| USER CONFERENCE |
Company: X.commerce, an eBay Inc. company
Event: Innovate Developer Conference 2011
Objectives: Develop audience awareness and comprehension of new eBay Inc. company, X.commerce. Establish X.commerce as the leading online operating system for commerce.
Strategy: Spread awareness of the X.commerce platform while building excitement about the brand and its official launch. Execute an unforgettable conference
experience for attendees.
Tactics: Promote and sustain a strong social-media campaign, organize a nationwide bus
tour, and dispatch a branded commuter bus
to build awareness of the X.commerce launch.
Host a mind-blowing conference in San Francisco featuring multiple brand touchpoints through elaborate venue design, conference entertainment, and educational opportunities.
Results: Earned 107 million media impressions. Amassed 19,238 tweets, reaching 53.3 million Twitter followers. Reached 29,791 viewers via Ustream. Gained an 86-percent satisfaction rating from event attendees.
Creative/Production Agency: PBJS Inc., www.pbjs.com
Budget: $8 million |
 can any city sidewalk, and you'll see swarms of people with eyes cast down at their smart phones. According to a 2012 study from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), nine out of 10 U.S. consumers
own a tablet, smart phone, or cell phone, which translates to 216 million mobile-device owners. And when they're not playing "Words With Friends" or texting, you better believe those people are using their precious devices to shop. Whether they're going online to compare pricing, hunt for coupons, or make a purchase, CEA reports that more than 37 percent of mobile-device owners are engaging in some form of online commerce, and as consumers become more tech savvy, that number will only grow.
For retailers, this of course means substantial opportunity for sales, but only if they set up virtual shops in lieu of, or in addition to, their brick-and-mortar storefronts. And for those online stores to function optimally, merchants - as well as the developers who build apps and extensions to sell to those online retailers - require an easy-to-use, open platform upon which they can create, sell, and flourish.
Ebay Inc., the mecca of all online marketplaces, anticipated this need, and in 2011 cleaved a business called X.commerce - a platform that promised to revolutionize the ever-expanding world of online retail. Right off the bat, X.commerce was destined to be attractive because it combined the mammoth power of eBay and all of its acquired properties, including PayPal (which facilitates secure online monetary transactions) and Magento (a company that assists merchants in controlling the content and overall functionality of their online stores).
While most online retailers are forced to find a way to customize and align all the apps and extensions they want their virtual storefronts to feature, the X.commerce platform possesses a, well, X-factor (called X-Fabric) that would make its services as smooth and easy to consume as creamy peanut butter. X-Fabric is what essentially allows the platform to function like an infinitely long power strip that merchants can sync with, effortlessly purchasing and plugging as many apps and services into their businesses as they wish.
To pull off the freshly minted platform's official launch in October of 2011 at the Innovate Conference in San Francisco, X.commerce teamed up with Chicago-based production agency PBJS Inc. and zeroed in on the audience it needed to attract: a smattering of merchants looking to sell their wares online and a whole gaggle of geeky developers with a hankering to build new apps. It was important that the event be dominated by these developers because the more innovative apps that the techy tailors coded and stitched into the X-Fabric of X.commerce, the more tempted merchants would later be to use the totality of the platform, which included all of eBay's marketplaces and acquisitions.
Mobile Marketing
An X.commerce-branded commuter bus crawled through San Francisco's rush-hour traffic to promote the conference.
On the Road
The Xpress tour bus took the new
X.commerce platform
on the road, visiting
developers and potential users in 25 U.S. cities.
The Big Idea
A social-media campaign called "crazy or brilliant" compelled developers to share their ideas for platform-compatible
applications.
"It is phenomenal. The huge branding proves they clearly
wanted to claim the city."
Xs All Around
Conference attendees were enveloped in "X" decor, which covered practically every inch of the convention center.
Exhibitionists
The Partner Pavilion, located on the lower floor of Moscone Center, featured 65 exhibits from participating sponsors.
Center Stage
The general session and
keynote motivated developers
to explore and use the X.commerce platform.
Ideation
in Action
Attendees
created custom applications that could be used on the X.commerce platform.
Brain Food
Catering to the junk-food cravings of most developers, the conference featured cotton candy and fried chicken, among other tasty treats.
