All is 'Live' and well for good old fashioned events...

Picked up this article on Brandweek 

53% of senior marketing execs say event marketing is "the discipline that best accelerates and deepens relationships" with customers. 

Twenty-nine percent of marketers will transition their strategy from event marketing to experience marketing in the next 12 months. The difference being that experience marketing "involves integrated live and online experiences that drive deep brand interaction through highly relevant story telling and brand immersion," per the study. A third of those polled said they already made the switch.

I will be presenting alongside our friends from Continental Research at the forthcoming Confe event, I will be endeavoring to show the power of Live Experience Marketing and present some outstanding advocacy figures that will echo the positive comments from the Brand Week story. 

Extending Sponsorships into Experiences

Sledge has for many years taken the view that Sponsorship is nothing without an exploitation and engagement strategy. Korean Air has recently sponsored the Paris Louvre’s electronic art guides and has supported this with a unique in-flight experience.

Specially chosen Korean Air cabin attendants are now offering an innovative “Flying Art Ambassadors” service on select flights. These Ambassadors will provide information about museums, effective tour routes, artists and famous artworks at the destination city to customers that want assistance.

These Art Ambassadors undergo a six-month training scheme but all come from artistic backgrounds.

The Holy Church of Star Wars...

I got to thinking about Churches over my lunch and found this stunner, Church of Santa Monica in Madrid, Spain. Looks more like a Sand Crawler from Star Wars... Nice Though!

Holy Skate Event

The 12th Century Malmesbury opens its nave to host a 3 day skate event created by 'The Christian Skaters UK'.

This a link that i am sure many would not have considered, Priest Neill Archer from the Cathedral said, "we're saying to the young, you are welcome here, your culture is welcome here". 

I (Irving, not a priest!)  am sure some of the older flock would see it differently, but i admire the use of what i consider to be otherwise wasted space for a unique event.

O2 it's your community

Loving some of the interesting community and brand based projects around at the moment. O2 are encouraging people to get involved in 'Community Art' and asking people to submit their art into a competition with the winner being displayed in their local O2 store as well as also winning a local project a £1,000 prize and £500 for themselves.

O2 Empire Launch

Well, i think i can only manage one entry today because i am nursing a nasty hangover from last night, a night that will stay in the memory for some time... for last night I witnessed the greatest encore of all time. Sledge was lucky enough to be involved in last nights official launch of the O2 Academy sponsorship at the Warchild gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire.

A stunning performance of the Killers "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers, Chris Martin, Coldplay, Bono and Gary Barlow!!!

A most awesome affair and one that i am very proud to say Sledge was involved in. watch the industry press for more details or go to the Warchild site.

Twestival

Twestival was started in September 2008 by a group of Twitterers based in London. They had decided to organise an event where the local Twitter community could socialize and meet in the Live environment; the premise of the event was to raise money for a local homeless charity and awareness as well as meet the faces behind the avatars, enjoy some entertainment and have a few drinks.

Learn more.

I was directed to this site by a friend who had read about my interest in Photography, the video content created by Keith Loutit is just mind boggling!

I am also informed that these effects are created from HD using tilt shift lens and time lapse!?! I best get booking another course!

See more of the films for yourself.

Can't Cook Too Lazy To Cook...

As the health debate rolls on and lazy Britain seems to be getting more and more unhealthy by the day it turns out that the ever dipping economy could now be blamed for the increase in chicken dippers sales!

Sledge’s good friends Metro brought a shocking statistic to my attention today with a front page story that there is to be a dramatic rise in the opening of new fast food outlets across the nation. I suppose this is a saving grace for all those who lost there jobs at Woolworths. 

Picture courtesy of Metro

Watch this space for some breaking news on how Sledge and one of it's favorite clients intends to do battle with these statistics with Good Health, Family Values, Wellbeing and of course good old Fun.

I wood love to own this...

I am a huge fan of the Vespa although you would not think it seen as i keep crashing mine. This story caught my eye.

I shot the law...

There was a mass participation event that took place yesterday outside New Scotland Yard, around 150 Photographers (serious one's, not 'paps') This was a protest against the terror laws that will leave photographers open to arrest if they take images of the Police.

Sony's big new launch

An amusing review of Sony's latest must have product... the next gizmo you must have!

Onion News.

It is not rocket science that today’s media savvy audiences expect their favoured brands to share a finger on the pulse approach to communication and it also true to say that the same audience are indeed leading the way and influencing the brands they admire to follow their lead.

It has long been the belief of live brand experience agency Sledge that the digital space should go hand in hand with any live campaign. “ The Digital Aura” is the first port of call for any consumer wishing to interact with your live experience, whether it be to find its location or indeed to brag that they attended. Brands need to ensure that they embrace every mass participation online mechanic as well as endeavouring to create their own portals.

Sledge’s innocent Village Fete is just one a prime example of how this can work, with their own fete blogs, Flickr groups and even a fete finder and it is widely known that the volume of video content placed post the fete in 2007 and 2008 increased the brand and event awareness beyond all expectation.

Sledge has recently partnered with a number of notable digital agencies to bring even more of its campaigns to life in the digital space and thus go a long way to proving beyond doubt that live experiences and experiential marketing working in harmony can reach the masses that are usually only reached through traditional Above The line campaigns.

Sledge has also found itself a unique partner in The Bigfoot Project, this is an agency that specialises in the creation of content for digital platforms with notable recent project wins with the Army

I was very lucky to receive a Canon EOS 40D this Christmas from my beautiful wife and have since started a photography course. I'm a fan of capturing street art and installations on film and was pleased to stumble upon the site streetsy streetsy having just started a major collaboration with a digital content agency called The Bigfoot Project I was drawn straight to Bigfoot's work.

I shall be posting some of my own finds soon.

They say he is the new Banksy and he has a social conscience visible for miles, he is JR and he is known for creating huge guerrilla art installations with his photography. A recent Sotheby’s sale saw his Ladj Ly sell for £26,250 a pretty outstanding return in the current modern art market.

JR is also a man of conscience and his recent installations in the slums of Kibera, Kenya used water resistant material and more than 2000 square meters of rooftops have been covered with photos that will protect the properties during the forthcoming rain season. The photos are shots of the eyes and faces of the women of the slums.

This new work can be seen from space and in Google Earth.

The Natural Confectionery Company

Sledge's good friends at Weapon 7 the interactive specialists turned awareness into brand engagement. See more details about this great online initiative at www.contagiousMagazine.com

The relaunch also manifested itself in the live environment with a hugely successful Experiential campaign see www.sledge.co.uk for more information.