Here’s the animation clip that we done by the highly talented folk from Motif Studios…

…and the ‘breakdowns’ video with footage from the mapped stage and grand finale.

Of course being there and experiencing it on the 14m wide x 5m high custom stage and with rock stadium quality sound is first prize, but hopefully this gives you a good idea of how a conference should be started.

Alternate reality conferencing

As well as being the year of The Protester [Time magazine's person of the year] , for us 2011 has been the year of pushing ourselves into uncomfortable new spaces.  We started this year with a mission – to take everything that we’d learnt from producing alternate reality games for our clients over the years, and packaging the unseen, fantasy mechanic for retail and event applications. In essence we’ve transformed ourselves from a marketing company, into a technology company.

This year we’ve focused on just a few key areas of specialisation. We’ve done a significant amount of work in the realm of 3D projection mapping, which on a global scale has seen a significant amount of growth as a brand presentation mechanism. We’ve concentrated our efforts on the production of 3D mapping, which culminated in the production of the Dimension Data’s Annual Sales Conference mapping on a custom built 14 x 5 meter set. We worked with the world-class team from Motif Studios to create a mixture of visual and audio delight that really blew the audience [and client] away. Having seen many of the mapping examples from around the world – we’re pretty confident that ours was right up there with the best of them, which is where we feel the most comfortable.

See our post on The re-engineering of a conference for more on what we created for Dimension Data.

The other area of specialisation that we really got some good traction with this year is RFID. It stands for Radio Frequency Identification and as a technology we’ve been exploring its uses as a means to trigger our branded experiences and integrate those real-world experiences with social media platforms like Facebook. In a very short space of time we’ve developed, prototyped and built some pretty powerful machines that talk directly to actionable applications like Facebook. The result was that we turned the recent Axe Cloud 9 Party into an interactive media space that added to the experience of being at the event and gave the Axe brand some very cool brand exposure on Facebook.

So this year has been a great one in the sense that, once again – we’ve prepared ourselves well for 2012 and our mission to help brands create fantasy experiences for their clients and stakeholders.

A huge thanks has to go to all of our business partners and clients for making 2011 the success that it was. The team from Dimension Data / Internet Solutions, Habari Media, BAT, G2, Steenberg Vineyards, You Know Who, BConfident, Go4Word, CCPP and Motif Studios – thanks for sharing the vision and pushing the boundaries with us.

The Cherryflava Team - Stefan, Heinrich, Jon and Dylan

As is tradition here at Cherryflava – at the end of every year we give ourselves a public grading for how we feel we have performed throughout the year and this time around we will give ourselves a B+ for 2011. We are exploring in a unique, niched arena not only in South Africa but globally, but with our unique background and mixture of talents we’re well set up now to deliver even more in 2012.

Thanks do much for reading and joining in with us this year – have a great holiday.

The blog will be taking a break over the festive season until posting resumes on the 9th of January 2012.

Conferences should be fun

On of our best clients is Dimension Data. They really get it – and are dedicated to pushing the innovation envelope when it comes to their conferences. They understand that hosting a conference is a huge opportunity to demonstrate forward thinking to the people that matter – the people attending the event.

Most brands [even the seemingly progressive ones] when hosting events, surprisingly just can’t tear themselves away from the standard conference format. It’s the same ol’ format with the same ol’ tired outcome at the end. It feels like event organisers are too scared to do something different for a change.

Last year, we produced a conference quite out of the ordinary with a 2-week long game called State of Grace. This year we stayed physically in Sandton, but instead produced interactive and immersive elements for the event that enhanced the overall message and experience of innovation.

Finishing touches to the RFID stations

RFID tag technology has remarkable applications for events, allowing you to blur the barrier between physical interactions, digital tracking and social media integration. We designed, prototyped and build a series of RFID stations, which we placed throughout the conference venue -  tracking each participant’s progress between sub-venues through the day. All were build from scratch in our lab using Netbooks and Arduino circuit boards and software applications that we wrote. Tags were personalised and loaded with individual information that even indicated the preferred beverage of the conference goers to the barman at the end of it all. Unexpected touches that make a huge difference and all possible with the technology.

Our RFID-trigger photo booth

Part of the series of stations was an over-sized RFID triggered photo booth [that we also designed and built from scratch] that tagged photos with the names of the people triggering the shot based on the RFID cards swipped. These images were then displayed in real time via large projections to the dance venue at the end of the event. At one stage we had eight people crammed into the booth firing multiple images of themselves and then running through to the dance floor to revue they efforts.

RFID picture taking and tagging

Some couldn't stay away

In the repackaging of the conference content we also created a 2m high hologram [for real] and a 5-minute long 3D-projection mapping that was displayed on a partially wrapped 14m x 5m specially design stage. We used the backdrop of the mapping throughout the conference as a dynamic theme to pull all of the content together.

[Once the video of that mapping is complete we'll share more about that then.]

