Bell Helicopter Showcase | Nexus Air Taxi at CES

Overview

Bell's air taxi cabin debuted at CES 2018 with the help of GES, igniting the imagination of the attendees at the biggest tech show on earth. In 2019, Bell worked with GES to reveal the next generation Nexus Air Taxi, highlighting the innovation and advancements made following the well-received 2018 Air Taxi debut. Bell also reinforced their status as a true technology innovator by showcasing new products and thought leadership, displaying their work for 180,000 of the world’s early adopters and consumer technology seekers.

Objectives

Bell developed their objectives for exhibiting at CES using four core themes:

ENVIRONMENT
Develop a multi-sensory brand journey that offers expert testimony, slice-of-life imagery and hands-on discovery with a dramatic Augmented Reality (AR) presence.

PROMINENCE
Establish executive leaders as dynamic subject matter experts in aviation, technology and customer experiences through the CES 2019 experience.

AWARENESS
Secure five top-tier media interviews with follow-on feature articles in technology and leadership focused publications. Raise awareness of Bell’s innovative research and technology by securing five media placements by the end of CES 2019.

BEHAVIOR
Establish Bell’s online presence in the innovation space by increasing year-over-year social media engagement for CES 2019 across channels.

Exhibit Experience

Bell wanted to ensure CES attendees would be talking about them in a big way. What better way to show attendees the future of Urban Mobility than by bringing a full-scale Air Taxi? Bell dreamed of an Augmented Reality experience that would be shared by a large group of attendees watching the Air Taxi come to life on a large 4k LED screen. This vision required a new space, and GES met the challenge with a freshly-designed booth to introduce the Nexus and showcase an exciting AR experience, which gave attendees a glimpse of how Nexus could change their everyday world.

As attendees stepped towards the stage to hear Bell’s commitment to on-demand mobility (ODM), AR cameras prepared to change everyone’s ideas about mobility and how the transportation of people and goods could become more efficient and effective. Scenes of a family leaving for the airport – not via the traditional taxi or Uber but aboard the Nexus – played alongside scenes of the Nexus transitioning into a logistics carrier and helping a company become more productive. Debuting the Nexus Air Taxi gave CES attendees an up close and personal view of transportation of the future. The grand finale of the showcase on ODM was veiwing the ducts on the Nexus shift from vertical to forward flight mode. An audible gasp could be heard from the audience every time they moved.

Following the AR experience, attendees had the opportunity to check out Bell’s exciting new Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) venture. The APT family varies in payload capability, serving many mission sets from medical, law enforcement, offshore missions and on-demand delivery services. Bell displayed two different versions of the APT family – APT 20 and APT 70.

Another exciting experience for CES attendees was Bell’s Future Flight Controls simulator.

Bell actively collected data to help shape the future flight controls of aviation. Data from Bell’s Future Flight Control simulators will be used to determine what actions and interfaces are intuitive to the average potential operator and what prior experiences and abilities contribute to these opinions. Attendees had the opportunity to check out three different controls while flying an Air Taxi on different routes. Times were captured and displayed on a leaderboard to see who mastered the different controls. Bell committed to providing a memorable experience to every guest who entered the booth. Based on positive social media results, they were successful in this endeavor.

Results

Bell’s Nexus, a full-scale mockup of their newest highly-automated hybrid lift vehicle, was a complete showstopper. When the rotors on the Nexus pivoted to their vertical position, neighboring exhibits came to a standstill, in awe of the spectacle. Bell also engaged the CES attendees with the Future Flight Controls Virtual reality experience that collected data on which flight control system was the most intuitive. This proved to be an astute way to glean information from a broad demographic and help Bell refine their products in the future. Standing out at CES is no easy feat, and Bell proved they are truly a world-class technology provider.

Learn More

ENVIRONMENT
More than 14,000 attendees visited the Bell exhibit at CES, with over 50% of attendees engaging with the FFC experience and 29% of attendees engaging with the Nexus experience.

PROMINENCE
Bell’s top spokespeople were involved in a combined 72 CES articles.

AWARENESS
Bell’s CES media coverage exceeded expectations. Bell appeared in over 2,000 media stories – including both traditional and social media – with over 1 billion online impressions.

BEHAVIOR
Bell was tagged in posts across five social media channels, an increase of 74% over 2018 results. The CES audience growth across social media channels increased by 46% over 2018. People engaging across social media (unique clicks, likes, retweets, comments and shares) grew by 218% over 2018.