Switch would travel the world for its clients – literally. A Switch crew of three recently set off on an 18-day trip beginning in Atlanta, GA and New York, NY in the United States, then traveling to India, Turkey, the United Kingdom, China and Japan – a total of 27,000 miles or 60 hours of air flight – to film actors around the world demonstrating the use of products manufactured by NCR Corporation.

Switch was hired by NCR Corporation, the world’s leading provider of ATM’s, to produce eight videos that would be shown at the corporation’s new training facility in Peachtree City, GA, just south of Atlanta. NCR’s new Services Center of Excellence, co-locates NCR’s Global Service Parts headquarters, its Americas Customer Care Center hub and the NCR University training center, all of which support key self-service and assisted-service technologies used by major banks, retailers, telecommunications, travel, entertainment and healthcare companies across North America and Latin America. The videos were debuted at the facility’s official opening on Nov. 30.

The objective was twofold: produce media to train service technicians around the world as well as demonstrate to potential customers how cutting edge NCR’s technology is. In other words, showcase what NCR’s solutions can do for their customers’ customers.

The first video, “Day in the Life,” shows consumers in various locations around the world, such as grocery stores, shopping centers and hospitals, using NCR’s products. The video is displayed in the facility’s main lobby. Switch also developed content for an iWall display in the same lobby that communicates NCR’s global presence and vast service offerings. The strategy behind ‘Day in the Life’ was to create a very organic (real life) video showing how NCR products and solutions play a vital role and simplify the challenges between businesses and their consumers on a daily basis. It showcases the many business verticals that NCR has products and solutions for, as well as how attractive these products are to the consumers because they simply make their lives easier.

Switch also produced seven “Worlds” videos that illustrate each of the seven industries that NCR Corporation services and the product solutions the company offers to accommodate each of those industries.

The key to maximizing efficiency on the ground was the pre-planning. The Switch team was put in charge of writing scripts for each video, helping to identify customer locations around the world to film, selecting and hiring talent in each country, and finally producing the videos. The 16 actors selected for the videos represented a wide-range of ethnic backgrounds, genders and ages – from 7 to 65 years old.

All of the talent was arranged ahead of time via email and the production crew used a new state-of-the-art hand-held, tapeless camera to move around quickly, while capturing a natural, organic feel in the filming. Translators, secured in each country, assisted the production crew with its tasks.

We worked closely with our client, Blake Cole, who was an integral part of the planning and implementation of the entire production. Blake worked closely with our team to help create messaging that was closely aligned with NCR’s brand promise.

So, in a little over 60 days we took an idea of international breadth and delivered on the Switch promise.

Jessica Hutson, marketing communications manager, offers tips for integrating social media into live events.

Stock Building Supply – International Builders Show – Las Vegas, NV

We’ve all been there, well, most of us have. On the tradeshow floor surrounded by thousands of fast-moving-fast-talking industry folk looking to jet through their agenda in order to make that 2pm tee time. As you look around you also notice the vast difference in the landscape. It’s like a mini city with distinct neighborhoods – one side of town you have your swanky multi-million dollar structures w/ high-priced talent and dancing waterfalls, and on the other you have the low-budget shanty town of popup tents and card tables. On one side you have triple padded carpet and manicured salesmen, while on the other you get a suitcase display, blue jeans and everything in between. Despite the drastic differences in size and aesthetic, there is one commonality among all exhibitors: they usually spend too much time standing alone.

Engagement. This was the word at the top of the whiteboard when we began planning for Stock Building Supply’s booth at the 2010 International Builders Show. The first step was to abandon the tag of ‘tradeshow booth’ for our environment. We were not designing a ‘booth’, we were creating an Experiential Business Engagement Environment. After all, if engagement was our goal, we needed something compelling and interactive, an experience worth remembering and a story worth telling.

