Room 121, "Sleep Seasons"

In most hotels, the rooms have the same standard look. They have similar carpeting, furniture, and pictures on the walls. In Copenhagen’s Hotel Fox, however, each room is a unique art exhibit.  

Twenty-one artists designed the hotel’s 61 rooms. Room 504, called “Boxing,” features decorative boxing gloves and trophy case. Room 121, “Sleep Seasons,” has a makeshift tent pitched over the bed and a forest mural adorning the walls.

When guests arrive, they choose which room they want to stay in based on their personality and mood. The result is a fun and individualized experience.

The hotel’s unusual theming was created as a publicity stunt by Volkswagen. In 2005, Volkswagen was in Copenhagen unveiling its new Fox model. The auto maker knew industry journalists would be visiting to cover the unveiling, so VW took over the existing Park Hotel, brought in the artists to redesign, and renamed the hotel after the Fox.

The redesign was so successful in attracting attention that after Volkswagen’s stunt was over, the hotel’s owners kept the theming and name change.

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In today’s social media world, people have become addicted to sharing. They want to share information and opinions. They want to tell one another what they’re thinking and doing. Digital signage can play a role.

As an example, look at what Coldwell Banker did. To promote its realty service, the company erected an interactive billboard in Times Square, which prompts passersby to use the board as a real-estate search tool.

Viewers dial an on-screen phone number, text the word “homes,” and add in the zip code of the geographical area they’d like to search. Soon, house listings and photos from that area appear on the billboard. Their search goes public. Conversations and debates begin. Coldwell Banker is suddenly in people’s heads.

This principle is all about sharing in public. To incorporate it into your experience, think about the choices your customers have to make – especially those choices which prompt discussion (Obviously, nothing too sensitive). How can digital signage help your customers think things through with others?

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The above video showcases the work of EasyWeb, a French company that creates “Monumental Video Projections.” To produce the projections, EasyWeb first maps the building’s exterior using architectural plans, photographs, and laser quotation. The laser quotation process allows them to calculate distances and map minute details of the structure.

Once the mapping is complete, they recreate the building’s exterior on a PC using 3D software. 3D software is also used to create the dynamic effects and graphics of the projection show.  

Finally, light “beamers” project the 3D effects onto the façade.

“Our technology is ‘very handmade,’” says EasyWeb’s PR & Project Manager, Pierre Caulet. “Like fashion designers, the production team creates unique video shows [which play] with volumes and architecture.”

EasyWeb’s goal is to create a new event marketing approach. The company delivers a spectacular visual experience sure to attract crowds and get people talking. We look forward to seeing how brands will use emerging video projection. What will they say and do for their customers once they’ve gotten their attention? A question like that’s important to answer ahead of time.  

(Thanks, Shawn T.)

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1. Pop up stores build urgency.

By having a limited lifespan, pop up stores motivate people to act fast. Otherwise, they could miss out.  

Nike's LeBron Zoom IV NYC Pop Up.

Nike launched a pop up store in Soho to promote its LeBron Zoom IV NYC basketball sneakers. The shoes were only available at the store, which was open for a mere four days. With that small a window, sneaker aficionados didn’t sit on their hands.  

2. Pop up stores turn unused spaces into vibrant places.

The economy has left many retail spaces empty. Shoppers see signs of failure and deadness - stripped spaces, empty shop windows. Then, suddenly there is sound, color, and energy. 

The Doodle Bar, a London-based pop up bar, lets customers draw on its walls, furniture, even its bartenders. The interior of the bar and café is a constantly evolving, community art project. Initially slated for the summer only, the bar’s success has led to an extended stay. The owners have taken an abandoned space and turned it into a creative space that hosts drawing contests and yoga classes.   

3. Pop up stores focus entirely on the customer experience.

Popping up cuts down on the financial commitments of store ownership, like long-term leases and ongoing payroll. Brands can offer customers an experience that’s more extravagant.

 At Alcoholic Architecture, another London-based pop up bar, patrons don’t drink their gin and tonics - they breathe them in. Upon entering the space, visitors are fitted with protective plastic suits and led into a room where a humidifier vaporizes drinks, creating a walk-in cocktail cloud. 

