This cartoon from the Marketoonist made us chuckle this week. Read why he thinks Facebook’s debut television advert misses the mark here.

Most people accept that adverts for female sanitary products tend to gloss over true reality of “that time of the month” – in fact most women will tell you that having a “happy period” is a complete fallacy. One Facebook user decided to alert Bodyform to the fact he felt that he had been lied to all these years. His post was witty and quickly became a viral hit on the social networking site being shared over 80,000 times.

The story continues as Bodyform chose to respond.  A few days after the original post the brand issued a response on Facebook:

“Hi Richard. We loved your post on our Facebook page. We are always grateful for input from our users, but your comment was particularly poignant. If Facebook had a “love” button, we’d have clicked it. But it doesn’t. So we’ve made you a video instead. Unfortunately Bodyform doesn’t have a CEO. But if it did she’d be called Caroline Williams. And she’d say this…”

The video has been shared, blogged about and commented on across all media.  Winning favour from the public and showing the brand can not only engage with consumers but also laugh at itself.  Making friends, building trust and encouraging conversation in one fell swoop.  Although Bodyform has insisted that Richard is a real person and this is not a well-placed commentator we are amazed by this turnaround.  If it is real then well played Bodyform, if not then it is still a brilliantly planned viral campaign that has got a lot of people talking!

In order to get people to talk about its new Special K Cracker crisps Kellogg’s opened a shop in London where people could pay for a packet with a tweet.  We have seen an increasing number of activations like this, which encourage people to start a conversation in order to receive a sample.  Earlier in the year Toyota and iced tea brand BEV also came up with ways to get people to tweet for a treat.

A new installation at the Barbican has got people talking this month.  Art studio Random International have created an interactive installation where members of the public can walk around in a heavy downpour without getting wet.  3D motion sensors track people’s movement and turn the rain on and off accordingly.  The experience is surreal, completely unique and rather beautiful.

In order to connect with young businessmen Audi Canada ran this great campaign.  A Scalextric track, complete with trees, miniature figures and a prominent Audi garage was placed in the business district of Toronto.  The cars on the track were scale models of the Audi Quattro and people were invited to race them using a bespoke iPad app.

Febelfin, the Belgian Financial Sector Federation, created this unnerving campaign to get people thinking about how exposed their personal details are online.  A random selection of people were invited to have their minds read by Dave “an extremely gifted clairvoyant”.  After listing personal facts and accurate descriptions of the test subjects, including bank and property details, a group of hackers were revealed to be behind Dave’s extraordinary skills.

Sharon Richey, Founder & CEO BEcause

Engaging consumers using a brand experience can be an incredibly valuable tool for building trust, trial and dialogue. Market reports over the past few years have proved that well-conceived experiences have the power to stimulate real conversations between consumers and brands, driving understanding and advocacy. Whilst there aren’t set ways to create a brand experience, here are a few common starting points that brands can use to create valued campaigns.

1. Embrace a current trend

People often love to feel “in” with the latest trends, this especially applies to influencers/key opinion leaders. Not only is it fun discovering new things, it gives us something fresh and interesting to talk about with friends. Brands that help consumers find and understand new trends will always be welcomed.

Great example: eBay Window Shopping
eBay’s pop-up experience in New York capitalised on interest in QR codes to give new meaning to the term “window shopping”.

2. Surprise and delight

Creating a surprising, off-beat brand experience is a brilliant way to generate positive, brand connections that are memorable and talked about. By making consumers feel that they are part of something special you can turn a one-off campaign into long-term relationship.

Great example: Coca-Cola Open Happiness campaign
Since 2009 Coca-Cola has run the “Open Happiness” campaign that has consisted of dozens of experiential stunts, all over the world, that play with the idea of bringing a little happiness into people’s lives. Here is a good example of a Coca-Cola Happiness vending machine in action.

3. Provide a service at a time of need

Being on-hand to satisfy a need can be a highly effective way to get people to engage with your brand. Having a go-to stand at festivals and events providing phone charging or toiletries is one way. But you don’t have to limit it to events, the Sprite campaign below is a brilliant example of a brand creating a novel experience at just the right time.

Great example: Sprite Showers
As part of Sprit Brazil’s long-running “Refresh Your Ideas” campaign the brand put a shower that looked like a giant drinks dispenser on a beach in Rio de Janeiro. After a sweltering day on the beach the showers were much appreciated and surely got people thinking about how refreshing a Sprite would be.

4. Create something to share

Generating an experience that people want to share, either online or in the real world, is a sure fire way to add value to campaign. In fact, in a survey released by Nielsen earlier in the year, 92% consumers asked said they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.

Great example: T-Mobile – Welcome Back
Part of a wider campaign called “Life is for Sharing”; Welcome Back teamed humour with a heart-warming theme to encourage people to talk about and share the campaign. The official YouTube view count is now over 12 million and, if asked, I expect most people in the UK would be able to not only recall the stunt but also the brand.

5. Build an immersive environment

Examples of permanent immersive environments include LEGOLAND, Android World, Nissan’s Innovation Station at the O2 and the famous Guinness Storehouse. By creating a walk-in immersive environment, a carefully branded space can be transformed from a destination to a sensory experience that can leave a lasting impression.

Great example: Heineken concept club
In May this year Heineken unveiled its “club concept” at the Milan Design Fair, which celebrated the brand’s connection with the world of design in a 360 degree brand experience.

6. Give something back

Sponsorship can be a great platform for integrated brand experiences. But rather than just focusing on big sports or music events, brands can also stand out by supporting localised, community projects in order to “give something back”. By adopting this strategy, brands can develop strong local ties with consumers, building reputations through positive association at relevant local levels.

Great example: Sky Rides
Under the creative concept “everyone’s invited” Sky joined forces with British Cycling to provide a full schedule of community cycling events designed to encourage people to get on their bikes. The campaign successfully links Sky to a project hat is about more than the services it supplies as a business.

Here at BEcause, many of our experiential marketing campaigns are built around these kinds of principles. Ultimately, our aim is to get people talking with and about brands they experience. If you want to explore more creative ways that you can connect with consumers then don’t hesitate to get in touch!

We are delighted to announce that this week we won the Best Corporate Experiential Marketing category at the 2012 IVCA Clarion Awards for the British Gas Sustainability Café, built from a recycled shipping container.

Organised by the International Visual Communications Association, the IVCA Clarion Awards recognise best practice in communicating corporate social responsibility, diversity, sustainability, community development and health issues – in the public, charity, social enterprise and corporate sectors.

The British Gas Sustainability Café was part of a nationwide roadshow designed to help customers discover how to use energy in smarter, more sustainable ways.  Appearing at a series of six outdoor shows throughout the summer of 2011, the roadshow attracted 25,000 visitors and significantly outperformed previous face-to-face channels from a sales conversion perspective.  The entire experience was built with a strong focus on sustainability – with waste and material recycling, donations of equipment to local community-run kitchens and solar power generation.

Katie Penfold, Senior Account Director at BEcause, comments:

“We’re thrilled to win this award for our work on the British Gas Sustainability Café.  The company is at the forefront of sustainable energy solutions, and experiential marketing was the ideal platform through which to communicate this with UK families in memorable and effective way.”

A interactive installation designed to get people to collaborate has recently appeared in Montreal.  It consisted of 21 swings that, when used, triggered musical notes.  If users swung in unison the swings would play a composed piece.