It's a time for new beginnings and new introductions. You may have known me as the founder and Chief Experience Officer of the Brand Experience Lab, which was called "A playroom for marketers and agencies" by Ad Age when it first opened. Or, you may know me from my days writing Experience Manifesto, a blog I wrote for over 5 years. Or maybe you know me as LBBINC (my previous company was Location Based Branding) on Twitter. And this road I'm on began way back in the early 90's, when I was first introduced to virtual reality by Dave Peters of Absolute Amusements.
In those many years, I've covered a lot of ground, but one thing has remained consistent:
It's about creating compelling, authentic and relevant brand experiences.
In fact, it's even more critical to create the right experience in order to be successful in today's world of social media and brand commoditization. I also believe a great deal in the future of 'interaction' marketing, and the embedding of emerging technology into retail and marketing experiences.
Among my accomplishments over the years:
I created Experiential Advertising programs way back in 1991 and had one of the first companies in the US to work with fully immersive virtual reality. That company, CyberEvent Group, also produced many of the major national tours that used virtual reality. Work included the award winning Cutty Sark Virtual Voyage and our Immersive Animation Theatre for Cabletron Systems, which won a MARCOM Award for Best Trade Show Exhibit.
While at the Brand Experience Lab, I was very fortunate to have played a lead role in the launch of NewsBreaker Live, the first AudienceGames program, with SS+K and msnbc.com, which won a Gold Pencil. I subsequently worked with the Volvo team to bring AudienceGames to the UK, which was called "one of the best marketing ideas in the world" by Brandweek magazine last year and brought AudienceGames to theaters across Poland for Orange.
I have taught experience design for a variety of universities, including CMU, NYU, and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
I've been a key note speaker on emerging technology and brand experiences around the world.
I've been featured in two recent books about marketing, Experience the Message and Living Brands.
I've worked with major universities to market and commercialize their technologies in the entertainment, media and advertising fields.
So that's a quick trip down memory lane for me. Now, what I am going to be doing moving forward? I will:
Continue to be your source for the emerging technologies that you can use to create brand experiences. This includes cutting-edge technology experiences like group games, augmented reality and ubiquitous computing.
Consult with brands & agencies on creating great, oneline brand experiences and help brands audit their experiences to see how they can be improved. This includes brand ideation and storytelling charettes.
Continue speaking engagements about emerging technologies or the importance of brand experiences. I will also continue doing experience walking tours in NYC. Of course, other experience tours can be developed to meet your needs.
Continue exploring the socialization of physical place and how offline interactivity can be used by brands as part of the experience strategy.
I have a backlog of posts ready to go, so look for the flurry of activity over the weekend. And let me know what you think of the new look. I'm kind of playing around with things and there's so much more that you can do today with blogs then you could do when I first starting writing in 2004.
It's going to be a great ride, so buckle up!