Customer Stories / Media & Entertainment
2023

AVANTGARDE Builds Solution for Live Event Analysis Using AWS
Event marketing group AVANTGARDE Group (AVANTGARDE) wanted to create a product powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that would help brands glean insights from their customers’ experiences at live events.
Achieves
a high level of data security
Quick
to iterates and deploy changes
Processes
petabytes of data per event
Delivers
unique capabilities in the market
Prepared
to double revenue in 10 years
Overview
AVANTGARDE turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and used AWS for the Edge—which brings AWS cloud capabilities to organizations—and Internet of Things services on AWS to develop a solution that can be used to operate machine learning (ML) models using on-premises devices. AVANTGARDE can run its ML models using AWS for the Edge, which lets smart devices process data either at the local level using servers or at device level using ML algorithms.

Opportunity | Making Events Measurable
Founded in 1985 as an event agency, AVANTGARDE has developed into a globally active group of companies with more than 650 employees in 11 locations worldwide. In addition to the brand experience agency AVANTGARDE, the group has other specialized agency brands, such as Slash.Digital, Trendbüro, and Green Game, offering a broad spectrum of solutions and services. AVANTGARDE wanted to offer companies a new way to elicit attendee feedback from off-line events without using postevent surveys, which tend to have low participation rates.
AVANTGARDE’s solution analyzes emotional expressions to interpret attendee perception and engagement, then converts this data into an experience score. Brands can use these scores to get more accurate insights on everything from event speakers to retail environments, then apply this information to optimize the experiences they offer—whether that’s by reimagining an entire retail environment or simply changing the music and lighting at an event.
The solution uses image sensors to capture attendee expressions, which are converted to data that customers can access through an analytics solution. “Our core innovation is that when the light hits the image sensor, we analyze the image in the moment of creation,” says Sponholz. “The only thing that leaves the device is anonymized data.”
When developing its solution, AVANTGARDE considered various cloud providers and selected AWS for its extensive global footprint, as well as its Internet of Things and edge services, which AVANTGARDE uses to run AI and ML models at device level. “AWS is our core infrastructure provider,” says Sponholz. “Building everything from scratch ourselves wouldn’t have been possible.”

Because what we’re doing is at the cutting edge, we looked to AWS for support when we had challenges.”
Karl Sponholz
Chief Product and Technology Officer AVANTGARDE
Solution | Securing Communications between the Edge and the Cloud using AWS IoT Greengrass
AVANTGARDE started developing its AI solution in 2021 and initially ran into challenges finding components for the devices—smart sensors similar to those used in autonomous vehicles—that it was building. By using Amazon SageMaker Edge, which runs on almost every hardware solution, along with Amazon SageMaker Neo, a service for optimizing ML models for inference on Amazon SageMaker in the cloud and supported devices at the edge, the group could start building models even without yet having decided on a specific hardware component. “Because what we’re doing is at the cutting edge, we looked to AWS for support when we had challenges,” says Sponholz. “We have found AWS to be super helpful by incorporating our feedback into the road map so that we could build the features that we needed.”
Achieving a high level of security for communication between edge devices and the cloud was a top priority. By using AWS IoT Greengrass—an open-source edge runtime and cloud service for building, deploying, and managing device software—AVANTGARDE had the agility to iterate quickly in the cloud and securely deploy changes to its edge devices. The group also uses AWS Security Hub, a cloud security posture management service, to run its security monitoring in a structured way across its resources on the edge and in the cloud.
The solution went live in April 2022 and is currently being tested by 35 enterprise customers. It can process petabytes of data per event, providing a level of insight into attendee experiences that hasn’t been possible before. Over a 10-year timeframe, AVANTGARDE expects it solution to accelerate the revenue of the group. “We are the only one in the world with the capabilities to do this, and that’s clearly transforming our business,” says Sponholz.
Outcome | Expanding around the Globe
AVANTGARDE plans to fully roll out its solution in 2023. Because each of its customers has numerous locations, the group expects to deploy hundreds to thousands of devices. AVANTGARDE plans to use AWS to expand into new regions, bringing the power of AI-driven experience marketing insights to customers around the globe. The group will also create test stores that use the solution to identify which retail formats work best for various products and audiences.
“Our solution is doing things in the physical world that could not be done until now,” says Sponholz. “We value being able to use AWS for the expertise that we need to keep solving problems.”
About AVANTGARDE
Founded in 1985 as an event agency, AVANTGARDE Group develops solutions for measuring the success of in-person experiences. Today, AVANTGARDE is a globally active group of companies with 11 locations in seven countries.
AWS Services Used
AWS for the Edge
AWS edge services deliver data processing, analysis, and storage close to your endpoints, allowing you to deploy APIs and tools to locations outside AWS data centers.
AWS IoT Greengrass
AWS IoT Greengrass is an open-source edge runtime and cloud service for building, deploying, and managing device software.
AWS Security Hub
AWS Security Hub is a cloud security posture management service that performs security best practice checks, aggregates alerts, and enables automated remediation.
Amazon SageMaker Neo
Amazon SageMaker Neo enables developers to optimize machine learning (ML) models for inference on SageMaker in the cloud and supported devices at the edge.
Get Started
Organizations of all sizes across all industries are transforming their businesses and delivering on their missions every day using AWS. Contact our experts and start your own AWS journey today.