Friday 24 July 2009

Collaborative Engagement


Over the past month or so we have been paying close attention to our supplier relationships and sitting down to discuss how suppliers and agencies can work harder and be more creative to collaboratively engage with brands to ensure that we inspire the brands we wish to work with. For example we recently ran a full experiential day at the offices of Sledge that gave a group of clients an insight into the strategy and rationale behind some of Sledge’s recent Consumer and B2B experiences.

The day was supported by our friends from Mindstorm who wowed our clients with their installation in the Sledge built ‘O2 Fan Space’ at the Arena. Imagine if the technology from the film Minority Report was available to brands for consumer and internal events… well it is!

Mindstorm is an award-winning software company that helps you do more with surfaces than you ever thought possible. Across surfaces, industries and across the globe, Mindstorm transforms otherwise static surfaces into intelligent displays, and passive customers into active participants.

Also in attendance were our friends from Spoonfed, showing their mobile web services. The number of festivals, conferences and internal business communications events in the UK is rising each year. As this number grows it becomes increasingly important to ensure that customers and employees are highly engaged during events; have the best possible experience; connect with old colleagues and friends; and create beneficial relationships with new people.

Mobienz achieves all of this through mobile applications and interactive mobile web services. We create branded mobile experiences that span the pre-, during, and post-event life cycle and allow event attendees to make the most of their time.

This event then progressed to a fast rib boat trip up the Thames courtesy of London Rib Voyages. The trip was a fast paced tour of London with champagne and entertainment (we were informed that the Kings of Leon had just stepped of the same boat… that upset the ladies in the group!) 

I cannot recommend this Thames based experience enough, we had such a great time and there is no faster boat on the river. If you are going to a gig at the world’s greatest music venue then you MUST travel with these guys to top off the experience.

Once at the O2 Arena, we were given a full VIP tour of the building ending in a visit to the amazing British Music Experience played host to some of the worst drumming, singing and jamming to be seen since Boyzone launched their career. Again, this is a must for any music fan of any age.

In all the day was a huge success and the clients walked away inspired and motivated to lift the bar in terms of creativity and to be brave when considering the use of technology to engage consumers and staff alike.

This event also proved to all involved that collaboration between trusted and likeminded agencies can be hugely beneficial in these quieter times and even in the early stages of client relationships, these collaborations can really work in your favour and show that you are prepared to invest time and effort to ensure that clients are aware of the new developments in our industry.

If any of our friends or suppliers would like to try something similar or perhaps you are a venue or service supplier that would like to work with our client base and you have a unique and engaging proposition then please feel free to contact me to discuss.