Denver agency also wins 2024 Ex Award for Caterpillar event execution from magazine
Creative agency Øuterkind has made the 2024 Event Marketer It List, the publication’s annual special report on the top event agencies that serve the experiential industry. For 21 years, the It List has chronicled the top 100 event agencies.
Øuterkind develops and activates consumer-centric creative marketing solutions for clients including Caterpillar, NASCAR, Ford, and M&M’s/Mars. These include large-scale, semipermanent and mobile experiential-marketing campaigns, fully implemented social-media content, influencer-based programs and communication strategies. The agency’s mantra: “Business Unusual.”
That’s because the niche Øuterkind originally fulfilled for clients disappeared in 2020. Experiential agencies needed to learn how to market to consumers during a time when there were no live events, and digital tools to meet online were largely underdeveloped. Meanwhile, clients were moving forward with product plans and launches. The shop pivoted and created at-home sampling programs, used its network of digital savants to create new ways to connect online, and provided more traditional creative services during a time when that was the only means to engage with people.
As 2021 approached, that mission shifted to finding ways to support their clients’ marketing challenges in live environments. Øuterkind challenged convention and creative boundaries to find ways to make live-event activations special and safe.
“The rules of experiential needed a reset like the industry itself,” said Christian Gani, Partner at Øuterkind. “What was considered creative pre-pandemic was now not so special—it required new energy and a truly new approach that fed into consumers’ desires to be wowed, impressed, and left with bespoke memories. This level of impact required free-form thinking, risk-reward assessments, and an appetite for developing new ways of crafting experiences. That’s Business Unusual.”
Øuterkind has been growing at a fast clip. Since its inception, yearly revenues have increased at double- and triple-digit percentages.
Øuterkind also won a 2024 Ex Award from Event Marketer for The Best Use of Event Technology, the category’s highest honor. The award was for client Caterpillar https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/834428491, an international construction trade show held every three years in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Caterpillar Technology Hub was a transformative, experiential opportunity for a nearly century-old company that had rarely, if ever, been recognized for its technical prowess or accomplishments. Built as “an escape from the norm,” the exploration eclipsed anything Caterpillar or its competitors had ever seen.
“Caterpillar continues to develop incredibly powerful technologies for our customers, and it was critically important for us to bring those to life in an immersive and compelling manner at ConExpo,” said Barry Littlejohn, the company’s Technology Marketing manager.
The Technology Hub helped to position Caterpillar as a tech company that produces the world’s best construction equipment and made intangible software-as-a-service products real to customers. The exhibit was designed for a range of construction-industry professionals, from buyers to equipment operators to C-suite executives.
