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Battle Royale — Maybe the greatest social media game in the history of ever!
The story_
It was the year 2011. The internets were abuzz with talk of social media advertising interconnectivity. We saw an opportunity to create a game — marketed, and managed entirely online — that would cast visitors into a digital experience of their physical destinations. It would be bigger, better, and more exciting than anything they’d experienced before.
Because we’re a Dallas-based experience marketing agency, it was only natural to reach out to the Texas Association of Convention and Visitors’ Bureau (TACVB) to propose our crazy idea. We would run a real-time, real-life experiment, and play the whole thing out at their annual conference.
With an overwhelmingly warm reception to our idea, Battle Royale was born.
We wanted the members of TACVB to experience first-hand how their target audience was engaging each other in social media. And, as an ancillary benefit, we would bring attendees together in unexpected, engaging, and educational ways throughout the conference.
(Read: we made it a lot more FUN!)
Battle Royale pitted four teams from different regions of the state against each other. Each team was assigned a distinctive color (red, white, blue and gray) and each was led by a TACVB member — a pre-selected social-media specialist — to lead their teams to victory. Bold, colorful stickers were added to conference attendees’ badges so they could be instantly identified as a teammate.
The contest itself came to life online using a dedicated Facebook page. Puzzles, and the clues needed to solve them, were given to attendees through social media, but also on the conference grounds, requiring the teams to interact with their environment. Following the clues, they had to capture an image or respond via social media to prove they’d solved the puzzle.
Clues alluded to specific locations, objects, and tasks that had to be performed, captured by cell-phone camera, and sent back to headquarters within the allotted time.
For example, while a pre-conference icebreaker reception was in full swing at Dick’s Classic Car Garage, a challenge was texted to all that read, “Battle Royale: Take a group photo of 10 team members and win 10 points. Upload your team’s photo to www.facebook.com/TACVBBattleRoyale.”
The results_
In the immortal words of TACVB’s Bridget Snyder: “Battle Royale 2011 was a smashing success.”
The competitive spirit of TACVB members, combined with the unique gameplay, created a participatory, educational experience that was so different and fun. With more than 100 posts and comments to Facebook, dozens of photos uploaded, and a full case of Texas wines given to the winning team the last night of the conference, Aria left knowing that the following year’s Battle Royale would need to be taken to the next level.
Moving forward to 2012_
This year we’re bringing Battle Royale back to TACVB — only bigger, better and badder…er than before. Watch our teaser trailer below to get a feel for what we’re planning, and look for more information soon.
See you this summer!
Tagged: battle royale, case study, Experience Design, social media, strategy, tourism1 Comment ( but hey, there's still room for more )
Check out what Duff McKagan had to say about being on the plane with Gene Simmons during the Rock-N-Roll Allstars tour
Aria’s client, Rock-N-Roll Allstars, recently went on a South American tour and we were there. Check out what bassist Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver) has to say about being on the plane with Gene Simmons (KISS).
blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2012/05/dancing_and_laughing_with_gene.php
Tagged: aria, Duff McKagan, Gene Simmons, Guns N' Roses, KISS, Rock-N-Roll Allstars, South American tour
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Rock-N-Roll Allstars continue South American run in Peru
Rock-N-Roll Allstars continued their South American run with an arrival in Peru that was followed immediately by a 50+ journalist press conference at their hotel in Lima. In preparation for the show, the band has spent their day off doing radio, TV and newspaper interviews around town as the city grows with excitement. At the airport, hotel, appearances and restaurants, the band has been greeted by a throng of excited fans who are happy to see the rock legends together for the once-in-a-lifetime lineup. Aria’s newest client has certainly been busy – and there’s more to come, with possibly the largest show to date tomorrow at Lima’s Jockey Club.
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NYC Phone Booths Receive Virtual Marketing Makeover
Once upon a time, in a time before Siri and location-based apps, there lived these ancient things called phone booths. You know the booths that sat on random corners and at gas stations that required quarters to place a call to another landline? Yeah, those. In most places, these now useless booths are still inconveniently nested in their original locations, serving virtually no use at all…until now.
In an announcement last week, New York City made news headlines for its partnership with a company called City24x7 to install “SmartScreen” stations at hundreds of old phone booth stations across the city’s five boroughs. That is, 32-inch touch-based, tablet-like screens that will replace roughly 250 traditional payphones. The SmartScreens are a genius destination marketing tool as they will serve as an interactive local neighborhood information hub, featuring details on restaurants, stores, and safety information. If this isn’t enough to make The Big Apple more of a crowd-pleaser, perhaps the free Wi-Fi hotspots will do the trick. Though the SmartScreens will not allow users to surf the web, they will serve as hotspots to connect smartphones and tablets to when in close proximity. Not to mention the HD cameras and microphone capabilities that will not only increase city officials surveying options, they will probably eventually allow patrons to make Skype calls.
As an agency that specializes in destination marketing, it’s important to analyze the good, the bad and the ugly, and give praise where praise is due. This, is genius, if we do say so ourselves. It’s a very innovative way to utilize old resources and apply new technology to them, thus giving these payphones a second chance at life.
Imagining that they’ll implement some sort of tracking via advertisements and directory searches, it’s quite possible that the numbers will be impressive to say the least. The devices are scheduled to debut in May with a pilot program and, if successful, will continue expanding across the city. We’re anxious to see how this all pans out. Do you think the hype will live or die? How do you think these stalls will impact the future of destination marketing? Let us know.
Tagged: destination marketing, Digital Marketing, Experience Design, NYC payphones, NYC Phone Booths, SmartScreens, tourism, Virtual Marketing
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Rock-N-Roll Allstars perform a special club show in Buenos Aires
Last night Aria’s newest client, Rock-N-Roll Allstars performed a special club show for a limited audience at Teatro Vorterix. The 10-song set included two songs from each lineup on the supergroup’s tour. It was the first time for several band members to perform in Argentina and the first time in many years several of them have played in a club. The show was filmed for an episode of “Gene Simmons Family Jewels”. Before and after the show, the fans mobbed the band in the hotel and at the venue, proving that the South American fans are still some of the most passionate rock fans in the world.
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