Behind the Scenes with Decibel Management: How an Experiential Event Comes Together
BACKSTAGE, COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS, TRADE SHOW
If you have ever wondered what goes into a technical and experiential event build, take a look behind the scenes with Decibel Management and our amazing production team for the building of the H&R Block- Get Your Billion Back experience.
The development, programming and construction was challenging, complex, and delivered on a lightning fast timetable. We were truly only able to succeed because of the great team we assembled. This included our partners: M1 Interactive, CGS Premier, Greenroom Communications, and EventPro Strategies as well as great clients in Ketchum Public Relations as well as H&R Block.
H&R Block Get Your Billion Back America Campaign
COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS
In early 2014, H&R Block launched an experiential marketing program that builds off their Get Your Billion Back America ad campaign. The tour puts the brand in the hands of consumers and rewards them with cash.
Developed in partnership with Ketchum, Decibel Management designed and created a custom, interactive kiosk composed of four computers, multiple touchscreens, cameras and ATM components.
The 20-foot-by-20-foot kiosk is set up in high-traffic locations where participants take a two-minute quiz which includes imagining what they would do with a billion dollars. As a reward, the kiosk dispenses up to $100 per participant.
This kiosk is definitely a first of its kind. It is part ATM, part photo/video booth and was built from scratch for the Get Your Billion Back events hosted by H&R Block. And it was built in 6 weeks, from concept to completion.
H&R Block Rewards Consumers With Cash
Marketing Daily
By Tanya Irwin
March 26, 2014
http://www.mediapost.com/
H&R Block has launched an experiential marketing program that puts the brand in the hands of consumers and rewards them with cash.
To build off the Get Your Billion Back America ad campaign, Ketchum, Decibel Management, M1 Interactive and CGS Premier created a custom, interactive kiosk composed of four computers, multiple touchscreens, cameras and ATM components.
The 20-foot-by-20-foot kiosk is set up in high-traffic locations where participants take a two-minute quiz which includes imagining what they would do with a billion dollars. As a reward, the kiosk dispenses up to $100 per participant.
The kiosk is definitely a first of its kind for us or for anyone, says Christina Lively, H&R Block director of brand strategy and integration. It s part ATM, part photo/video booth and was built from scratch for our Get Your Billion Back events.
The activation concept is based on a study H&R Block conducted last year that revealed that when taxpayers prepare their own tax returns, about one in five is leaving money on the table by not claiming all available tax credits and deductions, Lively says. These inaccuracies contribute to more than $1 billion in unclaimed money.
The kiosk program is available in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Kansas City and New York. The campaign includes four spots running on broadcast, digital and social media.
The reaction has been incredible, Lively tells Marketing Daily. We set out to surprise and delight consumers, and this activation did just that. Consumers can t believe that H&R Block is giving away real money and long lines formed very quickly in all of the markets.
About 600 consumers have gone through the experience, and thousands of others have been exposed to the brand onsite and through event videos, she says.
Lively said it has not been determined whether the kiosk will be expanded to more cities next year.
We ve had a lot of fun with this throughout the season and would love to continue surprising and delighting people the way we have with our Get Your Billion Back events, she says.
It s the most wonderful time of the year . at Decibel!
BACKSTAGE, COMPANY NEWS, EVENT INDUSTRY, EVERYTHING ELSE, LIVE EVENTS, PERMITS
Decibel Management has been very busy since September and we are happy to finish out 2013 with an exciting amount of events we were fortunate to be a part of during the fall months!
National Book Festival, SHIRE Mobile Tour, National ATI Day, Glass Packaging Institute s Annual Meeting, Clorox Caroling with Busy Phillips, NextGen Climate Action Summit, Raleigh Christmas Parade, London Financial Forum, just to name a few.
We have already told you all about the National Book Festival in our last post, but we have lots more to share with you.
