Interested? Please email oksana@blazinstar.co.uk to get more details about the role.

As the consumer spends more time on social media sites, the opportunity for effective marketing becomes limitless to companies in search of consumer connectivity. Therefore the technological landscape has designed innovative mechanics to drive people to social media sites. To reinforce this we have noticed that the majority of the campaigns today, integrate Apps, Smartphones, QR Codes, Blippers etc, which in our eyes have become more rich in content and more interactively faced.

Because of this reason, it is obvious to see how there is an inherent relationship between the digital channels and live brand experiences. Together they act as an engagement platform empowering the consumer to have a voice, creating a dialogue between the brand and consumer, thus fully cementing a deeper relationship with the brand. Therefore a shift is evident with more and more brand marketeers dropping the traditional marketing strategy perceived to create a one-way interruptive conversation, in favour of a two-way interactive response approach which is more cost effective, more engaging and garners word-of-mouth. This approach has been widely accepted by the marketing world using it as a long-term objective to ensure the customer experience is at the core of their brand.

One of the most interesting trends that we have spotted is the rapid use of Apps. They have recently shown enormous amount of growth in the experiential marketing strategy as they are designed, to help people perform an activity and can be used as a form of a two-way entertainment. This means that it is highly interactive to the user, and therefore extremely beneficial to have as part of their integrated Experiential Marketing Campaign to gain further reach.

As an example our very own campaign ‘face-of-JD’ was developed as a two-way interactive campaign. Using a digital platform as the centre of success, an online app and a customized Facebook page was designed giving the contestants the opportunity to enter into a competition, which ultimately resulted in becoming the Face of JD.

Another trend that is starting to heat up is the rapid use of QR codes to increase marketing efforts. This is simply a low cost method of interaction applied in marketing as a touch point used to drive consumers to experience their brands in an innovative way. The retail marketplace has been quick to adapt QR codes, as it allows for an immediate experience with tangible results directly at the point of purchase.

A great example of the QR Code working as an integrated format within a live brand experience was the ‘Tesco QR Code Subway Store’. They decided to bring shopping to subway stations to make it convenient for people to shop whilst waiting for their train home. Users simply scanned QR codes with their phone, which represented a food product and the product automatically landed in their online shopping cart. When the online purchase was complete the products were delivered to the customer’s door before they got home!

On a smaller scale, but still an innovative example was the use of QR codes executed for a recruitment drive. The ‘Pizza Digitale’ created by Sholtz & Friends (one of the biggest Ad agencies in Europe) worked in conjunction with a pizza delivery company, who were on the search for Digital Creative’s, they sent out pizzas to rival agencies allowing their target audience to view their vacancies through a ‘QR coded pizza’!

A creative execution using a simple mechanic, creating an experience by bringing the job right to your mouth so to speak.

Brands have also jumped onto yet another opportunity ‘Digital watermarking’ which are invisible/visible marks on an electronic image embedded in pictures and articles, creating a hyperlink from the printed page to online content.

‘House Beautiful’ magazine implements this nicely by placing digital watermarks on certain ads, allowing their audience to view Glidden’s ‘My Colortopia’ site where they can learn about choosing and combining different paint colors for their homes.

In this ever-evolving marketplace, we are excited to see how the digital landscape is breaking new ground for the experiential industry from interesting Apps, Blipper Augmented reality to watermarking so what’s next on the digital curve.

Any ideas????

Written by:
Dani Caplin
Kike Omisore

Amber Grill specialises in ‘churrasco’ – a style of Brazilian barbeque where seasoned cuts of meat are cooked over an open flame grill and then carved from sword-like skewers at each table by attentive Brazilian waiters.

How it worked was simple, display a green chip when you want to be served and the staff arrive with skewers of tasty prime sirloin, chicken, pork ribs and spicy Brazilian sausages. Winner! The difference is, in typically Brazilian style, it just keeps coming and coming until you, put your hands up, admit defeat and muster up the energy to display red for stop. True to the Blazinstar competitive spirit, this was a queue for the arduous challenge ‘who could eat the most meat’. Congratulations to our Creative Manager- Ricky, who stepped up to the plate! He has since been seen mooing around the office.
Next stop was a quirky, individual kind of bar, that saw us drinking cocktails from a jar?! Needless to say that after cocktails aplenty, the party games and party pieces were well under way revealing many hidden talents, personalities, and embarrassing photos of the Blazinstar team. The rest? now that would be telling!

We stood in admiration, as the event coupled a stunning 4D visual projection on the façade of London’s Millbank Tower with a live music performance from DJ Deadmau5 to accompany it.
Although we felt the excitement was short lived with the crowd wanting more, Nokia pulled it off with success, having generated live tweets, a video viral and a fantastic night had by all.
If for some reason you missed it, you definitely passed off an incredible autumn night, but do not fear, we have it here

It also reminded us about our very own spectacular Moët and Chandon 3D Projection we did last year for the Christmas lights switch-on in Manchester. When a selection of sophisticated graphics such as the Moët logo, teaser images and other creative were displayed on the façade of Manchester Town Hall from 6pm right up until the fireworks were let off at 8pm. This showcase will always remain in our memories as a fantastic experience. (http://www.blazinstar.co.uk/case-studies/ambient-media/moet-and-chandon-3d-projection-sponsorship). Ambient Media

We will share some exciting updates on our Christmas campaigns this year with you shortly. Meanwhile we are off to the event we were all looking forward to since last year – our Christmas Party

eBay Give-A-Toy Store

Blazinstar Experiential will be touring milk&more to selected shopping malls and family events, with a striking live brand experience that will converse key messages and encourage sign up with activities suitable for busy mums.

An engaging game to win prizes, will give consumers the chance to match a pair of daily essentials and redeem instantly when signed up to the milk&more service. A consumer can win up to 3 daily essentials in 1 play of the game, one of the prizes also being an opportunity to get £5.00 instant credit on their milk&more account. A complimentary massage will also be available for busy mums to treat themselves in the time that they would usually spend popping to do their top up shop. Not forgetting the children, there are also activities to keep the kids entertained such as face painting and the DS Nintendo.

Schedule for the rest of the milk&more tour:

Ideal Home Show Christmas (Earl’s Court,London) – Wed 16th – Sun 20th Nov

BBC Good Food Show (NEC,Birmingham) – Wed 23rd – Sun 27th Nov

Cabot Circus (Bristol) – Wed 7th – Sun 11th Dec

1000s of people interacted with the National Geographic Channel brand in the process as it toured Hungary, with 1000s more people sharing snapshots and video on Facebook as a result.

Check out our screen shot!