Basic Event Information

Date: 4 times a year
Location: Coal mining Museum of Slovenia
Organiser: Zavod za turizem Šaleške doline
Client: Public

EVENT CATEGORY: CATEGORY B2C
EVENT SUBCATEGORY: Best Pop-Up Event
EVENT FORMAT: LIVE

Event description and key objective

Characterised by an authentic mining setting, Velenje underground is an exceptional five-star culinary experience happening 160 m below the surface. It combines top cuisine with elements of sustainable development in the authentic environment of tangible and intangible technical and cultural mining heritage and easily satisfies each of the five senses with a genuine experience of a mining atmosphere (arched mine tunnels, dim light cast by cave lamps, the smell of coal, muffled sounds of the mining machinery and fine cuisine.) In a short span of just a few hours, the experience “transforms” the visitor into a miner and takes them on a journey through a miner’s typical workday: the gathering in the changing room, a ride in the elevator, a visit to the mine, a miner’s meal, a ride with the train, and a lift back to the surface and miners’ “black” changing room. Although the whole story is an experience of great excellence, it still allows the visitor to identify with the basic characteristics of a miner’s workday.

Key challenges

The first challenge was getting permission to organize an experience like this in a historical place where such events are usually neither common nor allowed. We recognized the venue for its captivating genuineness and the potential of drawing in more tourists who could enjoy an authentic mining experience, all the while learning about mining history and culture. Another significant challenge was bringing and serving five-star cuisine 160 metres below the surface, while still preserving its quality, scrumptiousness and lushness.

Creativity

Velenje, the city where our event takes place, grew and flourished due to the coal excavation which is still present and has an important influence on the development of the town and the region surrounding it. We managed to entwine a robust mining environment with top-notch cuisine. A five-star four-course menu “Štajgerjeva južna” makes it possible for the visitors to familiarize themselves with flavours once savoured by the miners. They get to taste a special “can” fish dish resembling miners’ brunches, a soup “My wife’s garden in a bowl” just like the one miners’ wives used to make, the main course resembling a typical miner’s meal and a special dessert “I love you St. Barbara”, named after miners’ patron saint. The robust mining environment is softened with musical accompaniment which enriches the whole experience and gives it a luxurious touch.

Innovation

Velenje Underground presents the town and its surrounding in an innovative way, allowing the visitors to experience mining culture and atmosphere which once presented a basis for the development of the city as well as its economic and social activities. It combines tangible and intangible elements of cultural and technical heritage, fine cuisine, and a taste of five-star pampering. The event also strives to promote the region and local organisations such as The Coal mining museum of Slovenia (mining part), Gorenje Gostinstvo (culinary part) or The Šalek Valley Tourist Board (organisers of the event), all of which put their best foot forward in bringing the pulse of the region closer to its visitors.

Execution

In a short span of just a few hours, the experience “transforms” the visitor into a miner and takes them on a journey through a miner’s typical workday. First, they gather and socialize in the changing room and get welcomed to the mining community with a traditional “Skok čez kožo”, an old tradition of accepting new miners among the experienced ones. After receiving their personal miner’s badge, they ride 160 metres below the surface with an elevator that takes them to the mine where they get their first glimpse of the mine. Throughout the narrow mine tunnels, they walk to the lowest-lying dining room in Europe, where they are served exquisite local cuisine. After their four-course meal, they ride the miner’s train back to the elevator that takes them back to the surface and the changing room, where they share their opinions and experiences of the event.

Measurable results

The event contributes to the promotion of the destination and simultaneously to the growth of the number of the visitors. They get to participate in a unique event, which provides fond memories for the years to come that they can share with their acquaintances. As a result, the local community is recognized more often as a tourist appealing destination which offers five-star experiences. In 2019, the event has been organised five times and received the Slovenia Unique Experience badge and the 2nd place award in the Slovenia’s Hidden Gems campaign competition organized by Radio Si. With this campaign, Radio Si presents hidden tourist gems that remain unknown to many foreign tourists who visit Slovenia. In 2020, we were selected for the BIG SEE TOURISM AWARD, handed out by the Center for creative economy of Southeastern Europe, Zavod Big. The project was also nominated for the best project (Grand Prix) in the category “Creative story and identity as an experience”.

Communication

From now on, the event Velenje Underground makes part of our regular tourist offers. As for advertising, the organisers used personal, outdoor and digital advertising, mail offers, printed ads, and published several articles in different magazines and newspapers. We expanded our advertising channels to make sure to reach more people who might be interested in the event. By encouraging them to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences among their acquaintances, friends and family, and by collecting their impressions at the end of the experience, we also managed to make our advertising more personalised, authentic and appealing.

