer journey: ticketing, getting ready and the tournament. A promotion on the Ticketmaster website to “Pay with a MasterCard for a chance at Priceless Surprises” delivered surprise athlete appearances in London, among other unexpected perks. During the getting ready phase, the brand “turned the world oval” (as a nod to the rugby ball’s shape) through 98 campaigns across five continents that touched fans everywhere from the Heathrow Express to the golf course, where pro golfer Ian Poulter surprised fans by playing golf with a rugby shaped golf ball.
During the tournament, the brand took over all major transportation hubs, turned 50 cabs “oval,” unleashed yet more surprise experiences and opened up the largest-ever MasterCard Clubhouse activation hub in the Richmond Fan Zone.
Thanks to #44daysofcrazy, MasterCard was named the most talked about brand of the World Cup, with 31 percent share of voice. And consumers used their MasterCards more often contributing to an increase of 558,000 transactions.
Say it with us now: Priceless.
SILVER WINNER
Client: Hyundai
Campaign: Super Bowl 50
Agency: Advantage International
To kick off its new four-year deal with the NFL, Hyundai executed a total brand takeover of football’s biggest event: the Super Bowl. Leading the bold strategy was a roaming fleet of 10 metallic gold wrapped vehicles delivering social media-driven surprise and delight engagements to fans all over San Francisco. Three unique fan experiences—the NFL Legends Zone, the Blue Drive Lounge at Super Bowl City and the Hyundai Game Day Zone—offered a variety of in-depth engagements for locals and football fans alike, ultimately exceeding program expectations and driving a 5.6 percent conversion from handraisers to dealer leads.
Inside the Legends Zone, fans could take part in 29 autograph signings and interact virtually with NFL Legends through an augmented reality “Legendary Photo Op.” The Blue Drive Lounge immersed attendees in an eco-friendly environment (as a nod to the brand’s hybrid technology) where fans could charge up their devices using solar power or take a “Human Powered Selfie” by generating enough energy from their touchdown dance to snap the photo. The Game Day Zone rounded out Hyundai’s Bay Area blitz, where fans had fun with an arcade classic—a giant claw machine—and posed mid-air for a touchdown GIF.
The program delivered in a big way, generating 8.8 million social media impressions, 22.6 million on-site impressions and visits by more than 1.3 million attendees.
BEST ENTERTAINMENT ACTIVATION
EX AWARD WINNER
Client: PepsiCo
Campaign: Pop Open Music
Agency: Motive
What if the simple act of popping open a can of Pepsi could score you free tickets to the summer’s hottest concert events? This was the premise for Pepsi’s Pop Open Music program, an integrated effort that encouraged millennials (and the young at heart) to download a Pepsi Pass app and then enter codes from Pepsi products to see if they won tickets to thousands of concert events being given away every hour—all summer long.
Four events—the Michigan Cherry Festival, the MLB All-Star Game, Ohio bottler G&J’s 50th Anniversary Celebration and a private performance with country star Dierks Bentley—served as the marquee experiences of the 360-degree program, ultimately delivering thousands of one-of-a-kind engagements to consumers, and contributing to a total of more than 150,000 music experiences for fans and the distribution of more than 200,000 samples.
Pop Open Music went live July 4-11 at the Michigan Cherry Festival in Traverse City, MI, with a 40-foot by 40-foot Pop Open Music tent that invited consumers to play a variety of music-themed games and sample an assortment of Pepsi products. Games included the Amp Plug-In, where players had 45 seconds to “get the band ready” by plugging a series of tangled input cords into an amp before the clock ran out. At a Pepsi Turntable, players spun records to try and match up needles with winning segments on the vinyl. Throughout the eight-day festival, the top on a giant Pepsi bottle would pop off, sending hundreds of blue prize balls flying and rewarding attendees with cool swag including LiveNation Concert Cash, Bose headphones and VIP tickets to nightly shows on the Pepsi Bayside Music Stage (50,000 consumers engaged with the footprint and 4,000 prizes were given away).
From July 12-14 Pepsi invaded the 86th MLB All-Star Game in Cincinnati with its 140-foot by 30-foot All-Star Summer Block Party, a pop-up concert stage featuring regional music acts and nine different engagements for fans.
Then, to thank its denizens for 50 years of support, on July 28 Pepsi and local bottler G&J produced a free one-day music festival in the heart of Columbus, OH, complete with a live performance from Grammy Award-nominated rock band Bastille. Food trucks, games, tattoo stations, live lip-sync battles, two oversized Pepsi bottles shooting prize balls and a hospitality tent for 300 VIPs rounded out the appreciation event for more than 10,000 guests.
