Here is the new ad for Nokia nGage…it has taken 1000 people to replicate the snake game frame by frame and step by step, without any special effects.
But the real noteworthy part here is the great execution of the Get Out and Play web site. The site is exactly like the TV ad but with a very cool execution of the game – bricks.
You open a print issue of Esquire and the pages do not stop at ink. You point a webcam or phone at a marked page and the magazine layer expands. Video clips play, 3D objects appear, and extra content sits directly on top of the printed layout. The issue behaves like a portal, not a publication.
Esquire experiments with an augmented reality-enabled issue that connects physical pages to digital experiences. The print product becomes the trigger, and the digital layer becomes the reward for curiosity.
In publishing and brand media, augmented reality works best when the page itself becomes the interface rather than a detour to a separate destination.
This is not a banner ad placed on paper. It is a format shift. The reader keeps control, but the magazine now has depth. Print becomes interface, and “extra content” becomes spatial and contextual rather than hidden behind a URL.
A print magazine issue that unlocks digital overlays like video, interactive elements, and 3D objects when a camera recognizes marked pages.
A webcam or phone camera, plus the AR experience that recognizes the markers in the issue.
Video clips, interactive elements, and 3D overlays tied to the editorial pages.
The print page becomes the interface, so the digital layer is contextual and anchored to the physical layout.
Treat physical media as an activation surface, then design a fast, editorially relevant reveal that makes the extra layer feel earned.
If you have ever reckoned you have an evil twin somewhere else in the world, or that you were separated at birth but no one has got round to telling you, Coke Zero’s “worldwide social networking experiment” plays directly into that curiosity.
Coke Zero created a Facebook app called the “Facial Profiler” with one clear aim: find your online lookalike.
The mechanic is simple and self-explanatory. You upload a photo to the database. Coke analyses the facial characteristics and attempts to find the nearest match from other uploaded images.
In global FMCG marketing, lightweight social utilities can turn personal identity-curiosity into mass participation with minimal friction.
This works because the “reward” is social, not transactional. People want to see the result, they want to show friends, and they want friends to try it back, which increases the pool of uploaded images and improves the matching for everyone.
There is also a built-in tension that keeps it sticky: the match is never perfect, which invites replay, comparison, and conversation rather than closure.
The campaign does not argue product attributes head-on. Instead, it borrows the logic of the product proposition and turns it into a human metaphor: “close enough” can still be compelling.
The idea behind the campaign is: ‘If Coke Zero has the taste of Coke…is it possible that someone out there has your face?’.
It is a Facebook application that invites people to upload a photo and then returns the closest lookalike match from other uploaded images in the database.
Participation creates the asset. Users contribute photos, the system compares facial characteristics, and the database grows with every upload, which increases the chance of finding a “near match”.
Because the output is personal and social. The result is fun to show, fun to debate, and it prompts friends to try it too, which naturally amplifies reach.
To make the Coke Zero proposition memorable by translating “close enough to Coke” into a human analogy, so the brand message is felt through participation rather than explained through claims.
Build a simple loop where the audience action creates the content, the content creates conversation, and the conversation recruits the next participant.
