MWC, billed as the world’s premiere mobile industry gathering, took place 22-25 February at Fira Gran Via, Barcelona. The event showcases the global exhibition industry’s pioneering work, with high concept stand builds and innovative technology.
Jack of all trades
Jack Morton Worldwide was ICT company Ericsson’s strategic and creative partner in bringing the brand’s experience to life at MWC for the ninth consecutive year. The agency has partnered with Ericsson since 2007.
Ericsson’s presence at MWC was designed to bring the brand’s vision of ‘the Networked Society’ to life and is driven by this year’s overarching theme: ‘Let’s turn great ideas into global realities.’
The vision is one of a connected world where people, business and society are empowered by this connectivity to reach their full potential and create a more sustainable future.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a driving force for this transformation, and the essential infrastructure it provides could help resolve some of the greatest challenges facing our planet.
Forty per cent of the world’s mobile traffic flows through Ericsson’s networks, so the company wanted to showcase how its technologies, services and expertise help enable this. The experience was designed to inspire operators, developers, industries and governments to collaborate.
In total, the experience occupied 6,000sqm, making it one of the largest dedicated spaces at MWC. It includes two areas: the first exploring Ericsson’s thought leadership and innovative work within the Networked Society and the second providing an in-depth experience of Ericsson’s capabilities within the context of customers’ and partners’ key areas of operation.
The space also included a keynote presentation area, lounge spaces, cafes, multisensory meeting rooms, and a social space for 3,000 people.
Cecilia Dahlström, head of event management, Ericsson said: “This year we wanted our guests to join us in turning great ideas into global realities, inspiring our customers and partners with our global expertise and vision of the future.”
Mike Kunheim, managing director, Jack Morton Worldwide, added: “Ericsson is not only an industry leader, but a company driven by a vision. Realising that vision is vital for all our futures, so it’s truly inspirational to work in partnership with such a forward-thinking organisation.”
Client connection
Jack Morton also handled a brief for newly emerged start-up, ACADINE Technologies, an independent provider of operating systems software and service platforms for a new generation of smart devices.
The company had just announced the release of HTML5-based and commercially ready Operating System H5OS and used the event to showcase this. Jack Morton designed an experience that allowed visitors to learn first-hand how H5OS supports a variety of smart devices with its dynamic and scalable design.
“ACADINE’s H5OS is a horizontal platform that unifies core technologies and streamlines the IoT ecosystem for smart devices from fields such as medical, manufacturing, smart home, automotive and retail,” says Jane Hsu, marketing director of ACADINE Technologies.
“H5OS is a commercially ready, independent OS, designed for the next decades of innovation.”
Jack Morton Worldwide partnered with ACADINE Technologies for the first time, as the technology company made its debut appearance at the annual industry event. Mike Kunheim, managing director, Jack Morton Worldwide said: “We are thrilled to be sharing this exciting time with ACADINE, and to help this hotly-tipped challenger brand to make a splash at this, the key industry event.”
No free hands
Elsewhere, brand experience agency FreemanXP and Freeman Exhibitions delivered four experiences at Mobile World Congress 2016 for Visa, Brocade, Red Hat and Qualcomm.
FreemanXP has worked with Visa for more than nine years and 2016 was the third year the firm was responsible for the stand management of the brand’s presence at MWC, and the first year where its exhibitions services team built and delivered the experience.
FreemanXP also produced two half-day summits at MWC for different Visa business units. One was around the launch of the Visa Developer Program and one focused on the Visa Ready Program announcing new biometrics developments.
Meanwhile, network company Brocade upped the ante for its second year at MWC with a significantly larger footprint and appointed FreemanXP to manage all aspects of their presence, from the design and delivery through to the management of the overall attendee experience and hospitality.
The two-storey structure was designed to give the optimum amount of demo and meeting space with key Brocade partners as well as hospitality, including a special party held on the stand on the Tuesday evening of MWC.
Elsewhere, 2016 was Red Hat’s debut stand-alone presence at Mobile World Congress having previously partnered with other exhibitors at the show.
A high profile event for the brand, FreemanXP designed and built a space with a brief to create a ‘a sense of community’, by providing a blend of meeting space, networking and demonstration areas where they could highlight their software innovations. With over 100 pre-booked meetings, the Red Hat team had a very successful first foray into exhibiting at MWC.
Lastly on Freeman’s roster was its second year supporting Qualcomm’s global events, and with MWC hot on the heals of a successful CES, the FreemanXP team delivered a space and show for the mobile technology provider in a sea of mega brands in Hall 3.
With the brief of showcasing how the brand is pushing the boundaries of possibilities to connect people, the stand included product demos, a wall to display the Internet of Things, and an invisible museum to display products using augmented reality.
MWC’s multichannel experiences reviewed
FreemanXP developed a ‘7XP’ methodology to ‘objectively’ review events. MWC provided the perfect opportunity:
Words by: Jordan Waid, VP Brand Experience FreemanXP
1. THE HERO: Clearly articulating ‘the brand’, ‘the product’ and ‘you’ as the hero is the key criteria in creating a successful brand experience storyworld. The “Life’s Good When You Play More” campaign by LG embodied the three heroes seamlessly. I gave them 5 stars.
2. THE DESIGN: Design frames the brand in an iconic and memorable environment.It is purposeful, not random. T-Mobile demonstrated this almost perfectly with a beautifully architected timber presence that allowed form and function to merge with integrated theatre seating, stage, a VIP deck and treehouse. The hyper-scaled use of their intense pink brand colour held it back though. 4 stars.
3. THE MESSAGE: The brand’s call-to-action is vital in instantly conveying how brands want their audience to feel and think. This should be joined up with the rest of the brand’s communication channels. The “Experience What’s Inside” campaign for Intel acted worked with all of the other external channels. I rated it 4 stars, only because they could have been more overt with this brilliant message.
4. THE NARRATIVE: This creates the connection of the message to the actual experience through emotive storytelling. It would be amiss not to showcase LG again. One could get a ‘Play more’ experience map postcard and collect stickers from ‘BB-8-type’ Rolling Robots to VR Rollercoasters - complete all five experiences based around ‘play’, collect the stickers and get a headset. 5 stars.
5. THE ENGAGEMENT: This reinforces hands-on discover-by-doing experiences. Passive participation has evolved into active participation. SK Telecom sank the competition with a 4D VR underwater yellow submarine experience. Supporting their theme ‘Dive into the platform’ was one of many themed engagements that ranged from Pet Tech to IoT Smart Homes. 5 stars.
6. THE SHARABILITY: This socialises the relationship the visitor has with the brand through collecting and sharing their own experiences. I didn’t find as many overt curated sharable experiences as I would like however, I would mention Lenovo’s fantastic experiences including the water dunk tank for their Moto phone – which provided a fun little photo op to go along other quirky activities. What stood out was how easy it was to find and share content from their website. I gave them the highest score of all in this category. 3 stars.
7. THE ARTEFACT: a relevant emotive give-away – its soul function is to prolong the message and increase shareability of the story beyond the event. SK Telecom built on its engagement of the yellow submarine by awarding those that finished the deep sea dive a transparent pouch of aqua blue liquid that was an actually an energy drink. 5 stars.