We worked with SHIRE to produce a mobile tour that went to two different cities to promote awareness about ADHD. Both the client and the participants had great feedback and we are looking forward to travelling again in 2014!
National ATI Day took place at the Newseum in October. We worked with our longtime client FleishmanHillard to produce the event that focused on the Made by Me National Challenge which brought a student made video idea to life with a professional video producer to create the new Above the Influence commercial.
Of course we loved working the 2013 Glass Packaging Institute s Annual Meeting- especially because it was held in Sonoma, California. Attendees participated in an Annual Golf Tournament, association meetings over three days and of course, a Wine Tasting Reception. Really, when in Rome!
Earlier this month Clorox launched their new campaign Bleach it Away for the Holidays. Clorox selected Busy Phillips to endorse their campaign. She joined the Clorox Carolers at two locations in New York City to sing about holiday s bleachable moments to people passing by.
NextGen Climate Action gathered at Georgetown University to host a summit discussing the Keystone Pipeline. Decibel assisted with registration, production, and logistics behind the summit to ensure a successful event for the client.
WRAL TV in Raleigh, NC gave us a call about a week before the Annual Christmas Parade with a potential rainy weather situation. Since we couldn t change the weather they asked if we could provide a tent for their on-air talent to be covered in case of rain during their broadcast. We provided a custom tent that fit perfectly on top of their scaffold and everyone remained dry throughout the parade.
Decibel also went international this year! Dave Sonntag was tapped by Linder and Associates as the producer for the Financial Inclusion 2020 Global Forum in London. We worked with a great team to produce a great event.
Phew. We have a few weeks to enjoy the holiday season and then we are gearing up to launch a tour in January! Stay tuned for Blog posts, Facebook Updates and Tweets about everything happening at Decibel.
National Book Festival 2013
COMPANY NEWS, LIVE EVENTS
For the third year running, Decibel was selected to manage the logistics and event operations for Washington DC s annual National Book Festival. Check out this behind the scenes video showcasing our work.
National Book Festival 2013- Behind the Scenes with Decibel Management from Decibel Management on YouTube.
Held every year on the National Mall and attended by tens of thousands of guests, the Library of Congress annual National Book Festival is one of Decibel s flagship events. The 2013 festival marked Decibel founder Dave Sonntag s 9th year on the NBF organization team, and Decibel Management s 3rd year handling NBF logistics.
More than 100 authors held events in the genre-specific pavilions, including Joyce Carol Oats, Margaret Atwood, Justin Cronin, and Christopher Buckley.
Decibel handled every aspect of the event, including collateral design management, site permitting, setup, breakdown, audio, and other logistics.
Five Events that Went Terribly, Terribly Wrong
LIVE EVENTS
Sometimes, everything just goes to straight down the drain. All that planning. All that preparation. All those terrible ideas
2005: Giant Snapple-pop Flood
You kids are probably too young to remember this, but way back in 2005, Snapple attempted to break a world record by creating the world s biggest ice-pop. They strapped the massive popsicle onto the back of a trailer and hauled it into the middle of Union Square. On the first day of summer. Surprise! It melted, and the fire department was called to clean up the ocean of kiwi-strawberry runoff. Oopsies.
1992: Guns n Roses Concert Riot
Doesn t matter how many times you test the sound equipment: we re all slaves to the vagaries of celebrity whim. In 1992, a Montreal concert featuring Metallica and Guns n Roses went south in a series of unfortunate incidents that culminated in thousands of dollars worth of property damage. First, Metallica s James Hetfield was severely burned by a pyrotechnic misfire during his performance. The next headliner, Guns n Roses, took their sweet time getting on stage, but once they did, they performed a paltry 50-minutes before deciding they d had enough. The audience, understandably annoyed, trashed the stadium and spilled out into the street, forcing the city to call up over 300 riot police. Nice.
