And we’re loving every second of it. It’s 2016 and the marketing industry is thriving. Universal Music has recently partnered with PR and creative agencies One Green Bean and Host to form a brand new entertainment marketing agency. Sourcing a core team of eight from the Universal Music brand itself, this exciting new agency (Bring) will focus on pairing brands with artists and influencers including the likes of Lady Gaga, Mike Tyson and Troye Sivan. With the advertising market becoming increasingly saturated, brands are faced with the challenge of finding interesting ways to entertain people. One of the most effective…

We’re only a couple of weeks in 2016, but with announcements such as an upcoming Creme Egg cafe and Hendrick’s celebrating Scottish roots with Burns Night events, it’s clear experiential is on the rise. But why? Traditional marketing is everywhere Whether it’s during an ad break, a pop-up on your web browser, or a promoted tweet in your timeline, advertising is everywhere. With advertisements becoming more and more intrusive, it can be hard for a brand to stand out. Unless you have a big budget, make it a grand event (John Lewis Christmas ad), or have a celebrity endorsement/spot, you’re pretty much background…

Every so often a new app or website will suddenly appear on the tech scene and become the talk of social media. A sure favourite in 2015 was live-streaming app Periscope and co-founder Dom Hofmann is at it again with his brand new app, Peach. Being dubbed a mix between Twitter and Slack, Hofmann describes his new app as a “fun, simple way to keep up with friends and be yourself”. Like most social platforms, you need an account to use Peach. This brand new messaging app is a lot like Facebook, I know what you’re thinking, “do we really need another…

2015 was a brilliant year, wasn’t it? Especially for brands using experiential and social media to engage their audiences. In the last year alone, people have really started to see the benefit of social media. With over 1.8 billion people in the world owning an active social media account, it’s never been easier for brands to reach its target audience. Whether it’s to promote an event or service, comment on something happening in the world, or even customer service, more and and more brands are taking to social media. In fact, Christmas 2015 might have been the most experiential yet! Other great things…

Happy New Year, all! Today is National Technology day and to kick off 2016, we’re taking a look at how much it has impacted our everyday lives. SHOPPING It’s no secret that we live in a consumer-driven world where technology is rapidly evolving. With US holidays like Black Friday taking the UK by storm, online shopping is thriving. Last year, British consumers spent £810m on online purchases alone – that works out to a rate of £9,375 every second. So in 2016, what are retailers doing to drive consumers back to their stores? With over 1.8 billion people in the world owning…

The run up to Christmas is always exciting, particularly when brands get involved. In November alone, we’ve seen a plethora of creative adverts ranging from: a cat nearly ruining Christmas, a lonely man on the moon, to a family raising a Turkey for Christmas only to have a change of heart, and a school where Christmas is the only syllabus. With no new contenders on the horizon, we take a look at some of the best festive experiential campaigns out there.

Over Boxing Day sales? Never fear! The biggest shopping day of the year – Black Friday – is fast approaching. Don’t buy into the Black Friday craze? Well last year, British consumers spent £810m on online purchases alone – that works out to a rate of £9,375 every second! With retailers knocking off prices across the majority of their stock like there’s no tomorrow, Internet sales over the 24-hour period are expected to surpass £1bn for the first time in UK history. So what are your favourite brands doing, or not doing for Black Friday this year? eBay Following on from a successful…

  Emojis are apparently the fastest growing language in the world. So much so that Oxford Dictionaries have named the Tears of Joy emoji as their word of the year… We’re not even joking. Over the past month alone, we have seen personalised Emjois making an appearance on the likes of Twitter. #Halo5 had one, Starbucks had one for their #RedCups campaign, and Coca-Cola was one of the first brands to receive a custom Emoji.   It’s official, @CocaCola are the first brand to get a custom emoji. What do you think? #ShareaCokehttps://t.co/4JDPUBBb8y — Wolf Experience (@WolfBExp) November 9, 2015…

The battle of the Christmas adverts continues with the launch of Sainbury’s Christmas advert, ‘Mog’s Christmas Calamity’. When the John Lewis advert launched last week, the folk on Twitter were in two minds about it. Some saying it wasn’t as good as previous years and others saying it was the best John Lewis Christmas Advert yet. It looks like Sainsbury’s have taken the crown away this year. Even ASOS used the new Twitter Polls feature to find out which was the most ’emosh’ advert. It’ll be interesting to see the final vote in the morning. Most emosh 🎄🎅🏼🎁 advert —…

To promote the upcoming Doctor Who Festival in Australia, a life sized TARDIS has landed at Bondi Beach, made entirely of Lego! We love a bit of experiential activity, even on further shores. Similarly to the Fallout 4 release, this is a brilliant example of a brand partnership for promotion. This year, Lego released a long awaited Doctor Who collection so there is the likelyhood that this giant TARDIS is connected to the product launch as well. Everyone know the TARDIS these days, even if they’re not a Doctor Who fan/ Whovian. It’s an activity that is not going to go…