That’s when it hit us…Anti-Gravity Racecars on a 20 ft tall track. What you ask, did this have to do with Stock Building Supply and their uncompromising ability to deliver lumber to jobsites on time and in full? Everything. It’s called the Perfect Order®, this is what SBS hangs their hat on. Their patented fleet management system allows them to guarantee your order arrives on time and in full – in other words a perfect order. Show goers were invited to race against time and each other for their chance to win great prizes and bragging rights…after they spoke to an SBS representative and relinquished some qualifying information that is. Keeping it relevant, the course was designed to navigate around such order-busting obstacles as: insufficient inventory, burglary, wrong directions, communication breakdown, etc.

The booth was packed…I mean, our Experiential Business Engagement Environment was jumpin’. The fire marshal stopped by twice to clear the human blockage our booth was creating in the aisles. Even the SBS brass that normally spend most of the show in off-site conference rooms, were permanent fixtures in front of the track. It was like a feeding frenzy. People wanted to race, but while they were waiting they were more than happy to talk business. And there it is…by purchasing $15 AirHog racecars and sticking them on a wall, we engaged the consumer long enough to be sorted, qualified, and befriended. We were one of the popular kids at the party…and at no point were we ever standing alone.

On New Year’s Eve 2009, Budweiser didn’t just broadcast content on a high-profile LED billboard. It engaged a live, captive audience in Times Square 18 times throughout the day with 90-second mini-events.

People attending the festivities in Times Square arrived early to hold their position for the party yet to come, and thanks to Budweiser, they didn’t have to wait until midnight to start celebrating. Every hour on the hour, starting at 7:00 am, the 70’x40’x5’ Budweiser spectacular in the heart of New York City’s Times Square led the anxious crowd in celebrating as the clock struck midnight in Tokyo, Belgium and 15 other major cities across the globe. At midnight, the Budweiser countdown became a focal point for the hundreds of thousands attending in person and for the more than one billion people watching on television worldwide.

As an added feature this year, Budweiser wanted to convey the social camaraderie of the brand and the new “It’s What We Do” brand message. Throughout the evening the board featured consumers enjoying Budweiser product in local bars as well as those celebrating in the street. This content was refreshed throughout the evening, allowing consumers to see themselves and their friends larger than life on the LED board.

The full-motion, high-energy Budweiser countdowns, as well as other original content, was produced by Switch on behalf of Anheuser-Busch InBev. The content was run, down to the precise second, from a Switch laptop computer there in the Square.

“Budweiser’s World Countdown allowed us to connect with those consumers in Times Square, while promoting our message as a global brand,” commented Marianne Radley, Sr. Program Manager for Anheuser-Busch. “We enhanced our New Year’s Eve messaging by including video of loyal Budweiser consumers enjoying the King of Beers.”

The objective of the 2009 Budweiser Spectacular World Countdown campaign was to engage the Times Square audience with the Budweiser brand. The result was an all-day party hosted by Budweiser. Hey, it’s what they do.

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Elsevier, a company dedicated to providing every doctor with the best and most accurate information possible, was looking to make an impact.  The Switch team saw no better and more relevant partner than Doctors Without Borders, as both organizations strive for the advancement of global healthcare.  Playing off the already established Elsevier MD Consult tag “It’s All You Need” the campaign shifted to “It’s All You Need to Make a Difference” and paired it with a 1-for-1 offer to physicians.  For every individual subscription of MD Consult, Elsevier would donate a subscription to Doctors w/o Borders.

We used several unique media pieces to round out the campaign.  The offer was promoted via emails, banner ads and Facebook promotions that steered interested physicians to the 1-for-1 microsite.  The site featured an interactive map where doctors could explore and experience the work of their colleagues abroad. There was a running meter at the bottom of the page that displayed the programs progress.

So how’d it go you ask?  In just over a month and a half, 351 doctors subscribed to MD Consult, and in case you don’t understand what 1-for-1 means, that equated to 351 subscriptions for Doctors w/o Borders.  The organization then distributed those subscriptions to their clinics, tents, teepees and bunkers across the globe.  Access to the latest, most authoritative medical library anywhere, at any time, is truly the gift that keeps on giving to these volunteers abroad.

Rightfully so, Elsevier attracted a great deal of publicity for the promotions and the MD Consult brand – even snatching a write-up in the Wallstreet Journal Online.

