To promote the excitement around Copa America 2011, OgilvyAction worked with Coca-Cola to set up a giant screen in downtown Buenos Aires for fans to watch their favorite teams and provide unconditional cheer to the Argentinean National Team. But there was a catch. Sound sensors were installed to keep the screen on and if the fans stopped cheering, the screen would go blank.
The real question is whether you can make the crowd’s participation the switch that powers the experience.
Why this activation hits
The mechanic is brutally simple. Your cheering is not just encouraged. It is required. Here, an activation is a live brand experience that changes what the crowd can see based on what they do. Because the screen can die, the crowd self-organizes to keep the volume up, which makes “support” feel like a shared responsibility. In sports sponsorship and live-event marketing, conditional access is one of the fastest ways to turn spectators into participants.
Extractable takeaway: If you want participation, make it the required input for a real reward, and show the consequence instantly.
- Clear rule. Cheer to keep the screen alive.
- Immediate feedback loop. The crowd sees the consequence in real time.
- Social amplification built in. People around you become part of the control system.
What marketers can reuse from the idea
This is a strong example of “participation as the power source”. Instead of adding a gimmick on top of the match, the match itself becomes the reward for participation. It also turns a brand message into a behavior, which tends to travel further than a tagline.
- Make participation the power source. Tie the experience to an audience action instead of adding a side-gimmick.
- Keep the reward “core”. Use the thing people already want as the payoff, not a separate prize.
- Show consequences instantly. A visible feedback loop lets the crowd adjust behavior without instructions.
If participation does not change anything in the moment, it will read as decoration, not interactivity.
A few fast answers before you act
What is the Coca-Cola “Cheer-O-Meter”?
It is a live fan-screen activation in Buenos Aires for Copa America 2011 where sound sensors kept the match on screen only while fans kept cheering.
How did the sound-sensor mechanic work?
The cheering volume acted as the trigger. If it dropped too low, the screen went blank, pushing the crowd to keep the energy up.
Why is this effective as a brand experience?
Because it converts brand participation into a simple, memorable rule with instant consequences, and it makes the crowd feel responsible for the outcome.
What is the transferable pattern?
Create one clear rule, attach it to a real reward, then deliver immediate feedback so the audience understands their impact in the moment.
