Researching the Brand Story and Making Magical Interruptions to Daily Life
Annie Saunders has created human-centred experiential projects for Climate Power/Extreme Weather Survivors, Santander, Verizon, Mastercard, Dos Equis, Bulleit Bourbon, ASICS Worldwide and Ecolab. She specialises in story-led, large-scale interactive environments for public space.
Her installation The Home, a headphone-led installation for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, won the D&AD Yellow Pencil ('Creative Excellence"' for Spatial Design and Installation Design, an Ars Electronica Honorable Mention for Sound Art, the AICP Next Award in Experiential, Merit in Storytelling, Art Direction and Installations at the One Show, and two APA UK Ideas Awards Best Experiential Project and Best Use of Technology for Good. The work is archived in the Department of Film at MOMA.
Her work for HP's 'Family Portraits' campaign won a Shorty award for Diversity and Inclusion and Ogilvy Awards for Tech/Telecommunications and Data Innovation.
CURRENT, her time-based site-specific soundwalk through Lower Manhattan accessed via a custom platform, won both the Tribeca Festival Immersive Creative Nonfiction Award and the Tribeca X Award for best collaboration with a brand (Brookfield Properties).
She is a Lincoln Centre Collider Fellow, an inaugural member of ONX Studio (NEW INC/Onassis Foundation), an alumnus of the Devised Theatre Working Group for next-generation performance-makers at the Public Theatre.
Her essay 'A Case for Liveness' for Exeunt Magazine was adapted for video by the One Club's 'Creative Perspectives' Series in 2021.
Name: Annie Saunders
Location: New York
Repped by/in: The Deli in Canada
Awards: D&AD Yellow Pencil ("Creative Excellence") for Spatial Design and Installation Design, AICP Next Award in Experiential, One Show Merit in Storytelling, Art Direction and Installations, Shorty award Diversity and Inclusion, Ogilvy Awards for Tech/Telecommunications and Data Innovation, Tribeca Festival Best Immersive Creative Nonfiction and Tribeca X Award for Best Collaboration with a Brand, UK APA Ideas Awards Best Experiential Project and Best Use of Technology for Good.
LBB> Why do you think Experiential production is growing at such a quick pace? Why should more agencies and brands be getting into this space?
Annie> I think people are energised toward meaningful human experiences that happen in real space and time. Agencies and brands who prioritise this work, and who give their audience a memorable, personal experience that is embodied and shared have the opportunity to engage that audience for life. I believe that live experiences stay with people in a different, deeper way than something we just watch on a screen.
LBB> What makes live events/Immersive/Experiential campaigns challenging? Why are they different from other marketing campaigns?
Annie> We’re reinventing the wheel every time, in a way. There’s really no formula for experiential; everything depends on where it will be located, what time, what the weather is like, how the audience first hears about it, etc. And that is also what makes it unique and long-lasting. Nothing like it has ever happened before. We’re also often inventing systems to make the magic happen in real time, and using emerging and unpredictable technology - which again, gives that ‘how did they do that’ factor that sets the project apart.
LBB> What elements of a brief sets one apart from the other and what sort of briefs get you excited to execute them?
Annie> The most exciting projects are often large-scale interactive installations for public space - the kind of thing people happen upon and we get that ‘whoa what is that’ reaction. The key is then making that environment inviting and interactive, something that people stay, engage with, and are moved by.
LBB> How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot?
Annie> I’m always looking for the essence of the brief — the fundamental human connection to what it is trying to say. So I’m often looking to distil down to a thematic statement or core image that I can then poetically extrapolate from to create an experience with layers and depth for the audience to explore.
LBB> If the brief is for a brand that you're not familiar with/ don’t have a big affinity with or a market you're new to, how important is it for you to do research and understand that strategic and contextual side? If it’s important to you, how do you do it?
Annie> It’s very important to me to research the brand story and look for depth and detail that can build the layers of the experience. I research the founding story, the background, previous campaigns, choices behind certain wording or even brand colours, looking for visual metaphors or context that can create the under structure for a meaningful experience. That depth of meaning, research and detail is what separates a real, lasting experience from an Instagram background.
LBB> For you, what is the most important working relationship for an XM director to have with another person in creating a campaign? And why?
Annie> Every project needs collaborators and they are all important authors of the work: designers, technologists, you name it. But probably the most important is the day-to-day with my producer. Because there are always unexpected turns, new experiments, brainstorming and pivoting required. Staying in nimble, creative, collaborative, generative partnership with my EP through the project is key.
LBB> What type of work are you most passionate about - is there a particular genre or subject matter or style you are most drawn to?
Annie> In 2024 I made two large scale interactive art installations about climate change; one about extreme weather events (Danger Season) and one about water conservation (Every Drop Counts). It was an incredible experience to be able to create and share work in public space, about those issues that are changing how we live every day.
LBB> What misconception about you or your work do you most often encounter and why is it wrong?
Annie> That I only do deep and meaningful or cause-based work! I love that work of course but I’m also here for the silly, whimsical stuff. Which I actually think is very meaningful too. Also that I only do experiential; I’m always excited to tell stories in other mediums or for other formats: game play, app-based, object design, live action, etc.
LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?
Annie> We’re all in it together trying to create the most perfect expression of the idea in real space and time. It’s a collaboration all the way, and often I’m the newest to the party - these ideas have been with agency and client for a long time often before I come on board to be the creative leader of bringing it physically to life - so a lot of the time my job is to listen very carefully, and then interpret and distil into what is not only physically achievable, visually striking, emotionally impactful and true to the campaign, but also experientially meaningful for the audience/user. What is it going to be like for them, step by step, is always what I come back to in this process.
LBB> What are your thoughts on opening up the production world to a more diverse pool of talent? Are you open to mentoring and apprenticeships on set?
Annie> Absolutely! I’d love to see more of this. In addition to a core group of diverse recurring collaborators, I work with new folks on every project and actively seek out opportunities for mentoring and apprenticeships.
LBB> What role does film making play in live event production? Can these two mediums work together?
Annie> I am passionate about storyboarding and scripting the filmed outputs of experiential work, whether it is an accompanying spot for a larger campaign or a case study. Our job is to translate the work across two very different mediums experientially — doing it live is one thing, watching it on a screen is a another, but both are very much ‘experiences’ — so the filmed content needs to have its own experiential arc for the viewer, not just be a document of what happened live.
LBB> What’s your relationship with new technology and, if at all, how do you incorporate future-facing tech into your work?
Annie> At the moment I am mainly interested in technologies that make magical interruptions to daily life possible, such as my work that activates audio for headphones if the user is at a specific GPS point at a specific time of day. I want to use technology to create inexplicable, delightful disruptions in spaces where we think we know how things work or what’s going to happen, whether that’s in your phone screen or on the subway.