1989: Marchioness Disaster
The Marchioness was out on a pleasure cruise carrying 131 guests attending the 26th birthday party of Antonio de Vasconcellos, which had been arranged by his friend Johnathan Phang. Around 2am, the Marchioness was suddenly struck by the 262-foot long Bowbelle, who drove the smaller craft underwater in a staggering 30 seconds. Out of 131 guests, only 80 survived the collision.
2011: Indiana State Fair Stage Collapse
This stage collapse, which happened during a Sugarland performance at the Indiana State Fair, looks like a sad case of mis-communications and under-reporting:
Throughout the day and evening of the concert, the National Weather Service issued notices and warnings predicting strong thunderstorms. Messages about the forecasts were relayed to various State Fair personnel via an automated text-messaging system.
At 8:00 p.m., Cindy Hoye, Executive Director for the Indiana State Fair Commission, held a meeting to discuss what effect the weather forecast would have on the 8:45 p.m. start time for the Sugarland show. Members of the meeting were told that the storm was forecast to arrive at 9:15 p.m., 30 minutes after the concert was to begin. Hoye wanted to delay the show until the weather had passed.
An official took this message to Sugarland s managers, who said they preferred to go on with the show as scheduled and only stop if weather conditions worsened. The managers only knew about the rain, not the lightning, wind, and hail that were expected. They decided to start the show just 5 minutes late (8:50 p.m.) to allow the band time to warm up.
2010: India s Commonwealth Games
Called the worst-planned international sporting event ever by Business Insider, India s Commonwealth Games suffered from an incredible roster of mishaps and problems, including corruption allegations, serious stadium construction delays, flooding, Dengue Fever outbreaks, poor security, water supply issues, tourist shootings and ta da a bridge collapse.
Look Behind You, Mr. President: 5 Examples of Political Campaign Event Backdrops
CAMPAIGN, EVENT INDUSTRY, LIVE EVENTS, POLITICAL
2012 Democratic National Convention
Campaign and Convention event production in American presidential races revolves around key themes that nobody ever strays too far from. In terms of substance, candidates may be far apart, but for style- flag and country are mainstays on both sides.
Let s take a look at the set design of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. This is actually a nifty piece of political event management. When the cameras are zeroed in on speakers, the backdrop of American flags is all the cameras will pick up. However, when zoomed out, the Obama campaign logo is placed at the center of an array of American icons such as the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore. The presence of the Washington Monument may not have helped the Democrats shake their inside-the-Beltway reputation, but all in all, a very solid piece from the team at Tribe, Inc. They are a mainstay for the DNC production design, as well as a ton of top tier concert and event design (SuperBowl, Ultra Music Fest, Etc).
2012 Republican National Convention
Another example of political campaign production gone right. The message here could initially seem far more direct. An American flag takes up the entirety of screens that make up the set, reinforcing the GOP s patriotic credo. But look closer and you will see the entryway beneath which speakers enter and exit. The entire ensemble has the air of a modern-day Roman archway, adding a subdued but powerful Hail to the Chief touch. This set was developed by the design team at Jack Morton, and was a great pairing of warm wood material and cutting edge video production.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Campaign Event
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is in a tough spot as she runs for re-election. She first won by riding on the coattails of former President Lula, who stepped down with 80{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} approval ratings. Dilma has not maintained these levels of support, with accusations of corruption culminating in nationwide protests earlier this summer. But her political campaign this year has seen her reinvent herself in just the right way. By holding this sort of street campaign event, she maintains a leadership image while rebranding herself as regular folks . The use of just her first name and her face are enough to draw a connection to voters in Brazil who like to feel their leaders are not above them.
China s Politburo Standing Committee
How aptly named is the Standing Committee? This was how the Communist Party of China chose to introduce 1.4 billion people to their new leaders. While the CPC has never been known for its sense of political flair, this was actually a very finely crafted performance. It showed the world a unity of leadership and promised a continuation of political strategic planning, warning reformers that a break with traditions of the past was not on the cards. And get a load of that traditional Chinese art on the backdrop: a majestic touch of cultural heritage.
