Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

AtherSpace is our Experience Centre dedicated to enthusiasts and future owners to get an end-to-end product understanding and experience. We created a physical interaction space where future owners and enthusiasts could get a complete product experience. The current automobile purchase and ownership journey does not work for us. We wanted to avoid overly pushy sales folk and confusing product information.

Background

Situation: The current two wheeler purchase experience is broken. It is purely transactional, driven by sales target and rarely help the customer understand the product in depth. With AtherSpace our focus was to bring attention to things that matter - deep product understanding - through well laid out content, knowledgeable product specialists and a test-ride of the product. - We removed everything else which was a distraction: pushy salesmen, crowded floors and any other friction in the customer journey. - Prospective consumers can find AtherSpace online, schedule a test-ride or do a pre-order on our website, they can come down to the store, experience the product, complete test-ride formalities digitally, see ride data visualization and even pre-order at the experience centre.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Tying together an immersive narrative for the electric automobile with enhanced customer engagement, the design strategy for the Experience Centre divides the expansive floor plate into distinct zones – enabling an enriching brand interaction that prioritizes visitor engagement and familiarization with the product over pure sales. Each zone has been designed to facilitate an intimate interface between the visitor and the brand, whether through gallery spaces for the technology behind the product, discussion zones for prospective customers, or initiation areas for first-time users. AtherSpace, our experience centre, is inspired by a design studio theme. The space had to reflect the brand’s design language - clean, purposeful and also reflect the personality of being genuine and transparent. Taking this as a starting point allowed us to create an open, spacious and casual space for potential owners to interact with different elements of the product.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The core TG: 25-35 Urban Consumers, Seeking flexible and seamless commute for work, Appreciate technology Approach : Creating a space where the customers can educate themselves about every aspect of the vehicle and witness the engineering and mechanical efforts that have gone into manufacturing it through a naked scooter which is placed right at the centre of the store, with the skeletal structure showcasing the spare parts. They learn about every aspect of the vehicle, get to see it inside out through a naked scooter up on display that shows them the key components and also experience the intelligence and connected features through a visual display. Educating the customers on EVs and why they make sense today. Everything at the experience centre is optimised around creating awareness in the customer. Now, consumers are optimistic about the potential & performance of electric vehicles in India

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

It took 14 days to create the design of the experience centre and 60 days to build it. The first outlet opened to the public in Bengaluru in June, 2018. With learnings from AtherSpace Bangalore, the space in Chennai was launched in July 2019 keeping in mind performing deliveries,back office requirements etc. Ather Energy Experience centres are present in 7 cities currently and will be opening up in a total of 27 cities to give customer across the country the best brand experience. By the end of 2021 the retail outlets will be present in 40 cities.

List the results (30% of vote)

- The customer experience score of the retail outlets have consistently remained above 4 over the past 2 years - It is one of the significant reasons behind the overall NPS being above 60% - Google score card: Ather Space Bengaluru: 4.7 Ather Space Chennai: 4.7 - 50% of the sales conversions/ pre-orders have been through the Experience centres - Overall result: Happy customers and enthusiasts. Hosted Multiple test rides Most importantly it educated people on electric vehicles and specifically the Ather products