<a href="www.t2.tv.>T2 has launched <a href="www.t2.tv.>The Integrated Experience Lab (The Lab), a new division targeting the company’s well-known production and postproduction skills to non-traditional marketing platforms, including all social media – like interactive, experiential, viral, vlogging, and whatever comes next.
The Lab will be headed by <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2 Creative Director Michael Ong and Integrated Experience Designers, Garrett Fuselier and Claudia Chagui – both new to <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2.
“As a full-service postproduction and motion design company, we believe that The Lab is a perfect way for us to expand into these rich media social platforms,” says <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2 CEO Teri Rogers. “Today, everyone wants their marketing to be completely integrated, a mix of traditional and non-traditional marketing and media. Customer Experience and social networking are just the newest platforms. They need to be integrated into a client’s marketing strategy – since many of these newer technologies require a different kind of design rich communication.”
Some new media platforms, like the Internet, have already established themselves as viable marketing tools while others are still evolving and carving out roles for themselves in the media mix for clients and agencies. “We’re calling our new division The Lab because we’ll be experimenting with and researching the newest and most advanced technologies,” says Ong. “We’ll jump in with our video, motion graphics and animation capabilities and explore new ways to deliver an integrated experience.”
Fuselier believes that The Lab’s moniker suggests the evolutionary nature of the new media arena. “Nothing is stationary; things are constantly moving and progressing. The Lab will bring together <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2‘s extensive capabilities with emerging technologies.”
Rogers acknowledges that the still evolving, multiple media platforms arena can provoke jitters among traditional marketers who are accustomed to controlling the message. “Now, the best way to control the message is not to control it – just understand the different technologies,” she notes.
Fuselier agrees. “You can target a certain audience but you have to have a flexible enough vehicle so everyone can take something out of your message: Everyone will hear it differently – and you have to be ready for that.” The innovative services of <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2‘s Lab, combined with sister company Back Alley Films – brings a large roster of talent in production, post production, design, animation, and flash programming and development – reassuring clients that they are in expert hands as they explore these new platforms.
“The core of The Lab is all about storytelling: It’s all about taking what we already do – and applying it to emerging technologies and media platform. The traditional and the non-traditional all working together”, Rogers emphasizes. And Garrett and Claudia both bring “a lot of social media and design expertise to play,” she says. Fuselier was formerly a Flash designer/developer at On Target Interactive, and is currently teaching The Multimedia Experience course at the Kansas City Art Institute. Chagui, a native of Columbia, is a recent Art Institute graduate.
“It’s all about The Lab being ahead of the curve,” Fuselier observes. “We don’t want to be followers. We want to be part of the process propelling this field along.” Kansas City is fertile ground for The Lab, he adds. “It’s a fantastic creative community and very receptive to new things.”
A prime example of how The Lab can deliver unique experiences is their “Pre-Halloween Massacre” staged for October’s First Friday event in Kansas City’s Art District – the Crossroads — where <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2 makes its home.
Gallery-hopping First Friday participants, many of whom make it a practice to explore the monthly arts event downtown, were attracted to the top windows of <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2‘s headquarters where a Halloween-themed scenario played out.
At first it appeared that passersby were seeing silhouettes of a party on the <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2 premises. But suddenly a hulking, menacing figure appeared and one-by-one began picking off the partygoers. At several points in the story the video projected onto <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2‘s windows paused and posed the “Kill Him?” or “Save Him?” option to passersby. Their enthusiastic vocal responses triggered different versions of what followed, enabling First Friday participants to determine the storyline.
The “Pre Halloween Massacre” ran three times during the evening and was extremely well received by those who saw it, Rogers reports. “Obviously, we staged this for ourselves, we wanted it to be organic and experimental – and certainly it’s not the kind of experience most clients would be interested in for their own customers – but I think it proves that there are unique opportunities to reach people in whole new ways.”
Earlier <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2‘s Integrated Experience Lab teamed up with 360 Architects on H&R Block’s Video Recognition Wall. Located in an interior passageway between Block’s headquarters and the Kansas City Repertory Theater, the large-scale video wall propels people through the space with dynamic animation documenting Block’s core values while creating an experience for those walking past it. The wall’s content, Ong reports, was designed to be easily updated by Block to keep the presentation fresh and engaging.
“The Lab plans to partner more with architects and interior designers on ideas and content that push the limits of display technology and create memorable experiences for customers entering a space,” says Ong.
“The feedback we’ve gotten about The Lab has been very exciting,” Rogers points out. “It’s a new frontier – and people are looking for a creative partner to help them explore it.”
About <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2
<a href="www.t2.tv.>T2 is a nationally recognized motion design and VFX company working with advertising and digital agencies, interactive groups, and directly with businesses to create commercials, interactive products and digital content for all media platforms. <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2‘s new Integrated Experience Lab (The Lab) brings the company’s well-known production, postproduction, motion design and animation skills to non-traditional marketing platforms, including all social media platforms like interactive, experiential, viral, vlogging and whatever comes next.
For more information on <a href="www.t2.tv.>T2 or The Lab please visit www.t2.tv.
