Before the upcoming event, there is still plenty to do before the first visi­tors arrive. But then, from one second to the next, it suddenly gets dark and quiet: Power outage! The event is in danger if the tech­ni­cians are unable to restart the power supply quickly. That’s the task that visi­tors to the new ebm-papst escape room must complete. During the game, there are all sorts of puzzles and tasks that will help make the elec­tricity flow again. At the same time, visi­tors learn a lot about ebm-papst and its featured prod­ucts.

An escape room on wheels: In future, the truck will be on the road all over Europe. (Photo | ebm-papst)

Carina Richter and Annika Kapp from Global Marketing at ebm-papst had the idea of providing useful infor­ma­tion to visi­tors and poten­tial customers at trade fairs and events in this playful manner. Richter explains: “The escape room is a new way of commu­ni­cating knowl­edge. We can let people expe­ri­ence our prod­ucts by giving them the oppor­tu­nity to get to know and use them in the course of the game. That sticks with them.” And, as Annika Kapp notes, they have fun: “The shared under­standing, the solving of the puzzles as a team is simply cool, and when the tasks are completed, that leaves people with a great feeling. That’s exactly what we want our players to achieve.”

Finding solu­tions together

Escape rooms are a kind of game where a small group of players is shut into one or more rooms and has to complete a tricky task to get out. To complete the task, they have to find clues, follow traces and solve puzzles.

Working with an escape room specialist, Richter and Kapp have devel­oped a two-part concept, as Richter explains: “There are two 20-minute sections of the game, which build upon one another. In the first part, the focus is mainly on image topics and the presen­ta­tion of our company. If you want to expe­ri­ence more, you can play the full version and explore two more rooms. Depending on the focal point, prod­ucts such as the AxiEco, the new RadiPac, RadiCal in a scroll housing, the SIMATIC Micro-Drive servo drive system and FanCheck are inte­grated into the game.

Even ebm-papst employees have to make quite an effort to solve the puzzle and find a way out of the escape room truck. (Photo | ebm-papst)

A great expe­ri­ence for everyone

In order to allow as many customers as possible to play, Richter and Kapp relied on a special high­light and quickly packed the escape room on a flatbed truck. Thanks to this mobile solu­tion, the escape room can be used anywhere in Europe. In May 2021, ebm-papst sales employees were allowed to search for clues. Other employees were then also able to log in to play. The response was consis­tently posi­tive, says Richter: “Every­body was enthu­si­astic. The puzzles are even a chal­lenge for our colleagues. In the next step, we will invite customers to get to know our company in this very special way.”