#MarketingEventsAwards 2020 highlight: BSAF places best foot forward in innovation centre launch

BASF is a chemical manufacturing company that produces an array of functional materials, across a wide range of product categories. Its key solutions includes a wide array of footwear sole technologies. As BASF endeavoured on the launch of their new footwear sole technology, extensive marketing efforts were discussed and put in place.

One of the key components was to construct and present an immersive Footwear Innovation Centre in Taiwan. It was an exciting time for BASF as they worked towards the date of June 2020 for the grand unveil of their new Footwear Innovation Centre.

Official invitations were sent out to distinguished guests, key clients and stakeholders. Elaborated press and media coverage were also put in place to hype up the new immersive centre which saw the team bag the silver for Best Virtual Events (B2B) and bronze for Best Use of Games/Contests.

Challenges

The start of 2020 saw preparations and efforts to be smooth-sailing, until the economy was hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. This resulted in the global implementation of various safety measures, including travel bans, restrictions and lock-downs to say the least.

As substantial investment was pumped in for this new centre, BASF did not wish to risk losing the anticipation and excitement of their guests by postponing the centre’s opening indefinitely. This presented BASF with an obstacle – how can it launch its new centre without any major delays?

Strategy

As the team at BASF navigated around the restrictions, it realised that it was not feasible to physically invite their esteemed clienteles to the opening of the new centre. That was when they started to explore innovative ideas with event experts Trinax on how it could still launch their new Footwear Innovation Centre, without compromising effectiveness or reach.

BASF approached Trinax, a creative technology agency, in the beginning of May to explore ways to virtually launch its new centre. The team at BASF had to rethink of how it wanted to present its new centre, through a virtual platform. After extensive discussions, both BASF and Trinax identified key components and features that will be vital to make this virtual launch a successful one.

A major success factor for the virtual launch was how the audiences will be able to navigate and explore the innovative new centre. Afterall, this was the main reason why BASF embarked on building a new Footwear Innovation Centre. Aside from that, it was also important to include insightful engagements and walk-through introduction of the entire centre during the virtual launch.

As the teams worked together closely, additional features such as gamification, live chat and Q&As were also identified as essential, to bring forward a wholistic and impactful virtual launch. BASF also decided that they wanted to split the virtual launch into two different sessions, to complement specific target audiences. With all the key components identified, the Trinax team needed to engineer the different touchpoints to come together and be presented as a seamless experience for BASF’s invited audiences.

Execution

Through in-depth research and development, Trinax was able to engineer a well-balanced and customised virtual event for BASF.

A 360-degree virtual walk-through highlighted the launch, where guests and visitors were able to browse the actual centre, to their liking.

The walk-through featured important information about BASF’s footwear technology – Infinergy. The key highlight of the centre was the biomechanics lab. This is where BASF conducts in-depth research to enhance athletic performance.

As the attendees navigated through the centre, they were engaged through a mixture of live and pre-recorded streams that simulated a real physical event launch. These streams featured opening and closing messages, walk-through introductions and Q&As.

For the speakers that spoke remotely, virtual backgrounds of the centre’s interior was implemented through the use of green screen technology. This enabled the speakers give off the impression that they were speaking from the actual centre, further simulating an actual physical launch.

Along the way, a useful live chat function was also incorporated within the platform to allow attendees to reach out to BASF should they have any enquiries. This allowed the BASF team to answer product related enquiries, which further enhanced the engagement.

During each streaming session, attendees were also presented with Q&A seamlessly fitted within the interface. The careful attention to detail and UI/UX service design was one of Trinax’s key focus. As we navigate through a society with shortened attention span, it is important to curate an experience that will keep the audiences engaged throughout. With that in mind, gamification was included in the form of an interactive quiz and polling at the end of every track.

Gamification allowed the attendees to break away from the event, and provided a fun platform for engagement. All in all, the delivery of BASF’s Footwear Innovation Centre through a virtual launch was well received by the masses, including BASF’s key stakeholders

The virtual launch of BASF’s Footwear Innovation Centre was held on 11th August. The launch was split between two sessions - morning and afternoon, and allowed BASF to tailor make each session for specific attendees. With the use of a virtual launch, BASF was also able to carry out the event, without being restricted by the current safety measures.

This allowed them to invite an unlimited amount of guests for the launch, and also gave the guests freedom in exploration through an immersive 360 tour. Another key take-away was valuable data collection. Through registrations and onboarding processes, BASF was able to collect useful, yet insensitive information of the attendees.

With this data, BASF was able to better profile their database and and generate new business leads to follow up on after the event, based on their answers to the polls, survey and quizzes. The addition of an analytical tracking system further enabled BASF the ability to track interest and engagement throughout the different segments of the event, giving them a good idea of specific products that produced higher engagement.

Result

In summary, the virtual launch of BASF’s Footwear Innovation Centre has allowed the team to embrace the use of technology in this trying period. Trinax’s suite of curated technologies and solutions enabled BASF to navigate through the pandemic, producing an unforgettable and informative virtual launch.

Related Article:
Marketing Events Awards sees new champion crowned in 2020