The results are in! Four of our experiential projects have been shortlisted for the Campaign Experience Awards 2021. The Uncensored Library, the Air Jordan XXXV unveil, Super Saturday Night and BRIC’s Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival.

While these four experiences span six award categories—capturing a breadth of digital experiences and what they can accomplish—they perhaps more interestingly trace the evolution of experiential throughout 2020, from before the pandemic touched down in the Western world to today’s lived reality. But despite these changes, one through line has remained clear in our approach to experiential: leveraging digital technology to enable brand new experiences that were never possible before, which bring people together in unexpected ways. Here’s how that core aim has translated throughout a year of ingenuity.

A Digital-First Mindset Made the Pivot Easier

While in-person events that draw large crowds still aren’t possible in the present moment, experiences like Super Saturday Night, a Lady Gaga concert on the eve of last year’s Super Bowl, can offer a peek into what experiential might look like in coming years by reimagining and modernizing the concert-going experience for a digital age. Through a series of activations, the experience used cutting-edge 5G connectivity to power to connect with fans—for example, transforming the standard “step and repeat” into a screen that reflected attendees’ every action through a monster-themed digital double. These moments not only encouraged social sharing, but helped Gaga fans get into the “little monster” mindset before the show.

And while challenges in the past year have largely migrated experiences online around the world, our Experiential team has long advocated for activations that combine broadcasting and in-person events to meet faraway audiences, an approach we call live experiential. “For us, experiential has always been focused on online amplification, regardless of whether the experience is physical or virtual,” says Ciaran Woods, Executive Producer of Experiential and Virtual Events. Woods notes that this digital-first mentality primed the team well for its quick pivot to virtualization. “The transition, albeit at lightspeed, has felt very natural and evolutionary,” he says.

Online or Off, Interactivity Remained Key

Virtual events exist to connect people—and a big part of that means giving the audience just as strong of a voice as the performers. In setting out to redefine live events for a new, digital-first era, the north star of the Virtual Solutions team has been to enable true, two-way interaction between both sides of the screen.

Think about the buzz a musician gets by seeing and hearing the crowd in front of a stage. A desire to capture that same sense of energy gave way to the development and release of LiveXP, our internal live storytelling tool enabling visually rich elements shaped in real time by the interaction of the crowd. “We realized virtual events needed a deeper level of interaction where users can experience live, personalized experiences and one-on-one interactions,” says Travis Craw, Executive Producer of Experiential.

Among the first major events that LiveXP brought to life was BRIC’s Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, a long-running outdoor music festival enjoyed by New Yorkers every summer. With people unable to gather in large crowds because of the pandemic, we brought music fans together through a two-day livestreamed event on YouTube. Performances were augmented by trivia, live Q&As, Spotify integration (allowing fans to save songs to a playlist with a snap of their mobile camera) and more. Each of these elements showcased how drawing together myriad digital interactions feed into a memorable moment and opened the hyper-local festival to a global stage.

Virtualization Brought New Experiences to New Audiences

Last year, brands didn’t have much time to thoughtfully pivot from experiential to digital. Some missed the mark by trying to translate in-person experiences to digital ones—an impossible task that sets oneself up for failure. The brands that truly delivered, meanwhile, aimed to build experiences that weren’t ever possible before, leveraging digital tools like immersive virtual venues.

The Uncensored Library that MediaMonks built in collaboration with Reporters Without Borders is an excellent example of how virtual venues may be used to overcome traditional experiential constraints. We transformed a library of forbidden knowledge—news articles written by journalists who are censored or were killed in their home countries—into a literal library that could be accessed by readers everywhere via Minecraft.

Nick Fuller, SVP of Growth, notes that digital environments also have the potential to deliver more relevant experiences to audiences. “Personalized experiences are easier to deliver at scale through digital platforms, in a way that is trackable and measurable, not only for engagement purposes but for tracking ROI and lead generation.”

But there’s another key benefit to overcoming physical constraints through digital platforms: accessibility. By eliminating a need for travel, doing away with physical constraints (like seats available in a theater) and lowering the cost to access, virtualization opens up experiential activations to entire populations of people who would never have been able to take part in them before.

 Digital’s Influence will Remain

While virtual experiential is a must-have for brands to continue showing up for online audiences today, what might they look like when the pandemic subsides and in-person experiences become commonplace again? One possibility is that they will feature a more persistent digital layer. “Extended reality will play a stronger role, with experiences like the use of Oculus Venues during Facebook Connect,” says Woods.