Marine Le Pen, Front National Campaign Event
A simple political message is easy to reinforce with a simple political image. While the policies of Marine Le Pen, leader of the French extreme right Front National, may seem repugnant, her populist image and firebrand rhetoric have galvanized millions. A campaign event backdrop of French flags and the Eiffel Tower rising into the sky are all she needs to hammer home the anchor of her political campaign image: she is Marianne 2.0, the revolutionary emblem of France reborn.
Heads Up: The 2015 Parade of Trains is Looking for Sponsors
LIVE EVENTS
The good folks over at Grand Central Terminal in New York City recently let us know about a great sponsorship opportunity for the 2015 Parade of Trains, held May 2 & 3, 2015. They re currently offering a number of levels, both the title sponsorship (hey, big rollas!) and supporting sponsorships. Of all of the venues that we work with annually, Grand Central Terminal is one of our favorites, and this is an amazing chance to get your name in front of a huge audience in a great location for a unique event.
The presenting sponsor package includes alignment with one of the largest, most-visited landmarks in the world, and the sponsorship includes access to activate in half of Vanderbilt Hall during the Parade of Trains event. There will also be an additional activation in Vanderbilt Hall for an additional date in 2015. For this additional activation, the rental fee will be waived.
This is an extremely high profile and very advertised event. The presenting sponsor will also receive MTA Subway advertisements, branding on event tickets that are printed at home, logo recognition on main concourse banners, archway banner and additional signage in the terminal and on 42nd St. outside of the terminal.
There will be VIP access to trains on Friday for the presenting sponsor, dedicated Mail & Ride inserts that are sent to 32,000 Metro North Railroad commuters, as well as logo recognition on e-mail blasts to 20,000 subscribers. You ll also see your sponsor ad included in the event brochure and in Connections Magazine, distributed in Metro North train cars. And naturally, there ll be the flood of social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
Sound appealing? You can contact our very own Dana Lipson directly for more info:
Dana Lipson, Decibel Management
: C: 717.271.6309, E: dana@decibelmanagement.com
Sesame Street at the White House: How Decibel Got Involved
COMPANY NEWS, LIVE EVENTS
In mid-June, the creators of Sesame Street began a new campaign Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration seeking to help young children whose parents are in prison. The campaign aims to reach out to the 2.7 million American kids who have one or both parents in jail, especially those under the age of 8. Sesame Street is teaming up with the White House s Office of Public Engagement to help children better understand this separation and aid parents in talking about incarceration with their young ones.
The makers of the hit children s show are launching a new range of Muppet videos and exercises dealing specifically with this difficult issue. On June 12, the jolly figures of Cookie Monster and Abby Cadabby, as well as Alex and Murray were at the EEOB and White House to help roll out the campaign alongside administration officials.
Decibel Management was deeply honored to be a part of this event with Sesame Street and the White House. It was great to know that all the children who will benefit from the program will see Sesame Street characters and White House officials in the best possible light and from their most flattering angle. Although with such good-looking stars, doing so was child s play. Decibel handled the monitor mix and the video for the puppeteers, as well as general event management for the lead up to the event.
Unique Event Formats: Speed Geeking
LIVE EVENTS
Inspired by speed dating , where busy masochists looking for a relationship spend a few minutes introducing themselves before rotating over to new partners, SpeedGeeking is an Unconference event format which allows participants to hear several quick presentations on a variety of topics over a fixed period of time. In this post, we ll talk a little bit about the fairly simple format and how to organize one.
You ll need a room large enough to hold all your attendees at once, with enough power outlets to support multiple presenters with laptops and projectors. Presenters typically place tables, podiums, or other presentation set-ups around the outer edges of a room and all set up simultaneously. Before the event starts, each presentation station is assigned a number (or letter) that should be displayed on a visible placard nearby.
As attendees arrive, they re assigned groups with numbers that correspond to the numbers on the presenter stations; groups should range from 5-15 people in size. The group number dictates which presentation that group will hear first.
