Category: Live Communication

Coca-Cola Rainbow Nation

20 years ago, South Africa elected Nelson Mandela in the country’s first-ever democratic election. This lead Archbishop Desmond Tutu to coin the phrase “The Rainbow Nation,” referring to the country’s diverse people.

Now to celebrate this 20th anniversary of democracy, Coca-Cola decided to literally create rainbows. Using sunlight, water, some fancy science and a little bit of magic, they made rainbows pop up all over Johannesburg. Some rainbows even reached the ground, for those who sought to discover where they ended.

Stock Car Transformer

To promote V-Power Ethanol as the official fuel of Brazil’s Stock Car (motorsport) series, Shell created an eye catching stunt that used a large invisible digital screen at a gas station. So when drivers pulled up for gas, the screen instantly transformed their regular cars into real race cars…

The evolution of iBeacons

iBeacons are the future of retail. However last week I spotted two unique examples of how the technology could be used beyond retail…

SnackBall Machine

GranataPet is a pet food company from the Bavarian Alps. In their latest campaign, they decided to port the fitness hype from the human world to the dog world.

With the help of their ad agency MRM / McCann Germany, they developed a SnackBall Machine that automatically launched a tennis ball (embedded with an iBeacon) in the park when the dog owner checked-in with #snackball on Twitter. The dog that quickly returned with the ball was then rewarded with a healthy GranataPet Snack, that was activated by the proximity of the ball to the machine.

Since its launch across various large German cities, GranataPet has seen a 27% lift in sales at various local pet food shops.

Tzukuri iBeacon Glasses

Australian company Tzukuri (phonetic spelling of “to make” in Japanese) has successfully combined a tiny iBeacon chip with regular sunglasses, that automatically and permanently connect with the users iPhone. So when the user leaves the sunglasses somewhere he is automatically alerted via a custom iPhone app.

More infos on the glasses are available at: www.tzukuri.com

Coca-Cola Christmas Balloons

Coca-Cola wanted to bring out the Santa in everyone. So for the 2013 holiday season, they created a special vending machine that prompted users to either get a free coke or give a free coke.

If the user choose a free coke, the machine quickly dispensed the drink for the user to enjoy. However, if the user decided to share, then the machine did something a little more special. 🙂 Watch the below video to find out…

Oreo Twitter Powered Vending Machine

At the recently concluded South by Southwest (SXSW) 2014 conference, Oreo showcased a vending machine that created custom Oreo cookies based on what was trending on Twitter and then converting the trends into custom Oreo flavors and colors.

Here is a behind the scenes look of how the vending machine worked…

Pepsi Max Unbelievable Bus Shelter

Pepsi Max for its new ‘Unbelievable’ campaign rigged an ordinary bus shelter in London, to perform tricks on unsuspecting travellers. Using a custom see-through digital display, people waiting at the bus shelter were made to believe that they were actually seeing things like hovering alien ships, a loose tiger, a giant robot with laser beam eyes and so on. The reactions to these ‘unbelievable’ scenarios were then captured and put in the below viral video…

Happy Beer Time

Nowdays people like to go out, take photos and share it on Instagram. So Carlsberg along with Danish agency Konstellation decided to put a social twist to the well known concept of Happy Hour.

To ensure that people at bars in Denmark continued buying Carlsberg, they asked them to snap an Instargram photo and tag it with #barname and #happybeertime. The successfully tagged photos then helped extend the Happy Beer Time clock which in turn allowed everyone at the bar to drink Carlsberg at a discounted price.

Budweiser was however the first to pioneer this Happy Hour 2.0 concept in August 2012. But Carlsberg is the one that managed to connect it to social media.

Polar Cell Phone Nullifier

There is nothing more annoying than going to a bar with friends and then watching them focus on their smartphones. Since this is a worldwide problem. Polar, a beer that is sold only in one state in Brazil decided to take things in their own hands and solve this world problem.

A special beer cooler was created that blocked 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi and GSM signals to any device within a 5 foot radius. People who then ordered Polar, got served in this unique cell phone nullifing cooler that allowed everyone to interact more with their friends and less with gadgets.

DHL is faster

DHL’s large network of offices, trucks and employees, makes it faster than most of its competitors. To communicate this through an ad campaign is an expensive proposition. So they got German trojan campaign specialists Jung von Matt/Neckar to make their competitors (UPS, TNT and DPD) unknowingly promote them as the fastest packet delivery service.

Large inconspicuous packets were created and sealed with thermal foil. On being cooled in large refrigerators these packets turned black. UPS, TNT and DPD were then asked to deliver these packets to difficult but central city locations. During delivery these packets were exposed to the warm city temperatures and this caused them turn to yellow and expose the words “DHL is Faster”. 😎

The Invisible Vending Machine

Since the time I started writing this blog, I have come across many innovative vending machines. Some I featured right here on Ramble.

Now to add to this collection, here is an invisible vending machine from Coca-Cola Turkey that becomes visible only when couples walk by. The machine was created specially for Valentine’s Day (last week) and was installed in Istanbul to spread happiness Coca-Cola style. 😎