Last week we helped Yorkshire Tea stage its first piece of major experiential activity with a press event aboard the Orient Express, designed to allow journalists, bloggers and loyal brand fans to celebrate the joys of a proper brew together.

“The Yorkshire Tea Train” (#TeaOnTheTrain) is part of a wider promotional campaign for Yorkshire Tea, building on the celebratory tone of the brand’s latest TV ads.

Two hundred key influencers, journalists, bloggers and Friends of Yorkshire Tea were invited to the party.  Festivities began with tea and live music in the Orient Express lounge at Victoria Station, which had been transformed into the Yorkshire Tea Train lounge. 

Guests were then welcomed on board the historic train for a fun-filled, three-and-a-half hour journey through the countryside that celebrated “a proper brew” with a host of tea-related activities including making tea-cocktails and talks from tea sommeliers. Attendees were also able to dance the length of the train with an on board marching band.

Using RFID tagged tickets, each attendee was then given a personalised mock broadsheet newspaper that featured a photograph of them at the event and contained content that fortified the brand message.

Sharon Richey, CEO at BEcause comments:

“Yorkshire Tea has been a brilliant, fun brand to work with. The Yorkshire Tea Train allowed guests to experience the brand’s refreshing ethos first hand.  It was specifically designed to bring guests into Yorkshire Tea’s world and to thank them for their continued support for the brand.”

Yorkshire Tea’s marketing director, Simon Eyles also comments:

“This event is the first piece of major experiential activity for Yorkshire Tea and we are thrilled to be able to share it with so many of our loyal fans, some of whom go to extraordinary lengths to show us how much they love a proper brew. By including them alongside bloggers, journalists and key influencers, we were able to provide genuine, feel-good insight into the world of Yorkshire Tea.”

We are fast approaching the launch of the Yorkshire Tea Train, an experiential campaign we have created with Yorkshire Tea, which will celebrate “a proper brew” aboard the historic Orient Express. 

On the 24^th of April two hundred key influencers, journalists, bloggers and Friends of Yorkshire Tea will come aboard for the #TeaOnTheTrain experience, a fun-filled three-and-a-half hour experiential journey.

Guests will be invited to take part in a host of activities such as creating tea-infused cocktails and dancing to a live marching band as the iconic train makes its way through the countryside.

The Yorkshire Tea Train is part of a wider promotional campaign for Yorkshire Tea, building on the celebratory tone of the brand’s latest TV ads.

Keep tabs on the event by following the #TeaOnTheTrain hashtag on Twitter and check out the Yorkshire Tea blog.

We have launched a 190 day experiential sampling campaign designed to encourage consumers to try Danone’s new yogurt brand Danio, a new range of super thick and super tasty strained yogurts.

An eye-catching Airstream trailer, decked out in Danio colours, is offering shoppers the chance to sample six mouth-watering flavours of Danio in an area evocative of the approaching spring and summer, with bright colours and beach umbrellas.  Well-informed brand ambassadors are on hand to drive key brand messages and instigate conversations about Danio whist handing out samples and discount coupons.

The campaign will run until August and will visit Tesco, Asda, Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s stores nationwide with the aim to deliver over 300,000 samples and inspire thousands of brand conversations.

Anna Bradshaw, Account Director here at BEcause comments:

“Danio is a super thick and super tasty strained yogurt that is high in protein and low in fat.  By embarking on an extensive sampling campaign we hope to introduce shoppers to Danio and allow them to experience the product first hand.  It’s a great way to get people talking, build trust and drive purchase of this excellent product in a cluttered market.”

The Danio range of low fat, high protein strained yogurts was launched in January 2013 and comes in six flavours. It follows the launch of Danone’s Greek-style yogurt Oykos in May 2012, which was also supported by an experiential sampling  campaign devised by BEcause. 

BEcause Australia opened up in sunny Sydney in 2011.  Since then two BEcause UK employees have spent time over there developing the business and learning vital skills to bring back to their work in the UK, if we can persuade them to get back on the plane! Gary Whelan, BEcause Account Manager, is currently on secondment at BEcause Australia and tells us why he thinks it’s great.

When I joined BEcause, a little less than two years ago, I didn’t think I’d be given the chance to work in a start-up environment on the other side of the world.  So you can imagine my delight when I was shipped out to share my knowledge and experience with the fledgling Sydney branch.  It has been a fantastic way to develop my skills, exercise my creativity and generally be a big prawn on a small barbie.

Apart from the sunshine and beaches and board shorts and roos and tinnies here are some of the reasons this has been a great experience for me.

Start-up environment

We are a small team and work together from conceptual thinking to pitch to delivery.  Working at what is effectively a start up with the weight of an established UK agency is brilliant.  I have also been able to help establish some of the fundamental processes, toolkits and structures based on my knowledge of how things work in the UK.

Growing industry

In the UK experiential marketing is well established whereas in Australia experiential is ‘the new kid on the block’.  Both markets are fast-paced, and competitive where ideas have to be consistently great and deliver truly bespoke service to the client in order to get noticed; but Australia’s growing industry has presented me with a great opportunity to stretch my legs and find ways to excite prospects with results-orientated experiential ideas that serve a real purpose.  

Lifestyle

It has been brilliant to experience the cultural differences between the UK and Australia first hand.  Getting under the skin of what people want here in Sydney and understanding how it is different from the UK has been an invaluable experience.  Aside from work, I am not going to deny the fact that the Sydney lifestyle is amazing and as well as obviously working hard, I have certainly made the most of what the city has to offer!

This experience has been a real eye opener and I feel that I am developing in exactly the right areas, which will be of huge benefit to my work and my team when I return to the UK.

This has been an incredible privilege for me; at first I got the feeling that BEcause may have shipped me overseas simply to get rid of me for a few months but now I realise the positive reasons behind the decision for both the agency and my own personal development.

Streuth!

We are pleased to announce that we have been appointed by LEGO®, the global toy brand, to mastermind a 9 month experiential roadshow centred around its new Legends of Chima range.

The new LEGO®: Legends of Chima™ property is set in a mythical land of magical animal tribes who compete for CHI, a valuable energy source which gives characters extraordinary powers.  The range will be brought to life through construction sets, buildable figures, board games, social content and digital gaming.

The experiential campaign will launch in March 2013 and will be live during school holidays and half terms until October.  The roadshow will visit various family locations including a two week stint over Easter at Chessington World of Adventures Resort, plus appearances at several major shopping centres and LEGOLAND® Windsor. 

Over the course of the tour, children will be invited to take the Speedorz challenge, where they can race the Chima characters in their transport pods, culminating in a grand final back at Chessington at the end of the campaign to crown the Chima Champion.

The Chima Challenge Roadshow forms part of the largest marketing campaign ever created for a LEGO brand aimed predominantly at boys.  Media partnerships, TV and cinema advertising, digital activity, online games and in-store initiatives have been fully integrated to support the launch of this home-grown IP.  Other agencies involved in the wider marketing campaign for LEGO®: Legends of Chima™ include creative agency Dazzleship, media agency Carat and PR agency Norton & Co.

Alongside the Chima activity at selected locations, we have also been tasked with creating immersive stands for LEGO’s Friends and Duplo ranges.

Katie Penfold, Business Director at BEcause, comments:

“We’re really proud to be working with such a well-loved and established brand that embraces brand experience so passionately.  The Chima range is fueled by imagination and it has been great to get creative and devise an experience that is engaging, believable and that is ultimately all about play – because that is what it’s all about!”