We wrote about the British company Bompas & Parr when they introduced the world to the walk-in gin and tonic. Now, the culinary events company is taking immersive cocktails one step further with a drink so big you can row a boat across it. It’s called the Architectural Punch Bowl.

The Architectural Punch Bowl follows the lead of England’s admiral Edward Russell. In 1694, Russell, the First Lord of the Admiralty, threw a party for his fellow officers. To impress the guests, he filled his garden fountain with 250 gallons of brandy, 125 gallons of wine, 1,400 pounds of sugar, 2,500 lemons, and 20 gallons of lime juice. A boy filled guests’ cups from a row boat.  

Now, Bompas & Parr, in association with Courvoisier, is holding a contest to find the best cocktail recipe made with VSOP Courvoisier Exclusif cognac. In November, a panel of judges will select the winning recipe, which will be used to fill an enormous punchbowl inside 33 Portland Place (pictured to the left) in London.

As of right now, the actual size, design, and materials of the massive punch bowl are still in the works.

Bompas & Parr are working with the University College London to answer questions like: How do you make a building food-safe? And, what technology could be used to keep the enormous beverage chilled at the right temperature?

The Architectural Punch Bowl will allow the public to have a cup of punch and step on-board a row boat for a quick paddle across the biggest punch bowl ever made.

The event will raise money for the architectural charity Article 25, which provides building expertise to aid agencies and communities in need.

The Architectural Punch Bowl demonstrates that experiences can be temporary. A temporary installation can pop up, generate customer excitement, and then disappear before becoming old hat.

(thanks to Sam Bompas for the photos.)

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In his TED talk, “How Social Media Can Make History,” author and technology expert Clay Shirky explains: “Tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring. It isn’t when the shiny new tools show up that their uses start permeating society. It’s when everybody is able to take them for granted.”

Shirky’s comment reminds us of two technology mistakes companies make:

1. They focus on attention-grabbing technology when they should focus on people. Serving people is technology’s purpose, and it should act as a facilitator rather than a star attraction.
2. They ignore emerging technology and stand pat with older technological solutions that once worked, but no longer do. Technological ignorance puts them behind the curve when these “shiny new tools” become socially adopted and engrained.

Shirky closes his presentation with a reality check and a call to action:

“Media is less and less often about crafting a single message to be consumed by individuals. It is more and more often a way of creating an environment for convening and supporting groups. . . And the choice we face, I mean anybody who has a message they want to have heard anywhere in the world, isn’t whether or not that is the media environment we want to operate in. That’s the media environment we’ve got. The question we all face now is, ‘How can we make the best use of this media? Even though it means changing the way we’ve always done it.’”

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In 1915, the Kennedy School opened in Portland, Oregon. For sixty years it served as an elementary school, but was eventually boarded up because of a drop in enrollment and hefty maintenance costs. The building stood abandoned.

In 1997, restaurant development company, McMenamins, discovered the deserted school, and decided to reopen it as a hotel and pub. Rather than erasing the building’s history, McMenamins highlighted it.

Today, the property is still called The Kennedy School. Its 35 classrooms, complete with original chalkboards along the walls, are now guestrooms. Its auditorium is a movie theater. The former teachers’ lounge is a soaking pool. One of its barrooms is named “Detention,” while the other, located deep in the bowels of the building, is appropriately called “The Boiler Room Bar.” The establishment has a school theme throughout.

By trumpeting the building’s past, McMenamins has created a guest experience that’s organic and different. What’s more, the company didn’t have to build from scratch.

The Big Lesson:

People love to experience a sense of place, and feel differences in location and culture. Those reasons, after all, are why people take trips. They want to be invigorated by a history, environment, and way of being that’s different from their own.

Stands to reason, then, that drawing on these distinguishing elements when you’re creating a customer experience makes good sense.

(More on this idea of drawing on local geography and culture in our Ritz-Carlton post, “Making a Scene.”)

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German outdoor retailer, Globetrotter, doesn’t call its retail locations “stores.” They call them “Erlebnihaueser,” which means “Adventure Houses.” When you have an in-house cold room to test the warmth of sleeping bags, calling a store an adventure house seems right.

In addition to a cold room, Globetrotter’s 7,000 square-meter location in Cologne lets shoppers try kayaks and SCUBA gear in an onsite pool. They can also test rain gear in a shower room that imitates a downpour, or get vaccinated in-store for diseases they might encounter during an adventure.

The company was founded by real-deal survival experts, Klaus Denart and Peter Lachhart, and the stores are staffed by experienced adventure travelers. As a result, customers receive knowledgeable product support and guidance. The staff also helps Globetrotter select the proper gear to stock, insuring product quality and relevance.

From a knowledgeable staff to terrariums of ant colonies (for ambiance!), it is no wonder that the company has 25% of Germany’s outdoor retail market.

Like Cabela’s in the U.S., Globetrotter is an outdoor retailer with a catalog that does more with its store space than sell products. It sells an outdoor experience largely by creating a powerful in-store experience.

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