Alcoholic Architecture

Pumping drinks into the air probably isn’t the most cost effective way to run a bar, but Alcoholic Architecture was only open for a few days. As a result, the curators of the event-meets-space, jelly makers Bompas and Parr, were able to focus on a buzz-worthy experience without getting too hung up on their bottom line.

4. Pop up spaces offer a firsthand experience of a brand.

Customers experience retail brands inside the store. For companies whose products don’t headline a traditional retail space, pop ups allow them to bring customers inside their brand.

vitaminwater promoted new flavors with a Manhattan-based pop up store. In the store, customers could try free samples of the fresh flavors, check their email, play foosball, and hang out in a lounge that hosted a revolving cast of DJs. The store connected customers with vitaminwater’s brand more than they ever could have in the grocery aisle.  

5. Pop up spaces show off exciting, unseen products.

Often, brands use pop ups to gauge customer interest on a small scale. For visitors, the space gives them the opportunity to see what’s new and be the first to try it out. After all, who doesn’t want to see things first?  

In 2004, French fashion brand Comme des Garcons opened a pop up store in Tokyo. The company teamed with Apple to create a Comme des Garcons branded iPod, which was only available at the location.  According to allbusiness.com, the six-month run of the specialty iPod was expected to generate $1.1 million in sales.

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When people go to the zoo they expect to see animals in natural settings – monkeys swinging from trees and cougars pacing rocky outcrops. What they don’t expect to see are the animals in more urban settings – a crocodile sunning itself on a discarded bathtub and bison grazing beside a train track. But that’s exactly what they’ll get at Vienna’s Schonbrunn Zoo.

The zoo has a new exhibit, “Trouble in Paradise,” which populates its animal enclosures with conspicuous manmade objects. Penguins sit atop an oil rig. Fish swim around a barrel of faux toxic waste. Rhinos share a pond with a wrecked Mercedes.

The exhibit, which runs from June until October, doesn’t harm the animals, but it reminds visitors that natural habitats are disappearing due to mankind’s abuse. 

“Trouble in Paradise” was created by installation artists Christophe Steinbrenner and Reiner Dempf. The artists hope the exhibit will encourage visitors to live more environmentally responsible lives. By including installation art in the approximated natural settings, the exhibit creates a new zoo experience that is memorable and emotionally striking.

Photo of “Trouble in Paradise” rhino enclosure from Spiegel Online 

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Photo from Bompas & Parr

Alcoholic Architecture was a London-based pop up bar that gave patrons the option of drinking a cocktail or breathing one in. The bar used a heavy-duty humidifier to vaporize gin and tonic. The result was a walk-in cocktail cloud.

Patrons lucky enough to score reservations for the four-day affair were escorted from the street into a bar decorated with giant limes and straws. The interior was designed to look as if they’d just dived into a gin and tonic.

Upstairs, they grabbed a drink and were fitted with plastic suits to protect their clothes from the boozy vapors.

Downstairs, in the basement, they pass through a plastic flap door into a room transformed into the cocktail cloud. The small misty room fit about 25 people and guests were led out after 40 minutes. The limited time period helped ensure that guests would actually remember the unique experience.

The pop up was created by Bompas and Parr, a company that creates jellies and curates innovative culinary events.  

The company was also responsible for Scratch n Sniff Cinema, where a Valentine’s Day film screening was paired with a scratch and sniff card. The card featured aromas like rotting meat and old books that corresponded with scenes in the film.

Thanks to Anthony DeBono for pointing us to this story.

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The Yellow Pages Group claims its New Zealand Yellow Pages can provide all the resources anyone would ever need to get any project done.

To prove its point, the organization staged a marketing stunt that’s paid big dividends: They built a temporary restaurant in a tree house, and used the Yellow Pages to make the project happen.

The group hired a spokesmodel, Tracey Collins, to serve as the face of the project and the restaurant’s hostess. Tracey tracked the day-to-day construction on her blog.

Called the Yellow Treehouse, the eatery took about two months to complete, and was designed by Pacific Environments Architects. The 33 foot wide space sits 39 feet above the ground. The kitchen and bathrooms are on the ground, and the dining area is accessible by a walkway almost 200 feet long.

The restaurant seats 18 for lunch, dinner, and afternoon tea. Its exact location, in a forest near Warkworth, is only given to those with booked seating.

