Tag: dual screen

Durex UK: Dual Screen Ads

When the “real” ad plays on your second screen

People watch TV with a phone in hand. Durex UK used that habit to turn a standard broadcast spot into an interactive experience. Here, the “second screen” is the phone or tablet used alongside the main TV or computer screen.

Last year, Durex UK created a new way for viewers to interact with its TV ad. Viewers who used the Durex Explore mobile app while watching the ad on their TV or computer got a steamy alternative on their second screen.

How the dual-screen mechanic worked

The mechanism was straightforward. The broadcast spot acted as the trigger, and the Durex Explore app delivered an alternative experience on the viewer’s phone or tablet.

That split matters. The TV carried the mainstream version. The second screen carried the more private, more personal layer, where the viewer could engage without turning the living room into a shared moment.

In UK brand communications, second-screen behavior is already the norm.

The real question is whether you can separate a public broadcast layer from a private opt-in layer without breaking the story.

Why it lands in real viewing contexts

This works because it respects how people actually consume media.

Extractable takeaway: If your message has a public-safe version and a private version, keep the broadcast layer mainstream and let the personal device deliver the private layer only after an explicit opt-in.

Phones are personal. TV is social. By moving the steamy content to the second screen, Durex created a “permissioned” experience. By “permissioned,” I mean nothing intimate appears unless the viewer explicitly chooses it, on their own device. Because the broadcast spot only triggers the moment and the app carries the alternative layer, the viewer can opt in privately without turning a shared room into a shared moment.

It also rewards attention. Instead of asking viewers to tolerate an ad, it gives them a reason to participate.

The business intent behind extending TV and radio through an app

The intent is to convert passive reach into active engagement, while keeping the broadcast execution broadly acceptable. This is a smart pattern when you need mass reach but the payoff has to stay private.

Then, on Valentine’s Day this year, Durex UK repeated the same idea via radio. They released a steamy radio spot that also used the Durex Explore app to provide listeners with a similar steamy video experience on their smartphone or tablet.

That is the strategic move. One app. Multiple channels. A consistent interaction model that travels across TV, computer viewing, radio, and mobile.

Second-screen tactics you can reuse

  • Use the second screen for the private layer. Put the content that needs discretion on the personal device.
  • Make participation optional and clear. The viewer should feel in control of switching modes.
  • Design one mechanic that scales across channels. If the app is the interface, TV and radio can both become entry points.
  • Reward attention with a different experience. The second-screen payoff must feel meaningfully distinct from the broadcast spot.

A few fast answers before you act

What did Durex UK do with the Explore app?

They used it to deliver an alternative, steamy second-screen experience for viewers watching a TV ad, and later for listeners hearing a radio spot.

What is the core mechanism?

A broadcast ad acts as the trigger. The mobile app provides the alternative content on a phone or tablet.

Why is second screen a good fit for this category?

Because it keeps intimate content on a personal device, while the broadcast remains suitable for shared environments.

What business goal does this support?

Turning broadcast reach into measurable engagement and creating a repeatable interaction layer that works across channels.

What is the main takeaway for marketers?

If your message has a “public” and “private” version, broadcast the public layer and let the second screen deliver the private layer by choice.

O2: Be More Dog

A cat decides it has had enough of being indifferent. It chases, leaps, splashes, and generally behaves like a dog. O2 UK uses that simple flip to ask people to do the same with technology. Less “meh”. More curious.

With VCCP and the Moving Picture Company, the campaign extends beyond the TV spot into a participation layer. That participation layer means the idea does not stop at the film but gives people something to do and share. On visiting www.bemoredog.com, people are greeted by a cat that acts more like a dog, then pulled into interactive play through a dual-screen HTML5 Frisbee game and a set of customisable cat videos designed for sharing.

How the integration is designed

The mechanism is a clean handoff. TV creates the character and the phrase. Mobile turns into the controller for a dual-screen game. Social carries the customisable video layer so people can pull friends into the same joke and the same attitude shift.

In UK consumer telecoms, where functional claims blur quickly, a memorable behavioural metaphor can do more positioning work than another round of feature talk.

Why it lands

It works because it uses a familiar truth. The cat-to-dog flip works because it turns an abstract behaviour change into a visual joke people understand in seconds. Cats look cool and detached. Dogs look curious and all-in. That contrast is instantly readable, and it translates directly into what O2 wants from people. Try the new thing. Explore. Stop acting like technology is background noise.

Extractable takeaway: If you want people to reframe a category, give them a single, sticky metaphor and one simple interaction that lets them experience the new attitude, not just hear about it.

What O2 is really trying to shift

This is brand positioning dressed as entertainment. The real question is how to make curiosity about new technology feel socially easy and emotionally attractive, not technically demanding. O2 is steering perception toward optimism and exploration, and using connected play to make “embracing the new” feel easy, not technical. In context, the timing also supports a broader push into newer network experiences, including 4G-era behaviour change.

