Tag: Colombia

Navarro Correas: Wine Art Project

Navarro Correas creates a 13 x 8.2 meter structure in Bogotá, Colombia. It consists of 1,000 acrylic cells and an automated robotic mechanism that fills each cell with six different shades of wine.

How the installation works

People activate the robotic mechanism by sending a text message with the acrylic cell number they want filled. Over time, 1,000 text messages build the full image, described as recreating Van Gogh’s self-portrait. A masterpiece made with Navarro Correas’ own wines.

An SMS-controlled installation is a public artwork where participants trigger physical changes by texting simple commands, turning the audience into the “interface”.

In large-scale city activations, participation gets dramatically stronger when the crowd can see their input change a shared object in real time.

The real question is not whether people will send one text, but whether each text feels like a visible personal contribution to something bigger.

Why it lands: it turns contribution into ownership

This works because it makes participation concrete. You are not “liking” or “voting”. You are choosing a specific cell and watching a physical outcome appear. The growing picture becomes a public scoreboard of collective effort.

Extractable takeaway: If you want mass participation, design a mechanic where each small action is visible, additive, and irrevocably part of the final outcome. People engage longer when they can point to “their piece” of the whole.

The stronger idea here is the visible build, not the SMS channel by itself.

The wine-as-paint choice also earns attention twice: first as a spectacle (liquid filling the grid), and then as a reveal (the final portrait). The mechanism creates suspense, and suspense keeps people texting.

What the brand is really doing here

The installation positions the wine as a maker’s material, not just a drink. It borrows the credibility of craft and art, then backs it with a participatory system that feels modern and social without needing a social network.

What to steal for your next interactive public piece

  • Make the input trivial: one action, one identifier, no learning curve.
  • Make the effect observable: people should immediately see change after they act.
  • Use “additive progress”: partial completion should still look interesting, so the build phase has its own payoff.
  • Design for attribution: let participants feel “I contributed”, even if the contribution is small.
  • Pick a reveal that rewards patience: the final image should be worth waiting for.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Navarro Correas Wine Art Project?

It is a public installation made of 1,000 acrylic cells that are filled by a robotic mechanism with different shades of wine. People participate by texting a cell number to trigger a fill, gradually revealing a final portrait image.

Why use SMS for interactivity?

SMS is frictionless and universal. It requires no app download, works on basic phones, and is fast enough for impulse participation in a public space.

What makes this different from a normal billboard stunt?

The audience directly controls the build. Each message produces a visible change, so the piece becomes a collective construction rather than a one-way display.

What is the key behavioral driver?

Ownership through contribution. People engage more when they can claim a specific part of the outcome and see the shared progress accumulate.

What should you measure for a campaign like this?

Participation volume, unique participants, repeat participation, time-to-completion of the full artwork, dwell time around the installation, and any earned media or social mentions driven by the live build.

Coca-Cola: Rush Hour Cinema

Bogotá gridlock, turned into a cinema you are already sitting in

On an average, commuters in Bogota spend daily 4 hours stuck in traffic. The infernal rush hour traffic jams are the result of unfinished constructions on main avenues, as well as on the rapid transit system, TransMilenio, which has seen work on its expansion come to a halt, due to irregularities in the handling of funds, and corrupt contractors.

So Coca-Cola with ad agency Ogilvy Colombia turned these traffic jams into a drive in cinema. The soda-pop giant launched this ingenious initiative on the eve of their 125th anniversary.

The mechanism: a drive-in cinema without the driving

The idea is as direct as it gets. If people are trapped in cars for hours, give them something worth watching, right there on the route they cannot escape.

A drive-in cinema activation is a public screening designed for people inside vehicles, typically using a large screen for the picture and a radio frequency so the car stereo carries the audio.

In big-city commuting cultures, attention is already captive.

The smartest brand experiences do not try to fight the context. They use it.

The real question is whether you can turn inevitable waiting into a shared moment people remember, without adding friction.

Why it works: it flips frustration into a shared moment

Traffic jams create the same emotional pattern every day. boredom, irritation, and the feeling that time is being stolen. Rush Hour Cinema interrupts that loop with something communal. Drivers are not just waiting. They are watching the same thing together. Because the screen and radio audio synchronize everyone into the same story, the jam feels less like wasted time and more like an event. The experience also changes what people do with their phones. Instead of complaining or doom-scrolling, they have a simple story to capture and retell.

Extractable takeaway: When you synchronize strangers into the same moment, you convert “stuck” into “shared”, which boosts recall and retell.

The business intent behind the “nice surprise”

This is not a product pitch. It is brand behavior on display. Coca-Cola shows up as the brand that makes an unavoidable moment feel lighter, and it does it at scale, in the exact place where annoyance peaks. This is a strong play when the pain point is predictable and unavoidable, because you can upgrade the moment instead of interrupting it.

It is also efficient media. The audience is guaranteed. The dwell time is long. And the memory is anchored to a very specific location and feeling, which makes recall easier later.

Rush Hour Cinema is an ambient Coca-Cola activation in Bogotá that uses rush hour gridlock as the venue, transforming waiting time into a public drive-in style screening. Here, “ambient” means the experience lives in the environment people are already in, rather than pulling them into a separate channel.

Steal this pattern for pain-point media

  • Pick a context where time is already lost. Commuting, queues, delays, waiting rooms. People will thank you for filling it.
  • Make participation effortless. No app. No sign-up. Just look up and tune in.
  • Design for group reality. People experience it side-by-side, so the moment becomes social proof.
  • Keep the message implicit. When the gesture is the point, the brand earns goodwill without talking.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Coca-Cola’s Rush Hour Cinema?

It is an ambient activation in Bogotá that turns rush hour traffic into a drive-in style cinema. Drivers watch a large roadside screen while the audio plays through their car radios.

Why does a traffic jam make sense as a media channel?

Because attention and dwell time are already there. People cannot leave, and they are actively looking for relief from boredom and frustration.

What is the key design principle behind this idea?

Do not fight the context. Upgrade it. When you improve an unavoidable moment, the brand gets disproportionate gratitude and retell value.

How does the audio work in a drive-in setup?

The video runs on a big screen, and the audio is broadcast on a radio frequency so drivers can tune in using their car stereo.

What makes this feel like a shared experience, not just content?

Everyone watches the same thing at the same time, side-by-side. That turns private frustration into a communal moment, which increases memorability.

What is Coca-Cola trying to achieve with this execution?

It is not a product pitch. It is brand behavior on display. Coca-Cola shows up as the brand that makes an unavoidable moment feel lighter, right where annoyance peaks. If you copy this pattern, measure recall and sentiment in the moment, plus organic capture and retell.