Fast Forum: Engagement Through Technology

Contributors: Larry Engel, Jon Baade and Rick Stoner

We all know content is king, but how do we ascend to the throne? Taking advantage of technology to engage your audiences is a major trend we’re seeing with larger consumer brands. And the reason it works is because of the technology platforms that enable mass engagement opportunities that still feel personal and relevant to potential customers. Reaching and communicating with stakeholders to build a relationship with the brand in advance of and beyond the transaction is often times simplified when interactive technology comes into play.

Engagement is about being accessible, listening and responding to the needs and opinions of the target audience. We’re seeing companies entertaining people and getting physical engagement at locations as mundane as bus stations, and we see package goods manufacturers reinforcing brand perceptions with playful, public interactions where the literal call-to-action is to put a smile on a person’s face. Other stand-out examples include:

• The Unilever Smile Activated Vending Machine: To launch the new “Share Happy” brand position of food brand Wall’s, Unilever developed a vending machine that provided free ice cream via one simple call-to-action.
• Monday Night Football: ESPN engaged consumers walking down the street with a full-body, responsive, real-time platform where users could physically interact with the ad. Passersby participated in a quarterback challenge and could see how their scores matched up against players from other markets.
• Lexus: The luxury automaker developed this video ad to promote the safety of its vehicles, and the company took advantage of the physical media landscape at-hand by placing the ad near an intersection with a traffic light. 

These uses of engagement through technology get consumers to physically interact with brands so they can connect on their terms. While B2C brands have pioneered the concept of engagement through technology, it’s applicability in the B2B market is just as valuable. One example is our work with Johnson Controls and the interactive digital wall

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Resurrecting and reimagining: The "Hilltop" Coke ad 40 years later

In the marketing communications world, we are always pushing for the new idea, latest concept and that fresh look. But there are times when we need to look at what has been successful in the past and “re-imagine” the wheel to garner strong consumer branding power. 

The “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” ad created four decades ago turned into a full-length song and quickly became a No. 1 hit single. Last year, I wrote about the 40th anniversary of the ad, noting the power of audio in advertising. The song was a brilliant marketing hug to the world and increased Coke’s presence among consumers.

And it’s back.

But this time, the ad has been spun with a modern audience in mind, using interactive digital technology in a new venue that could set the precedent for marketing campaigns in the next several years. With Google’s “Project Re: Brief,” the re-imagined ad enables a new generation of Coke-lovers to actually “buy the world a Coke” from their computer or phone.

At kiosks placed around the globe, users can select a location for delivery, attach a personal video or text message, and then watch as the Coke is “delivered” to a friend or stranger via a specially-designed vending machine on the other side of the world. The

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SXSW Interactive 2012 reevaluates business as usual

Change is inevitable, and nowhere is that more evident than in Austin, Texas, every March during the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. Born a music festival with 700 registrants in 1987, then branching out in 1994 with the addition of film and interactive tracks, SXSW (“South-by” to locals and show vets) has established itself as the preeminent launching pad for what’s new, different and loaded with potential for real impact on our culture.

What truly stood out at this year’s SXSW Interactive is the importance to embrace and experiment with the latest and greatest. Be it a new mobile application, a startup social media platform or a fundamental shift in how we plan our marketing efforts, proactively evaluating how these tools and theories impact business puts us in a position to lead. Because once they take off and hit critical mass, it’s a giant game of catch-up. And in an era when marketing and communications moves at an unprecedented speed, it’s more important than ever to think forward and be on the front lines of what’s happening now.

