Integrated Experience Design

November 8th, 2011

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eCamp – KC style

Back in May, I blogged about eCamp (We all hate that name, but it seems to have stuck) , a grass roots organization that I’m a part of – made up of folks from all over the country and from within our industry — who get together for two days twice a year. Last spring the eCamp group met in San Francisco and the previous fall, we met in Boston. It was my turn to host this fall, so it became my pleasure to have 15 colleagues here for two days of full agenda items – followed by some serious partying at the end of each day. That’s a key part of the agenda- and we are all a bit competitive about that part. In all honesty, I have to say that Beyond Pix in San Francisco had us beat on the entertainment agenda items. Hard to believe, I know.

I believe strongly in collaboration – both internally and externally (though that can sometimes be challenging in a competitive market). Inside T2 +Back Alley Films, our groups and skill sets are integrating more and more in every job we do.

The Kauffman Grand Opening work this past September was a perfect example of that – with four internal groups – interactive & Experiential combined with motion graphics and animation, editorial and Smoke finishing, and Back Alley for the production and shooting with the Weiss camera – working together to make it happen. No single group could have achieved what we did on that project without the creative input and skill sets of the other groups.

This is essentially why eCamp started; a group of people in the production and post production industry got together and decided that we could only benefit from sharing what we know. We each come from a different market, but the same industry and so, without feeling the need to be competitive, we are able to talk frankly about what has worked for us and what hasn’t — the challenges we face, and our best operational practices. This has been particularly helpful these past few years – as our industry was struggling with the recession and technology advances that were significantly changing the nature of our business. It has been interesting to see how each business is evolving to meet the needs of the changing world we are all experiencing. It was also interesting to note that most of us had called on other companies within the group this past year – to collaborate on a project or two.

A definite perk.

I was thrilled to introduce my colleagues to a local genius right here in KC – who was our guest speaker. Stefan Mumaw is the author of several books about the creative process – but he focused on his latest, Chasing the Monster Idea, which explored the difference between good ideas and great ideas, and how to deploy the great ones. Several in the group plan to book Stefan to speak in their own markets. Finally, we ended our time together by a work showcase – where each company got 10 minutes to show their best work. It’s always my favorite part.

Thanks to the eCampers for a great weekend. And those of you who couldn’t make it this time, we missed you. Next time – in Columbus, Ohio. See you all there!

March 29th, 2011

by T2 + Back Alley Team

augmented reality, D'Fusion@Home, digital camera, integrated experience design, Mullen, Olympus, online marketing, online shopping, Total Immersion

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Augmented Reality Brings Touch and Feel to Online Shopping

Online shopping has entirely changed the way that consumers seek out the goods they want. And augmented reality (AR) is bringing touch and feel to the online shopping experience. According to eMarketer during 2010, ecommerce reached $165.4 billion dollars last year. This is 14.8% growth over last year!

But even though online shopping has enabled us to skip the lines, poor dressing room lighting, get what we want at better prices and avoid pushy sales people – there’s often still an inherent desire to actually touch and feel the products we’re interested in buying. Augmented reality and other experiences are changing the way people shop – and making the online shopping experience infinitely more personal.

72% of consumers find ratings and reviews on retail sites very important in the shopping process and another 50% will spend a half hour or more reading reviews about the product they are interested in. Despite this reliance online product information – many still wait to purchase the product in person. Research has shown the consumers are four times more likely to buy a product once they’ve held it in their hands.

What if technology allowed to you virtually “touch and feel” the product you desire from the comfort of your home?

Electronics giant Olympus wanted to see what consumers’ reactions would be if they did just this when rolling out their new SLR hybrid camera. People shopping for cameras typically want to touch the camera, feel its shape, size, how it feels in their hands, where the different controls are located, etc., and, naturally, that has usually required a trip to a brick and mortar store. Knowing this is an important element of the buying experience, Olympus wanted to provide consumers a hands-on opportunity with their new product – without having to head to a retail store.