But make no mistake, this was no PR stunt.  Better information for doctors across the globe…better care for worldwide victims of war and disaster…and a 44% increase in sales for our client.  That’s how you make a difference.

Information technology solutions? Perhaps it’s not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of fun or exciting business. However, Savvis, Inc, with the help of Switch, succeeded in making services like managed (web) hosting, collocation and network connectivity, understandable, consistent, and even entertaining.

After re-branding their corporate headquarters, Savvis recognized the value of extending their image to other locations. With millions of square feet devoted to computer servers all over the US and across the globe, the Savvis datacenters house, protect, maintain and upgrade their customers’ valuable servers. They keep networks and websites running and enable important global commerce.

Data isn’t the only thing these locations house; both Savvis and client’ employees work at them year round. In addition, the datacenters are often the first point of contact that prospective clients see as they tour with Savvis salespeople. Because of this, the datacenters represent the face of the company much of the time.

Before the interior branding project began, many of the office spaces were rather anonymous and cold, devoid of all but the most basic and slapdash identity—not a place you would happily anticipate going to work every day. Inconsistent and somewhat drab, it was hard to identify the spaces as part of the Savvis family.

With the goals of upgrading the spaces, injecting the company’s personality and unifying the look and feel, a plan was created to communicate the Savvis’ identity, and make both clients and employees feel valued.

Knowing that budgets where tight, and dollars available for branding would fluctuate by location, Switch proposed a catalog of interior branded elements to communicate and extend the new identity. Design elements included: paint and carpet recommendations, custom furniture and finishes, and a variety of graphics, signage and interior accessories like clocks, vases and mirrors. Our proposition: “Don’t say you’re committed to quality by hanging a framed poster from Successories.; show you’re committed to quality by creating something of quality.”

To do this, Switch visualized Savvis’ brand characteristics; innovative, energetic, personal, simplifying, secure and trustworthy …through the idea of “capturing light”. It became a visual metaphor for the intangible aspect of information technology itself. The vast majority of the design elements were more subtle and integrated, but the Savvis “burst” logo is obviously important and proved to be very versatile. Switch gave the logo a range of looks: enlarged, cropped and abstracted, turned sculptural, screened back on a photographic image. Recognizable? Yes. Standard and expected? No.

In 2009 Switch completed Savvis Headquarters and 6 datacenters. Twelve more datacenters will be completed in 2010, and the balance in 2011. In these times when everybody has been cutting back, it was a bold acknowledgement by Savvis of the importance of building and sustaining brand equity through design.

Switch CEO, Mike O’Neill, shares his views on what our annual Employee Field Day means to the agency and to our brand.

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New to Market? Do what Southwest Airlines did and have a tailgate party for the die-hard football fans of Milwaukee. Make it comfy and fun, grill some brats, provide cold brew, give-away great prizes like free airline tickets and you’ve got a party!

Nearly 1,000 people attended Southwest Airlines’ free Touchdown Milwaukee party on Nov. 1 to commemorate the airline’s new service out of Milwaukee and to support its recent ad campaign “Bags Fly Free” encouraging air travel with fee free bag checking. Southwest Airlines had a vision. They wanted a substantial tailgate party for the big game to inaugurate the 12 new daily flights from Milwaukee and to show Milwaukee fans the value and benefits that their flight service provides.

The strategically branded event included a large 120’ x140’ enclosed heated tent, with an 18’x24’ rear projection screen, which broadcasted the live game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in Wisconsin. Bleachers, bar top tables, picnic tables, as well as two VIP areas with comfy leather chairs offered plenty of seating and optimal viewing…almost like sitting in your own living room! To accommodate additional attendees, an outdoor viewing area boasted an 18’x24’ LED along with outdoor fire pits to keep the die-hard fans warm.

Switch had only two weeks to execute the event so it was all hands on deck, everyone stepped in and worked around the clock to secure all the details which contributed greatly to the success of the project. The amount of collaboration between Switch and Southwest Airlines’ representatives was tremendous, and everything fell into place…location, vendors, messaging, etc. Then, at the event site is where the true mark of a great agency is tested. Our client witnessed first hand how the great folks of Switch and our suppliers partnered together to over come every obstacle imaginable.

