IFA 2008

Credits & Description:

Type of Entry: Environmental Design
Category: Environmental Design: Semi-Permanent
Title: SONY @ IFA 2008
Advertiser/Client: SONY EUROPE
Product/Service: SONY ELECTRONICS & ENTERTAINMENT
Entrant Company: FREESTATE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Design/Advertising Agency: FREESTATE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Creative Credits
Name Company Position
Adam Scott Freestate Chief Creative Director
Charlotte Boyens Freestate Creative Director
Ben Johnson Freestate Client Director
Jeremy Hutchison Freestate Associate Creative Director/Content
Morris Lyda Freestate Producer
Kathrin Jacobsen Freestate /Kathrin Jacobsen Head Of Graphics
Gitta Gschwendtner Gitta Gschwendtner Exhibition Designer
Details
Brief Explanation:
Sony is an amalgam of the biggest names and entities in consumer electronics and entertainment. Individual product groups and operating companies are sector dominant, with their own significant brands and identities. Rarely are they ‘made real’ as a single, unified entity; rarely do they attempt to lead with an overarching brand expression. The concept needed to be strong and striking and work equally for a combined trade and consumer audience of over 200,000 people. It needed to be functional and inspirational. It needed to be a place to connect with the Sony brand.
Describe the brief from the client:
IFA: the world’s largest consumer electronics trade fair. Berlin, August 2008. Sony required an exhibition and event that: - Helped unite their myriad of products, technologies and content around a single idea, that together they represent the future of digital entertainment. - Inspired and excited visitors to help redefine how people engaged with the brand.
Description of how you arrived at the final design:
We flipped the traditional exhibition format, replacing an emotionless grid with a place of wonder, encouraging people to play and explore. It was a warm, human and inspiring place, transformed by Sony product, content and technologies; an expression of the brand. The White Wood dwarfed an exhibition hall in a forest of immaculate white trees. With colossal mirrors flanking opposing walls, a glance through the wood became an endless visual echo. Space blended with reflection, products blended with content, the public blended with flash mobs. The effect was a united offering for the brand: digital entertainment; where fiction and reality blurs.
Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market:
Sony’s sales targets significantly exceeded. Average time on the Sony booth – 24 minutes. The stand was 3x as popular as its nearest competitor. 41% voted Sony as the best exhibitor.