The use of sustainable practices

Velenje Underground strives to promote cultural, historical and economical values of the Šalek Valley and contributes to the ‘green image’ and sustainability of the Valley and Slovenia. The event is an authentic experience with old-fashioned values and successfully revives old mining cultural customs and traditions and promotes local cuisine. As such, it representatively contributes to 5-star Slovenian experiences.

Basic Event Information

Date: 2021
Location: Online (online SACO fair)
Organiser: Brand Arena Nordic Group AB
Client: Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten)

EVENT CATEGORY: CATEGORY B2C
EVENT SUBCATEGORY: Best Brand Activation
EVENT FORMAT: DIGITAL

Event description and key objectives

Digital Escape Room project at the online Saco fair for The Armed Forces.

The Armed Forces is a Swedish authority whose ultimate task is to preserve the country’s freedom and protect our right to choose how we should live. Prior to the Swedish Armed Forces’ participation in Saco’s student fair, BANG Agency was commissioned to be responsible for the booth. In order to attract the target group, we needed to stand out from the crowd. Among the young target group, The Armed Forces could be seen as a “boring” and “strict” authority. We wanted to change this perception and move The Armed Forces identity into the future – to the younger people, online. We created a digital escape room – an exciting collaborative exercise where students got to do something fun, and at the same time got connected to employees at The Armed Forces. The concrete, measurable goal was to have an occupancy of 50% for all slot times, i.e. an average of 2.5 participants per slot time.

Key challenges

The purpose of the Armed Forces’ participation at the Saco fair was to increase knowledge of the Armed Forces’ various offers and to be seen as a potential and interesting employer. The challenge was to interact with the visitors and to draw attention online to our digital booth. We created an appreciated digital activation that stood out from the crowd, engaged the target group, and attracted visitors to the Armed Forces’ digital booth. The activation should feel analogous and innovative, even though the fair was digital.

Creativity

With the help of research, we concluded that other exhibitors at trade fairs such as SACO don’t have any form of interactive activations, with some exceptions for seminars. Therefore, we decided to create a digital activation that engaged the target group and made the Armed Forces stand out at the fair. We would also bring awareness to our activation by making a cool ad on SACO’s start page. During our customer journey, we realized that it was important to create a fun and unexpected digital activation that would appeal to all genders. We came up with the idea to create a digital Escape Room – an exciting collaborative exercise that tests a lot of skills you also need with The armed forces as an employer; quick on your feet, quick-thinking, good collaboration skills and time management. Digital Escape rooms are a popular activity within the target group in real life, and we, therefore, believed it would attract the target group to a new context in a digital space.

Innovation

The solution was innovative and fun, perfect for the target group. Moreover, the secret message “future” also led to a natural conversation between the Armed Forces to talk to the young people who participated in the activity. They could ask all the questions they wanted, high and low and of course ask about their future vision and whether they see the Armed Forces as a potential employer. If the student didn’t see the Armed Forces as an interesting employer in the future before, they maybe can after this activation.

Execution

Visitors booked a playing time and, via zoom, met a professional soldier stationed in a dark office. We had set up a landing page which you were redirected to when you clicked on our digital ad. Once on the landing page, there was a booking system where you could choose a slot time. When the activation started, the soldier held a quick summary and instructions and informed them that in the end there would be time for them to ask questions. Then the clock started, and their problem-solving ability was tested as visitors would instruct the military to find hidden letters. Before the time runs out, they must have found all the letters and combined them to find the secret message. The secret message was the word “future”. This, in turn, led to a natural conversation between the Armed Forces to talk to the young people who participated in the activity and ask about their future vision and whether they see the Armed Forces as a potential employer in the future.

Measurable results

The concrete, measurable goal was to have an occupancy of 50% for all slot times, i.e. an average of 2.5 participants per slot time. We had 53 slots distributed over the three days of the fair. We had 206 participants who actively participated in the activation via zoom. It gave us an average of 3.8 participants per slot time, and we exceeded our goal in every conceivable way because the activity was so popular! With its 1385 clicks, the ad for the Escape room was also the Saco fair’s most clicked ad ever.

Communication

Except for great measurable results, we also got to have 53 good quality talks, one at the end of every slot time, and received very good feedback from the participants.

