Boxpark Shoreditch - a Brandpark

Boxpark in Shoreditch opened 3 months ago and it's a very exciting new project. "Boxpark is a retail revolution - the world's first pop-up mall", a statement a copied from their website www.boxpark.co.uk. Boxpark is indeed a very unusual and innovative concept, which I haven't seen anywhere else. Stores moved in containers and will occupy the temporary space for the next 5 years. After that, the area around Shoreditch High Street Station will probably be transformed into office buildings and luxury apartments, as part of "the City's" conquest of Shoreditch and Spitalfields. However, I have never heard of any master plan or project development plan, so that might give Boxpark even a bit more than 5 years...

I visited Boxpark the day before the opening weekend, where most of the stores were already open and finished their last decoration efforts. I checked out most of the stores and asked myself how the concept of the world's first pop-up mall might be financially profitable for the tenants. Boxpark is absolutely cool. It's a mix between independent fashion shops, organic (and also non-organic) food stores and trendy brands like Gola, Vans, Puma, Dockers, Oakley and Nike. However, the space they have in the pop-up mall is very limited. The biggest stores have 3 containers, the smaller ones have only one, where the brands can hardly display any products, otherwise you could not move in there anymore. So I asked myself, how is that possible? The smaller, independent stores are maybe happy with showing a small range of stylish products, but don't the global brands need more space? I always thought in retail you need as much space as possible, since more space means more profit (if the location is right of course). What makes it attractive for Nike to show a few shoes and a few running shirts...?

Yesterday I found out. Nike opened its NIKEiD shop last week and that also opened my eyes. The global brands use Boxpark as a Brandpark. They use the pop-up mall as an opportunity to present and probably also test new trends, products and create their own brand experience worlds out of the containers. Shoreditch has a very high density of innovators and early adopters, so for the Brands this is a perfect opportunity to present themselves to the world's trendsetters and also use it as a brand lab. The NIKEiD shop is an absolutely exciting example. The shop does not have any shoes in there (apart from a few samples), but about 10 Apple computers with TV size screens, comfortable sofas and many design and art books. So what can you do here? You can create your own personalized shoe... The computers allow you to choose a model and then add colors and material the way you would like to have it. The books serve as inspiration. I talked with one of the shop assistants and asked a few critical questions. The system is still rather limited, so you could not create your own patterns or styles. However, the concept will be continuously improved and in the future we might even be able to create our completely individually designed Nike shoe. After you purchased your personalized shoe, it takes up to 4 weeks for delivery. You will receive regular updates via e-mail when it's finished, shipped and due to delivery, so your excitement will even be higher and make your waiting time shorter.
Another cool feature they have in there is one of the world's only two interactive large Nike history touch screens, where you can choose pics and movies, which show you Nike's history and the life of the brand.

After the NIKEiD shop I also visited the "normal" Nike shop, which is on the first floor or let's say in the first container layer. It's also very cool and they had a lot of very new products and styles I haven't seen in other Nike stores. Another shop assistant showed me the new Nike "augmented reality" iPad app, where you can open a shoe box and have a 3D look at the newest model, which was more fancy than useful, but still amazing.

Before I left, I also explored the dancing screen, which recognizes temperature and therefore creates an image of you with green and red bubbles. At the end of your dance you get a code, which allows you to download the movie or share it on Facebook and Twitter. Or share it on your blog...

That's Brand Experience!

Red Bull Canimation

When I saw this video in the cinema, I had to cry. Not even the most dramatic movie can trigger these emotions in me, but that short "behind the sciences" film just hit me. I know that clever marketing guys are behind this film and I know that it is built up to get to the heart of the people, but I still just could not help it. Red Bull is usually rather known to support extreme sports and crazy athletes, but Canimation is a different kind of sponsoring. I just love when enthusiastic and motivated young people get a chance to show their creativity and get the recognition for it. 

Red Bull somehow found a way to support people who are dedicated in what they're doing and at the same time profit from it also commercially. This is pure brand building and Red Bull managed to turn these millions of marketing spend into profit and into a brand, which is so valuable.

Canimation was a competition and Red Bull welcomed all creative people to enter with an animation, which used the blue and silver can as inspiration. The results of the winners can be viewed on http://canimation.redbull.co.uk/

Video Game Industry Outgrows Film and Music

Recently I was in the cinema and saw a trailer for "Assassin's Creed: Revelations". During the trailer I thought, wow I need to watch that movie. Until I realized it's not a trailer for a movie, but an advertisement for a video game. It happened to me again, when I saw the poster in the tube and the thought came up: didn't I see that trailer? Must be an awesome movie. I even tried to google, in which cinema I could see it. Then I realized that I have been confused before and that my mind tricked me again. The poster just looked so much like a movie ad.

The way video games are advertised becomes more and more similar to film advertising and the budget they spend to market a new game must also reach the sums for Hollywood blockbusters. This has also its reason. Without really being noticed by the media, the video game industry started to outgrow the film and music industry. The global video game industry was worth $66 billion in 2010, while the global box-office results for film in 2010 was only $31.8 billion. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3", a shooter video game took $775 million in the first five days after its release, which you can compare to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II", the highest-grossing film of 2011 and and its $202 million it made in the first five days.

The video game industry takes therefore place in the first row of the entertainment business and its growth predictions are even more exciting.
No wonder that also brands start to discover product placement in video games.

London Street Art

One thing still surprises me about London. The streets and walls are very clean. Even in small cities in other European countries (I consciously don't just talk about 'Europe', as if the UK would not belong to it...) the streets are full of graffiti, and I don't talk about nice graffiti, but rather about useless tags and signs, which cover pretty everything from bins to street lamps to doors and of course transformer boxes. But London seems to be almost untroubled by the big black marker.

This gives space to something much more creative and valuable for the society: Street Art. If you walk through Shoreditch, Brick Lane or Camden Town you'll find all the time new surprises, sometimes hidden so you can only notice it when you're very observant.

You'll find Street Art also in museum shops and design bookshops, but I still think Street Art is just best enjoyed where it belongs, in the street. There it is also exposed to the surrounding and the constant change, although it is definitely a shame, when you want to see a picture again and it's covered by something else.

A very interesting development is brands, which started to use Street Art or maybe Street Art, which started to use advertising? Sometimes it's not so easy to distinguish. It does not work for all brands of course, but where the brand has already a connection to the street and where the target group is the same, street art advertising works very well and is a wonderful bridge between art and commerce. Most of the pieces are unique and imbedded in the environment. The brand therefore can start a conversation with the people enjoying it and can very well represent its personality.

The examples I would like to show you now have all vanished already. Next time I see one, I'll post it...

Absolut Pureté

Absolut Vodka and the German artist Simon Schubert collaborated together to create a print ad for an Avenue de l'Opera bus shelter in Paris. But wait, you can't call it a print ad, because there is no print. No ink and no paint, just the paper folded creating shadows and notches. This merges into an amazing picture of vodka bottles and it definitely looks "pure".

Advertising regularly uses creative or even artistic tools and utilises them to commercialise a product. I would definitely not call all the ads out there pieces of art, but some of them are indeed creative maserpieces. This Absolut poster from Simon Schubert is a very good example and will most likely have the desired effect for the advertiser and will be shared and liked on social media platforms. That's also the only way for Absolut to reach the mass consumers, since the pure poster is a unique copy.

Enjoy the video supporting the campaign: