Launch Events: Seven Ways Bose Achieves Maximum Impact

“We think a lot about the staging of the musical performances, and through that lens of, ultimately, we want this to become content. The better it looks once you hold your camera up to it, the more attractive it’s going to be for somebody to post. So thinking about the staging, the LED screens and what’s running on those LED screens, thinking about the laser light show happening during that performance. All those elements help with the shareability of the content.”

–Jack Daley, VP-Global Media and Partnerships, Bose

Launch Events: Seven Ways Bose Achieves Maximum Impact

The launch was hosted at the former Williamsburg Bank building in Brooklyn, NY.

Bose has a way of turning launch events into content engines that drive hype for its latest and greatest product offerings with the right people at the right moment. So when it came time to unveil its QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and Immersive Audio technology over the fall, the brand leveraged the buzz around New York Fashion Week, a two-pronged engagement strategy and an iconic venue to live up to its lofty reputation—and then some. The result was a technology-infused, music-centric launch event that cranked up the volume on shareable content and product immersion.

Hosted at the former Williamsburg Bank building in Brooklyn, NY, the two-part launch catered to tech media by day, and consumers and influencers by night. Both experiences entailed an audiovisual entry tunnel moment, artistic displays and a hero product moment: a comprehensive demo that placed attendees inside a replica recording studio.

But the event was hardly the last we’ll see of experiential launches from the brand.

“My hope is that as the years go by, when somebody invites you to a Bose event, you don’t need to know all the details of what’s going to happen inside—that we built a brand for this, that we’re known for throwing really good music-focused brand experiences,” says Jack Daley, vp-global media and partnerships at Bose.

To learn the ins and outs of a successful launch event strategy, check out seven tactics the brand implemented this time around.

A Share-worthy Venue

Bose interprets every aspect of an event as a potentially shareable piece of content, and that includes the venue it’s housed in. For its launch event in Brooklyn, the brand secured the Weylin, a former bank building featuring a domed ceiling and its original vault, as the venue. During the consumer portion of the activation, as attendees checked in, Bose leaned into the architecture, creating a dazzling light display on the original bank-teller glass.

“It’s an old bank that they turned into a landmark,” says Daley. “It’s a really beautiful space onto its own, so I think even the location was part of the attraction.”

Different Experiences for Different Audiences

While both media members and consumers experienced similar journeys as part of the launch event strategy, Bose ensured that each audience was offered something in particular that they would deem valuable. For press, that included multiple product demos with plenty of “under the hood” details, as well as a dedicated brunch where they had access to key brand executives and product experts.

On the consumer/influencer side, the brand moved away from the more professional daytime atmosphere and into a nighttime club vibe with a host of shareable touchpoints, in addition to live music performances taking place all night, beginning with djs Jamie xx and Blu DeTiger, and ending with a headlining performance by newly crowned “Best New Artist” MTV Video Music Awards winner Ice Spice, and VMA nominee PinkPantheress.

An Entrance that Flaunts the Technology

There may have been a range of experiences to partake in at the event, but attendees never forgot why they were there. From the get-go, consumers were enveloped in Bose’s new headphones, earbuds and Immersive Audio tech thanks to a 360-degree entry tunnel experience that guided them into the main event space. As attendees journeyed through the tunnel, which doubled as a fashion runway for many of them, lights pulsed and they were surrounded by spatial audio—the technology baked into the QuietComfort Ultra products—demonstrated through a playlist of songs by the brand’s artist partners.

A Jaw-dropping Product Demo

The experience that Bose’s Immersive Audio tech provides is described as “sitting in the acoustic sweet spot” at a recording studio. Accordingly, a custom demonstration that was hosted a floor below the main event space for the brand’s spatial audio tech was designed to make attendees feel like they were walking directly into a real studio. The space included leather couches with headphones on display in front of them, a full mixing console, studio monitors, custom lighting, rugs, a renowned studio engineer and a four-piece band comprised of award-winning musicians that performed behind plexiglass.

To participate in the nearly eight-minute demo, attendees slipped on a set of QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and listened as the live band played through the mixing console and into their headphones. In each demo, participants were directed to switch between the product’s different modes, moving between “Still,” during which they moved their heads around and the audio “stayed in place,” and “Motion,” during which they moved their heads and the audio moved with them. Adding an extra moment of surprise and delight to the demo, as attendees removed their headphones, they were met with the clamor of New York City streets in the room, a reminder that Bose is still a leader in noise cancellation technology.

Content Too Good Not to Share

While demonstrations were the main draw for members of the media, during the consumer and tastemaker portion of the launch, providing ample avenues for unique content creation was a critical piece of Bose’s launch event strategy. Dedicated video ops, in particular, were designed to be so engaging that they were simply too compelling not to share on social.

A highlight was the “Glambot,” a robotic “arm” that captured the scene as attendees donned the new headphones while effectively stepping into the campaign’s monochromatic artwork—when they walked onto the set, the lighting instantly changed to match their clothing, essentially letting them create their own Bose ad. The camera was angled to distinctively position the product, then pull back and rotate around to showcase a full body shot that allowed participants to personalize their fashion-inspired content shoot.

“We think a lot about the staging of the musical performances, and through that lens of, ultimately, we want this to become content,” says Daley. “The better it looks once you hold your camera up to it, the more attractive it’s going to be for somebody to post. So thinking about the staging, the LED screens and what’s running on those LED screens, thinking about the laser light show happening during that performance. All those elements help with the shareability of the content.”

A Captivating Partner Integration

The other highlight of the launch event from a content capture perspective was a “Carpool Karaoke”-style video op hosted inside a hot-pink Porsche, highlighting Bose’s audio integration with the auto brand. During the activation, participants grabbed a mic and sang along to “Boy’s a Liar,” the track by the evening’s headliners, Ice Spice and PinkPantheress, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard earlier in the year.

Timing the Launch to a Cultural Tentpole

While Bose wasn’t officially a 2023 New York Fashion Week partner, the brand intentionally timed its launch to the event to capitalize on the cultural tentpole’s momentum and ensure access to top-tier influencers and celebrities, who were already in the area for Fashion Week.

“Last year, we had an [official] partnership with Fashion Week around our launch event. This year, it was taking advantage of the timing,” Daley says. “Part of getting the right people to show up is making it easy. So aligning to that moment just meant that we know for that invite list, the scale and the quality of who we can get to come through is going to be greater because people are in town.”

All told, the launch event yielded ample earned media via positive editorial coverage, as well as hundreds of millions of organic social impressions.

“Continuing to set the bar high is a very qualitative metric. But how many of the ‘cool’ people that you have no relationship with, or have no obligation to show up to an event like this, show up because you put on an event that was interesting enough?” says Daley. “That was, for me, what I was most proud of. We had a lot of people show up that have very large social followings. We had some big recording artists show up—and all because it was a cool event.” Agency: Mirrored Media.