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Your SXSW Interactive halftime report

Bader Rutter is at SXSW Interactive 2012, and we’ve managed to best the rain and channel our inner Shawshank Redemption to attend three days of sessions. With two days left and the sun finally deciding to show up yesterday afternoon, here’s a halftime report with business takeaways from some standout sessions:

Attending the session “The Visual Interface is Now Your Brand”Agile Marketing
SXSW seems to be the birthplace of buzzwords, and agile marketing is the talk of marketers as the industry continues to think through ways to plan and reach audiences in the same way they consume content — in real time. The sold-out Marketing’s Shift from Waterfall to Agile focused on the premise that “marketing’s traditionally slow, phased, methodical approach to researching and reaching consumers doesn’t work anymore.” While an A-list panel of marketers representing big B2C brands all admitted they’re still figuring it out, one takeaway for any marketer to consider stood out:   

• Leave air in your plans and budgets: Shiv Singh from PepsiCo hit the room’s a-ha moment when he pointed out that while consumers digest content in real time, the marketers that communicate the content often have to plan on three to 12 months in advance. He highlighted that disconnect by pointing at SXSW Interactive itself, where session and speaker applications for one of the most real-time events in the world are due 11 months in advance of next year’s show. During the Q and A, I asked the panel how marketers go about “planning on not planning” and committing to a budget with a malleable idea behind it. Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, CMO at Mindjet,

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Follow Bader Rutter for the latest from SXSW Interactive

The SXSW Interactive festival, an “incubator of cutting-edge technologies,” kicks off this afternoon. Yours truly will act as Bader Rutter’s embedded reporter, mining through the overwhelming amount of sessions and keynotes to relay key business takeaways and offer some marketing food for thought.

Starting this afternoon, follow @Bader_Rutter and @RickStoner for the latest from SXSW Interactive as I’ll be live-tweeting all weekend and through the festival’s wrapup on Tuesday. Also be on the lookout for blog posts on Converge, including a halftime report come Monday and a post-show recap. 

From emerging technologies to the latest in mobile, digital and social marketing trends, SXSW Interactive has developed a reputation for being the place to launch the digital marketing industry’s next big thing. Back in 2007, a small microblogging tool called Twitter had quite a show. So who knows what we’re in store for this year? Wednesday’s new iPad release already has nerds such as myself eager to get to Austin and get a sneak

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A renovation for collaboration

Our philosophy at BR is simple: We thrive because of our people and our ideas. And we’ll be the first to admit that thinking creatively while sitting at a closed-off desk is like trying to breathe fresh air in a stuffy airplane cabin. Having surpassed the 200-employee mark, we decided to enhance our space and recently remodeled our creative wing.

We renovated to juice collaboration, brainstorming and inventive approaches to getting work done. We wanted art directors and copywriters swapping ideas while sharing the latest blends at our new coffee bar or hammering out a great new concept while kicking back in the new lounge. Put simply, we wanted our creative teams to communicate more easily and quickly than their previous workstations allowed.

Now our teams embrace the kind of closeness that allows neighbors to toss around fresh ideas as easily as spare sticky notes. And since digital is ubiquitous here, our creative and

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Playing in the Super Bowl? Don’t lose your head.

This is the obligatory blog post where someone talks about the commercials played during the recently concluded Super Bowl.

It’s obligatory because everything connected with the Super Bowl has an obligation to make a big spectacle that gets talked about. Somewhere along the way, that spectacle spread to the advertising that fills the breaks in the action, and we haven’t looked back since. Today, Super Bowl commercials are dissected just as much as — if not more than — the game itself.

And, in recent years, the advertising has mirrored the actual game in that 97 percent of it is boring and underwhelming.

How did we get to this point? In much the same way the losing team (this year, the New England Patriots) ends up with its celebratory shirts in third-world countries — by getting caught up in the hoopla of the Big Game and forgetting to do all the things that got them there in the first place.

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When it comes to data, seeing is believing

I’m a sucker for data. Call me a nerd, but somehow percentages and simple bar graphs appeal to my curiosity. Surround those factoids with pretty colors and images, and I’ll be happier than a bird with a french fry. And according to Dartmouth College, I am not alone.

