As an incredible X Factor final weekend draws to a close and the staggering 20 million viewers that tuned in on Sunday night are still talking, texting and tweeting about appearances by Sir Paul and George Michael, we’ve been talking about how powerful the X Factor brand has become.

Something that began as another TV talent show (and, let’s face it, that’s not a new idea – those of a certain age will all remember Opportunity Knocks and New Faces) has become a phenomenon that pervades all media. This year, finalists seemed to be as busy with their Twitter and Facebook pages as they were learning new songs each week. The tabloids and gossip magazines went X Factor crazy and shopping centres were filled with screaming fans every time one of the finalists stepped onto a stage.

TalkTalk embraced the social media madness with its clever Brightdancing campaign that provided them with such a diversity of break bumpers for the series. We felt familiar and comfortable with them as we sat on our Saturday night sofas, but they never became monotonous. In fact, far from monotonous, they became synonymous with the series – a part of it rather than an interruption from an advertiser.

ITV are alleged to have taken £20m in advertising revenues last weekend alone and roughly £175m over the entire run. So, against a background of recession and debt it’s clearly bucking a trend.

Everybody wants to be associated with such a great success story but what can we learn from it as impresarios of branded experiences? After all, one could argue that X Factor has become the gold standard of brand experiences – even if the experience built the brand rather than the brand building the experience.

We believe it will be seen as a landmark in the convergence of media. As punters, we could access X Factor any time, anywhere and we felt a part of it, we could get involved, make our opinions public and vote to determine the outcome. What was conceptualised as a TV programme invaded our lives in ways that we could never have imagined only a few years ago.

This is where brands now need to be. They need to embrace experiential to create empathy, understanding and accessibility with their audiences. The passive audience is no longer a receptive audience so brands should not treat their audiences as ‘listeners’.

Although X Factor has really been about discovering one voice, it has given its audience a voice in more ways than one and brands can do the same.

As Christmas approaches once again and the radio stations dig out all those festive golden oldies that we either love to hate or hate to love, we’ve been reminiscing about our very own X-Factor moment last year when, thanks to Mr. Beale, we did all get to make our own record. I don’t think that Ollie, Stacey or Joe have anything to worry about, see for yourself… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJjGq5a8xaI

We love pitching and we’ve been doing a lot of it recently so it would appear that recessionary barriers are breaking down a little, at least. However, in these money conscious times, we would like to propose a new rule when it comes to competitive pitches. Please, please let competing agencies know what your budget is! Read more about why our esteemed leader – under his knew C&IT pseudonym – feels so strongly on the subject ………

http://tiny.cc/YxMFX

Hot off the press, we’ve been listed as a finalist in the 2009 Marketing Excellence Awards. The prestigious awards, which will actually be held in February 2010, celebrate organisations and individuals who have contributed to the marketing profession across the year. We’ve entered with a project which took place earlier this year for our client, Indesit Company. It’s already delivered fabulous results for Indesit, so let’s hope that we come up trumps on February 17th – we’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, feel free to pass judgement on the event yourself.

Back in July, Crane’s Eye View revealed that Line Up was working in conjunction with UK Athletics and England Athletics to produce a series of films targeting the UK’s 11,500 registered athletics coaches.

The films introduce a new coaching concept that involves and empowers athletes. The concept and the films have been driven by David Hemery, CBE and former Olympic Gold Medallist.

The films were shot using the amazing facilities at Loughborough University and the first module in a series of ten was launched last week on the UKA Coach website. A new module will be released weekly looking at various different disciplines within the sport.

Here’s hoping that it gives our athletes a head start for 2012!

Those of you that keep a close eye on the world of design will know that Andrew Ritchie has just been awarded the 2009 Prince Philip Designers Prize for his work on the Brompton folding bicycle. Our very own design-conscious Rob Leach was at Buckingham Palace on the 15th October to see him receive his award because we’ve been collaborating with the Design Council to produce a film that celebrates the 50th anniversary of this prestigious design award.

