BRAND EXPERIENCE 407dimension and customers can be engaged creatively. Lego, for example, stimulates not only
kids to think creatively with their hands, but also grown-ups. Lego invented LEGO® Serious
Play®, a thinking, communicating and problem-solving technique that helps companies
make better decisions through structured play activities using Lego toys. In a three-hour
workshop, every person at the table is asked to build a model of leadership, a new product
innovation, a model for future growth or a model of corporate culture. Next, participants
tell a story about what they have built. Everybody is engaged and actively participates in
the discussion. LEGO Serious Play has been successfully employed for team-building and
problem-solving purposes in several organisations such as NASA, Royal Bank of Canada, and
in academic and public settings.^109
Th ink campaigns can also be used to activate consumers’ conscience, to make them
rethink common practices and old assumptions.^110 Th e Fair Trade brand, for example, makes
people reconsider current prices and makes them realise that farmers of Th ird World coun-
tries need a fair wage for their crops. As another example, the Flemish radio channel Studio
Brussels launched the ‘we do give a shit’ campaign to make people aware of the silent disaster
of diarrhoea worldwide. Besides educating people about the problem, Studio Brussels was
able to engage the Flemish population to raise money in crazy ways: by playing music,
weight-loss contests, making calendars, study marathons, etc. Despite the fi nancial crisis,
more than €7 million was raised.^111 In conclusion, making people think can be very benefi cial
for many brands as thinking leads to stronger brand traces in memory, making it more likely
that the brand will be recalled and chosen in a future purchase situation (see also Chapter 2 ).More and more criminals escape conviction in South Africa because citizens disturb crime scene evidence. To make
people aware of the problem and to educate the public that they should never interfere with a crime scene, an
interactive DNA project was launched. A large floor board was installed in Cape Town train station featuring the
face of a criminal and underneath the picture the slogan ‘Disturbing a crime scene makes it impossible to identify
the criminal’. The floor board was made of short-lasting material. Therefore, after a couple of hours of people walk-
ing across it, the criminal’s identity disappeared. The activation engaged thousands of people. Many of them asked
the DNA project representatives questions about the project while others took pictures. To all, the message was
clear: ‘never disturb a crime scene’. The project was also largely covered by the press so that a wide audience were
reached.^112BUSINESS INSIGHT
Don’t mess with the crime sceneAct
Act campaigns aim to create physical experiences and/or stimulate changes in longer-term
patterns of behaviour or lifestyles.^113 Whereas behavioural change can be rational in nature
such as proposed by the Th eory of Planned Behaviour (‘Public transportation is environ-
mental friendly’, ‘My peers have a positive attitude towards public transportation’ and ‘I know it
is easy for me to take public transportation’, so ‘from now on, I’m going to my work by public
transportation’), lifestyle and behavioural changes are oft en more motivational and emo-
tional in nature.^114 Th erefore, brand experiences could be more successful in engendering
such changes than non-interactive, mass communications. In its Climacool campaign,
Adidas provided youngsters with such a behavioural experience, trying to increase their
interest in running and make them more sportive (see below).M12_PELS3221_05_SE_C12.indd 407M12_PELS3221_05_SE_C12.indd 407 5/6/13 2:58 PM5/6/13 2:58 PM