Projection mapping set up

Space ship masking

Mapped conference backdrop

In conclusion: Our philosophy is that an event or a conference that people have elected to attend is an unbelievable opportunity to WOW! people with your brand. We hear a lot about ‘death by PowerPoint’ these days, but in truth it’s not PowerPoint that’s putting people to sleep, it’s the company’s unimaginative intention behind that presentation that’s the crying shame. If you’ve managed to attract an audience to your gig – do them, and your brand a favour and make sure the overall experience is remarkable and unforgettable.

To infinity and beyond...

Invest the budget and leverage off the massive amount of word-of-mouth you could potentially generate. In an overcrowded global media environment it’s the hardest working investment you can make. If you’re not sure how – call us.

Looking like something that was stolen from a Borge pimp – this interactive light sculpture is a nice mix of a raw, grinding, gritty, grabable mechanic and a light touch of technological magic.

Alas – this one is not one of ours, but read more about its maker here.

It’s something we can see our robotics guys getting rather dreamy about. Considering how excited people get about interactive photobooths – adding a photostyle selector unit like this into the mix would equal the ultimate hedonistic party piece.

via

Our stage that forms part of the mapping

We’re in Joburg at the moment creating some 3D projection mapping and RFID magic for one of our corporate clients. We’ll be shooting a small video of some of it to show you after it’s all done and dusted on Wednesday. The platform is a corporate conference, the experience of which we have transformed using our background in producing commercial alternate realities and a huge dollop of interactive technology awesomeness.

Posting on the blog will resume at full-speed on Thursday.

On 1 October 2010, the employees of one of Africa’s biggest ICT organisations were sent links to a website that promised “a huge leap in business communications” using a projection of a charming client liaison avatar called Grace.

Hostage situation

What it really offered was a leap into the deep end of a world of rampaging holograms, umbrella men, slinking LOLcats, stinking hackers, epic battles and a lot of tricky puzzles.

Hundreds of players from Dimension Data made their way through the game, which turned a dry presentation about corporate values into an epic and unforgettable quest to save the world from a hologram avatar turned eeeevil!

We here at Cherryflava are often asked about the type of work that we do in the field of commercial experience design – and this alternate reality game (or ARG) is the perfect example of how we’d turn the mundane content of a typical year-end sales conference into something memorable, engaging and effective; using multi-layered media, a great story [written by the award-winning extremely super-talented novelist Lauren Beukes] and an intriguing game involving a puzzle-filled treasure hunt played out on the Internet and in the real world with fake websites and specially filmed video sequences.

Alternate reality gaming isn’t for everybody, but for innovative brands that are open to taking their event to a far deeper, fantasy level – you should get in touch with us.

Check out the series of videos that were part of the game here.

———————–

Credits:

Conceptualised and produced by: Cherryflava Media

Cherryflava team: Heinrich Hattingh, Jon Cherry & Isabeau Joubert

Story: Lauren Beukes and Sam Wilson

Gaming design: Cherryflava Media & Clockwork Zoo

Video production and direction: Pixel Warrior

Actors: Sarah Terry and Garth Breytenbach

Client: Dimension Data

Thanks to all of your votes and support – Cherryflava has been crowded as the Ogilvy Best South Africa Media and Marketing blog for 2010 at a glittering ceremony at the One & Only hotel on Saturday night.

It’s an honour to have received the affirmation. Well done also to 10and5, who were crowned runners up, for the contest in the final round. Was great to finally meet you guys too.

Check out all of the winners here and pictures here.

Cherryflava has been nominated as a finalist in this year’s South African Blog Awards for Best South African Media and Marketing Blog.

Please take the time vote for us [once a day] from now until the voting closes [which is mid-September]. Your democratic stamp of approval will be valued like a limited-edition Sports Illustrated World Cup 1995 rugby phone.

We’ve been on the hunt for a creative heavy-hitter here at Cherryflava for some time. Somebody that is used to having their name listed as a Loeries finalist, a talent that extends beyond the confines of socially acceptable design thinking, an individual that brings a new balance to the team. After making the request, the universe brought us a trained Shiatsu practitioner who kills the trail running circuit in her spare time and eats colourful, Knysna, forest birds for breakfast.

Isabeau will be taking on a couple of big experiential projects that we have in the pipeline and bringing peace to an otherwise franetic fourth quarter of 2010.

During the World Cup, ourselves together with Iain Harris from Coffeebeans Routes collaborated with Nike in Chicago and an inner city youth programme over there to connect them with a local football academy in Khayalitsha called Amandla Edufootball. As part of the exchange Nike provided the club with a video camera, a laptop and two years of wireless Internet access so that they can share their inspirational stories with the world.

Now finally – the future stars of Bafana Bafna get to make their video debut on the web. This is their first video that they shot straight after getting a few tips yesterday on how to use the equipment.

More: Amandla Edufootball