Norms Restaurants: Social Media Above-the-Line

A TV spot that treats social as the main stage

Here is a new TV spot promoting the NORMS Restaurants Facebook page. It does something different. The commercial is grounded in social media rather than simply being an add-on.

How it works: the channel is the creative, not the CTA

The mechanism is straightforward. Instead of telling you to “go to Facebook”, the spot behaves like social. It borrows the language, pacing, and cultural cues of the feed, then uses TV as the amplifier.

In US regional restaurant brands, social channels can function as a 24/7 extension of the dining room: service, deals, personality, and community in real time.

Why it lands: the message and the operating model match

Just as social media never sleeps, NORMS Restaurants also never closes. They are open 24 hours a day. That alignment matters. The spot is not trying to look modern. It is connecting a true operational differentiator to a behaviour that is always on.

The intent: make “follow us” feel like utility

The point is not only awareness. It is habit formation. If the brand is always open, then the social presence can be positioned as always available too, with updates that feel useful, timely, and worth checking.

Early results the brand shared at the time

This family owned business shared the following success within 10 days of the TV commercials:

  • Gained 1,000 fans on Facebook
  • Gained 150 followers on Twitter

What to steal if you want social to be “above the line”

  • Make the channel the idea. If you lead with social, the creative has to feel native to how social behaves.
  • Anchor the message in something operationally true. “Always on” lands when the business actually is.
  • Give people a reason to follow, not just a reason to notice. Utility beats slogans for repeat behaviour.
  • Measure fast, then iterate. If the goal is followers and engagement, build feedback loops early.

A few fast answers before you act

What is different about this NORMS TV spot?

It is built around social media as the core creative idea, not as a last-second add-on call-to-action.

What is the main mechanism that makes it work?

TV is used as the reach layer, while the creative language is intentionally social-native, so the handoff to Facebook and Twitter feels natural.

Why does the “social never sleeps” line fit NORMS?

Because NORMS is positioned as open 24 hours a day, so the always-on idea matches the operating model instead of feeling like marketing theatre.

What is the business goal behind grounding a TV spot in social?

To turn awareness into ongoing follow behaviour, so the brand gains a direct channel for repeat visits, offers, and relationship building.

What is the most transferable takeaway?

If you want social to sit above the line, treat it as the product experience, then use mass media only to accelerate adoption.

Puma: HardChorus for Valentine’s Match Day

When Valentine’s Day lands on match day

This year 14 February, Valentine’s Day, fell on a Sunday. For men everywhere this presented a dilemma. Love or football. Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona, Manchester City vs Liverpool, Napoli vs Inter, or romance with a loved one?

A love song delivered like a terrace chant

Puma recognized this dilemma as “They want to be in your arms. You want to be in the stands”, and so with Droga5 created the Puma HardChorus.

A crowd of football supporting men, assembled in a pub to sing Savage Garden’s Truly Madly Deeply, which then football fans could send to their loved ones while enjoying the game. An Italian version was also created where a similar group sang Umberto Tozzi’s 1977 hit Ti Amo.

In European football culture, match day is a ritual with its own language, loyalty, and emotion.

Puma HardChorus English version:

Puma HardChorus Italian version:

Why it works: it turns the conflict into a gesture

The genius is the tone swap. It takes the toughest-coded environment in the brief and makes it do something unexpectedly tender. That contrast creates surprise, and surprise creates shareability.

It also gives the viewer control over the trade-off. You are not choosing between football and your partner. You are converting match-day energy into a message that says, “I’m here, I’m thinking of you, and yes, I’m still going to the game”.

What Puma is really selling in the background

This is not about listing product benefits. It is about aligning the brand with a lived tension and resolving it in a way that feels culturally fluent. Puma borrows the credibility of the stands, then uses it to deliver romance without embarrassment.

What to steal for your next “two audiences, one moment” problem

  • Name the real conflict. This works because the tension is true, not manufactured.
  • Use a familiar cultural code. Stadium chanting is instantly recognisable and instantly readable.
  • Flip the code without mocking it. The humour is in the contrast, not in making fans look stupid.
  • Make it easy to pass along. If the output is meant to be sent, it needs to stand on its own.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Puma HardChorus?

A Valentine’s match-day idea where football supporters sing romantic songs like stadium chants, which fans can send to their loved ones while they watch the game.

What is the core mechanism in one line?

Turn terrace energy into a love message, then make it easy to share directly with the person who feels “second place” to football.

Why does the idea feel funny and effective?

Because it flips a tough-coded cultural setting into a tender gesture. The contrast creates surprise, and surprise creates shareability.

What is the audience “problem” it solves?

It resolves a real conflict between two priorities by converting match-day behaviour into a signal of care, rather than forcing a binary choice.

What is the most transferable takeaway?

If you have two audiences competing for the same moment, design a simple action that transforms the conflict into a gesture one person can send to the other.

ZugSTAR: Interactive Live Video Conferencing in AR

The future of video conferencing is almost here. Zugara Streaming Augmented Reality (ZugSTAR) is described as a technology that lets people in different locations share an augmented reality experience through a browser-based video conferencing system.

The promise is simple. You do not just see and hear each other. You collaborate on the same interactive layer, with 3D objects and effects that both sides can reference in real time.

What ZugSTAR is trying to change

The mechanism is a shared AR overlay inside a live video call. Instead of treating the camera feed as the whole experience, the system adds a synchronized layer that both participants can see and respond to. The result is closer to “co-present” interaction than a standard webcam call.

In global distributed teams across marketing, product, training, and sales, the biggest conferencing gap is not bandwidth. It is shared context.

Why this matters beyond novelty

This kind of shared overlay can make collaboration more concrete. A product can be demonstrated in 3D, a concept can be pointed at, and a workflow can be rehearsed visually. In theory, this reduces the need for physical proximity by making “show me” possible without shipping people or prototypes.

Definition-tightening: the differentiator is not “video conferencing”. It is synchronized interaction. Both sides are meant to experience the same AR layer at the same time, so the call becomes a workspace, not only a conversation.

Where it could be useful

  • Sales demos. Show products and configurations as interactive visuals instead of static slides.
  • Training. Walk through procedures with step-by-step overlays that feel more like guided practice.
  • Remote assistance. Use shared visuals to clarify instructions when words are not enough.
  • Creative collaboration. Iterate on concepts that benefit from spatial context and rapid visual feedback.

What to steal for your own collaboration design

  • Make the shared layer the point. If the overlay is optional decoration, it will not change outcomes.
  • Keep interaction low-friction. The first useful action should happen in seconds.
  • Design for “pointing” and “confirming”. The fastest collaboration loops are highlight, discuss, agree.
  • Measure success as reduced back-and-forth. The win is fewer misunderstandings, not more effects.

A few fast answers before you act

What is ZugSTAR in simple terms?

It is a browser-based video conferencing concept that adds a synchronized augmented reality layer, so both participants share the same interactive visuals during the call.

How is this different from a normal video call?

A normal call shares audio and video. This approach aims to share an interactive visual workspace on top of the video, not just the camera feed.

What is the main business benefit of shared AR in conferencing?

Better shared context. When people can see and reference the same visual layer, explaining, demonstrating, and deciding can become faster.

Where does this approach struggle?

When setup friction is high, hardware requirements are unclear, or the interaction is not stable enough for real work. If it feels fragile, teams fall back to screenshare.

What should you evaluate first if you consider something like this?

Whether the shared overlay reduces misunderstandings in your core use case. If it does not, it is entertainment, not collaboration.