The Yellow Treehouse opened on January 9th and has been so popular (completely booked, in fact) that the Yellow Pages Group has considered keeping it open past the slotted closing date of February 9th.

According to Springwise.com:

“Besides serving as a marketing tool for its original sponsor . . . the Yellow Treehouse is sure to provide a fresh experience consumers won’t soon forget. The secrecy of its location and the scarcity of reservations, meanwhile, only increase its appeal.”

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Nearly 20% of shoppers in Denmark ride bicycles to the store. Carrying home larger purchases, then, can be a problem. IKEA came up with a way to make things easier on customers.

Teaming up with bicycle manufacturer, Velorbis, IKEA offers customers temporary use of free trailer bikes and carts. For a small refundable deposit, customers can haul goods home in an environmentally-friendly way.

Besides helping customers manage purchases, IKEA’s logo-rich bike trailers also function as moving billboards.

By understanding its customer and the pitfalls of its shopping experience, IKEA has been able to make lemonade from lemons. Rather than lose sales, the furniture giant has found a way to better serve its customers and itself.

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Long checkout lines frustrate customers and hurt sales. Fortunately, new infrared technology will help manage cashier lanes for better in-store performance.

Irisys’ queue management system uses infrared sensors to monitor in-store customer numbers, average wait time, average line length, and overall store checkout performance.

If checkout performance slips below a minimum service level, the system sends management an alert. Sent to computer or PDA, the alert gives 15 and 30-minute advanced notices on how many lanes will be needed to meet customer demand.

The system has been installed in ten retailers across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. In the U.S., Price Chopper and Kroger are in trial, and global retailer Tesco, has already installed it in more than 800 stores in the U.K. and Ireland.

Technology is by no means a cure-all, but infrared technology may help retailers manage one of the most tedious aspects of the shopping experience.

Retailers need to consider: What’s the most aggravating part of your store’s shopping experience, and in what ways can it be improved?

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A 30-second commercial during this year’s Super Bowl costs three-million dollars. That’s a lot of money no matter what the state of the economy. MillerCoors decided it could get more bang – and viewer attention — for its buck, not by running a single 30-second ad, but by airing a series of ads lasting one second each.

The ads, which tout Miller High Life beer, feature Wendell, an opinionated High Life delivery man from the company’s current ad campaign. Wendell hams it up on a Miller High Life loading dock, stares into the camera and says things like: “Miller time!” “One Mississippi,” “Bonjour, Milwaukee,” “Back bacon,” and “Wojohowitz!”

According to a post on Consumerist.com:

“The brilliant use of the format dovetails perfectly with the beer’s brand identity. ‘Miller High Life is all about high quality and great value, so it wouldn’t make sense for this brand to pay $3 million for a 30-second ad,’ said High Life senior brand manager Kevin Oglesby, in a press release.”

By breaking from convention, MillerCoors is better serving its brand while creating an experience people are sure to talk about.

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As an experiential marketing firm, we’re always looking for companies that use experience to reinvigorate themselves. One such company is the Ritz-Carlton.

There was a time when the Ritz-Carlton in Kapalua, Maui, wasn’t much different than the Ritz-Carlton in Cleveland, or Tokyo, or anywhere else in the world. Today, though, the Kapalua location feels distinctly Hawaiian. That happened by design.

A few years ago, the Ritz-Carlton, working with the design firm IDEO, created a program called “sceneography,” which brings out the personality of each hotel property.

The program starts by developing a location’s theme – based on its geography and local culture. Once the theme is established, it’s fleshed out through organic detail.

For example:

The theme of the Kapalua location is “heart of aloha.” To bring that premise to life:

• The building’s interior design uses traditional Hawaiian materials, such as koa wood and lava stones.
• Guests at its spa receive Lomilomi massages from masseuses trained to speak the native language.
• Fridays at noon, employees perform a traditional Hui Mele (“group song”).
• Naturalists hired by the hotel prepare guests for rainforest hikes with a blessing chant.

The Ritz-Carlton’s Half Moon Bay location, near San Francisco, was the first of the chain to implement sceneography. There, the theme of “fire and wine on the coast,” is animated by outdoor fire pits, wine tastings, and a weekend hot chocolate bar.