Olympus’s ad agency, Mullen encouraged the brand to use Total Immersion’s augmented reality (AR) tool, D’Fusion@Home. Since this was a unique product rollout – Olympus and Mullen built a site specifically for this campaign. Consumers went to the site to look at camera specs and go on a product tour. If interested in more in-depth information, consumers were prompted to load the D’Fusion@Home AR plug-in and print out a paper marker. When printed and folded the marker produced a scale-size representation of the camera. The coolest part? Once AR reproduction appeared on the consumer’s screen, key features (shutter button, flash switch, video record etc.) were highlighted with bulls-eye targets that consumers could click to see how they function. Consumers could also set the ‘product’ on a tripod and snap a few digital pictures which they could also share via Facebook. Experience, experimentation, sharing – this campaign pretty much had all the bases covered.

Check out this demo video Olympus provided:

A Demonstation of Olympus Pen Augmented Reality from edward boches on Vimeo.

Combining online shopping with a virtual ‘touch and feel’ opportunity proved to be quite successful for Olympus. More than 22,000 consumers watched the product tour and 51,000 interacted with the product via augmented reality. Although online shopping may make our lives easier, this case study reinforces the fact that products become more memorable when we have a ‘hands on’ interaction at some level.

Much like we mentioned in our recent post about the Picasso exhibit, one of the great things about augmented reality is that it allows more opportunities for consumers to interact and connect with products (whether it’s art, music or consumer goods) regardless of geographic limitations.

February 23rd, 2011

by Lindsay Howgill

augmented reality, integrated experience design, Layar, mobile apps, mobile technology, Picasso, QR codes, Starbucks, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

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Picasso In the Digital Age

With the help of QR codes, augmented reality and marketing in Starbucks stores, even Picasso is making the leap into the digital age.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) unveiled its highly anticipated show, “Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris” on February 19th. Art shows of prolific artists like Picasso seem to draw a decent crowd on their own – so why use technology to promote the show?

Accessibility. VMFA was the only east coast venue selected for the exhibition’s seven-city international tour. By leveraging QR codes and virtual galleries, VMFA is able to share this exhibit with thousands that otherwise might not have been able to see the exhibit.

To pull off this feat VMFA teamed with Martin Agency, a Richmond-based advertising agency that helped them create virtual “galleries” in Washington D.C., New York and Philadelphia. To create these virtual galleries Martin tapped Layar, an augmented reality app developer.

How does it work? Simple. If you’re in the vicinity of these select locations, your phone will detect it, and the app will allow you to view one of Picasso’s works hung virtually in your surroundings. In addition to the augmented reality app, they also provided QR codes to 33 Starbucks locations, enabling coffee seekers to scan the code and view Picasso’s works while waiting for their coffee order.

We here at T2 + Back Alley are pretty excited about this clever and innovative promotion of the Picasso exhibition. For us, art is something that can transcend time and societal limitations and inspire.

In our book, smart digital marketing is proving to help make so many aspects of life – including art and music – more accessible to consumers.

January 10th, 2011

by Teri Rogers

AdAge, Best Creative Campaigns, Book of Tens, design, experience, Experience Design, experiential, experiential design, interactive, Interactive Design, Kansas City Digital Agency, Kansas City Experience Design, Kansas City Interactive Design, T2 Kansas City, T2+Back Alley

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Interactive and Experiential Design Abound in Best Creative Ad Campaigns

Interactive and experiential design clearly dominate AdAge’s Creativity Magazine’s just released of the top ten best creative campaigns of 2010. This speaks volumes about the future of design and makes us rub our hands together in delight, since we’re all about interactive and experiential design.

In case you can’t remember all these experiential design beauties and others (that happens this time of year), the campaigns identified by Creativity Magazine as the cream of the crop featured this great body of work:

The Old Spice campaign, which was not only brilliant, but relied on consumer generated video and social media to hit it out of the park–interactive experiential design at it’s most basic level;

The Pepsi Refresh campaign, which again relied on social to support its cause-focused effort;

Domino’s Pizza, which relied on consumer input and social media channels to help improve its brand and turn the corner following a disastrous event;

Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco and their tremendous online effort that included leveraging Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, web craziness and some traditional advertising to focus eyeballs on the star’s return to TV on a different station.