Fallout 4 has been named ‘the game of a generation’ and is released technically today with some stores opening at 11:30 pm. With the rising popularity and technological advances of consoles and games, game releases rarely come and go quietly. Fallout 4 isn’t one of these. Adverts have been plastered all over the London Underground for a while now but last week this emerged at Oxford Circus station. A lot of adverts tend to be overlooked like wallpaper on the underground, but this can’t exactly be missed, can it? Alongside this, there have been bus wraps all lit up with Fallout 4 emblazoned on…

As you may be aware, this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert launched this morning at 8am. Following the success of Monty the Penguin last year and the Bear and the Hare in 2013, it’s a given that this year’s advert would be highly anticipated. Promotion for the advert began on the 1st November through a very ambiguous Twitter account @TheMoon2015 launching and what looked like ‘teasers’ to the #OnTheMoon activity. I spy with my little eye something beginning with M #OnTheMoonhttps://t.co/mdGUZCF0V3 — The Moon (@themoon2015) November 1, 2015   This year John Lewis have teamed up with Age UK for their Christmas…

Yesterday we told you about some of the best Christmas campaigns we have seen so far but today they were all blown out of the water with the release of the Starbucks Red Cups. Well, for now at least. The Starbucks Red Cups officially mark the start of Christmas for coffee lovers out there, and this is certianly true for a couple of us here at Wolf HQ.   Oh hello, #RedCups Welcome back. pic.twitter.com/eHfllRdLDt — Starbucks UK (@StarbucksUK) November 3, 2015 This morning, not only was there a promoted hashtag but also a little emoji along with it. Facebook,…

So Hallowe’en is over and Christmas is on its way… according to brands and advertising even though we all know it’s weeks away. On the 1st November the Oxford Street lights turned on and on the 2nd November there was already a Christmas themed promoted hashtag courtesy of Lidl and the #SchoolofChristmas   You’re early! A big tick for you ✓ The #SchoolOfChristmas opens for fun and gold stars from 8AM. pic.twitter.com/GyOUNzievP — Lidl UK (@LidlUK) November 2, 2015   That’s right. It’s already happened. People haven’t really put Halloween to bed and now Christmas has come around the corner…

Hallowe’en is around the corner and here at Wolf HQ excitement is building. In the UK, Hallowe’en is becoming much more of a thing. In the US it has always been a massive eventand a growing influence from the states has just made it even bigger over here. We have been getting ready for Hallowe’en for a couple of weeks now and it’s getting a little too much to handle, especially the guys on the social media team. Brands have been getting all over it this year. Recently Tesco released their Spookermarket video online that has now had over 1 million…

Halloween is fast approaching and to make daily commutes even scarier, Haribo have set up a 3.5-metre high ‘trick or treat door’ at Victoria station. Placed within the heart of one of London’s busiest stations, the door resembles an old stone castle and features the words ‘trick or treat’ scrawled above. Haribo have gone all out with this activation as the door comes complete with a ton of Halloween characters too. Characters including bats, witches, wizards and even pumpkins can be found located around the space. Commuters are being encouraged to get immersive and knock on the oversized door. When…

  October 21st 2015, the year Marty McFly came to the future. In 1989 Back to the Future II first hit the cinemas and to celebrate the re-release of the franchise on DVD, Pepsi Co have made it possible to buy an iconic piece of ‘the future’. Unfortunately it’s not a hoverboard, we’re still technically waiting for that one. Pepsi Perfect can be yours for only $20. That’s right, $20 for a bottle of Pepsi… Although it’s still cheaper than the $50 Doc Brown gave Marty to buy one in the movie Although it is clearly a ridiculous price (sorry Pepsi Co),…

A new Star Wars film is coming. The internet hasn’t shut up about it since it was announced after Disney acquired the rights to the franchise in 2012, and now it’s practically around the corner, Disney has already been reaping the benefits of the most successful Sci-Fi franchises of all time since at least the 1980s, with the flight simulator opening in Disney Land in 1987, and has been a driving force behind some of the merchandising ever since. They may be the reason we had to suffer the existence of Jar Jar Binx… Who Knows?!   With a new…

Last week, word went around the internet that Twitter had plans to remove it’s 140 character limit. As can be expected, the internet had a lot of feelings about this, as did the team here at Wolf HQ. Since it launched in 2006, Twitter has essentially led the way in ‘microblogging’, with 140 characters not only creating a sleek and uncluttered newsfeed but also a way for people to be clever with their updates. Obviously Twitter, like every other social media platform, has made a lot of changes over the past nine years, most recently they removed the 140 character…

  With every new iPhone model, comes a new iOS. And with every new iOS update, comes awesome new features, some controversy and an ongoing conversation online. With over 478,377 tweets and counting, it’s safe to say everybody has something to say about Apple’s biggest software update to date. Bugs aside, this is not only Apple’s biggest update, it’s also their most productive one too. In case you missed them, here’s some of the best new features iOS 9 has to offer… Exit and Switch Apps Quicker Have you ever forgotten to return to an app and finish what you’re doing…