But extended reality can enhance in-person experiences, too. When Jordan Brand unveiled its new Air Jordan XXXV shoe via livestream to industry insiders, the Monks showed up with a digital drop using AR that gave viewers the chance to check out the shoe up-close—a “had to be there” moment that was a foot above a standard reveal. One could easily see how such a feature could build on showrooms by giving all attendees a chance to inspect a product—or extend that experience to audiences from afar.

On that note, we may also see hybrid experiences that are spread across several locations. “I believe a hybrid approach will become a standard offering for live events like trade shows and conferences, mostly to survive,” says Marcel van Overveld, Business Director of Virtual Events. “Brands will have to develop other income streams, looking at data gathering and adding a digital layer on live physical events to benefit from that opportunity and maintain or extend their reach, thus staying relevant for their target audience.” For example, his team is looking for ways to use data to virtually emulate the serendipity of bumping into someone with a shared interest.

No matter the form digital takes in the near or distant future, one thing is clear: it will enable experiences that can’t be found anywhere else. For those reasons, digital’s key role in experiential will remain well into the future. “We’ve seen the benefits first-hand,” says Woods. “Bigger reach, better ROI, more accessibility, more user-centric and more sustainable—virtual events are here to stay.”

This year, we learned a lot about creating virtual events, transitioning years of experiential expertise to offer brands the opportunity to continue to show up for audiences—whether building our own proprietary tool to enable true interaction through livestreams, designing virtual event halls to connect and network in, or developing new and immersive broadcasting solutions. And after a long year of social distancing, it only made sense that our global teams were eager to use what they’ve learned to celebrate and capstone 2020. 

We’ve loved watching that expertise and practice pay off around the world as our teams have infused live virtual experiences with a greater level of interactivity and accessibility. Events like the LataMMairfest, our own end-of-the-year celebration for Latin America, and the WFH Wonderland, a cooking show for the culinary-inclined, served both as an entertaining experience and a showcase of our capabilities—an example of what we can be achieved when customer and client experience is applied internally, for one’s own team.

For the last few months, virtual experiences have been in the spotlight for building brand relevance among customers. And while in-person gatherings remain beyond the limits of possibility, the virtual ecosystem became the most efficient way to connect and celebrate with employees too, albeit not a simple one. It requires a new set of skills that test even the deftest event planners, but when done well, it offers unlimited opportunities for companies to deliver better employee experiences—for example, a livestream that connects an entire region of 800+ people that would never have been able to celebrate in the same physical space.

Planting the Seeds of Success Throughout the Year

Virtual events are still a novelty for brands, which means there’s plenty of uncharted territory. LataMMairfest integrated all LATAM offices across different time-zones, languages and cultures in the same virtual environment: a livestream fueled by local storytelling. Hosted by MediaMonks’ Events leads and our Marketing Director in LATAM, the show kicked off with a live music performance to hype up the team, followed by four segments—one per every featured country—and a final after-party. Each segment included vlogs from a selection of employees, showing the audience around their cities’ hidden spots and must-see places to make viewers feel closer to their colleagues and their company.

The planning, however, began long before the last few months of the year. “It’s important for us to celebrate as hard as we work,” says Daniela García, Events and Office Support Lead at MediaMonks Buenos Aires. “Keeping that philosophy alive in a year when we can’t see each other has been a real challenge, but one we tackled since day one by planning smaller events throughout the months to keep our people entertained.” The team had previously organized SpringFest, a livestream that brought 400+ people together virtually to celebrate the new season, including interactive elements like a live DJ set, karaoke, games and more. 

Apart from creating the desired engagement and motivation, these events welcome new employees, help integrate the team across various mergers throughout the year, and inspire them to share snippets of the event on social media that fueled brand awareness externally. Such was the case with WFH Wonderland, as Peter Gerdes, Mobile Operations Manager and host, explains: “We went for organized chaos, bringing Monks together by cooking with our office chefs, who showed them how to prepare a great three-course dinner. For the not-so-culinary-inclined, we had René with an AirFryer, who cooked fries and made cocktails, of course! With an extra desert in the shape of a quiz and an after-party with DJ’s.”

As experiences go virtual, digital-first companies may be better equipped to deliver—but impressing a team of digital experts is its own challenge for organizers. Fernando Viñas, Events & Office Support Coordinator at MediaMonks Buenos Aires, explains, “Our goal as event coordinators is to make our people feel special, and the only way to do that for a group of detailed-oriented experts in the digital field is to make something as good as the work they produce on a daily basis.”

