Week twenty-seven

Its very hard for me to assess this week without my work head on.  The Stella Artois Black Diamond event was a form of experiential marketing, which is basically a type of marketing where you are giving the consumer an experience and engaging them with the product in some sort of emotional way.  It all sounds pretty pretentious and its what I do.

Coming up with new and exciting experiences for a brand's target audience is difficult.  We like to think of ourselves as savvy and consequently want to be surprised and amazed at what products can do for us and give us.  In an over-saturated world of things there needs to be a little credibility and uniqueness in a brand to make us talk about it.

Some buzz words for you: immersive theatre. Its all the rage - well, it was.  Its been around for 3 or 4 year now and is becoming more popular in the general public's conscious with several companies doing regular productions such as Punchdrunk, Shunt and You Me Bum Bum Train.  Immersive theatre makes you experience what's going on fully by becoming part of the plot somehow. Whether its being blindfolded and heightening your senses or being chased down a dark alley with a chainsaw somehow you become embroiled in the action.

Punchdrunk is one of the companies that has been doing these interactive experiences the longest so were the obvious choice for Stella Artois who wanted to do something a little different to market their new beer Stella Artois Black.  Following on from their successful launch last year with "The Night Chauffeur", Stella returned this month with "The Black Diamond", a seven-part interactive story set in the 60's.

Last week myself and my friend Nicole found ourselves down an alley in Shoreditch and being led into a fairly non-descript building and down into a basement.  We found ourselves in a French-style living room complete with art deco furniture, girls dressed in shift dresses and Mary Janes and men in silk cravats. The attention to detail was amazing; beautiful orchids everywhere, old 60's postcards, vintage crockery - even a zany French girl lying in a bathtub of balloons.

Upstairs was probably the world's tiniest bar serving Stella Artois Black.  Well it was more like a cupboard that a few barmen were behind but nonetheless we all went to get our 2 free pints to enjoy while waiting for something to happen.  One thing I did love and not that many people noticed, but next to the mini-bar was a wall of small storage cabinets and if you put your drinks token in one of them and knocked on the door, a pint of Stella would mysteriously appear for you.

So it became apparent with all the balloons everywhere that we were all there for a surprise birthday party being held by the young hero for his girlfriend.  As the music was switched off we waited anxiously while he brought her upstairs blindfolded and I must admit I did get a little rush of warmth as  we all yelled surprise.

The revelry ended abruptly and we were told to go outside where we witnessed the hero present his girlfriend with the black diamond engagement ring in a proposal of grand romance but he dropped the ring and out of nowhere a thief appeared and ran off with the ring.  Left a bit confused and startled that was the end of it.

A great idea and a lot of detail but the problem for me was that it was all rather rushed and haphazard.  Firstly we weren't told it was a surprise birthday and didn't really know what was going on.  After a brief hiatus, yelling surprise and a quick dance to some lovely French jazz, a la St Germain we were then ushered outside.  We were told nothing and were not allowed to take our beers with us (the whole point of this lavish affair) when we all gathererd to watch the proposal and the blink if you miss it stealing of the diamond.  Then, nothing.  No going back in to retrieve the frosty cold thirst quencher on a sweaty day but left helpless, limp and frankly a bit disappointed.  

Yes that wasn't just it - there are several scenes to follow on different days but the first episode was just not gripping enough and not well organised - many of my friends including myself were emailed to say we had to re-book our slots as it had been oversubscribed and then when I went back to get further tickets the website didn't work.

I'm sorry that my experience of the Black Diamond wasn't a fully positive one as it had a lot of promise but in the end, it just didn't deliver.  Check out all the details here.

Next time I'm going to 44frocks - its a frock party where I get to try on lots of dresses, drink champagne, eat cake and generally do some exceptionally stereotypical girl things.  But I love it.