The Brugal Rum Shack will offer festival-goers the chance to sample Brugal Libre cocktails and play dominoes at a pop-up bar, built in the style of a traditional rustic bar from the Dominican Republic – the home of Brugal Rum.  The pop-up experience, designed by BEcause and built by trailer and structure specialists Mobile Technik, will also visit the Bingley Music Festival near Leeds on 2^nd – 4^th September 2011.

Following each appearance of the Rum Shack, BEcause Brand Ambassadors will run 3 weeks of in-bar cocktail sampling at hand-picked venues around Bristol and Leeds.  At both the festival and bar experiences, Brand Ambassadors will chat to consumers about the Brugal Rum story, and distribute leaflets with cocktail recipes and £1 money off vouchers.  Consumers will also be invited to enter a text-to-win competition for a trip for themselves and three friends to the Brugal Carnival in the Dominican Republic in March 2012.

Anna Bradshaw, Account Director at BEcause, comments: “Brugal Rum is a brand with a rich history, having been produced in the Dominican Republic since 1888.  It’s the number one rum in the Caribbean and the third largest rum brand in the world.  This two-city ‘hot-house’ campaign aims to give consumers a real flavour of Brugal Rum’s Caribbean heritage, and a fresh drink to add to their repetoires this summer.”

Simon Pauffley at Mobile Technik, comments: “Our brief was to work with BEcause to create something authentic yet still premium, which was true to the essence of the brand and the Dominican Republic.  The resulting shack combines traditional materials including corrugated iron, seagrass and wood in a structure which is relatively quick and cost-effective for us to transport and rig at both events.”

Sharon Richey, CEO, BEcause

Events for bloggers can be a highly effective way for brands to identify and connect with influential online advocates.  But understanding what makes bloggers tick – and equally, what makes them sick – is crucial for success.   We look at how to kick start the right kinds of conversations, and create relevant, personalised blogger experiences.

Few brands these days can afford to ignore the blogosphere.  In virtually every sector and every market, bloggers abound and many of these social-savvy bloggers will hold influence over an extensive community of followers across social networks like Facebook and Twitter.  Recent stats from Blogpulse indicate there are 163m blogs worldwide. Over 200,000 blog posts are created in a typical 24 hour period.

For brands looking to engage with bloggers, it’s essential to approach things carefully.  Chances are, a small number of bloggers will be hugely influential for different brands or campaigns.  Their experiences, reactions and advice can have a massive impact – good or bad – on brand fortunes.

One excellent way to kick start conversations with bloggers and build strong relationships is via live events.  Here at BEcause, we’ve created campaigns for the likes of Timberland, Eve and Perrier which have all involved getting bloggers directly involved in events.  Here are some tips for success:

1. Understand that blogger outreach is not PR

Although there are many bloggers who are journalists (or ex-journalists), many are simply people who have a passion and love to blog about it.  If a brand is inextricably linked to that passion, most bloggers will be happy to talk about that brand.  But don’t expect them to just regurgitate generic press releases.  You need to engage bloggers personally, and face-to-face interaction can be a great way to start.  Oh, and never treat bloggers as secondary citizens to journalists.  Many carry as much, or more weight with consumers these days.

2. Treat every blogger as an individual

Bloggers may fall into broad categories (eg mummy bloggers, tech bloggers, fashion bloggers etc), but that doesn’t mean they all have the same interests.  Often they have a very niche focus.  If you’re creating an event, it’s crucial to handpick blogger invitees and make individual approaches.  At best, poorly targeted invitations will just be ignored – at worst, you could find bloggers openly ridiculing an ill-thought through corporate approach.

3. Place event content above the brand

The art of a good blog event is to create conversation through experience.  Great event experiences happen when you offer people something exciting and different that they can take part in, and which taps into their passions.  When we launched female-orientated Carlsberg drink Eve last year, for example, we created fashion swapping events in Manchester and Liverpool.  National and regional fashion bloggers were invited as VIPs, and because everyone had such a positive experience, the event generated extensive buzz on blogs and social media.

4. Maintain the dialogue

Just as with any form of marketing, relationships dry up if you don’t keep the conversation flowing.  Well-conceived events can really kick-start positive relationships between brands and bloggers, but it’s important to keep finding ways to leverage those partnerships, developing long-term influential advocates.

BEcause has designed an intimate seating area surrounded by stone effect walls topped with cascading plants to recreate the look and feel of a lively Italian outdoor drinking experience. Chilled bottles of San Pellegrino will be stylishly displayed in miniature water fountains, mixed in with citrus fruits to create a fresh atmosphere. Once seated, consumers will be served complimentary bottles of San Pellegrino alongside a light selection of Italian inspired snacks.

Karen Evans, managing director at BEcause comments:
“Taste of London is one of the most popular food festivals in the UK and full of brands competing for attention. By giving consumers a stylish and authentic experience we’re sure to create great stand out for San Pellegrino, and most importantly, show people the pleasure of living the Italian way!”

Taste of London runs from 16th – 19th June in Regent’s Park in London. For tickets visit www.tastefestivals.com/london

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Timberland is launching a European-wide geocaching experience, the first multi-country campaign of this type in the world, to support the launch of its new Earthkeepers™ range of footwear.  The ‘Trail of Heroes’ campaign will run across six cities – Paris, London, Milan, Brussels, Berlin and Madrid, from May until June.  The campaign has been devised by brand experience specialist BEcause.

