EXHIBITOR editor Travis Stanton recounts his visit to (and opinion of) EDF Energy’s “The Magic of Electricity” pavilion.
In the shadows of Olympic Stadium, EDF Energy, the United Kingdom’s largest energy company, erected a pavilion to educate attendees on “The Magic of Electricity.” Before entering the pavilion, queuing visitors were encouraged to download an app to their smart phones, which they could use to take photos in front of graphics featuring Olympic athletes such as Victoria Pendleton. But thanks to the app’s augmented reality technology, it looked like the athletes were there in the flesh, standing next to them and posing for a souvenir photo.
Once inside the pavilion, attendees watched a fairly conceptual film, sans narration, intended to illustrate how reliant they are on energy. The film followed a young girl through an average day. Whenever she came in contact with an item powered by electricity, the item lit up. Not exactly Oscar worthy, the movie succeeded in reinforcing the message that energy is an absolutely essential part of daily life.
Exiting the theater, visitors passed through a small hallway to find an open-air electric playground. There, they could bust a move atop internally lit floor tiles. Activated by their gyrations, the tiles actually produced energy. Similarly, at any of nine hand bikes, attendees could generate electricity and activate a cone-like light fixture comprising countless strands of LEDs.
A host of tablet PCs embedded near educational graphics highlighted how EDF was “helping London shine brighter” by powering everything from the Olympic Torch to the London Eye. Visitors could use the tablets to explore various Olympic venues, accessing real-time stats regarding energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Other tablets explored energy costs compared to other expenses. For example, a baguette costs the same as the energy consumed during 11 days of using a desktop computer, and a can of soda costs the same as the power needed to do 11 loads of laundry in a washing machine.
EDF, perhaps more than any other pavilion, focused its efforts on children. Graphics featured bright colors and classroom-related elements like chalkboards. The kid-friendly activities took center stage, peppered with easily digestible nuggets of information. Sure, adults could boogie down on the electric dance floor, too, but this was a promotional playground where fun was the primary objective, and children were the target audience.
Despite “The Magic of Electricity” theme, the experience felt disjointed, from the AR photo op and the Disney-like promotional video to the energy-generating activities and the info-rich tablet PCs. Each individual element was well executed, but none were remarkable enough to unseat Coca-Cola as king of the marketing mountain. Still, EDF managed to educate and entertain visitors of all ages, which is a pretty remarkable accomplishment.
