As we emerge into a post-pandemic world, now is the time to reimagine how quick-hit educational opportunities can make in-person events even more impactful than before.
For many brands, one of the foundational elements of any consumer-facing, experiential marketing program is the engagement booth - typically staffed by brand ambassadors who are armed with brochures and tchotchkes for any passerby that pauses long enough to hear the elevator pitch. You commonly see these at outdoor festivals, concerts, street fairs, tradeshows, and other community events.
Do they work? Sure, but mostly if you’re interested in seeing how many brochures and tchotchkes you can give away. Can they be improved upon? Absolutely.
Livetech-designed “pop-up” experiences are developed in a way similar to consumer retail spaces, with multi-sensory engagement in mind.
While pop-ups are specifically developed for short interactions, they expand upon that concept by creating unique visual hooks that attract participants from afar. Once engaged, the participants are greeted with highly-trained staff that welcome them into a two to five minute activity designed to introduce a brand offering, an educational concept, or some other awareness-based objective.
Transactional in nature, participants typically provide contact information or allow other information to be collected to receive a free promotional item, but the way in which participants are engaged in a pop-up is vastly different than your standard presentation.
Pop-ups are fully customized experiences that include purpose-built physical and digital assets. Structurally, if you can imagine it, there’s a really good chance we can build it. And combined with gamified, mobile device and/or touchscreen data collection, various modes of physical participation, multimedia support, and a human touch that keeps the experience both fun and empowered, these experiences are designed to be remembered.
From initial ideation and production to staff training and rollout, Livetech has nearly a decade of experience in executing multi-location, multi-themed, pop-up programs on a national level.
The process typically involves the client setting some parameters in terms of budget, scope, and objectives. And from there, the Livetech design team goes to work developing multiple concepts in both 2D and 3D formats so stakeholders can better understand how these experiences will play out in “real” space.
Once a final concept is arrived upon, the team shifts to prototyping, which can involve the 3D printing of custom parts, the building of physical models, and set-up/break-down testing to ensure smooth assembly of whatever is being created.
While the physical assets are being prototyped, our development and programming teams begin work on custom app and/or interface designs to provide the technology required to meet the client’s objectives. Many times, the result appears as a simple form or interactive, tablet-based game but this technology is created to track realtime engagements and connectivity to whatever CRM or communication system will be used to follow up with participants, once the event has concluded.
The final step in the pop-up development process is the creation of the training guides and materials required for the teams and staffers that will be running these events. These materials include: asset checklists, set-up instructions with schematics and final renderings, technical direction, step-by-step roles for staffers related to how best to engage guests, and everything else required to run a successful experience.
The results of this process are magical. Whether the events are run by Livetech teams, client teams, or a combination of the two, everything related to asset development, staging, delivery, set-up/break-down, returns, and event reporting are built into the process for a smooth transition into post-event communications. And for serial events, performance reviews and staffing debriefs are consistently deployed across all event locations to allow for run-of-show optimization along the way.
After all, the inevitable objectives of these types of engagements are the collection of valuable consumer data. But when you can accomplish that while leaving a smile on your customer’s (or potential customer’s) face, it makes the effort that much more valuable.
To learn more about the art of creating experiential engagement in a light-touch, in-person environment, please contact us today.