The use of sustainable practices

During the talks with the visitors, The Armed Forces had the opportunity to talk about their social and economical sustainability work focused on work environment, procurement, gender equality and circular economy. The sustainability work is based on the UN’s global goals for sustainable development according to Agenda 2030, and Sweden’s environmental goals. According to the mapping that the Swedish Armed Forces has done to identify how the authority works with sustainability, it is clear that the authority affects and contributes positively to most of the seventeen goals in Agenda 2030.

Basic Event Information

Date: 2021
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Organiser: Brand Arena Nordic Group AB
Client: UNICEF

EVENT CATEGORY: CATEGORY B2C
EVENT SUBCATEGORY: Best CSR Event
EVENT FORMAT: LIVE

Event description and key objectives

As a consequence of Covid-19, we wash our hands like never before. We know that it’s important to stop the spread of infection. But not all people have the same opportunity to deal with the pandemic crisis as we do. Such an obvious thing as the possibility to wash your hands is not a matter of course for everyone. Something as basic as washing our hands in clean water is not possible for thousands of children in Yemen. ​We wanted to create an emotional impact by recreating the everyday situation of the vulnerable children in refugee camps. The key objectives of the event was to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where children suffer a particularly vulnerable situation due to the lack of clean water, and to raise money to help vulnerable children in Yemen. ​The goal with the campaign was to increase the numbers of Global Parents.​

Key challenges

Millions of children are on the run fleeing wars, terrorism and torture worldwide. Most of them are not able to wash their hands with soap and water. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Swedes have become more aware of their vulnerability both on a general level and specifically around the risks of infection. At the same time, the focus is primarily on one’s own situation. The challenge was to get people to shift their focus from their own vulnerability to feeling emotional for the children in Yemen. To do this, we had to stand out in the media clutter. Additionally, we had a small budget and we had to create understanding for the realities in Yemen, without actually being there​.

Creativity

In selected public restrooms in Stockholm shopping malls, we did a “take over” ​of one of the sinks. The others were left fully functioning as a contrast.​ To clearly show what the hygiene situation looks like for many vulnerable children in refugee camps, we recreated the situation of the vulnerable children. ​We turned off the water and soiled the sink with ​a foil that looked dirty and unhygienic. Made by a professional set-designer.​ By moving a small piece of everyday life in Yemen to our own everyday life, we were able to get people to stop and think in a way that creates the necessary emotional connection to donate money.​

Innovation

By moving a small piece of everyday life in Yemen to our own everyday life, we were able to get people engaged. When we talk to people in a relevant context, they are extra receptive ​to what we have to say. And when we can create an emotional response ​it increases the likelihood of action and get people to donate money to help the children in Yemen. A QR code made people donate already on site. The local suburb shopping malls were selected instead of the downtown areas since many consumers shifted their shopping habits to areas from downtown to more nearby local/regional shopping malls in their neighborhoods during the ongoing pandemic.​

Execution

​To clearly show what the hygiene situation looks like for many vulnerable children in refugee camps, we recreated the situation of the vulnerable children. We turned off the water and soiled the sink with a foil that looked dirty and unhygienic. On the mirror above the sink, we put up a message that was meant to touch the reader’s inner core: ​ “WHAT IF ALL THE DIRT COULD DISAPPEAR.​ Right now, 18 million people in Yemen are in serious need of water. The children’s vulnerability is the worst. The spread of Covid-19 is raging and the need for support ​ has never been so urgent. ​ Help the children in Yemen+ donation number and a QR code to scan for a quick donation. You could also access an emotion film via the QR code to learn more about the needs for children in Yemen. The first installation was a great success and we duplicated the installation in over 10 malls for more leverage”.

Measurable results

By moving a small piece of everyday life that prevails in Yemen to our own everyday life, we were able to get people to stop and think in a way that creates the necessary emotional connection to donate money. The installation was up for a month and was seen by many visitors. The results were great with many reactions and helped increase donations to help the children in Yemen. ​ ​ Over 300.000 Stockholmers experienced the creative event installation in various shopping malls. Over 500.000 Euro was raised by the event campaign during one month of event activation. ​A record for this type of event campaign. ​The total cost of the event project was only 20.000 Euro so the return of investment was great for Unicef.

Communication

The event campaign also strengthened the awareness of Unicef during an important period of the year (the Christmas charity giving period). Unicef got both positive PR and thousands of positive comments in social media during ​the campaign period.

The use of sustainable practices

Contaminated water and poor sanitation are among the leading causes of death for children under 5. Without proper water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), children face an increased risk of preventable diseases and suffer malnutrition, stunting and other critical health issues. Lack of sanitation and hygiene undermines progress in other areas of development too, like education and gender equality. With the help of this event, UNICEF worked against the sustainable development goal to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (SDG 6).