When everyone s ready to begin, the event moderator starts the timer, and each group heads over to their assigned presentation. All presentations should be the same length (presenters should be told how long to make their presentations well in advance), usually ten minutes, sometimes as long as fifteen. Once time is up, the moderator sounds the alarm, and each group rotates one station to the left or right, and the presentations begin again.
In May 2011 the iEducate team worked with experts from museums and galleries across Budapest to showcase technologies they could use for their education programmes. As part of this we held a speed geeking session where each member of the iEducate team was given a limited amount of time to introduce a different technology to a small group.
Check out Pete Stevens showcasing Virtual Tours in Second Life.
iEducate Speed geeking Virtual Tours Pete Stevens from iEducate on Vimeo.
So that s a sit-down, low-key, small-group version of a Speed Geek.
Educators & Students are Speed Geeking
We ve seen quite a few examples of large school faculty bodies using the format as a way to quickly get up to speed on the latest pedagogical terminology, or to get a fast briefing on what s happening in other departments. And since teaching is also a nifty way to learn, students are also being introduced to the format as a way to share their knowledge with others, practice public speaking, and to better understand their own material.
Drawbacks
We haven t seen this exact method used on mass-scale events it would be very difficult to moderate thousands of people at once but it can be managed for up to 150 attendees. For larger-scale events, we recommend sticking to standard lighting talks.
The 5 Most Christmassy Christmas Events the World Over
LIVE EVENTS
Santa-hats off to the event producers responsible for these huge holiday productions, which draw annual audiences in droves.
Radio City Christmas Spectacular, New York
With all that seasonal weather, ice-skating, window shopping and tree-lighting, New York is the epicenter of the American urban Christmas. It s also home to the Radio City Music Hall and the world-famous Rockettes. Every holiday season, the Rockettes high-kick their way through dozens of seasonal dance numbers, drawing annual audiences of over 2 million. In terms of event planning, the Spectacular involves more work than your typical stage show: the beloved Radio City Music Hall is traditionally decorated from roof-to-foundation with eye-popping holiday cheer.
Winter Festival of Lights, Niagara Falls, Canada
For visual wow-factor, the Canadian Winter Festival of Lights takes it home. From mid-November to mid-January, 1.5 million visitors walking or driving the show route enjoy hundreds of stand-alone Christmas light displays, backed by the year-round lights that are projected onto the thundering mists of Niagara Falls after dark.
Hyde Park Winder Wonderland, UK
The annual Winter Wonderland is a 6-week fair of fun and shopping complete with frozen ice-sculpture forests, a Snow Queen, amusement park rides, ice bars, Christmas Markets, and duh, Santa s Village. This event gets our thumbs-up for their stress on sustainability: Winter Wonderland will provide suitable facilities for visitors, traders and operators to recycle their waste and all site waste will be sorted off site to divide out recyclable and non-recyclable materials. Cooking oil will be recycled as bio-fuel. Power, lighting and water usage is kept to a minimum by careful planning.
Cologne Christmas Market, Germany
The 4-week Cologne Christmas Market is actually seven distinct markets that spring up seasonally in the German city of Cologne, with the Cathedral-side market being the main attraction. Seeing 2 million visitors annually, the Cologne Christmas Market is one of the largest in the world. The wares are uber-Christmas as well, with vendors offering snow globes, music boxes, nutcrackers and bratwurst.
Grand Opening of the Christmas Season in Rovaneimi, Finland
For those of you who ve been living in a hole, Rovaniemi in Finland s Lapland, is where the real Santa calls home. Though the location is undeniably Christmassy year-round, at the end of November the big man officially opens the season with a public address. Visitors can see the Northern Lights, hang out with reindeer, or stay in a snow hotel.
Image Sources: Niagara Falls lights picture Copyright CAA Festival of Lights, Santa giving opening address copyright Visit Rovaniemi
