Live Communication 84 | SunMatrix Ramble

Barnardo’s: Interactive donation poster

BBH London has created an interactive donation poster for Barnardo’s. Placed as an outdoor unit, it turns a normal “walk past” fundraising ask into a moment that responds to you.

A poster that reacts when you give

As reported in trade coverage at the time, the execution combines a traditional collecting tin with a responsive screen element. When someone donates, the poster acknowledges it in real time, shifting the dynamic from silent guilt to immediate gratitude.

In public charity fundraising, the fastest path to action is a small, human feedback loop that makes giving feel seen and valued.

Standalone takeaway: This works because it takes the most fragile part of street fundraising. The awkwardness of being asked. And replaces it with a clear emotional payoff that arrives the second you act.

What “interactive donation poster” means here

An interactive donation poster is out-of-home media that responds to real-world behaviour. In this case, the behaviour is donating on the spot, and the response is a visible, immediate acknowledgement that makes the exchange feel personal rather than transactional.

Why the interaction matters more than the technology

The technology is not the headline. The headline is the social contract it creates. If you give, the poster “gives back” with recognition. That reciprocity is a powerful motivator because it makes the donor feel like a participant, not a passer-by.

It also increases dwell time. People pause to see what happens. Others notice the pause and become curious. Curiosity becomes participation. Participation becomes donations.

What to steal for your own charity or cause-led work

Reward the act immediately. The first second after a donation is the moment to reinforce behaviour.
Keep the interaction binary. A clear “gave” versus “didn’t” moment is easier to understand in public space.
Design for bystanders. Make the reaction readable from a distance so the crowd becomes your amplification layer.
Make the thank-you feel human. Avoid gimmicks. Aim for warmth and clarity.
Protect trust. Be explicit that the interaction is tied to giving, not to identifying or tracking people.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Barnardo’s interactive donation poster?

It is an outdoor fundraising poster designed to respond when someone donates, so the act of giving triggers an immediate acknowledgement rather than staying a one-way ask.

Why does this kind of poster increase the chance of donation?

It replaces the awkwardness of being asked with a quick emotional reward. When donors see a direct response, giving feels more meaningful and less like dropping money into a void.

What is the simplest version of this idea?

A single visible reaction to a confirmed donation. A thank-you line, a change of expression, or a short message that appears only after giving. The key is timing, not complexity.

What are the main risks with interactive fundraising in public space?

Friction, reliability, and perceived surveillance. If it fails to respond, people feel tricked. If it feels like it is “watching” them, people feel uncomfortable and avoid it.

How do you keep it ethical and respectful?

Make the interaction about the donation, not the donor. Keep any sensing minimal, avoid collecting personal data, and ensure the message focuses on impact and gratitude.

Domino’s: Pizza Holdouts

When your friends “rat you out” to a pizza brand

Domino’s campaign against consumers who cannot stand its pizza continues. Crispin Porter + Bogusky is back with a new facet of the “New Pizza” campaign. The brand sets out to harass three poor unsuspecting souls who have been ratted out as not eating Domino’s.

The premise is that “only a handful” of people have not tried the new pizza recipe Domino’s came out with.

The mechanic: turn trial into a social bounty hunt

The mechanism is simple and slightly mean in a way that makes people watch. Identify the “holdout”. Make their resistance a story. Then recruit their friends as the distribution layer, so the campaign spreads through personal networks instead of brand channels alone.

In US quick-service marketing, “get them to try it once” is often the hardest job, because taste perceptions and jokes about quality can become cultural default settings.

Why it lands: public call-out plus a clear path to redemption

This works because the tension is real. People do have strong opinions about Domino’s. Making the holdout visible creates social pressure, but the campaign balances that pressure by offering an easy way out. Try the new recipe. Join the conversation. Stop being the exception.

The business intent: accelerate reappraisal of the product

This is not a love-brand play. It is a credibility reset. Domino’s wants lapsed and sceptical customers to re-test the product, so the “new recipe” can replace the old mental model.

After this, Domino’s reported doubling its profits last quarter to $23.6 million.

What to steal if you are trying to force “first trial” at scale

Make the barrier explicit. “You have not tried it” is a clearer friction point than “please consider our brand”.
Recruit friends, not audiences. Social pressure works best when it comes from someone the holdout knows.
Give the story a role people can play. “Bounty hunter” is a participation frame, not just a message.
Link the stunt to a measurable behaviour. The only KPI that matters here is trial, not views.

So do you know a pizza holdout? Find out how to become a Taste Bud Bounty Hunter at www.PizzaHoldouts.com

A few fast answers before you act

What is Domino’s “Pizza Holdouts” in one sentence?

A campaign that targets people who still have not tried the “new” Domino’s recipe, using friends to identify them and turning first-trial into a playful hunt.

What is the core mechanism?

Social recruitment plus a role people can play. Friends “rat out” holdouts, and the brand reframes outreach as a bounty-hunt style participation story.

Why does using friends change the effectiveness?

Because social pressure is more persuasive when it comes from someone you know. The message is carried by relationships, not just media.

What is the real KPI this format is trying to move?

Trial. The stunt is designed to force the first bite, not just generate views or talk.

What is the most transferable takeaway?

If your growth problem is “first experience”, make the barrier explicit, recruit peer influence, and design a participation frame that points to the behaviour you want.

3D Holograms: Two Marketing-World Examples

3D holograms are a great way to attract and engage consumers. They can be quite effective if your brand is having trouble getting noticed or if your product’s capabilities can best be described using images and animation.

Though brands find it daunting to venture into this, there are still some brands out there bold enough to try it. Here are some nice examples.

Why holograms can cut through

The strength of a hologram-style display is that it behaves like moving product theater. It can stop people mid-walk, and it can compress a lot of “show, do not tell” explanation into a few seconds.

For marketers, the practical question is not “is it cool?” It is “does motion plus depth make the story easier to grasp than a flat screen or static print?” When the answer is yes, the format can earn attention fast.

Coca Cola In-Store Display

This example shows how a hologram-style display can work as an in-store attention magnet. The content is pure visual storytelling, which makes it easy to understand at a glance and easy to remember later.

Samsung Jet Launch

At launches, holograms can do a different job. They help dramatize product capability and create a sense of spectacle that standard stage content often struggles to match. That spectacle then becomes a shareable proof that something “big” happened.

What to steal if you are considering holograms

Pick one message that benefits from depth. If depth is not doing work, you are paying for novelty.
Design for walk-by comprehension. People should get it in under three seconds.
Keep the loop tight. Short, repeatable sequences beat long narratives in retail and event contexts.
Make the hero action visible. If the product feature is the star, animate that feature, not abstract brand graphics.

A few fast answers before you act

When do 3D hologram displays make sense for marketing?

When you need fast attention in a physical space, or when animation plus perceived depth explains the product better than flat media.

What is the main advantage over a normal screen?

Presence. The illusion of depth makes the content feel more like an object in the space, which can increase stop power and recall.

What is the biggest execution risk?

Paying for the format without a story that needs it. If the creative is not designed around depth and motion, the result feels like expensive wallpaper.

How should success be measured?

Dwell time, footfall impact near the unit, assisted recall, and any downstream action that matters to your context, like store inquiry, trial, or social amplification.

What is a practical way to keep cost under control?

Start with one hero unit and a short content loop, then scale only if you can prove incremental attention and understanding versus simpler formats.