Marketing Strategies 117 | SunMatrix Ramble

Samsung Galaxy Y Duos: Human Face Mapping

A man sits still in a chair, and his face becomes the screen. Light wraps perfectly around skin, eyes, and contours, switching identities and moods as if the head is a living billboard.

Over the years there have been numerous noteworthy projection mapping events and installations. In this latest example, Samsung, for the launch of its Galaxy Y Duos, a dual SIM smartphone, creates a very unusual projection mapping piece on a human face.

When mapping leaves the building

The mechanism is the point. Projection mapping normally favors surfaces that do not move. Here, the “surface” is a face, which means every tiny change in angle threatens the alignment. The craft is in keeping the projected geometry locked to human features so the illusion stays believable.

In global consumer electronics launches, spectacle earns attention fastest when the medium demonstrates the product idea, not just a product visual.

Why this fits a dual SIM story

The creative metaphor is identity switching. Multiple personas, contexts, and “modes” land on one face, which mirrors the promise of a phone designed to manage two worlds without forcing a hard choice between them. Because the mapping stays locked to facial features, the switching reads instantly, which is why the metaphor can carry the dual SIM idea without copy.

Extractable takeaway: If your product promise is “two worlds, one device”, pick a medium that naturally visualizes switching. Then strip everything else away until the switch is the only thing people can retell.

What Samsung is really buying

This is not a spec explanation. It is an attribution grab, meaning a creative move designed to bind one message to the brand in memory. The goal is to make “Galaxy Y Duos equals dual identity” stick in memory through a visual that feels new, technically ambitious, and hard to ignore. The real question is whether the stunt makes “dual identity” feel obvious in one glance, without needing specs.

Projection mapping takeaways you can reuse

Make the mapping carry the meaning. The effect should express the product truth, not decorate it.
Choose a single metaphor and commit. Here it is identity switching. Everything supports that.
Design for instant comprehension. If it does not read in two seconds, the stunt becomes “cool tech” with no brand imprint.
Keep the hero shot simple. One clean sequence that people can retell beats five clever sequences no one can describe.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “human face mapping” in this context?

Projection mapping where the projected visuals are calibrated to a real face, so light and motion appear to sit on the skin and follow facial geometry.

Why is mapping onto a face harder than mapping onto a wall?

A face is complex and can move. Small shifts break alignment, so the illusion depends on precise calibration and controlled motion.

How does this connect to the Galaxy Y Duos product idea?

The piece uses shifting identities on one face as a visual metaphor for managing two SIM identities on one device.

What is the main advantage of a mapping stunt for a phone launch?

It earns attention through novelty, then links that attention to a single, memorable product idea people can repeat.

What is the biggest creative risk with this approach?

If the metaphor is weak, the audience remembers the technique but not the brand or the product message.

Anthon Berg: The Generous Store

Generosity is one of the basic elements in human happiness. The campaign cites research suggesting that only 1 in 10 people experience generosity from others. To help change that trend, Danish chocolate maker Anthon Berg opens “The Generous Store”.

For one day only, the pop-up is described as the first chocolate shop where people cannot pay with cash or card. Instead, the store provides iPads where people log in to Facebook and post a promise of a generous deed to a friend or loved one.

When generosity becomes the price tag

The twist is simple. Chocolate is not discounted. It is “priced” in actions. Your payment is a public commitment, not a transaction, and that changes how the brand message travels.

How the mechanic works

Here, the mechanic is the rule set that turns each chocolate into a reward for a promised deed. Each product comes with a defined generous deed. At checkout you choose the deed, sign in on an in-store iPad, and publish the promise to the person you are doing it for. The store does not accept money. It accepts a visible commitment that a real person can later hold you to.

In FMCG and gifting brands, turning a private intention into a light public commitment often spreads faster than any discount ever could.

Why it lands

This works because it removes the usual friction of “sharing”. People do not share an ad. They share a promise addressed to someone they care about. That makes the post feel personal, not promotional, and it gives the brand a role as the trigger for a positive moment. The one-day constraint also adds urgency. If you want in, you have to show up and do the thing.

Extractable takeaway: If you can make the customer’s “payment” a social commitment with a clear recipient, the message travels as a relationship act, not as brand content.

What the brand is really buying

The real question is whether your brand can make the act of purchase double as a socially visible promise people want to complete.

The store trades short-term revenue for reach and association. The earned effect is not just “people talked about a pop-up”. It is that the brand gets attached to a stream of personal posts that already have attention and emotional context. That is a much stronger distribution layer than asking people to like a page or share a video.

What FMCG and gifting brands can steal

Use a non-monetary currency that matches your brand. Here the currency is generosity, not points.
Make the action specific. Vague kindness does not travel. Concrete deeds do.
Design for a real recipient. A named person increases follow-through and keeps it human.
Keep the steps brutally simple. Choice, login, post. No extra hoops.
Limit the window. Scarcity turns a nice idea into an appointment.