Fashion Power house Burberry have given fashion fanatics the front row and backstage experience, with a Snapchat exclusive preview ahead of their iconic show at London Fashion Week today. The Burberry show is one of the most anticipated every Fashion week and for those of us who can’t attend (*weeps silently*), this is the ultimate way of keeping up to date with not only the latest trends but also experience one of the shows that every fashionista looks forward to. With snaps from the catwalk itself to brief selfies from Cara Delevigne as she strolls down the red carpet. Burberry preview…

Move over, emojis. GIFs are the latest online engagement tool now. Back in June, we were delighted to see the long-awaited arrival of GIFs across the Twittersphere. We’ve seen everything from cat, dancing, tv and just plain weird GIFs. But now we seem to seem to be in the middle of some kind of GIF renaissance with brands getting involved too. More and more companies, brands and even television channels are not only utilising but nailing the art of the GIF by building branded content. Comedy Central #SouthPark is on all of your screens forever including right now. pic.twitter.com/CbbQ8FygEb — Comedy Central…

Back in June, we saw Instagram lean towards becoming a go-to social media network for real-time media. They achieved a new status by adding a revamped explore tab, trending places and tags as well as a places search. With the real-time element down, Instagram are back working on their advertisement features. Apple recently announced that their latest iPhone models (6s and above) will have a new feature, 3D Touch. Similar to Force Touch on Apple Watch, the latest feature presents an alternative shortcut action similar to right clicking on a PC desktop. A drop-down menu of “Quick Actions” appear when you…

Back in August, Red Bull Studios announced three secret September parties where both the line-ups and venue were going to be revealed 24 hours before each event. There was a huge emphasis on the secret elements tickets could only be purchased at the last minute. Taking place on September 9, 10 and 11th, the string of events were supposed to coincide with the launch of the London Night Tubes. Originally planned for September 12th, the launch of the night tube has inevitably been delayed following a series of strikes. Not wanting to put a good idea to waste, Red Bull have decided to…

With National Video Games day right around the corner, we focus our attention to the long running rivalry between the FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) franchises as they both gear up to release the latest instalments of their football games. So which one would you purchase? To the casual gamer, EA Sports’ FIFA 16 would seem like the safest choice. Ripe with official licenses, rafts of teams from a generous number of leagues as well as a polished and user-friendly interface, FIFA has had its nose ahead of its closest competitor in recent years. Konami produced PES 2016 on the other hand,…

We know ‘100 years of iconic style’ is a pretty bold statement to make but it can take a long time for any company or product to get their branding right. Every few years or so, companies will opt for rebranding sometimes over and over again. Very few will actually create something that is essentially ‘ever lasting’, iconic, or will stick in consumers’ minds forever, like the coca-cola bottle. Coca-Cola are one of the few brands to have perfected the art of ever lasting, like the Cadbury’s purple wrapper or the more recently the Apple symbol. This week the brand…

Transfer deadline day is a day that most football fans have circled in their diaries. For most die hard fans, It’s a day that is full of epic highs and dramatic lows as well as the rumour mill running wild. Often, the sheer excitement of what could be ends up trumping the deals that actually follow. Particularly when social media is thrown into the mix and everyone is tweeting their speculations. With #DeadlineDay reaching over 412,794 tweets and the highest trending topic on Twitter (at the time of writing), it’s no wonder brands have been jumping on the bandwagon. Brands are jumping at…

To celebrate the release of the Mad Max video game, yesterday Uber were offering rides in Wasteland Warrior vehicles around Seattle. Since money is useless in the wasteland, anyone lucky enough to get a ride in one of these cars was able to for free. Mad Max @Uber is a transportation vehicle I can get behind. pic.twitter.com/TfYrfHVpLi — Janelle Bonanno (@s0osleepie) August 29, 2015 The cars have also been making an appearance at the PAX gaming convention and making an impression on the attendees there too. Me and @ISpeakTetris had a ride in the Mad Max Uber pic.twitter.com/8tYw8jQp46 — Mike…

Over the weekend, British graffiti artist Banksy unveiled his latest show. Dismaland is a temporary art project at Tropicana, an abandoned lido in seaside resort town, Weston-super-Mare. The project was kept well under wraps as locals thought a production company were filming a crime thriller when activity was spotted around the disused lido. Banksy himself describes the secretive pop-up exhibition as “a sinister twist on Disneyland” which is unsuitable for children. Full of installations ripe with painfully relevant social commentary, thousands are keen to visit. Perhaps the most interesting part about Dismaland is the social frenzy Banksy has managed to create. The…

If you’re into free drinks and social media, London is the place to be this week. There’s always a handful of activations that can be found in Central London. This year we’ve seen Magnum’s Dipping Bar, Evian’s Pop Up Shop and Lipton Ice Tea’s waterslide all contribute to further amplifying their brand’s name. Fans like to be rewarded for staying loyal to your brand and activations like this are one of the most effective ways to do exactly that. When consumers are rewarded or impressed, they’re more inclined to share online and work towards to amplifying your brand. There are some…