Space Chimp, the World Wildlife Fund Australia’s compelling environmental message , produced in collaboration with musician Ben Lee;

Nike’s experiential design campaign for the World Cup, which included user-generated content integrated into the digital outdoor production, interactive film and a healthy dose of social media to spur awareness and participation;

Jay-Z’s promotion of his new book, “Decoded,” that was again an interactive, experiential design piece, literally bringing the book to life for fans in a myriad of different locations. This campaign produced by Droga5, also included an online element sponsored by Bing, that allowed fans who couldn’t physically participate in the outdoor extravaganzas the chance to do so online.

Mitsubishi’s virtual test drive harnessed technology for their Live Drive, the first of its kind by an automaker, and an obvious nod to the experiential design decade we have entered;

Dare Labs’ Remote Palette is nothing short of brilliant in the realm of app development and its popularity was spurred along by web video and social channels.

And finally, the release of Arcade Fire’s Wilderness Downtown campaign was an example of collaborative genius that combined music video production for the band’s “We Used to Wait” song, with Google Earth and created a musical experiential design piece.

The interesting thing about all of these campaigns is that they typify the massive changes in the world of advertising that are leaning so heavily in the direction of experiential design. Notice how many include consumer-generated content and/or provide an opportunity for interactivity with consumers? And how many rely on a variety of social channels to help spread awareness. And how experiential design is being tapped again and again to allow consumers to be a part of a campaign, not just passively watch from the sidelines?

As a digital media and creative services agency, the success of these campaigns is nothing less than pure delight for us. It confirms that we made the right move in expanding our brand beyond production and post-production into the fresh (and fun) new area of experiential design. This kind of substantive transformation has not been easy these past few years – new jobs and new people replacing the old model – lots of change can be stressful for sure. So it’s nice to end the year with news like this that lets us know that we are in a good position as we start 2011. Here’s wishing all of us in this battered industry a prosperous new year!

December 15th, 2010

by T2 + Back Alley Team

Google Demo Slam, Kansas City Motion Design, motion design, T2 Kansas City, T2+Back Alley Films, user experience design

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Google Demo Slam-Get Creative with Google’s Clever New Marketing Contest

As a motion design agency with a passion for user experience design, when something truly creative crosses our path, we like to share it, share in it, and let our creative juices flow. An inspirational, creative, social, and just plain fun new competition has descended upon us. Google Demo Slam is really an innovative approach to marketing from the Search Engine’s viewpoint. But from our perspective, as motion design agency with a film production offshoot, it is a golden opportunity to flex our digital filmy fingers and create.

The Demo Slam has invited anyone and everyone with a little “maker juice” –not just motion design types–to be an advocate for one of the search giant’s products. You can choose to highlight the incredible user experience design and nifty features of:

Basically you create a video showcasing why a product is cool, upload it to YouTube, then submit it to the contest. Every week two Slams compete against each other and users pick the winner.

Other motion design studios and filmmakers have already jumped on the contest. The range of ideas and creativity is incredibly inspiring. Not surprisingly, the amateurs using just their handheld cameras and an idea have really stepped up to the plate and shared their smiles.

The Search Mogul has hit a home run with this user experience design. A clever little old fashioned microphone swings with your mouse pointer while you decide which Slam contestant to watch and then which one to choose as the winner. The winner will actually be put into a Champion’s Hall of Fame.

This is Google’s way of getting you to “get the people who would never watch a tech demo — the people who ironically need them most … to not only watch them, but like them and share them with their friends.” Talk about a user experience design that engages!

So far the interest seems to still be in mounting phase…in other words we haven’t seen much in our motion design studio social networks…yet. But we expect that, just as Google hopes, Google Demo Slam will become “a place where boring tech demos become (hopefully) gotta-show-my-friends awesome–thanks to the creativity of Google users like you.” Once again, an incredible user experience design from the big guys with the weird name.