Fast Company recently posted an article about this phenomenon, stating that you might win more arguments if you show your facts with visuals, rather than present them only in written form. Apparently, it’s harder to twist the truth if it’s in the form of a graph.

Believable theory? Maybe. Read the article for yourself to see what Fast Company has to say, and make your own decision. I, on the other hand, will be gawking at the following cool infographics we’ve stumbled across recently:

Click on the images below for the big picture.

Email marketing and social media 

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Second to none

The BR Gang at Second City

Some folks from the Chicago office recently kicked off the holiday season by seeing the “Dysfunctional Holiday Review” at Chicago’s world famous Second City. What made the evening particularly special was that our own Nicole Hastings was the star of the show!

Four years ago, Nicole moved to Chicago from San Jose to go through the Second City

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Please vote!

Please go to facebook.com/partnersforhumanity and vote for the Urban Ecology Center. If the ad we created for them has the most votes by Dec. 6, the Urban Ecology Center will receive a $500 donation.

Partners for Humanity is an annual program that’s centered on giving back to the community. Advertising agencies in Milwaukee — like us! — create pro-bono ad

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Marcom A to Z ─ W for Work

I read Steve Jobs’ obituary this morning. The world should feel a little smaller today ─ less innovative ─ without him. And yet the legacy he built throughout his career, and his life, fills any void that might exist.

The article chronicled his life by milestones, work setbacks, and accomplishments. It got me thinking: We spend a quarter of our life (often more) working. Doing what? A task? Checking a mandatory box defined by someone else? Hopefully not. That’s the prerequisite only if

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Our very own pig in a blanket

Never let it be said that Bader Rutter’s creative talents are limited only to print and digital formats. We also do pretty well in pig.

 

In order to both support the pork industry and raise money for the Food Bank for the Heartland, a nonprofit organization that serves more than 300 food pantries and shelters in Nebraska and western Iowa, Bader Rutter’s Lincoln, Neb. office is participating in the Pigs on Parade public art project this summer. The project is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association (NPGA), and afforded Bader Rutter the opportunity to decorate a 2-foot-tall fiberglass pig. What an assignment!

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Top 11 design sites

As a digital art director I find inspiration in a lot of things including design sites. When I was asked to narrow down my top 10 design sites from my 1,500+ bookmarks (90 percent of which are design related) I realized what a hard task it was going to be. To make this easier I decided to break them into categories, pick “one” for each and give you readers a taste of everything.

Here are the picks, in no particular order. I hope they are as inspiring to you as they are to me.

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Calling it a career

It’s my time to say goodbye to the business that I’ve been engaged in for the entire 35 years of my professional life. It’s gone fast. Probably because, as they say, if you find something you like doing, it never feels like work. I can’t say it’s never felt like work but it has been a very interesting and rewarding profession to be a part of for the last three and a half decades.

The changes over the years have been huge. I entered the field in January of 1977. There were still lingering elements of the Mad Men era around at that time. Even in 1982 when I arrived on the door step of Bader Rutter, the smoke and polyester abounded. To employ a creative department back then all you needed was a layout pad, set of felt tip markers a typewriter and some talent. That worked for a long time but it all began to change in the mid-to-late 80’s when Apple introduced the desktop computer to our industry. Back then it was incomprehensible to imagine how central it would become to everything we do. The people in our business who didn’t embrace the changes were eventually left in the dust. Many ending up at home watching The Phil Donahue show or reruns of The Rockford Files.

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Happy Holidays from the many faces of BR

Think back to September of this year. Can you remember what you were working on? Which project was hot at the moment? While summer was becoming a distant memory for most, the holiday season was top of mind for several BR associates.

That’s when a group of us started working on the agency’s 2010 Holiday Card. Nearly three months later we’ve got a pretty cool way to say Happy Holidays (if we do say so ourselves).

Take a look below. If you like what you see keep reading to find out how we were able to fit the mugs of 170+ associates in this year’s card.

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