The ‘Trail of Heroes’ campaigns focuses on getting consumers outdoors to find a uniquely designed set of caches that have been strategically placed in each city. Timberland prizes are rewarded to the first consumers to find the caches in each city, with one final grand prize being awarded to an overall European winner.

Following a trial period with selected bloggers from the spheres of fashion, outdoors and the environment throughout April, the campaign will go live to the public on the 18^th May.  A bespoke website www.geocaching.com/trailofheroes has been created collaboratively by BEcause and Groundspeak especially for the campaign.  Here, consumers will be able to register themselves as members of the geocaching community and then log the individual caches that they find.

Consumers will also be encouraged to make use of Timberland’s new ‘Nature Needs Heroes’ mobile app.  The downloadable app encourages consumers to track the miles they walk, run or cycle and in return for every mile that is tracked, Timberland will plant a tree.

The ‘Trail of Heroes’ geocaching campaign is a major part of Timberland’s 2011 ‘Nature Needs Heroes’™ marketing strategy, its biggest and most environmentally-focused marketing campaign to date.

Joss Davidge, business director at BEcause comments:

“It’s incredibly exciting for BEcause to be working with Timberland on its first ever geo-caching campaign. I have every confidence that this multi-city experience will engage huge numbers of consumers.”

Key journalists, bloggers and competition winners were invited to the event at No 6 Fitzroy Square this week, which was organised in conjunction with Grayling PR.  Guests were transported back in time to enjoy Perrier cocktails in historically-themed rooms before finishing in a contemporary space to enjoy the ‘new era’ of Perrier.

BEcause was responsible for designing three rooms, each with the look and feel of a different era. Guests were taken on a tour through each of the rooms accompanied by their personal guide, Dr Perrier.  The journey began in a 1900s Saloon Bar, filled with actors in period costume, where guests could sip one of the world’s first cocktails, dress up themselves and have their picture taken on an authentic 1900s camera.  Then, guests moved into the Studio 54-inspried 1970s room for dancing and cocktail shaking behind the bar.  The journey ended in 2011, in a sleek contemporary bar area where international mixologist Laurent Greco took guests through his renowned ‘Extreme Cocktail Making Master Class’.

In addition, BEcause designed a separate ‘Perrier Lounge’ where guests could relax before and after their experience. Here, Perrier Brand Ambassadors served a selection of Perrier cocktails and delicious food inspired by past and present.

Karen Evans, managing director of BEcause comments:

“The aim of this immersive brand experience was to give guests an imaginative taste of Perrier through the years. By recreating the authentic look and feel of each key era, we could re-tell the Perrier story in an entertaining and very memorable way.”

BEcause has been creating brand experiences for Perrier since 2007, in exclusive London clubs, fashion shows and at The Affordable Art Fair.

Maker’s Mark, the premium Kentucky bourbon whisky with a distinctive red wax seal, has chosen brand experience agency BEcause to spearhead a multi-tiered below the line campaign to get people talking about the brand in 2011.

BEcause’s aim is to drive sales and increase brand loyalty through an integrated campaign that will include experiential marketing, in-bar sampling, social media and on-pack promotions.

Karen Evans, managing director at BEcause comments:

“Maker’s Mark has a distinctive brand personality, based around handmade individuality.  This campaign will use tried and tested experiential techniques to showcase Maker’s Marks’ hand crafted heritage, whilst driving trial and increasing brand awareness.”

This is the second time that BEcause has worked with Maker’s Mark. In 2009, the agency created a “Shoreditch takeover” with live events and sampling in the trendy London district.  This included live art installations in bars around the district using the brand’s signature red wax.

Maker’s Mark was first introduced to the UK market 10 years ago and was the UK’s fastest growing US premium whiskey at the end of 2010.

Adam Shapland

Brand experience agency BEcause is continuing to strengthen its client account management team with the recent appointment of Adam Shapland as account manager.

In his new role at BEcause Adam will be working on a major integrated brand experience for one of the agencies newest clients Cafédirect.

Prior to joining BEcause, Adam worked at Splendid Communications UK & Australia offices where he worked on brand activations and events for brands including Smirnoff, Lucozade and Phones4U.

This week, teams of BEcause Brand Ambassadors will travel between commuter hotspots on branded Marks & Spencer bikes, stopping to chat to consumers about the ‘Food on the Move’ range, which contains new ‘Simply Fuller Longer’ and ‘Count on Us’ items. The staff will be handing out goody bags including Marks & Spencer money-off vouchers, hand cream and branded Oyster card holders.

Karen Evans, director at BEcause comments:

“We’re delighted to be working with Marks & Spencer for a second time. By striking up timely conversations with the right people, we’re confident that once again we’ll help boost sales and increase footfall in nearby stores.”

Last year BEcause enlisted the help of Asian drummers to get people talking about the retailer’s new Asian flavours ‘Food to Go’ range.  In May, the ‘Food to Go’ range was re-branded as ‘Food on the Move’, this included new products and flavours, packaging and in-store positioning.

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