Category: Ads

Snickers: Hungry Purchase Resale

The global Snickers platform “You’re not you when you’re hungry” has generated plenty of buzz. To extend it in Dubai, and make the downside of hunger feel more real, Impact BBDO created “Hungry Purchase Resale”.

The insight is simple. During big sales, people often buy things they later regret. Snickers pins these shopping bloopers on hunger and, in partnership with Dubizzle.com, lets shoppers upload the items they want to sell straight into Snickers branded banners that appear on the site’s homepage. Clicking the banner takes people directly to the classified listing so the item can be sold on.

Turning regret into a media unit

The clever bit is that the ad is not just an ad. It becomes a functional resale slot that people actually want, because it helps undo a mistake. This is the stronger move, because utility gives the audience a reason to use the format, not just notice it.

In high-velocity retail environments, the best digital ideas piggyback on existing intent surfaces, meaning the places where people are already ready to browse, compare, or buy, then give people a reason to interact that is bigger than “engage with our brand”.

The real question is how to turn a brand platform into a useful action inside the exact behavior it is commenting on.

Why it lands

The better approach here is to make the platform behave like a service, not a message. The audience is already on a classifieds site to browse, compare, and transact. By turning remorse into a shareable listing, the campaign earns attention inside the exact behavior it is commenting on.

Extractable takeaway: If your brand truth is behavioral, do not just illustrate it. Build a mechanic that lets people enact it in a familiar environment, and make the brand the enabler of a useful outcome.

What the results are described to show

Campaign reporting describes over 200 submissions in a week. It also describes the interactive banners achieving a click-through rate almost five times the industry standard, with 80% of posted items sold the same day.

What commerce teams should steal from this

  • Make the ad do a job. Utility beats persuasion when attention is scarce.
  • Put the idea where intent already exists. Classifieds, marketplaces, and search are “ready-to-act” contexts.
  • Let users supply the proof. Real submissions and real listings create credibility you cannot script.
  • Keep the action one-step. Upload, appear, click, sell. No extra hoops.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Hungry Purchase Resale”?

It is a Snickers activation in Dubai where shoppers can upload regretted purchases into Snickers branded homepage banners on a classifieds site, linking directly to the resale listing.

What is the core insight behind it?

People often make irrational purchases during sales and later regret them. The campaign frames hunger as the trigger for those mistakes.

Why partner with a classifieds site?

Because it is where resale intent already lives. The campaign becomes actionable in-context instead of being a standalone brand message.

What makes the idea feel credible?

It routes real items from real people into a real marketplace flow, so the audience can see behavior, not just hear a claim.

How can another brand replicate the pattern?

Choose a partner platform that already hosts the behavior you are talking about, then build a simple mechanic that turns your brand message into a useful action.

KUKA: The Duel – Timo Boll vs Robot Arm

KUKA is a market leader in industrial robotics. To provide a realistic vision of what robots can be capable of in the future and at the same time celebrate the opening of their new robotics factory in Shanghai, they got German table tennis champion and former world number one Timo Boll to take on a KUKA robot in what was billed as the first ever man versus robot (arm) table tennis match.

The match took place on March 11th in Sofia, Bulgaria. Since then the results of the match have been sliced and diced into the below final cut video that celebrates the inherent speed, precision, and flexibility of KUKA’s industrial robots in tandem with Boll’s electrifying and tactical prowess in competition.

A sports duel as an industrial demo

The mechanism is straightforward. Put a world-class human performer in a constrained arena. Put a robot arm in the same arena. Then shoot it like a movie. Tight angles, slow motion, dramatic beats, and a clear scoreboard narrative. The engineering message rides inside the entertainment. That works because the duel format makes speed, precision, and control visible before the viewer needs any technical explanation.

In B2B industrial categories, cinematic demonstration is often the fastest way to translate engineering attributes into mainstream attention.

The real question is how to make robotic precision feel obvious to people who will never read a spec sheet.

