NBC Universal and Jack Morton integrate into CES history - 360 - Jack Morton Worldwide's Experiential Marketing Blog

March 26, 2008
NBC Universal and Jack Morton integrate into CES history

NBC Universal has a tradition of broadcasting from the epicenter of history-shaping events—thereby shifting the tides of how consumers can connect with their brand. It was no different when NBCU broadcast from the floor of the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas—the place where, in the past, products like the VCR, the compact disc and high-definition TV debuted before forever changing the lives of consumers.

NBCU became the first-ever official broadcast partner of CES and, as the only network present, pretty much guaranteed itself high visibility among attendees. NBCU therefore developed the second yet equally important goal of impressing tradeshow visitors with the network's vast content offerings in formats for HD TV, personal computers, handheld devices and other consumer electronics.

Presented with a pair of seemingly unrelated objectives, NBCU turned to their long-time partner Jack Morton, which in turn designed and built a tradeshow environment to serve as an enhanced stage for the broadcast experience. This strategy of integration also worked so that the broadcast experience enhanced the live, exhibit experience for attendees.

The Emmy Award-winning broadcast design team at Jack Morton/PDG and its sister tradeshow build specialists at Jack Morton Exhibits jumped at the chance to collaborate on this experience of broadcast-meets-tradeshow (or tradeshow-meets-broadcast).

"It was a dream opportunity," said SVP and Senior Designer Jim Fenhagen of Jack Morton's New York office, whose Emmy Award-winning Jack Morton/PDG broadcast team led the design. "The combined impact of NBCU's presence at CES and their ability to broadcast from CES was brilliant." For Fenhagen the opportunity was also very much a reflection of the client relationship: "We've done such varied work with the brand—designing broadcast sets, creating events and activating sponsorships—but this was a chance to bring it all together in one place."

Jack Morton Exhibits built the 5,400-square foot (1,646-square meter) NBCU experience. Located in the heart of the CES floor, NBCU's show environment reflected its focus on connecting with consumers through high quality content in five primary areas: Entertainment, Lifestyle, Sports/Olympics, News/Business and International. Key interactive features included a tracking monitor wall using I-Wall technology to help attendees explore NBCU content, and life-size "people totems" with moving images of NBCU stars. Other key features included two fully working live broadcast stages and interactive kiosks where free, downloadable content was available for attendees.

NBCU's bold moves at CES resulted in some big successes. Bloggers praised the strategy. Trade magazine Event Marketer named it one of the top 25 most effective CES experiences. And press generated was beyond all expectation, netting 126 million impressions—on top of all the great content generated by NBC.