| |
|
|
 |
Challenge
Sibos 2007 and the conversations begin. Meeting at
Deutsche Bank’s stand in Boston, Christoph Woermann,
Head of Marketing & Communications, Global Transaction
Banking (GTB), Deutsche Bank informed Cognito that
Deutsche Bank wanted to raise the bar at Sibos 2008. They
wanted to create a concept that would ‘excite and delight’.
The Solution
Cognito prides itself on keeping up to speed
with the latest technologies, not just in terms
of financial technology, but also with regard
to creative technology. Claire Skaptason,
Marketing Services Manager, comments; “as
a full service agency we need to be on top
of our game to enable us to offer the most
innovative solutions to our customers.”
After much research and creative brainstorming,
Cognito presented a proposal based on surface
technology whereby Deutsche Bank would
have interactive surfaces on their stand to offer
an engaging and educational experience to any
delegate. Through using such technology in this
industry sector, Deutsche Bank would almost
certainly stand out in the crowd and be seen
as a true innovator and technology leader.
Green for Go
After presenting the initial idea to Deutsche Bank,
they agreed that the concept was innovative and,
if delivered in the right way, would certainly create
the desired results. Cognito introduced Mindstorm
as the technology company able to fulfil the brief.
Mindstorm, based in London, is an awardwinning
software company that transforms
otherwise static surfaces into intelligent displays,
and passive customers into active participants.
Q1 2008 and members of Deutsche Bank’s GTB
team travelled to Mindstorm’s offices in London
to experience the interactive technology first
hand. What they saw were Mindstorm’s iBars
– quite literally bars that you would find at a bar or
club that demonstrate an interactive experience
using surface technology. Deutsche Bank
knew immediately that this kind of technology
was perfect to raise their profile at Sibos.
The Project Gets Underway
In April 2008 the project began in earnest with
Deutsche Bank, Cognito and Mindstorm scoping
out exactly what would be delivered. The plan was
to have two iBars, each with three individual surfaces,
incorporated into Deutsche Bank’s stand that
would demonstrate the surface technology. With
a view to ‘going paperless’, and with four business
units within Global Transaction Banking, Cognito
and Mindstorm had to create a way of presenting
the relevant information for each unit in an easy to
navigate fashion that would allow delegates to view
and download information. The information in each
business unit consisted of presentations, brochures,
articles, press releases and videos. The ‘Carousel’
concept was developed which would ultimately
enable delegates to browse marketing literature
within each business unit in a carousel of documents
– allowing the user to engage in an entertaining
interactive experience as well as being educated.
Once approved, Cognito developed story boards
to present exactly how the surface would appear
and diagrams to explain which documents would
be incorporated into the Carousel. Cognito worked
on the overall look and feel of the surface while
Mindstorm developed the technology behind the
Carousel – something they had not done before.
The final result would be three levels:
Level 1: Interactive surface using the Deutsche
Bank wave in motion which, when touched
with a finger, would activate many Deutsche
Bank logos. When moving your finger around
the surface the logos would continue to be
activated following the route of your finger.
Level 2: An introduction to the six business units
with key lead questions and messages for each
business unit appearing across the surface.
Level 3: The Carousel enabling delegates to select any
one business unit and enter its Carousel of documents.
The project progressed and it soon became clear
that the two iBars would not be enough and the
vertical wall was introduced.
Two walls in fact that would use the same technology
as the iBars but would create the extra WOW factor
for any delegate passing the stand. The vertical walls
would also encompass speakers enabling Deutsche
Bank to show videos with clear sound.
Delivering the Information
With six business units there was a lot of
information that had to be incorporated into the
individual Carousels in the right order. Each file
delivered had to be given a consistently designed
cover and converted into the correct format. Claire
Skaptason comments; “this was a timely part of the
project but one that proceeded without much pain
due to Deutsche Bank’s efficiency and high level
of organization in terms of its marketing literature.
We received the majority of the information in
time, but due to the flexibilities that Mindstorm
had built into the technology, we were still able
to take certain documents, e.g. press releases
and articles, right up to the start of the event.”
Communication is Key
With Deutsche Bank’s GTB team sitting in Frankfurt
and Cognito and Mindstorm both in London,
regular reporting was essential to ensure the
project ran without problems. Weekly planning
calls were held which included members from
Deutsche Bank, Cognito, Mindstorm, Zweikant
(the stand architects) and Fullscreeners (the stand
builders). It was essential to have Zweikant and
Fullscreeners involved as it would be them who
would ultimately be responsible for ensuring the
iBars would fit into the stand design and built to
the specifications required by Mindstorm. In order
for Deutsche Bank to view the continued progress
of the technology, Mindstorm took videos of the
developed technology for Deutsche Bank’s review
and comments.
Sibos Approaches
With Sibos just around the corner it was essential
that each member of the Deutsche Bank GTB
team knew what to expect from the stand.
Even though the Carousel concept created was
incredibly intuitive and user friendly it was still
important for the Deutsche Bank representatives
to know how to use it. Cognito developed a
simple training session which was then delivered in
Frankfurt over two days. Maria Senior, Marketing
& Communications, Global Transaction Banking,
Deutsche Bank, comments; “This was a perfect
opportunity for the GTB team to see exactly
what we had been working on with Cognito and
Mindstorm, to receive feedback and to make
changes where necessary.”
The Day of Reckoning
Having spent the weekend prior to Sibos
installing the software into the iBars and vertical
walls and testing everything, Mindstorm and
Cognito were happy that the brief would be
met. Monday morning and the iBars and vertical
walls were switched on. The buzz started and
people started coming onto the Deutsche Bank
stand to see what this technology did. Everyone
was impressed. They were impressed with the
technology, they were impressed with the fact
that they could download documents onto a USB
stick and take that home instead of a bundle of
brochures, but most of all they were impressed
that Deutsche Bank had taken the risk to use such
technology at such a forum – a risk that paid off.
If the technology wasn’t enough to pull delegates
to the stand, Deutsche Bank gave away an iPod
Touch everyday from Monday to Thursday. Using
a promotional mailer designed by Cognito, that
in itself brought an interactive feeling, delegates
were encouraged to come to the stand between
3p.m. and 4p.m. each day to try to win an iPod.
By selecting any USB stick and inserting it into
any port they were trying their luck. The lucky
winner would see a winning message informing
them that they had won – we had four happy
delegates through the course of the week
Data Capture
It was essential that Deutsche Bank could
measure the impact of this technology post Sibos,
not just in terms of comments, but also in terms of
who had downloaded what information from each
business unit. Mindstorm had built in USB ports
into each surface section of the iBars and into the vertical wall surfaces. Next to each port was a slot for a business card.
During the event when a person wished
to download information, a Deutsche Bank
representative requested their business card and
simply wrote the time at which the delegate
inserted the USB stick into the port onto the
back of the business card. This in turn created
a start session which would enable Deutsche
Bank to view exactly who downloaded what.
Following the event Cognito took the log
files from each iBar or wall, matched up the
user sessions with the business cards and
presented the information to Deutsche Bank.
The Verdict
Christoph Woermann, Head of Marketing &
Communications, Global Transaction Banking,
Deutsche Bank, comments; “This project was
a huge success. No one else had used such
technology at the event, and we received such
positive feedback from our clients, prospects and
indeed anyone who visited our stand. Traffic had
increased from the previous year and we certainly
raised our game. We look forward to continuing our
relationship with Cognito and Mindstorm and raising
our game even further in Hong Kong in 2009.”
|
|
|
