AN EXPERIENTIAL WAY TO WATCH THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

I’ve suffered this season. I’m an Arsenal fan. So the Champions League (and the Premier League, for that matter) has been an unhappy place for me.

But it doesn’t have to be, now thanks to Heineken and AKQA. Check out this live game they developed, so that fans can play along while watching the game in real time. Pretty nifty. But you have to be a sucky fan to actually consider taking your attention off of your team to play it.

This idea is a direct response to the emerging viewing trends like these:

In the US alone, to understand how web, mobile and social channels are changing the TV viewer experience : 74% of consumers say they multitask while watching TV; among them, 42% browse online, 29% talk on cellphones or mobile devices, and 26% send instant messages or text messages, according to a Deloitte survey.

EXPERIENTIAL GETS CROWDSOURCED

Love the thinking from Mountain Dew:

Typically, a brand event is at least months in the planning — or if not, likely requires hyper mode by the agencies handling it.

But while seat-of-the-pants activation may be inadvisable for most events, a 30-day, 69-city "grassroots" promotion tour that was part of Mountain Dew's year-long "DEWmocracy 2" campaign may point to an alternative worth considering.

In synch with DEWmocracy 2's mission of engaging fans by having them campaign and vote to determine which of three new Dew flavors would be rolled out by PepsiCo, the destinations, activities and venues for the "DEWmocracy: The Flavor Campaign" tour were also largely determined by fans.

The basic concept: Three mobile teams comprising agency/marketer reps and hardcore Dew fans — each team "campaigning" for its own Dew flavor (White Out, Typhoon or Distortion) — were sent on cross-country tours to engage people in the flavor competition/voting through live events over four weeks, starting May 1.

According to the article from MediaPost, "many event decisions were made on the fly, based on consumers' input via Twitter and a dedicated microsite. Fans also were urged to rally friends and families to participate in the events, post photos and video content online and vote for their favorite flavor.

The results were eye-opening, says Matt Statman, founder of Motive, the lead creative agency for the tour, who estimates that about 60% of tour activity decisions were made by consumers.

The teams distributed about 60,000 samples of the Dew flavors, made direct, in-person contact with more than 100,000 consumers, and generated more than 1.5 million total impressions in person, online and through social media."

THE HOLY TRINITY: DIGITAL, EXPERIENTIAL AND TRADITIONAL

One of the reasons that I joined Crispin Porter + Bogusky is because it is a traditional ad shop that has wholly adopted the digital medium as its main focus, using social media to drive campaigns rather than the other way around. I am a fervent believer that the future of experiential marketing lies with its marriage to digital tools. After all, the tools in our pockets aren't tiny TV screens; they are tools for action. And action after experience is the best action of all.

So its cool to see this article in Adweek pointing out how digital mediums are reshaping the way marketers are connecting with their consumers to drive action.

The Skittles campaign is part of a shift in digital away from users merely sitting in front of computer screens to using new digital tools to affect behavior in the physical world. The growing sophistication of smartphones is driving the creation of these location-based services, which promise to morph the Web from a solitary experience to a ubiquitous connector in the real world.

This evolution has major implications for brands, giving them the possibility of tracking the success of digital campaigns to the store level and changing how they market to consumers.

THE APP EXPERIENCE

I just think this is so cool. Art meets gameplay meets iPhone.

I suppose all iPhone apps are experiential in some way, but this type of execution is the tip of the proverbial iceberg in terms of how deep and engaging those app experiences could become.

RINGTONE SYMPHONY

I love this idea. It is art and it is beautiful. There are many examples of people turning technology and gadgetry into something more profound or sublime than its intent. And this, from artist Max Richter, is just that. Anyone have a cell phone client they want to share this with?