Finally, a partnership with grocery store Kroger that had cities across America competing for a winners-only Dierks Bentley concert marked the last marquee event in the campaign, which was held at the iconic Fillmore Detroit. Photo ops with Bentley, free Pepsi and a snack-filled gift bag added to the experience for the intimate crowd of 1,100 fans.
Cracking open a cold Pepsi never sounded so good.
GOLD WINNER
Client: Target
Campaign: #MoreMusic Grammy Live Commercial
Agency: Deutsch
As more and more live events are becoming the key creative for television ads, brands are looking for innovative ways to make the on-air experience as compelling as the real one. Enter #MoreMusic, Target’s take on the trend and the first-of-its-kind live broadcast of a four-minute Imagine Dragons concert during the 2015 Grammys. The program offered an unforgettable live experience in Las Vegas for thousands of diehard Imagine Dragons fans, who, when cameras rolled, ultimately became part of the show. The campaign also earned a cool 900 million media impressions while giving Target a halo of 99 percent positive sentiment.
The setting for the mini concert was, appropriately, a red circular stage, reminiscent of Target’s iconic bull’s-eye logo. Before the show, fans were invited into an exclusive Grammys party that offered food and drinks, a live dj and raffles for gifts including signed sheet music, autographed concert tickets, signed artwork, Beats headphones, band t-shirts and other souvenirs. There was also an Imagine Dragons-themed photo booth and a Target Beauty squad offering free hair and makeup services. Finally, fans were given LED wristbands programmed to the performance that, when illuminated, formed a human Target bull’s-eye that was revealed to TV viewers at the end of the performance.
The program garnered more than one billion impressions to date, and the performance retained three to six percent more viewers than adjacent commercial segments. #MoreMusic was the top national trend and the number two global trend on Twitter following the live performance. Right on, Target.
SILVER WINNER
Client: HP
Campaign: Meghan Trainor “That Bass” Tour
Agency: Infinity Marketing Team
Fact: 25 percent of young millennials buy technology products because they’re the cool new thing to have, not as a replacement or an upgrade. With that in mind, HP set out to showcase its Pavilion x360 notebook through a title sponsorship of pop star Meghan Trainor’s North American “That Bass” Tour. The program—which included a behind-the-scenes video experience with Trainor, real-time social media publishing, on-site photo activations and a fan-generated tour documentary (with all content created on a Pavilion x360, naturally)—exceeded every projection, more than doubling HP’s expectations.
A small army of influencers was the beating heart of this campaign and its buzz generation strategy. HP reunited Trainor with her “Lips Are Movin’” video influencer co-stars as she toured the country, capturing backstage moments at all 17 stops to produce a series of YouTube, Vine and Instagram videos. Fifty more local influencers joined the tour, posting social content across the web and inviting their audiences to tag and submit their own show footage to #BendTheRules. An additional 200 influencers were recruited to post personal experiences with the Pavilion x360.
In just six weeks, the influencer-savvy campaign delivered 1,200 original social posts. Perhaps most valuable: the strategy created a boost in millennial engagement, with more than half a million likes and 8,000 comments.
Yep, their lips were movin’, alright.
BEST BUZZ MARKETING/INFLUENCER PROGRAM
EX AWARD WINNER
Client: WestJet
Campaign: 12,000 Mini Christmas Miracles
Agencies: Studio M, Mosaic
Catching a flight during the holiday season is rarely an experience worth writing home about. Unless you happen to be flying with Canadian airline WestJet, which changed the game forever in 2013 with the trend-setting viral masterpiece Christmas Miracle. In this, its third iteration of the program in 2015, the brand enlisted the help of employees to execute 12,000 mini-miracles in 24 hours as a way to reinforce its corporate culture of caring, and reignite the equity it created during the holiday season. The result was yet another buzz-busting achievement, with more than $2.6 million in earned media value and 5.5 million video views.
The campaign kicked off Santa’s Workshop-style with dossiers for all 12,000 of WestJet’s employees that included a Blue Santa hat and instructions on how to perform miracles (i.e. random acts of kindness). On Dec. 9, WestJet unleashed its workforce on their local communities and launched its first-ever Mini-Miracle Day. As WestJetters set out to brighten consumers’ days with every kind of perk, from a free tank of gas for a stranger to surprise snacks for local firefighters, they captured all the action with photos and videos, tagging it all to #WestJetChristmas. WestJet volunteers at a Command Center in Calgary tracked the action in real time as miracles were being posted from London to Hawaii and all points in between. Select Miracles were showcased in real time on the WestJet blog throughout the event, along with 10 feature stories.