Hand-to-Hand Combat
Capitalizing on the "big kid" mentality of
attendees, the evening party featured unusual entertainment, such as sumo wrestling.
"It was an
environment
that would
have reminded
them of their
coolest friend's
basement."
Game On
To encourage networking, various activities, from arcade games
to keg races,
were sprinkled
throughout
the venue. |
Moving forward, the X.commerce team came up with a strong visual identity to market the conference to their audience. It designed an orange logo comprising a stylized "X" plopped inside a circle, with the color orange becoming its signature hue. "The circle represents the cycle of financial commerce, and the 'X' is the intersection of innovation and opportunity," says Suzanne McIntosh, executive producer of events and outreach at X.commerce.
In the months leading up to the launch, the aim was to make the X.commerce name go viral, encoding the conference's strong visual identity onto developers' brains nationwide, all while building awareness and convincing developers that this new eBay company warranted their attention.
Sign on the X
Ramping up to the October launch, X.commerce embarked on a quest to mark an X front of mind and tip of tongue with developers coast to coast - by taking a road trip. The ultimate goal of these roadies was to drive traffic to the x.com website, where visitors could learn about the platform and register for the conference.
The trip began in late August and extended until November 2011, during which time a pimped-out "Xpress" tour bus stopped in 25 U.S. cities where large developer communities resided, and also payed visits to technology conferences that X.commerce was sponsoring (e.g., Dreamforce 2011). The cranberry-red bus had pit stops in New York, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, DC.
Developers were made aware of the bus's arrival through social media and a number of websites including Meetup.com, techcocktail.com, and the x.com site. When the bus rolled into a particular metropolis, staffers - clad in black polo T-shirts branded with the company's signature encircled "X" - swung open the door of the bus, rolled the orange carpet down the stairs, and set up a pop-up stand on the sidewalk to lure developers inside. There, a sneak peak and hands-on demo of the X.commerce platform was offered in a relaxed atmosphere. The tour allowed the company to educate more than 6,500 developers about the platform's capabilities, all while gaining extensive visibility for its brand.
Back on the West Coast, a commuter bus with the words "X.commerce: Due to release 10.12.11," and the URL for conference registration on its exterior, traversed rush-hour-traffic roadways between San Francisco and eBay campuses in San Jose, CA, for three hours every day on Sept. 10 to Oct. 10 - a tactic that capitalized on reaching a captive highway audience.
While the Xpress tour bus and the commuter bus saw scads of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, the x.com website was witnessing its own quickly amassing traffic jam of developers. At the site, visitors saw a dial in the upper right-hand corner of the screen that was ticking down the days, hours, and minutes until the X.commerce launch. To the right of that virtual hourglass was an icon that urged website visitors to register for the conference.
Registrants were invited to take part in X.commerce's "Crazy or Brilliant" social-media campaign, which was intended to unite the independent developer community. During registration, a window would pop up inviting visitors to view other developers' app and extension ideas, contribute their own, and vote on the ideas as being "crazy" or "brilliant." Participants were encouraged to use Facebook and
Twitter to engage in this discussion.
Also part of the social-media campaign was the opportunity for registrants to receive discounts on their event passes. By forming groups and spreading awareness of the group name via social-media outlets, registrants had the chance to earn a $100 discount. All they had to do was reach a capacity of five other registrants who listed the same group name in a field at the registration page, and all members of that group received the discount. By facilitating these community-driven preconference tactics, X.commerce enabled a registration experience that was nontraditional, creative, and reflective of the value that lies in a strong community of developers. To wit, a total of 90 registrants earned the group discount.
Another 74 percent of registered attendees enjoyed a reduced conference-registration fee thanks to codes dispersed by "influencers" - more than 200 employees and executives with 10-percent discount codes to pass out to the public. Thus, a slew of developers felt they'd received special deals and found themselves interacting
in an online developer community, catered to and hosted by X.commerce, before the conference even kicked off.
The usual social-media suspects were called upon, too - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn groups, Meetup.com, YouTube, and blogs - to keep online conversations going. The company's social-media team updated the content several times every day, sometimes every hour, to promote registration, keynote speakers, sponsors, sessions, and general info about the platform.
