Case Study: NYC Experiential Marketing, The Economist Way
Last week, the TrivWorks team once again had the incredible honor of partnering with The Economist, one of the world’s most important and highly-respected news and international affairs publications, to produce an extremely fun, engaging & highly customized pub quiz night as an experiential marketing activity in NYC!
Founded in 1843 and with a worldwide weekly circulation of 1.5 million, The Economist is an esteemed and exceedingly influential magazine, offering a breadth and depth of coverage not matched by any other news source. Their online presence is equally impressive, featuring not only every article in the print edition going back 15 years, but an eye-popping 22 blogs as well – all of which may be easily accessed through user-friendly digital and mobile apps designed for both SmartPhone and tablet use. A rabid fan base of nearly 1 million Facebook fans and 1.7 million Twitter followers also engages regularly with the brand and with each other, sharing articles, insight and feedback.
As with our previous Economist pub quiz nights using trivia for brand engagement in NYC & elsewhere, the purpose of the event was to reward an invited group of loyal and potentially new Economist stakeholders with an “offline” entertainment event. Designed to be both social and educational, we would test attendees’ knowledge of not only current events, world affairs and pop culture, but the brand, its products and capabilities as well!
Following a comprehensive customization meeting, we worked hand in hand with The Economist’s brand marketing & special events teams to develop a series of challenging trivia questions tailored specifically for the group in attendance. Upon arrival at our private upstairs room at a midtown pub – resplendently decked out in The Economist’s trademark bright red, including branded signage and custom-made coasters & cocktail napkins – the entire group was encouraged to grab a drink and mingle, while staff clad in appropriately bright-red Economist T-shirts handed out branded answer sheets and pens.
Once the group was broken down into their teams, we dived in to 6 rounds of themed trivia, with 10 questions per round. After our host read out each question over the microphone, teams were given a moment to collaborate before writing answers down. Being that this was an informal pub quiz, not only were teams encouraged to be as humorous and creative with their team names and knowingly-wrong answers as possible, but they were invited to heckle throughout the event as well (provided they were funny, of course).
In between each round, while our staff collected answer sheets and tabulated scores, we tuned the music back up and encouraged attendees to stand up, grab another drink and mingle with others in attendance. By the end of the evening the entire room was in a fever pitch, eagerly awaiting the final results of who won. After raffling off some additional branded prizes, the winning team was announced, and the grand prize was awarded!
On behalf of the TrivWorks team, I would like to once again thank the incredibly imaginative and professional brand marketing and special events teams at The Economist who make these highly memorable, impactful experiential marketing & brand engagement events possible. Seeing a venerated institution such as this go to such lengths to actively engage & reward its stakeholders, both online and offline, is as impressive as it is inspiring, and we look forward to many more successful events with them in the future!