Stoking the Fire of Collective Enthusiasm

To keep people engaged and entertained through a screen over several hours is no easy feat, but there are a few tips companies should keep in mind. “It’s all about finding the right balance between sophistication and intimacy,” says Nicole ‘Lenny’ Aisemberg, Marketing Director LATAM. “Just like anything we pitch out to clients, we came up with an interesting concept and specific goals we wanted to attain. A virtual event must be professional, as it’s a reflection of our work. However, it should also feel like home. Personal touches can make a big difference in terms of engagement, and that’s why we chose to host the show ourselves. It wouldn’t have been the same with an outsider.” 

Through this approach, companies can ensure a unique experience that can’t be replicated by anyone else. And for a company that works as one office in multiple locations like ours, creating one experience for the entire region made absolute sense—a logical, seamless extension of the unifying message emphasized every day of the year. 

Building collective enthusiasm by sharing sneak peeks and gifts while keeping the mystery is another great way of stoking excitement and participation. “The hype is a crucial component in any event, but especially in a virtual one. No one knew what was going to happen, and we limited ourselves to small Easter eggs that would fuel conversation, but that’s it,” Viñas explains.

While they don’t completely recapture the experience of gathering in-person, virtual events can play a critical part in supporting a shared sense of community and culture among a team spread afar. And when people feel genuinely included, they’ll be more willing to share that with the world. 

Freedom of the press is one of the most important principles for any society—and while it’s something that some of us take for granted, government censorship remains an issue in many parts of the world. And even in countries that enjoy a free press, intense polarization can blur the line between fiction and reality, calling the accuracy of stories into question and even putting reporters in danger.

We’ve always believed in pushing technology harder to deliver unique digital experiences that drive cultural impact—and our team has used that ingenuity to support journalism in unexpected ways. Earlier this year, we partnered with Reporters Without Borders to build the Uncensored Library, a massive library in Minecraft that provides users access to important stories by authors who are censored in their own countries.

Now, we’ve taken a more hands-on approach to support the health of the press everywhere. This week, MediaMonks, NEP and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs collaborated with the World Press Freedom Conference to bring its 2020 edition online, opening the important event to the masses through a seamless integration of broadcast and platform. The virtual venue mixes in-person and digital experiences, setting a new standard for a new era of digital content and serving as a model for how digital platforms can bring people together for healthy conversation and debate.

Opening the Doors to an Intuitive Virtual Venue

Digital trade shows can be tough to navigate—typically just a playlist of broadcasts, finding the content most relevant to you often means scanning countless menus and translating time zones. More than just a broadcast or another Zoom call, our team sought to build on the experience of visiting an event in-person, augmenting it through useful digital tools.

As attendees log into the experience, for example, they’re met with an open, airy welcome hall. From there, they can explore galleries in the virtual exhibition hall, explore articles in the library or enter the cinema to watch content on demand. Of course, they can also tune into live segments and interviews—the bread-and-butter of the event. With content organized around the metaphor of an event hall, attendees can better find the content most relevant to them. And in addition to exploring the space, they can easily book their own schedule to receive reminders when their chosen events are ready to begin.

Fueling Conversation, Debate and Networking

Networking is an important component of any trade event, and a cause like WPFC’s thrives on facilitating conversation with people across borders and communities. “The upside of virtual events is that you don’t have to be physically present to join the event and that you can meet people from all over the world,” says Rik Spruijt, Producer of Experiential and Digital Solutions at MediaMonks. “There’s fewer barriers to participate and interact.”

Enabling conversation is a critical component to the event platform’s design and takes several forms: asking speakers questions directly, connecting one-to-one with other attendees and forming group chats and breakout sessions centered around specific topics of interest. With the platform approved by Fox-IT, the Dutch Government’s national security partner, attendees could rest assured that communications were safe.

Accessibility Gives Everyone the Chance to Participate

Because the World Press Freedom Conference gathers together journalists and media luminaries from around the world, it’s incredibly important to hear and learn from voices that are often marginalized or underprivileged—and perhaps never could have attended such an event before it went digital. This truth becomes especially evident at a time when we’ve come to rely on digital more than ever before to understand and experience the world around us.

“Especially with an event around press freedom, it’s even more important to have inclusive design,” says Spruijt. “So, we’ve took this into consideration while designing, developing and testing the platform.” 15-20% of the world’s population live with a disability, and while accessibility is required by over 1 billion people around the world, accessible options provide a better online experience to audiences overall. In addition to accounting for disabilities, the team also realized that some attendees may tune in from places with slower connections, using an adaptive video player to ensure everyone can still participate.

Press and journalism have the power to challenge the status quo and bring people together. The industry has profoundly transformed through digital over the past two decades—and has taken on a new urgency in the past year—so it’s exciting that the WPFC platform can serve as a model for how virtual conferences can adapt to provide a stronger, more interactive and intuitive digital experience to audiences around the globe.