What brand teams can steal from Be More Dog

  • Use one character as the bridge. The cat carries TV, site, game and shareables without needing extra explanation.
  • Make mobile do a job. Second-screen control is more convincing than a generic “download our app” prompt.
  • Build sharing into the format. Customisable videos give people a reason to tag or send, not just watch.
  • Keep the interaction lightweight. Quick play beats complicated onboarding when the goal is broad participation.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Be More Dog”?

It is an O2 UK brand campaign that uses a cat acting like a dog as a metaphor for being more curious and enthusiastic about new technology, supported by second-screen and shareable digital experiences.

What is the core digital mechanic?

A dual-screen HTML5 Frisbee game that uses a phone as the controller, plus customisable cat videos designed for social sharing.

Why does the cat versus dog metaphor work so well?

It compresses a complex ask into a simple behavioural contrast people instantly understand, then turns that contrast into a repeatable line and a repeatable action.

What makes this an integrated campaign rather than “TV plus a website”?

The channels do different jobs that depend on each other. TV creates meaning. Mobile enables interaction. Social distributes personalised variants that pull others back into the idea.

What is the biggest way this pattern fails?

If the digital layer feels bolted on. The interaction has to express the same promise as the film, otherwise it becomes a novelty that does not move perception.

Cheetos Mix-Ups: Cheetahpult Dual-Screen Game

In March I had written about how Google had inspired developers to convert mobile phones and tablets into remote controls for desktop browsers via a simple mobile URL. Now Cheetos, an American brand of cheese-flavored puffed cornmeal snacks, has successfully tapped this technology to engage with viewers as they watch a regular TV commercial on YouTube.

Viewers watching the Cheetos Mix-Ups ad on YouTube get a dual-screen experience. They can fling the new Cheetos Mix-Ups snacks from their phone into a video playing on their desktop. The campaign creates a new way to engage with the ad, and to get to know the product’s new shapes and colors through play.

At this point, the video is reported to have reached 8.5 million views on YouTube. People who played the game are reported to have stayed for an average of 7 minutes and 17 seconds, and flung an average of 56 Cheetos per game.

A YouTube ad that behaves like a game

The trick is simple and surprisingly scalable. Your desktop stays on YouTube, playing the film. Your phone becomes the controller via a lightweight URL experience, so interaction happens in your hand while the “world” of the ad stays on the big screen.

How the dual-screen catapult works

Instead of treating the mobile device as a companion banner, the experience treats it as an input device. You aim, fling, and see the result immediately in the desktop video frame, which turns passive viewing into a loop of action, feedback, and repeat.

In global FMCG launches, second-screen interactivity works best when it turns product attributes into gameplay, and makes “learning the product” feel like time well spent.

Why this lands while people are “just watching YouTube”

It hijacks a familiar behavior. People already watch ads on desktop while their phone is in hand. Cheetahpult converts that split attention into viewer control, and uses physics and repetition to teach what Mix-Ups actually is, in a way a standard product shot cannot. The real question is whether the interaction helps people understand Mix-Ups faster than a normal product shot would. In this case, it does, because the mechanic turns product variety into something people learn by doing.

Extractable takeaway: If your product is hard to describe in one sentence, let people handle it. Build a micro-game where the mechanic is the product benefit, and the reward is comprehension.

What Cheetos is really buying here

This is product education disguised as entertainment. The intent is to turn a new SKU with multiple shapes and flavors into something memorable, then associate that memory with the brand, so the next shelf moment feels familiar.

What Cheetos teaches about interactive video

  • Design for the device people already hold. Dual-screen works when the phone is the controller, not an afterthought.
  • Make the mechanic teach the product. If the game can be reskinned for any brand, it is not specific enough.
  • Keep the loop short and replayable. Fast rounds create “just one more try” behavior, which is where learning happens.
  • Use the main video as the stage. The desktop frame should feel like the real world, and the phone should feel like the tool.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Cheetahpult?

Cheetahpult is a dual-screen YouTube experience that turns a Cheetos Mix-Ups video into a simple physics-style game, with the phone acting as the controller and the desktop video acting as the playfield.

Why does second-screen interaction help an ad?

It converts passive reach into active time. When people interact, they process product details more deeply, and the ad becomes something they did, not just something they saw.

What makes this different from a typical “interactive ad”?

The interaction is not layered on top as buttons. The phone becomes a controller, and the main video becomes the environment, so the ad and the game feel like one system.

When should a brand use this pattern?

When a launch needs fast product education, and when the product has attributes that benefit from repetition, variation, and play, like shapes, combinations, flavors, or configurations.

What should a brand avoid when copying this idea?

Avoid mechanics that are fun but unrelated to the product. If the interaction does not teach something specific about the item being launched, the brand gets playtime but not product understanding.