X Marks the Spot
The 2011 X.commerce Innovate Developer Conference took place on Oct. 12 and 13, at Moscone West in San Francisco. Walking up to the convention center, attendees were met with a 38-by-42-foot X.commerce decal boldly draped over the front of the building. The massive orange "X" graphic seemed to beat its chest and bellow its presence: "Innovate Developer Conference 2011. Our platform. Your imagination."
Once inside, X.commerce branding covered practically every inch of the space. A lobby installation featured a 16-by-18-foot "X" structure suspended
over a 33-foot-long, 3-foot-tall sculpture
of the word "X.commerce." Overhead, a hanging mobile comprising 35 orange "X" graphics and 42 platform-related icons (a magnifying glass, a dollar sign, a shopping cart, etc.) dangled, artistically representing the brand. Near the escalators, a single 60-foot-wide piece of orange fabric, printed with faint overlapping circles, cascaded from the third floor more than 100 feet down to the lobby - a nod to X-Fabric. "It is phenomenal," said one Corporate Event Awards judge. "The huge branding proves they clearly wanted to claim the city."
After taking in these design elements, attendees approached any of the 11 circular registration desks, where they received name badges and X.commerce-branded messenger bags containing their conference materials.
Attendees then filtered into the third-floor auditorium. The 50-foot-wide-by-42-foot-deep stage featured a 12-by-16-foot circular scrim-covered structure upon which the graphic of a slowly spinning "X" was projected. Two 15-by-50-foot screens flanked either side of the stage, and another two 10-by-30-foot screens extended beyond those, making the auditorium resemble an arena where you might expect Usher to perform as opposed to the space where an e-commerce platform was launching.
The lights dimmed, and a one-minute film riveted every retina in the house. "By 2013, total commerce volume is estimated to hit $10 trillion," a voiceover boomed as the 14-digit number flashed on the looming screens. "How do you get your piece of this action? Introducing: X.commerce. Our platform. Your imagination." At that point, the head of community for X.commerce, Naveed Anwar, took the stage and introduced the keynote: eBay president and CEO, John Donahoe.
The motivational words had every developer in the room eager to hear more. And for the thousands of developers who weren't able to attend the conference, the general session keynotes were linked to the x.com site via Ustream (and later posted on YouTube), reaching more than 3,800 live views.
Following Donahoe's address, X.commerce vice president and general manager, Matthew Mengerink led the audience through a series of real-life demos of X.commerce's capabilities. For example, one small business called Soccer Pro was used to show how building an online storefront was easy and improved sales. A brief reality-TV-style video walked the audience through a demonstration of how X.commerce's platform allowed a merchant to tap into hundreds of resources to sell soccer products online. The rest of the general session included four more demos as well as announcements about sophisticated advancements in PayPal and Facebook, which would be available via X.commerce.
When the general session let out, attendees were encouraged to relax in any of the lounges where air-hockey tables, miniature basketball hoops, comfy beanbag chairs, and foosball tables were located. Snacks such as fried chicken, tater tots, and candy were available as well, which elicited many animated exclamations from the hungry attendees as they marveled at how well the event's catering crew understood the staples of the average developer's diet.
While some attendees munched
on snacks and networked, others descended the escalators to the second floor to visit the Partner Pavilion, a 90-by-288-foot space filled with 65 sponsors' exhibits. The X.commerce exhibit presided over the others featuring a 20-by-6-foot overhead banner. At the X.commerce booth, visitors could swing by the "Developer Challenge Kiosk," a sort of no-strings-attached developer-recruiting station where attendees made promises to support the company. In exchange, supporters were given access to the X.commerce pledge webpage where a continual loop of logos, photos, and quotes were circulating from others who'd pledged support - a tactic intended to build solidarity in the ranks of developers and merchants.
Something that made more than one developer's heart skip a beat was "VC Bait" - a speed-dating-like activity wherein developers pitched their best ideas to venture capitalists (VCs) for the chance to win $50,000 in funding. Of the 110 applicants, 50 were selected to compete in round one, presenting their ideas to a group of three VCs in four sessions with two-minute breaks between pitches. The top 10 contestants were invited back to pitch again in five-minute sessions before 10 VC judges in round two. A winner was selected on the final day of the conference.
Meanwhile, the afternoon's breakout sessions - whose topics included everything from mobile-shopping trends to international commerce to X.commerce 101 - were held in classrooms on the third floor. When sessions let out, attendees were served sugar-rush-inducing treats like cotton candy, hot pretzels, and energy drinks before filing into the third-floor auditorium again for the day's final keynote.