Why it lands

Table tennis is a smart choice because it compresses the value proposition into a single frame. Reaction time, repeatable precision, and control are all visible without a technical explanation. You do not need to understand robotics to understand a rally that never misses its mark.

Extractable takeaway: If your product advantage is “invisible” to most people, stage a head-to-head scenario where the advantage becomes legible in seconds, then edit the story so the viewer can feel the difference.

The intent behind the “first ever” framing

The “man vs. machine” line is a distribution strategy as much as a claim. It gives journalists, employees, and customers a simple hook. It also lets a factory opening travel beyond trade press, because the asset is watchable even if you have no interest in industrial automation.

What industrial marketers should copy

  • Turn specs into a duel: pick one human benchmark and make your performance measurable against it.
  • Choose a sport that explains you: the activity should naturally map to your differentiators.
  • Make the first 10 seconds self-explanatory: the premise should land without narration.
  • Edit for story, not documentation: the cut should create tension and release, not just show footage.
  • Provide a “making-of” layer: give engineers and buyers a deeper track once the headline video has earned attention.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “The Duel”?

It is a KUKA campaign video built around a staged table tennis match. Timo Boll plays against a KUKA robot arm, with the story edited like a cinematic showdown.

What is the campaign trying to prove?

Not that a robot “plays sport” like a human. The point is to make speed, repeatability, and precision feel real, fast, and memorable.

Why table tennis specifically?

Because the action is compact and readable. You can see reaction time and accuracy in a rally without needing technical context.

Is “man vs robot” the important part?

It is the packaging. The more transferable lesson is how the format turns complex capability into a simple, shareable demonstration.

What should B2B marketers copy from this?

Engineer a single, high-contrast scenario where your advantage is visible immediately, then ship both a headline cut for attention and a deeper “behind the scenes” layer for credibility.

Duracell Moments of Warmth: Heated bus shelter

In a winter of ice storms and a polar vortex, moments of warmth are few and far between. So to change that, Duracell Quantum batteries in Canada retrofit a bus shelter with heaters, but the only way to get the heat to work is through a human connection, people joining their hands.

The shelter is set up so warmth only kicks in when two or more commuters complete a simple circuit by touching the contact points and holding hands in the middle.

Why “warmth you earn together” is the right mechanism

This idea works because the product promise is experienced, not explained. Because the heaters only turn on when strangers complete the circuit together, “power” turns into instant relief you can literally feel while you wait. This is the right pattern when you can prove your claim with a sensory payoff in under a minute.

Extractable takeaway: An ambient activation, meaning a brand experience built into the environment, lands fastest when the reward is physical and only unlocks through simple cooperation.

In cold-weather urban transit, small prompts that reward cooperation can turn waiting time into a shared moment, and into a brand story.

The real question is whether your interaction rule makes strangers coordinate in seconds without a staffer, a screen tutorial, or a social script.

What makes the interaction memorable

  • Clear rule in seconds. No app, no signup, no instructions beyond the physical cues.
  • Instant feedback. The reward is heat, right now, right where you are standing.
  • Social proof built in. Every new person who walks up sees the behavior and understands what to do.

Steal the cooperation trigger

  • Make the benefit tangible. If your claim is about performance, choose an output people can sense.
  • Use a cooperative trigger. Shared actions create a story people retell without prompting.
  • Keep the loop short. If it takes more than one minute to understand, street attention disappears.
  • Let the environment do the explaining. Physical design beats copy when you only have a few seconds.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Duracell Moments of Warmth”?

It is an ambient bus shelter activation where heaters only activate when commuters connect physically, turning “power” into a felt experience.

How does the bus shelter get activated?

Two or more people complete a simple circuit by touching the shelter’s contact points while joining hands, which triggers the heating system.

Why does the hand-holding mechanic matter?

Because it forces cooperation. The brand benefit is delivered through a human moment, which makes the warmth feel earned and memorable.

What is the brand message in one sentence?

In cold winters you need power, and sometimes the best power comes from connecting with other people.

What is the main lesson for experiential marketing?

If you want people to remember a claim, make them participate in a mechanism that behaves like the claim.