'Live large while you charge' with Sony

Joss Davidge, business director of brand experience agency BEcause, continues his weekly quest for great marketing ideas.

This week he looks at how Sony gave people first-hand experience of their product at a time of need.
 
Providing a service at a time of need can be an incredibly powerful marketing approach. Being on-hand to satisfy a need and help consumers is a great way to build trust, get noticed and get people talking. Team that with novel twist on a traditional sampling campaign you have this great idea from Sony that I came across this week.
 
Alongside flip-flops, tents and an open mind, phones have become a festival staple. Not only to locate yourself and your friends amid a sea of people, but to also document the fun with photos and social posts. But phones run out of charge and when you are in the middle of a field that is a problem. Over the past few years we’ve seen more brands creating charging facilities at festivals. From DIY peddle powered charging on stationary bikes to chill out zones with a bar, bean bags and charging docs. While these are great examples of providing a service at a time of need, all require people to let go of their phone for a bit. The 'Live large, while you charge' campaign at Way Out West changed this.
 
By allowing people to borrow Sony phones to continue documenting the experience socially, people were able to try the product first hand. Not in a stale retail environment but in real life. The added competition and offer mechanisms heightened the experience and probably encouraged people to actually want their phone to run out of charge. A festival first I’m sure.  
 
Although this campaign was only run at one festival and therefore only really spoke to those in attendance, although the social reach was extended with use of #hashtags and the word of mouth potential was palpable, I think this has set a new standard for connecting festival goers with a product at a time of need. 

Nice job Sony.

Read more from Joss Davidge on our blog.