Next, attendees spilled downstairs to the Partner Pavilion to grab a drink and mingle after a long day of absorbing X.commerce info and stats about mobile commerce. But the day wasn't over yet; a funky fiesta in celebration of the launch was about to unfold.
X-Rated Party
At the base of the escalators, attendees were met with an overwhelming
sight: 500 smiling and cheering X.commerce employees standing in a line that stretched out the doors of the lobby and down one city block to the warehouse-like Expo Hall of Moscone West where the party awaited. All of the employees were gripping an edge of a 350-yard-long piece of orange fabric, collectively creating a human stanchion. It was a dramatic visual of the hundreds of people that already comprised the X.commerce community, as well as a striking metaphor for the X-Fabric that bound them together. Attendees followed the undulating orange pathway to the party.
The 60,000-square-foot space was loaded with games that the mostly male developer audience had fantasized about since they were junior-high nerds. There were two jetpack simulators, giant human hamster wheels and an inflatable ramp for racing, sumo-wrestling suits and a ring for wrestling matches, six keg-race machines, an arcade, and an inflatable dodgeball stadium that held 20 players.
"We dug deep into the mindset of our attendees and came up with a grownup's playground," McIntosh says. "It was an environment that would have reminded them of their coolest friend's basement - the one who had all the best toys."
Attendees spent the night goofing around like they were 13 years old again, and the party ended with a 90-minute set from The Shins. If the daytime conference hadn't won over the minds and hearts of developers, that soiree certainly did the trick. Each touchpoint from the sumo wrestling to the sound of The Shins rocking out had been carefully calibrated to resonate with this particular audience, leaving an all-around positive brand perception in the minds of attendees.
In the morning, attendees ate breakfast burritos and traded yarns about the previous night's bash, which The Wall Street Journal described as "that bonkers party" in an article titled, "Ebay Parties Like It's 1999."
The rest of the conference's second day included inspirational keynotes from Chris Bangle, the former chief of design for BMW Group, and Marshal Cohen, the chief industry analyst from The NPD Group. There was ample time for networking between the rest of the day's breakout sessions, as well as the opportunity to connect with sponsors and X.commerce employees in the Partner Pavilion.
The second day of the conference also featured the last round for three finalists to present their ideas to VCs on the third-floor auditorium's main stage. The winner of the competition, Steven Kirsch, was awarded $50,000 in funding to launch a service called "OneID," which allows users to sign in to websites and pay online with a single digital identity.
X Excels
Like an out-of-breath performer
after a debut show, X.commerce was eager to read its reviews. Immediately after the conference, surveys with open-ended questions about brand perceptions, likelihood of future
behaviors, and overall conference satisfaction were e-mailed to attendees and sponsors. The results revealed that attendees had an 86-percent satisfaction rating; sponsors, a
unanimous 100-percent rating.
Judges weren't surprised by those numbers. "This conference really created a sense of community, and it's not easy to create that authentically," one judge said. "The attendees felt like they were all part of a big happy family."
While earning attendee satisfaction had been paramount, disseminating the X.commerce brand to the world via press and various media had been crucial, too. The company set a goal of garnering 15 original articles, at least one blog post per week, a minimum of 50 press attendees, feature stories from five top-tier media outlets, and a net 90 million impressions.
The objectives seemed ambitious, so when the actual results were tabulated, the X.commerce team was ecstatic to say the least. The Innovate conference captured more than 74 total articles (nearly five times the goal), 15 blog posts, 55 press attendees, 35 feature stories secured with 12 top-tier outlets (including Bloomberg Business Week, Forbes, and Reuters), and a net 107 million impressions.
During the conference, Twitter was abuzz, amassing more than 19,000 X.commerce-related tweets. What's more, 50 videos of breakout sessions and general sessions were available on YouTube, and pulled in 3,500-plus views throughout the course of the
two-day event.
When X.commerce officially launched at Innovate, the company's lights, so to speak, were just flickering on. By the end of 2012, the X.commerce platform is expected to be fully illuminated, prepared for full-on merchant service with an army of developers at the ready. And that's due in large part to what our judges called a "super best practice" - a conference that made its indelible X-shaped mark upon the rapidly evolving world of commerce. E
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