Experiential Marketing 12 | SunMatrix Ramble

Heineken Departure Roulette

Board at JFK Terminal 8. A single red button. A real decision. To embody Heineken’s adventurous spirit, Wieden + Kennedy in New York sets up a Departure Roulette board at JFK’s Terminal 8 and dares travelers to play. If they press the button, they drop their existing plans and go somewhere totally new and exotic.

The commitment is real. The travelers who take the dare receive $2,000 to cover expenses and get booked into a hotel for two nights at the new destination. This is the recently released video of how it unfolds at JFK.

The stunt links to a broader idea. The game draws inspiration from Dropped, a Heineken campaign launched from W+K Amsterdam in which four men get sent to remote destinations, and the adventure of getting back gets filmed.

Why this stunt works

It makes spontaneity measurable

Most people can say they are spontaneous. Departure Roulette forces a binary choice in public. Press or walk away. The brand promise becomes an observable action.

It raises stakes without needing complex rules

The mechanic is simple. The tension is high. You do not need a long explanation to understand what is at risk: your plan.

It turns a brand value into a story people retell

The red button is a prop with meaning. It compresses the entire narrative into one symbol that is easy to remember, share, and debate.

How to apply the pattern

Create one unmistakable action. A single step that proves intent, not interest.
Make the trade-off clear. People must know exactly what they give up and what they gain.
Design for the decision moment. The most valuable content is the second before and after commitment.
Operationalize the reward. If logistics fail, the story turns from daring to disappointing.

What to measure beyond views

Participation rate. How many approached travelers agree to play.
Completion rate. How many press the button after hearing the rules.
Story lift. How often people retell the mechanic correctly.
Brand linkage. Whether the audience connects the act to “adventurous spirit,” not just “free trip.”

A few fast answers before you act

What is Departure Roulette?

A physical airport activation where travelers can press a red button and immediately swap their planned trip for a surprise destination.

What is the core mechanic?

One irreversible choice that turns a brand value into an action people can witness.

What makes it repeatable for other brands?

The format is not travel. It is a high-stakes choice with a simple trigger, a clear trade-off, and a real reward.

What is the biggest failure mode?

When the commitment is not credible, or the operations cannot deliver the promise.

Scrabble WiFi: earn free minutes by spelling

There are places in Paris where you can’t get any Internet connection. So Ogilvy Paris sets up free Wi-Fi hotspots in these areas and incentivises people to use them by first playing a short game of “Scrabble WiFi”.

Once the user proves their spelling skills, the score from the word is converted into free Wi-Fi minutes. The higher you score, the longer the connection. Sharing the score on Facebook doubles the connection time.

How “Scrabble WiFi” works as a hotspot experience

The idea uses a captive portal. That is the login page you see after joining a public Wi-Fi network. Instead of a password form, the portal presents a quick Scrabble-style word challenge and converts your result into time-based access.

Select the Scrabble hotspot network.
Play a short word round to prove spelling skills.
Convert the word score into Wi-Fi minutes.
Share on Facebook to double the time.

In cities where people regularly hit connectivity dead zones, turning access into a tiny game can make a utilitarian moment feel like a brand interaction.

Why it lands: the reward is immediate and proportional

Most Wi-Fi gates feel like friction. This one feels like a fair trade: you invest a few seconds, you get online. The scoring mechanic makes the reward feel earned, and the “double time” social layer gives people a simple reason to broadcast what they just did.

What Scrabble is signalling with this mechanic

Scrabble WiFi frames spelling as a useful real-world skill, not just a boardgame pastime. It puts the brand in the same place people already reach for their phones and creates a repeatable reason to engage: better words mean more time online.

What to steal for your own “play to unlock” idea

Make the trade obvious. One action, one reward, with no hidden steps.
Keep the game short. If the unlock takes too long, it stops being a reward.
Use proportional rewards. Performance-based access feels fairer than random allocation.
Add a clean share multiplier. Doubling time is easy to understand and easy to explain.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Scrabble WiFi?

It is a free hotspot concept where you unlock Wi-Fi minutes by playing a short Scrabble-style word game, with your score converted into connection time.

Why convert a word score into minutes?

It creates a simple value exchange. Better spelling performance earns a longer session, which makes the reward feel earned and transparent.

What does Facebook sharing add to the mechanic?

It turns an individual unlock into public reach by offering a clear incentive: share your score and your connection time doubles.

What is a captive portal in this context?

It is the login or welcome page that appears after you join a public Wi-Fi network. Here it is used to run the mini-game before granting access.

What should you measure if you run something like this?

Track successful unlocks, average session minutes earned, share rate, repeat plays, and sentiment, then compare against the cost of providing access.

Heineken: UEFA Giveaway

Here are two campaigns that Heineken created in Europe to give away seats for the UEFA Champions League finals in London last month.

Heineken: The Negotiation

Heineken challenged football fans at a furniture store in the Netherlands to convince their ladies to buy a $1899 set of plastic stadium chairs for their home. If they managed to pull it off, they would win a trip to the final. The result:

Heineken: The Seat

In Italy, Heineken hid 20 tickets under 20 Wembley seats and spread them around Rome and Milan. Fans then had only one hour to find them and secure their place at the final. The result:

Two different mechanics, one sponsorship objective

Both ideas do the same strategic job. They make the sponsorship feel like something you can play, not just something you watch.

In European football sponsorship, ticket scarcity is a powerful emotion. Brands win when they turn that emotion into participation that fans can retell in one breath.

Why these promos travel so easily

The Negotiation works because it stages a recognisable domestic conflict and turns it into a public challenge. You do not have to care about Heineken to enjoy the tension. You just need to recognise the situation.

The Seat works because it feels like a real-world game with an unfair advantage for the most alert fans. A one-hour window and a physical search turns “tickets” into a quest, and the city becomes the interface.

What to steal for your next high-value giveaway

Do not just “give away”. Build a mechanic that proves fandom or commitment in a fun way.
Make it legible in five seconds. If people cannot explain the rules instantly, the idea will not spread.
Use time pressure carefully. A short window creates urgency, but it must still feel fair.
Let the prize stay pure. The reward is the story. The brand should be the enabler, not the gatekeeper.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the core mechanic in Heineken’s Negotiation?

A persuasion challenge staged in a real retail environment. The couple dynamic is the entertainment engine, and the prize converts the tension into a payoff.

Why does a scavenger hunt work for high-demand tickets?

Because it turns passive desire into active effort. The search itself becomes the content, and the winners feel like they earned the prize rather than being randomly selected.

What is the main sponsorship benefit of campaigns like these?

They convert a sponsorship from branding to experience. The brand becomes part of how fans remember the final, not just a logo around it.

What is the biggest risk with “race” mechanics?

Perceived unfairness. If the rules, locations, or timing feel stacked, the conversation flips from excitement to frustration.

What should you measure beyond video views?

Look for participation rate, speed of uptake, earned media pickup, and how often people retell the mechanic in social posts. Those indicate whether the idea actually travelled.