Tag: digital experience

Build with Chrome: LEGO Chrome Experiment

Google earlier this week released their latest Chrome Experiment in partnership with LEGO called “Build with Chrome”. In this case, a Chrome Experiment is a browser-based interactive demo built to show what Chrome can do.

Now anybody who visits www.buildwithchrome.com via their Chrome browser can use their mouse or touchscreen to build something out of the virtual LEGO bricks and share them directly on Google+.

Why this is a smart Chrome Experiment

This is a simple product demonstration disguised as play. It shows off what the browser can do by putting it in service of something people already understand. Building with LEGO.

Extractable takeaway: when you want people to remember a platform capability, attach it to a familiar action so the technology explains itself through use.

The real question is whether the experience makes the browser capability memorable by turning it into something people instantly know how to do.

  • Low learning curve. If you can drag and drop, you can participate.
  • Touch-ready by design. Mouse and touchscreen both make sense for “building”.
  • Social distribution baked in. Sharing is part of the experience, not an afterthought.

For digital teams building interactive brand work, the useful pattern is to turn a technical capability into a familiar act people want to repeat and share.

What Google is really demonstrating here

The business intent is bigger than a playful LEGO build. Google is using a familiar creative act to position Chrome as a browser that feels interactive, responsive, and socially connected without needing to make that case through technical claims.

That matters because people rarely remember feature lists, but they do remember the tool that let them make something quickly and show it to others. The mechanism works because the act of building becomes the proof of the platform.

What to take from this if you are building interactive brand work

This is worth stealing because the experience stays focused on one clear behavior, then lets that behavior carry the product story.

  1. Make the capability tangible. Don’t explain performance. Let people feel it.
  2. Choose a familiar metaphor. Familiar mechanics reduce friction and increase time spent.
  3. Design sharing as a natural next step. If the output is personal, people want to show it.
  4. Keep the experience single-purpose. One clear activity beats a feature kitchen sink.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Build with Chrome”?

It is a Google Chrome Experiment built with LEGO that lets people create virtual LEGO models in the browser using a mouse or touchscreen, then share them online.

Why partner with LEGO?

Because LEGO is an instantly understood building system. It makes the digital interaction feel intuitive, playful, and worth sharing.

What is the core marketing mechanic here?

Hands-on participation. The experience turns a browser capability into a personal creation that people can publish socially.

What makes a Chrome Experiment effective?

It demonstrates a technology through an interaction people enjoy, without requiring explanation, and it encourages sharing through an output people feel ownership of.

What is the transferable lesson for digital teams?

If you want people to remember a platform capability, wrap it in a simple activity that creates something personal and shareable.

Nike SPARQ: Immersive Digital Training

When training becomes the differentiator. Nike SPARQ goes digital

Not too long ago, talent determined greatness. Today, talent is a given, but training is what separates the exceptional from the merely promising. So to help athletes everywhere reach their true potential through better training, Nike along with ad agency R/GA New York created an immersive digital experience for the SPARQ program (Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction, and Quickness).

Athletes could now follow the same training regimens as professional athletes through detailed, customized video demonstrations delivered via iPods or handheld video players that made it accessible anywhere. The SPARQ website also let athletes set goals, track progress, find Nike SPARQ Trainers across the country, get an official SPARQ rating, and purchase gear.

The smart move: make elite training portable and personal

The experience does two things at once. It brings pro-level drills to anyone with a device, and it makes training feel individualized through customization and video guidance. That combination shifts SPARQ from “program” to “daily habit.”

In sports-performance brands and youth training programs, the winners make instruction portable enough to survive real life.

Why this feels bigger than content

The real question is whether your digital experience builds a habit-forming training loop, or just publishes drills. Because it is not just inspiration. It is infrastructure. Video demonstrations give you the “how,” goal setting and tracking give you the “keep going,” the rating gives you a yardstick, and trainers plus gear connect the digital loop to the real world. Here, the digital loop is the cycle of instruction, goals, tracking, and feedback that pulls you into the next session. Treat training as infrastructure, not content, if you want durable engagement.

Extractable takeaway: Pair instruction with goals, tracking, and feedback loops so progress is visible and practice becomes a habit.

The business intent hiding in plain sight

Build a performance ecosystem that increases commitment over time. The more you train, track, and compare, the more SPARQ becomes the platform you return to. And the more natural gear purchase becomes inside that flow.

