Tag: Cramer-Krasselt

Porsche: Interactive Hologram Print Ad

To launch its latest 911, Porsche created a print ad that behaves like a device. Working with agency Cramer-Krasselt, Porsche placed a small acetate sheet into Fast Company’s April issue, turning a magazine spread into a build-it-yourself prism and an interactive “hologram” experience. In this context, “hologram” refers to a prism illusion created from tablet-screen content.

The execution ran as a four-page spread inserted into around 50,000 copies, complete with assembly directions. Porsche billed it as the world’s first interactive hologram print ad.

When a magazine page turns into a viewing tool

The mechanic is the whole point. You fold the acetate into a small prism, place it on top of a tablet, then use the screen content to create the floating 3D-style illusion inside the prism. Print does not “show” the car. Print enables the car to appear.

That shift matters. Instead of asking a reader to imagine innovation, the ad makes them assemble it, which turns curiosity into action.

In premium automotive marketing, making print behave like a device is a fast way to earn attention from audiences who think they have seen every format.

Why the prism matters more than the hologram

The hologram effect is a spectacle, but the prism is the message. It signals precision, engineering, and fascination through the act of building. It also gives the reader a reason to keep the insert, show someone else, and replay the experience, which is exactly what print needs when attention is scarce. The real question is whether the build step makes “innovation” feel earned rather than claimed.

Extractable takeaway: If you want a print unit to signal modernity, make it an enabling tool the viewer assembles, so the interaction itself becomes the proof.

What Porsche is really buying

The business intent is to make a high-end model launch feel as advanced as the product story. A conventional print page can carry features and beauty. This format carries a proof point. Porsche can credibly say, “We pushed the medium,” and that halo transfers to “we pushed the car.”

This is a smart launch move because it turns medium innovation into a product halo without adding more copy.

Steal this print-as-device pattern

  • Make the reader do one small action. Folding beats scanning when you want ritual, not convenience.
  • Let print enable the experience. The page becomes the trigger, not the canvas.
  • Keep the rules idiot-proof. If assembly fails, the entire idea fails.
  • Use scarcity and selectivity. A targeted drop can feel more premium than mass coverage.

A few fast answers before you act

What is an “interactive hologram print ad”?

It is a print ad that includes a physical component, in this case an acetate prism, that turns a tablet screen into a hologram-style viewing effect. The print unit is the enabling tool.

How does the prism create the hologram effect?

The prism reflects and refracts imagery from the screen into a floating illusion. The viewer sees the content “inside” the prism rather than flat on the tablet.

Why put this in a business magazine like Fast Company?

Because the audience expects innovation and is more likely to try a format experiment. It also gives the stunt credibility as “design and tech”, not just “advertising.”

What is the biggest execution risk?

Friction. If instructions are unclear, materials are flimsy, or setup takes too long, people drop the experience before the payoff.

What should you measure for a print-to-device activation?

Completion rate of the build, repeat views, sharing behavior, and brand recall lift versus a standard print placement. The real KPI is whether the mechanic gets retold accurately.

Corona Extra: Luna Corona

Corona Extra and their ad agency Cramer-Krasselt worked with astronomers, planetariums, and universities in the USA to calculate the positioning of the moon, aiming to capture a moment where it would align perfectly with an image of a Corona Extra beer.

The moment was timed so the billboard’s “missing lime” is completed by the moon’s crescent alignment on the nights of June 14 and 15.

When the sky completes the creative

The mechanism is engineered perspective plus a fixed window in time. The billboard artwork is designed so that from a specific viewing position, the crescent moon appears exactly where a lime wedge would normally sit on a Corona bottle. The media placement then turns into a scheduled viewing, because the “full ad” only exists when the moon cooperates.

In out-of-home advertising, aligning a message with a real-world phenomenon can turn a static placement into a time-limited event people actively seek out.

Why it lands

This works because it makes a familiar brand ritual feel discovered rather than advertised. The payoff is not a new claim. It is a real-world moment that feels improbably perfect, which gives people a reason to stop, watch, and tell someone else where and when it happened. The real question is how far a brand can make the physical world do the storytelling for it. The stronger move here is using the moon to deliver the brand cue instead of adding more message.

Extractable takeaway: If you can make the environment complete your creative, you turn passive exposure into participation. That participation becomes the distribution.

What to steal from Luna Corona

  • Design for one unmistakable illusion: one clean visual trick beats multiple clever details.
  • Use time as a feature: a narrow viewing window creates urgency without discounts or gimmicks.
  • Make the “rule” explainable: people should be able to describe it in one sentence.
  • Choose a ritual people already associate with you: the lime wedge is an instantly legible brand cue.
  • Capture proof: the video is not decoration. It is how the idea travels beyond the street corner.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Luna Corona”?

It is an out-of-home idea where a Corona billboard is positioned and designed so the crescent moon visually becomes the lime wedge on the bottle during a specific time window.

Why involve astronomers and universities?

Because the illusion depends on precise timing and angle. You need accurate lunar position predictions to know when the crescent will “land” in the right spot from the viewer’s perspective.

Is this interactive?

Not in the device sense. The interaction is physical. People move into position, wait for the right moment, and witness the alignment as it happens.

What makes it more than a clever billboard?

The scarcity. It only “works” at certain times, so it behaves like an event, not just media inventory.

What’s the biggest risk with ideas like this?

Fragility. If weather, timing, sightlines, or location details are off, the reveal fails. The planning and production tolerance must be treated like a live event.