A few fast answers before you act

What makes this “social commerce” rather than a normal pop-up?

The checkout is a social action. The “payment” is a posted commitment to another person, which creates distribution inside an existing network.

Why is the Facebook post essential to the idea?

It turns intent into accountability. The promise is visible to the recipient and friends, which increases the chance of follow-through and gives the campaign its reach.

What is the main risk with a “good deeds as currency” mechanic?

If it feels forced or performative, people will reject it. The deeds must feel genuinely generous and culturally natural for the audience.

How would you adapt this if you cannot use Facebook or logins?

Keep the structure and change the channel. The key is a lightweight commitment addressed to a real person, made in a way that is easy to share and later remember.

What should you measure beyond views?

Track footfall during the activation, earned mentions, the volume of public pledges, and any lift in brand association with generosity in post-campaign tracking.

Pinterest 2012: Early Brand Campaigns

Pinterest is one of the most talked about and fastest growing social networks of 2012. What makes this social site different from the others is its pinboard-styled social photo sharing feature that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections.

Since it is still very new, a lot of major brands do not know what to make of it. However, a couple have already found creative ways to exploit the potential of the new social media destination.

Why the native loop matters

In early-stage social platforms, the first campaigns that win tend to be the ones that treat the platform’s native behavior, pinning, collecting, repinning, as the mechanic, not as an afterthought. The native loop, the repeatable cycle of pinning, repinning, and collecting, is what makes participation feel like curation instead of work.

In global consumer brands and agencies, early pilots work best when the platform’s native loop is the unit of design, not a channel to paste old formats into.

The real question is whether your idea makes the platform’s default action rewarding before you add any media spend.

Brands should ship only what is native-first, and skip anything that needs heavy explanation to feel like it belongs.

Four early Pinterest plays worth studying

Women’s Inspiration Day by Kotex

In Israel, Kotex reportedly identified 50 inspiring women and looked at what they were pinning on Pinterest, then sent them virtual gifts. If they re-pinned the gift, Kotex would send a real gift by mail. Smoyz, the agency behind the effort, claims nearly 100% of the women posted something about their gift, not only on Pinterest, but on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Puzzle by Peugeot Panama

Peugeot Panama ran a contest that awarded fans who completed their Pinterest puzzle. The brand’s Pinterest presence featured images of cars running over two or more boards. In each case, a board was missing. To get the missing pieces, fans had to go to Peugeot Panama’s website to find and complete the full image set.

Color Me Inspired by Guess

Guess challenged its fans to create boards based on four spring colors: Noir Teal, Hot House Orange, Red Hot Overdue and New Plum Light. Participants were asked to title their boards as “Guess My Color Inspiration” and pin at least five images, each tagged with #GUESScolor, in them. Four winners were then chosen by fashion bloggers Kristina Bazan of Kayture, Michelle Koesnadi of Glisters and Blisters, Jennifer Rand of Belle De Couture and Samantha Hutchinson of Could I Have That.

Pinterest Lottery by British Midland International

British airline “bmi” launched a game of chance to engage its fans. With “Pinterest Lottery”, bmi encouraged fans to re-pin up to six images of its travel destinations Beirut, Dublin, Marrakech, Moscow, Nice, London and Edinburgh. At the end of each week, the company chose a number at random, and users who had re-pinned the image with that number qualified for a chance to win a free return flight.

What these early campaigns get right

These ideas differ in execution, but they all turn Pinterest behavior into a simple loop you can complete and share.

Extractable takeaway: When a platform is new, design around the action people repeat, then let the reward validate the behavior, not the other way around.

They make “repin” the action, not the decoration. The platform behavior is the participation mechanic.
They reward curation. People are not asked to broadcast. They are asked to build a board that reflects taste.
They turn visuals into utility. Gifts, missing puzzle pieces, color palettes, destination boards. Each idea uses images as a system, not as wallpaper.

Rules for your first Pinterest test

Start with one native behavior. Make it do the heavy lifting, then build the incentive around it.
Design for identity, not reach. Boards are self-expression. Campaigns that respect that feel less like ads.
Keep the rules explainable. If the mechanic cannot be retold in one sentence, participation drops.

A few fast answers before you act

What made Pinterest feel different from other networks in 2012?

Its core object was a curated pinboard. People collected and organized images by theme, which made self-expression look like curation rather than status updates.

What is the common pattern across these early brand campaigns?

They use Pinterest’s native loop. Pin, repin, collect, complete, as the interaction, then attach a reward or outcome to it.

Why did Kotex’s approach travel well?

Because the output was personal and “worth pinning”. The gift reflected what someone had already revealed about themselves through their boards.

Why do puzzle and lottery mechanics fit Pinterest?

Because Pinterest already feels like collecting. Turning boards into completion tasks or numbered sets makes the platform behavior feel like a game, not a campaign.

What is the biggest risk when brands jump onto a new platform too early?

Forcing old formats into new behaviors. If the campaign does not feel native to how people already use the platform, it gets ignored or mocked.