Working with the designer, Adrian Westaway, who presents the film, our production team spent an epic 24 hours zooming around London, shooting in locations including the Brompton bicycle factory at Kew, the Royal Festival Hall, Charing Cross underground station, Habitat on Tottenham Court Road and the Paddington Waterside development.

Take a look at the film itself to learn about the significance of these sites.

We’ve also edited and post-produced Kevin McCloud’s interview with HRH Prince Philip in which they discuss his passion for design and his commitment to the awards. You can see this interview on YouTube or on the Design Council’s own website.

Having been short-listed in 2 categories for the FM&BE Awards, we approached last week’s awards ceremony with eager anticipation. These awards are widely recognized as the leading accolade in Field and Brand Experience Marketing and so we were completely thrilled to win 2 Golds on the night.

The launch of the Volvo XC60 was the winning event in both of the categories that were entered: Best Immersive Experience (Invited Guests) and Best Product Launch. Surely this must make it one of the most awarded events of all time! Is there an award for that?

A jolly evening was had by all and we will be uploading images shortly at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lineup.

If you are a regular follower of Crane’s Eye View, you are probably up to speed with our news and views. However, for those of you that aren’t, we’ve edited a few highlights together:

http://www.lineup.uk.com/september2009.html

If you’d like to receive this news round-up in future, please let us know at info@lineup.uk.com.

If there is an upside to a recession, we think we’ve found one that can potentially benefit event commissioners and producers alike.  I was asked to talk to Marketing last week on the subject of the effect that cost-cutting has had on the choice of destinations and venues in our industry.  It made me reflect on some of the deals that we have been offered recently, particularly by venues in London.

One case in point is an event that we produced for Indesit Company earlier this year which had a hefty last minute budget cut.  We were amazed by the willingness of both hotels and venues to cut a deal and managed to negotiate savings for our client that would be unthinkable outside of a recession.  The event ultimately gave our client an ROI of £12 for every £1 spent which serves as a good indicator that budget cuts didn’t mean cuts in quality or effective and persuasive content.

So what can we learn from this?  Firstly, that pulling an event completely in a recession is not necessarily the best course of action.  You may well be throwing away opportunities that won’t be available to you in the near future.  Secondly, talk to venues now about forthcoming events.  Everybody’s still very keen to guarantee bums on seats for next year and, it would appear that the opportunity really does lie within – the venue, that is.

The event industry currently seems to be preoccupied with the threat posed to live events by the virtual event.  In fact, recession-obsessed headlines are leading articles citing cost benefits as the over-riding factor in what they would have us believe could be the decline of the live events industry.

Are these pundits descendents of the opinion leaders who predicted that TV would kill radio and that email would eradicate any need for paper-based communication?  Perhaps not – but it feels like there’s a similar theme and, surely, we will arrive at the same outcome.  That is that new channels do change the landscape, they open things up and they create previously unexplored possibilities but they don’t generally cause the downfall of their forebearers.

The truth is that whilst the advent of the virtual event has created all sorts of possibilities in corporate and consumer communication, it will never be able to generate the anticipation of a gathering, the excitement of the moment and the passion that togetherness can inspire.  In short, it can do the minds bit but the heart bit needs a little more stimulation.

In either a business-to-business or business-to-consumer context one fundamental truth remains the same: moving an audience from A to B both rationally and emotionally is more effective face-to-face.

That’s not to say that the virtual world doesn’t have a role to play, it does, but, as ever, the content of the message should dictate the mode of delivery, not forgetting that virtual and live can be used to great effect simultaneously – virtual enabling any experience to live way beyond the live moment. The web and social networking sites arm us with the ability to create an entire campaign around a moment that will continue to engage and touch both customers and consumers.

So, perhaps these harbingers of gloom for the live event industry should resist predictions that ‘virtual’ will eventually replace ‘live’.  The two are inextricably intertwined and complimentary.  There is a time and a place for both and, like radio and television, they will continue to live comfortably side by side.

As they say, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.