The point, according to Jen Chiesa, Director of Public Relations for Half Moon Bay, is to offer guests something extra and make their experience a little more memorable.

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This mirror may not tell you who’s the fairest of them all, but it can tell shoppers if that cashmere sweater comes in seafoam or if those flat-front khakis are available in 38×32.

Modestly called the magicmirror, it’s a mirror that’s also an RFID reader. So when shoppers present an RFID-tagged item of clothing or other merchandise in front of the mirror, the device will display information about the product such as size and color availability and guides that suggest other items to accessorize it with.

If the system, made by Avery Dennison, is installed in a fitting room, a shopper can use the magicmirror to request a different size or color of a particular item without leaving the room. Store employees who have handheld devices tied in with the system will get the message and can respond to the customer’s request.

Portuguese apparel retailer Throttleman is considering using the mirror. Prada already is using something similar in its SoHo and Beverly Hills stores. Mirrors in the Prada dressing room also use RFID technology to offer detailed information about the clothing brought inside and allow shoppers to see various angles of themselves as well as simultaneous pictures of them dressed in different items to compare which they like best.

Another “magic mirror” was tested in 2007 in the Nanette Lepore section of Bloomingdale’s New York flagship store. It allowed shoppers to have certain clothing items superimposed on their image in the mirror and also have video and images of them sent to the internet so friends could weigh in on the item.

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In their book, Greentailing and Other Revolutions in Retail, authors Neil Strauss and Will Ander write about a study they conducted with a thousand consumers regarding green in retail. One question, in particular, revealed an intriguing statistic:

“ . . . while many retailers are considered to be making a decent effort at being green, they are not doing a particularly good job of educating the consumer on what they are doing. Just 6 percent of consumers rated retailers as excellent or very good at educating consumers on green, while over half believed they are below satisfactory or poor.” P. 59

Supporting a cause or having a strength is one thing. Letting people know about that cause or strength is quite another.

Whether you’re championing green or doing something else to help the planet or your customers, remember that good communication is part of a strong experience.

Don’t think you’re showing off. Let your customers know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how everyone stands to benefit.

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ROBOTGALAXY sells robots – toy robots – whose parts customers themselves choose and assemble. Think, “Build-a-Bear in Space.”
The store’s experience begins cafeteria-style:

Children pick one of a dozen different robot bodies. Then they select its arms (possibilities include a claw that opens and closes, a drill that spins, a crossbow that fires a projectile, and a searchlight, among others) and legs (again, the options have different functions: one pair of legs walks, another rides a skateboard, and so forth).

Using a key, a ROBOTGALAXY employee locks the pieces together, presents the child with the key, and escorts them to the “Lab,” where the toy is programmed to repeat a few simple words, such as the child’s name and the nickname given to it by the child. (A ROBOTGALAXY staff member said older children anoint their creations with violent nicknames, like “Crusher” and Destroyer,” while younger children opt for softer names, like “Robbie,” “Robo,” and Skater Dude.”)

The robot is placed inside “The Seventh Ring of Saturn,” which is a twelve foot tall  tower with a motorized platform, LED lights, topped off with a replica of Saturn. The tower, whose job it is to power the robot by using energy from Saturn’s rings, doesn’t serve any practical function. But it’s an important emotional part of the experience.

Staff members get the attention of everyone in the store, place the robot on the platform, hit a button, and, amidst flashing lights and a character-specific theme song, narrate the toy’s journey up the tower to Saturn and back.

Once the robot is fully powered, a staff member uses a USB cable, and helps the child connect the toy to the Internet and ROBOTGALAXY’s virtual environment. There, the child registers the robot, sees its avatar, and can play online games. Based on the number of points the child racks up, he or she can win downloads, such as a new sound effect or eye color for their robot.

Depending on the parts chosen, robots range from $27 to $75. Children can also switch out the toy’s limbs, combine robots, purchase accessories, and read about the robots in ROBOTGALAXY comic books. The stores have been profiled on Rachael Ray, Donny Deutsch, and The Today Show.
The retailer has three locations: Freehold, NJ, West Nyack NY, and the Toys R Us Mall in Times Square.

Those of you in Manhattan for the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention & Expo, may want to hop over to the Toys ”R” Us Mall to see it. The mall is under a mile from the Javits Center.

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