Steal the habit loop, not just the videos

  • Ship a loop, not content. Guidance, goals, tracking, and a measurable score.
  • Design for anywhere use. Portability turns intention into repetition.
  • Connect digital motivation to real-world touchpoints. Trainers, ratings, and commerce.

A few fast answers before you act

What does SPARQ stand for?

Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction, and Quickness.

What did Nike and R/GA New York build?

An immersive digital experience for SPARQ that delivered customized training video demonstrations and a supporting website for goals, tracking, trainers, ratings, and gear.

How did athletes access the training content?

Through detailed video demonstrations delivered via iPods or handheld video players, making the training accessible anywhere.

Why did this feel bigger than training videos?

Because it combined instruction with goal setting, tracking, a rating, and connections to trainers and gear, creating a repeatable training loop.

What made the SPARQ website useful beyond videos?

It let athletes set goals, track progress, find SPARQ trainers, get an official SPARQ rating, and purchase gear.

What is the simplest principle to copy from SPARQ?

Pair guidance with goals and feedback so people can see progress and have a reason to return.

Nissan: Create Your Terrain

You hold your hands up to the webcam, and the landscape changes. Peaks rise, valleys drop, and a Nissan SUV gets challenged to drive across whatever terrain you just “sculpted” in mid-air. It takes an off-roading mindset and translates it into a simple piece of viewer control. Here, viewer control means your gestures directly shape the terrain in real time. Build a route. See if the car can handle it.

That is the core idea behind Nissan’s “Create Your Terrain,” built by TBWA\RAAD to help launch Nissan’s SUV family in the Middle East. Instead of showing capability with another glossy montage, it invites off-roaders to invent the terrain first, then watch the vehicle conquer it.

Create Your Terrain uses webcam detection as the input method. In plain terms, the camera reads your gestures and turns them into a terrain editor, so you can shape dunes and obstacles without a mouse or controller.

In automotive marketing, the strongest digital launches turn enthusiast culture into an interaction loop, not a viewing moment.

The microsite (www.createyourterrain.com) was reported to have attracted thousands of user-made terrains, adding up to more than 80,000 square kilometres of created landscape. The build is also credited with recognition at Dubai Lynx 2011 (Bronze, Microsites & Websites) and a GEMAS Effies 2011 finalist placement (Automotive), which fits the ambition. Make the product story feel earned through play, not told through claims.

Why this mechanic fits off-roading

Off-roading is personal. Everyone has their own “perfect line,” their own idea of what counts as a challenge, and their own pride in tackling terrain others avoid. This activation borrows that psychology. The viewer creates the course, so the payoff feels like their test. Nissan just shows up to pass it.

Extractable takeaway: When you let enthusiasts define the test, the brand’s proof point feels like a response to their standards, not a claim the brand asks them to accept.

What Nissan is really buying with “Create Your Terrain”

This is not only a tech demo. The real question is whether your mechanic makes the capability story feel earned, not asserted. It is a positioning move. The message is that Nissan’s SUVs can handle anything, including terrain you have never seen before. And because the experience is interactive, it naturally increases dwell time, encourages sharing, and gives people a reason to return and try a “harder” build.

What to borrow for your own interactive launch

  • Let the audience create the challenge. Self-made tests feel more authentic than brand-made obstacles.
  • Use input that matches the story. Gestures and a webcam make “hands-on terrain” feel physical, not like another web game.
  • Keep the loop tight. Create. Challenge. Watch. Repeat. The shortest loop is the one people replay.
  • Design for bragging rights. The shareable unit is not the ad. It is “my terrain” and “my result.”

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Create Your Terrain” in one sentence?

It is an interactive Nissan microsite where webcam-based gestures let viewers build a digital off-road landscape and then challenge a Nissan SUV to drive across it.

Why does viewer-created terrain matter?

Because it flips the usual launch pattern. Instead of the brand defining the challenge, the audience defines it. That increases personal investment and makes the capability story feel more credible.

What does “webcam detection” mean here?

It means the experience uses the camera feed to interpret basic gestures as inputs, turning the viewer’s hands into a simple controller for shaping the terrain.

What is the key takeaway for digital campaign design?

Build an interaction loop that mirrors real-world behaviour. When the mechanic matches the passion, like building and conquering terrain here, people stay longer, replay more, and share more naturally.

What is a common failure mode for experiences like this?

Overcomplicating the first minute. If setup is fiddly, calibration is fragile, or the payoff is slow, people bounce before the “magic” lands.