Belden’s hybrid CIC launch signals bright future for experiential marketing.

With the advent of the pandemic and a growing need for sustainable alternatives to air travel, consumer innovation centres are growing in popularity again. We were commissioned by Belden to build their physical centre in Stuttgart, Germany. Belden Inc, a global leader in high quality signal transmission solutions, have a comprehensive product portfolio they needed to market and we proposed a hybrid solution of digital and physical CIC spaces to allow their visitors experience a near parallel immersion into this portfolio and ethos.

The Brief | A Multilayered Approach

• Design and build a physical customer innovation centre in Stuttgart that showcase their innovative solutions and illustrate how Belden securely transmit the growing amounts of data, audio and video needed for today’s applications.
• Design and create an augmented reality digital twin of the CIC for global visitors to enjoy, and evidence Belden as the center of the global transformation to a connected world.             
• Design and deliver their first global virtual and hybrid event in a way that would capture the depth of their expertise as encapsulated in the two CIC’s.

The Solution | A Virtual Grand Opening

We created and hosted a hybrid grand opening on our proprietary software EventHive VX that included experience design, production, augmented-reality, broadcasting, motion-graphics, streaming, networking and video content creation to:

• Unveil the new state-of-the-art virtual CIC.
• Offer guests unparalleled access to Belden’s new CIC.
• Showcase a solutions-based approach.
• Create an immersive 3D experience and networking event.
• Allow Belden’s guests fully-enabled mobile and remote access to CIC.
• Create engaging rich content with visual glimpses into the center environment.
• Provide guests with full access to networking sessions with Belden experts.
• Create content for social media outreach.

The Results | A Tangible Return

Through game engine technology, 2Heads designed a version of the CIC that excited and enticed with creative elements not possible in real life. With delays to the launch of the physical CIC, Belden were able to launch their online version to a much wider audience via a grand opening ceremony held online via EventHive VX.

Our internal stakeholders were blown away by the new format and are already looking forward to the next one! The virtual event enabled us to access our key customers around the globe and kept them engaged throughout. The platform is really strong and complimented the Belden content and speakers perfectly, also allowing our audience to interact in a meaningful way

Ghislaine Burmeister | Marketing & Communications Manager | Belden

The Belden CIC launch enjoyed over 1000 VIP guests from sixty-one countries and hosted over 2,700 sessions. From this there was 13,000 direct interactions and the virtual CIC continues to receive an average of 200 visitors per day.