Regardless of the language of our conversation or medium of communication as we navigated through the terminals we were all sharing our stories, and this story begins 3,000 miles West, along the shores of the San Francisco Bay.
As my future team members at Crowd Reactive Dan and Ollie walked into the lobby of The W Hotel for our first meeting (and my interview) I noticed we all stuck out against the crowd by way of our casual attire. We had unknowingly arranged to meet amongst the Oracle OpenWorld Convention where IT professionals from around the world had convened to discuss industry trends. However it became clear within minutes that our demeanor was far more focused than those around us and we each came to the table to discuss one singular idea, how to redefine the role of social engagement at events across The U.S.
The distance from London to New York and the physical reach added to UK-based Crowd Reactive when I got the job and set up shop in Brooklyn last week as the first U.S. addition to the company. As an Ohio native who graduated from The Ohio State University in May shipping off to The Big Apple presented major changes in my life but not without good reason. After much consideration we agreed NYC is where culture incubates and a presence here will enable us to bring Eventstagram to some of the most innovative brands and events throughout the Eastern half of the country.
Yes, for all you Timberlake aficionados out there who are catching The 20/20 Experience Tour, you can rejoice in my use of a JT pun on this one. The problem with social media at a concert or any event for that matter is the stratification of posting across social platforms and across social networks. The result is a crowd sharing content only within their own (not present) networks or a crowd sharing no social content at all, which leaves a gaping hole in your event's presence. With Eventstagram's platform agnostic approach we overcome this disconnect by aggregating all content around the event's official #hashtag.
Whether your fans share content on Instagram, Twitter, or Vine, as long as your event's #hashtag is in the post not only will all that content be trackable through our analytics dashboards, but will be displayed on a living slideshow throughout the venue. This creates a pop up micro network focused entirely around the event, and as our data shows encourages fans to post 3x more content than an event void of an interactive social media display.
Our social mission at Crowd Reactive is to bring social back to events and leverage that interactivity as an additive tool to the event experience. By displaying a crowd's content in real time at the event itself you are showing a crowd you value their perspective and their moments. After all, events are about their experience and who doesn't want to make it up onto the big screen?
Events are a celebration of community. Whether it be a community of fans, artists, professionals or any common interest that unites, crowds celebrate these shared passions through gatherings and entertainment. Fostering this community in a way that excites and engages attendees should be a core focus of every event organizer and brand sponsor.
Humans have always captured the big moments in their lives since the advent of personal cameras. In the social area we not only want to capture those moments but immediately share them with the world. The result of this social sharing is that your event or brand story is being told by those in attendance rather than by traditional media. Would you rather have 5 reporters providing coverage? Or 50,000 enthusiastic fans as your experience evangelists? Our guess would be the latter. These superfan millennials seek out unique experiences, its what moves them, its what excites them. Inspire those fans to capture those moments you have created and share them with their networks.
Take for example our presence at the launch event for Clinique's Yellow Moisturizer just earlier this year. There were only 200 influential tastemakers in attendance, but by inspiring each and every one of them to post Instagram photos onto the Eventstagram slideshow the content was able to generate 16,000 likes in the days that followed. This means for every 1 person in attendance, 80 more interacted with the brand based on that small event activation.
Not encouraging attendees to post that content in the social era is like forgetting to send out the press release, which my sources tell me...is bad.
Finally, people have often asked me why we recommend utilizing Instagram rather than say Facebook, directly. The first part of the answer is that Instagram is an up to the minute social network, rooted in the mobile space and therefore primed for real time sharing at an event. The second is that displaying fans' posted photos brings Instagram's narcotic flow of stylized imagery to the visual aesthetic of an event. Think about every trip you have taken in the last 5 years, you never show your status updates from those scenic vistas, you share your photographs.
So as your marketing teams set out to plan your experiential campaigns for 2014 remember these three key principles:
1) Attendees will be your advocates.
2) Always. Empower. Social.
3) In every subculture, photographs tell stories.
3,460 Miles - LHR » LGA
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| Eventstagram's first US Insta Manhattan, NY |
We're Bringing Social Back...
Yes, for all you Timberlake aficionados out there who are catching The 20/20 Experience Tour, you can rejoice in my use of a JT pun on this one. The problem with social media at a concert or any event for that matter is the stratification of posting across social platforms and across social networks. The result is a crowd sharing content only within their own (not present) networks or a crowd sharing no social content at all, which leaves a gaping hole in your event's presence. With Eventstagram's platform agnostic approach we overcome this disconnect by aggregating all content around the event's official #hashtag.
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| Firefly Festival Dover, Delaware |
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| Clockenflap Festival, Hong Kong |
Our social mission at Crowd Reactive is to bring social back to events and leverage that interactivity as an additive tool to the event experience. By displaying a crowd's content in real time at the event itself you are showing a crowd you value their perspective and their moments. After all, events are about their experience and who doesn't want to make it up onto the big screen?
Event-based Activations in The Social Era
Events are a celebration of community. Whether it be a community of fans, artists, professionals or any common interest that unites, crowds celebrate these shared passions through gatherings and entertainment. Fostering this community in a way that excites and engages attendees should be a core focus of every event organizer and brand sponsor.
Humans have always captured the big moments in their lives since the advent of personal cameras. In the social area we not only want to capture those moments but immediately share them with the world. The result of this social sharing is that your event or brand story is being told by those in attendance rather than by traditional media. Would you rather have 5 reporters providing coverage? Or 50,000 enthusiastic fans as your experience evangelists? Our guess would be the latter. These superfan millennials seek out unique experiences, its what moves them, its what excites them. Inspire those fans to capture those moments you have created and share them with their networks.
Take for example our presence at the launch event for Clinique's Yellow Moisturizer just earlier this year. There were only 200 influential tastemakers in attendance, but by inspiring each and every one of them to post Instagram photos onto the Eventstagram slideshow the content was able to generate 16,000 likes in the days that followed. This means for every 1 person in attendance, 80 more interacted with the brand based on that small event activation.
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| Clinique Launch London, UK |
Finally, people have often asked me why we recommend utilizing Instagram rather than say Facebook, directly. The first part of the answer is that Instagram is an up to the minute social network, rooted in the mobile space and therefore primed for real time sharing at an event. The second is that displaying fans' posted photos brings Instagram's narcotic flow of stylized imagery to the visual aesthetic of an event. Think about every trip you have taken in the last 5 years, you never show your status updates from those scenic vistas, you share your photographs.
So as your marketing teams set out to plan your experiential campaigns for 2014 remember these three key principles:
1) Attendees will be your advocates.
2) Always. Empower. Social.
3) In every subculture, photographs tell stories.
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