The weather was perfect and sunny, even though it rained for 2 weeks prior to the event, which caused some challenges with the wet and muddy grass. Despite the challenges, everyone seemed to really enjoy the event. Though the Green Bay Packers lost to the Minnesota Vikings, tailgate partygoers stayed for the entire event and really enjoyed themselves. There was plenty of food and drinks, great commercial break entertainment provided by two local DJ’s, a lot of free prizes. To close the event in a special way, Gary Kelly, CEO, arrived to thank the SWA and Switch team personally.

Chances are you’re not getting enough protein in your diet. Chances are you’re not getting enough of a lot of things these days. But a fun and functional interaction isn’t one of them if you come across a Muscle Milk Sampling Team in action. Unlike most sampling programs, the goal for Muscle Milk is not to be everything to everybody. It is not their goal to wander aimlessly wearing metallic jetpacks while handing out as many samples as possible to clamoring caffeine junkies. Their product serves a viable purpose that they passionately believe in. It is that passion and purpose that drives the Muscle Milk sampling experience and ultimately the consumer purchase. In other words – it’s their identity.

When it comes to focused sampling, Muscle Milk has a clear vision of who their target audience is and even deeper insight into the many different ways that one may benefit from their product. But how do you share that information in a fun, credible and memorable way? That was the question on the whiteboard when Muscle Milk called on Switch to help staff and handle the logistics behind their 2009-10 sampling program. Knowing a thing or two about sampling programs, we were able to create an effective game plan specific to the desires of Muscle Milk and their target consumer. Our goal was simple: be in the right place at the right time with the right message…with a perfectly chilled and highly delicious enhanced beverage.

First things first – Selecting and hiring the right individuals to operate this program. Taking a page out of the old ‘Saturn’ business plan – we weren’t simply looking for individuals w/ beverage sampling or sales experience. In fact, we avoided them. Muscle Milk came up w/ a list of personal attributes (both mental and physical) that exemplified their brand and product. Working with Brand Area Marketing Managers from Muscle Milk we were able to identify and ultimately hire the perfect candidates in each market to become members of the Protein Education Team (PET). These folks walk the talk because they’re legit – and that’s what a credible sampling program is built around.

The PET’s and their custom Jeep Wrangler’s have been out on the streets since July attending and sponsoring events, conducting promotions and giving out samples of Muscle Milk. They’re currently operating in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Portland, Miami and Baltimore/Washington, D.C., and plans are in the works for 7 more markets to be included during 2010. And you can be sure the Muscle Milk sales team is eagerly awaiting their arrival.

There is nothing like meeting face-to-face when an organization needs to regroup, recharge and rekindle their collective force. Building relationships can require more than web and internal communications initiatives. Sometimes, you just need to look the other person in the eye. Anheuser-Busch leveraged this opportunity when they invited wholesalers home to St. Louis for their annual planning meeting.

October 5th the brewery hosted 5000 wholesalers and employees to a Homecoming party that ran 8 blocks of Pestalozzi Street in St. Louis. The goal was to celebrate the heritage that has made A-B a force to be reckoned with and move forward into the next phase of their shared success.

Switch brought the brewery alive in a way it has never been seen before. This was the first time for many wholesalers visiting the brewery in spite of the many family-owned businesses. In the words of one guest, “When we got off the bus onto the red carpet and were handed a day fresh Bud, it really made you stop and think how proud we should be”. That is the pay-off of face-to-face!

Rather than create a new environment with tents or less attractive structures, Switch looked to the stunning architecture already in place. The buildings were lit with warm tones to showcase their features and digital media was projected on the buildings.

Switch partnered with Contemporary Productions to bring local St. Louis talent to four stages. The new Olympic-branded Budweiser #9 car was revealed for the first-time by driver Kasey Kane and team owner Richard Petty to the audience. And each A-B brand highlighted the marketing programs that wholesalers could utilize for customer events.

The timing of this event was perfect for further uniting the brewer-wholesaler family and creating an unbelievably memorable event.