Meanwhile, the brand’s spokes-Santa “Blue Santa” hosted a 24-hour media blitz across Canada, performing mini miracles of his own and doing dozens of media interviews via phone, Skype and Periscope. WestJet offered select media a behind-the-scenes look by inviting them to join Blue Santa on a chartered plane. In just 24 hours, the tour garnered attention from nearly 2,400 different media outlets in 214 countries and amassed 127 million Twitter impressions and over 10 million more impressions on Facebook. Merry Christmas!
Also activating during the 24-hour program were street teams in 13 markets followed by camera crews ready to capture key footage. Promoted posts on Facebook, Twitter, Periscope and the WestJet blog helped drive amplified reach. And yet another team of WestJetters surprised local radio hosts with personalized gifts they had mentioned were on their wish lists in the weeks prior to the event.
By the time all of the miracles had been logged, the campaign had delivered more than 31,000 mini miracles. But that’s not all, folks. One week after the event, WestJet launched its recap video on its YouTube page, creating a second wave of social media excitement that generated 300,000 shares and those sweet 5.5 million video views. Perhaps merriest of all was the 96-percent positive sentiment rating—proof that paying it forward really does pay.
GOLD WINNER
Client: Neiman Marcus
Campaign: Make Some Noise
Agencies: CAA Marketing, NCompass International
Carving out a presence at SXSW is no easy task. Neiman Marcus did it with style thanks to a fashionista-focused strategy that mixed compelling content and cutting-edge music with digitally shareable experiences. The luxury-centric Make Some Noise activation ultimately drove $1.2 million in sales across Neiman Marcus’s online shops in just two days—60 percent of which came from new customers.
Through a partnership with Atlantic Records, 12 bands, a majority of which were female fronted, headlined each night of the event. Influential “noisemakers” in politics, business, fashion and food also took to the stage throughout the event, including Shiza Shahid, co-founder and global ambassador of The Malala Fund.
The inspirational experiences were all designed to be enjoyed and shared against a backdrop of “instagrammable tableaus,” like a slow-motion video booth that showered attendees in glitter, confetti and balloons, and a video painting wall where attendees used LED paint rollers to “paint” content and images projected on the activation’s walls. A Twitter Mirror also made its debut at SXSW, where guest “noisemakers” could take their pictures, write on the photos and then tweet them out from the Neiman Marcus handle. A fleet of on fleek brand ambassadors brought the brand’s hottest looks to life inside an on-site showroom where attendees could get inspired to buy on digital look books. Cocktails, beauty bars and lush surroundings rounded out the vibe at this female-friendly oasis.
Make Some Noise really made some noise, generating 263 million earned media impressions—a 10-times increase from the previous year. It also outperformed the March average for retail/apparel engagement by 2.88 percent. Cha. Ching.
SILVER WINNER
Client: Procter & Gamble
Campaign: Old Spice “Make a Smellmitment”
Agency: Fluent
Anyone who has seen its most recent ad campaign knows that Old Spice hasn’t been “your dad’s Old Spice” for a few years now. To keep its updated brand equity alive among up-and-coming male college students (and the women who smell them), Old Spice launched a six-campus Make a Smellmitment program where students could select their favorite scent (Bearglove, Timber or Swagger), grab some props and post a “Smellfie” to their social networks. The program generated more than one million social media impressions.
To kick it all off, a network of student influencers flooded each campus with tabling events, door hangers, window clings and other peer-to-peer communications. Campus-specific microsites and geo-fencing display ads engaged students across digital channels. The brand also activated at tailgate parties, where consumers could grab product samples and premiums, and snap their Smellfie in front of a scent-specific backdrop. The campus microsites aggregated all the Smellfies from each campus, automatically entering submissions into a sweepstakes for various prizes.
By the time the last manly scent had been sniffed, Old Spice had sampled more than 44,000 products to its target audience, made more than 144,000 direct impressions with football fans and students and generated more than 1,000 Smellfies. Ahhhhh, the smell of success.
BEST B-TO-B ENVIRONMENT
EX AWARD WINNER
Client: Adam Opel
Campaign: Mission Astra
Agencies: Uniplan, Grass Roots Germany
Transforming a dealer event into a 24-hour “cosmic” experience, European automaker Opel’s Mission Astra launch event had attendees gazing at the stars from luxury bubble tents for a sleepover at a “space station” in Spain’s Sierra Nevada region where they were no longer dealers—they were astronauts. In shifts of 250, the 3,500 guests took part in one-and-a-half day missions to experience the new Astra vehicle on excursions and high-speed night laps. European automotive journalists would name Opel Astra the 2016 European Car of the Year. Lift-off for this brand? Roger that.
But let’s step back. Picture this: there’s an expansive arid landscape on which a 12,800-square-foot dome has been erected next to the Circuito Guadix racetrack and next to it, in geometric formation, are 250 luxury bubble tents with panoramic ceiling windows that offered views of the night sky. The dome served as the “Astra Launch Base” and main stage venue. The hanger-like space boasted a 270-degree media display for the launch content. The theme of “exploring the Astra universe” came to life in a 45-minute mission briefing that offered product specs, brand messaging and the big reveal.
The mission briefing ended with “lift off” and the first test drives of the automobile, marked by the dramatic opening of a hidden door on the stage that led out to the racetrack. The dealers—err, astronauts—then took “space expeditions” which were active driving excursions on the landscape that happened to look a whole lot like the surface of the moon. Attendees tested their own g-force resistance and the new IntelliLux LED matrix headlights on the Astra during a night trip around the track with professional drivers. Later in the evening, the dealers celebrated a successful mission with a dinner overlooking the entire Astra launch base.
As you would expect, Astra needed to overcome a number of challenges to pull this event off, from the Uniplan tent system to the four-week construction of the camp next to the racetrack. The bubble tents were outfitted with a shower, toilet, sink and double bed and connected to more than nine feet of water and electricity supply lines. They were created with the Buckminster Fuller-designed Montreal Biosphere at the 1967 World Expo in mind, a project known for creating habitable spaces in hostile environments—and a nod to the Astra launch messaging. On top of this, the pods needed to be cleaned each day by 100 staff members around the clock. The whole site transformed into a bustling mini space city for the week.
Astra’s goal was to align dealers with its new forward-thinking brand vision. One small step for an automaker, one giant leap for the event industry.
GOLD WINNER
Client: Target
Campaign: Fall National Stores Well-Being Experience
Agency: Touch Worldwide
Many companies want employees to “be” the brand. But at its Fall National Meeting in Minneapolis, Target inspired store managers to be themselves. More like a retreat than an annual meeting, the holistic “health and well-being” theme came to life through five experiential zones in an exhibition space that provided personal development for attendees. This meeting historically focuses on forthcoming store-level design, partnerships and strategies. In 2015, Target put “You” at the center of the bull’s-eye.
The exhibit hall’s five areas—financial, social, community, health and career—offered touchpoints at every turn. Among the highlights: a Mad Libs installation that focused on career development and how Target supports team member career growth; a Target logo reimagined and constructed of Fitbit fitness trackers (employees got a sweet discount on Fitbits, too); a wall of interchangeable pieces morphed to reflect how employees planned to promote the topic of well-being in their stores; a self-assessment tool focused on employee time off that encouraged them to discover what type of traveler they are; and, finally, a zone for in-person, real-time financial advising.
In true Target fashion, team recognition was a major focal point of the experience. From large-scale curved projection screens with continuously rolling animated awards categories and winner names to two dramatic walk-up displays of hundreds of personalized individual discs, the personalized messaging of the event was visible from all points within the exhibit space. A job well (being) done.
SILVER WINNER
Client: Facebook
Campaign: IQ Live
Agency: Momentum Worldwide
For the launch of Facebook IQ, a new insights division, Facebook needed to bring consumer data to life in a way that would keep the attention of busy mid-level to senior-level advertising and marketing executives for a full day of learning. So Facebook built an explorable “neighborhood” with a park, market, café and more stocked with actors that supported a two-way dialogue between experts and attendees, and provided an immersive look at why and how consumers share on the platform.
Facebook IQ Live: Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary brought to life hard data through engaging installations, which attendees explored solo or through group tours. Like IQ Park with faux grass, a Summer Stage, picnic tables and an Instagram Café with an “ingredients wall” highlighting Facebook client case studies. Or IQ Home, where attendees learned about parenting insights from the nursery and car-buying behaviors from infographics in the driveway. At the 40-foot-wide Year of Extraordinary Wall, attendees could view a timeline of holidays Facebook users post about.
Detailed touchpoints like hidden Easter eggs with more insights for those curious enough to find them, and surprise swag and research in the IQ Mailbox no doubt helped attendees grasp the research—and feel they lived a day in the mind of their target Facebook user. Like.
BEST CONSUMER ENVIRONMENT
EX AWARD WINNER
Client: GE
Campaign: BBQ Research Center
Agency: New Creatures
<img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-63459" alt="2016-Ex_EX_EnvironB2C_GE" src="http://www.eventmarketer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-Ex_EX_Envi