Tag: Experiential Marketing

Samsung Live Human Outdoor: Billboard caricature

With the new Samsung Note 10.1, caricature artists can now go digital. To highlight this feature and raise awareness about the tablet, Samsung puts a real caricature artist “into” an outdoor billboard experience and has him draw live caricatures of passers-by. The finished drawings are then put on the Samsung Portugal Facebook page.

A live billboard that behaves like a street-portrait stand

The mechanic is simple. People stop. They watch themselves being drawn in real time. The artist works digitally using the Note 10.1, and the billboard becomes a public canvas that makes the device’s creative promise visible from across the street.

In consumer electronics marketing, live demos in public spaces work when the product capability is undeniable without any explanation.

Why it lands: you do not “see a feature,” you experience it

This is not a spec sheet. The device becomes the instrument of a familiar craft, and the outcome is something people actually want. A caricature is personal, fast, and inherently shareable, which makes the crowd effect do the distribution work.

What Samsung is really achieving

  • Proof at full scale. A drawing tool is hard to dramatize in a 30-second spot. On a billboard, the proof is the show.
  • A reason to stop. The promise is not “look at our tablet.” The promise is “get drawn.”
  • A built-in content pipeline. The Facebook posting turns a one-off street moment into a browsable gallery.

What to steal for your next live product demonstration

  • Choose an outcome people value. A personal artifact beats a generic demo every time.
  • Make the capability visible from distance. If it only works up close, most of the street never understands it.
  • Close the loop digitally. Give people a clear place to find “their” result after the moment ends.
  • Let the crowd be the media. A live, public performance naturally draws more viewers than static outdoor.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Samsung Live Human Outdoor?

It is an outdoor activation where a caricature artist draws passers-by live using the Samsung Note 10.1, with finished sketches published to Samsung Portugal’s Facebook gallery.

What product feature is being demonstrated?

The ability to create digital drawings naturally and quickly on a tablet, associated with pen-based input and creative apps.

Why use caricatures instead of a standard product demo?

Because the outcome is personal and entertaining, which makes people stop, watch, and share, while the product capability is being demonstrated in plain sight.

What makes this “live communication” rather than outdoor advertising?

The billboard is not only a display. It is a real-time performance and interaction, with the public influencing the content through participation.

What is the main lesson for experiential product launches?

Turn a feature into a moment people want. If the experience creates a valued takeaway, attention becomes voluntary and sustained.

Strongbow Gold: StartCap Bottle Top

Strongbow Gold is testing what is being billed as the world’s first digitally enabled bottle top. Trigger it, and the bottle top activates a surprise designed to make the night feel more refreshing, more unexpected and more exciting.

For its first public appearance, the Strongbow Gold team rigged an entire bar in central Budapest with RFID readers, antennas and wires. Then during the night, StartCap triggered a string of memorable activations.

A bottle that behaves like a remote control

The core mechanism is packaging as a trigger. An RFID element in the cap signals nearby readers when the bottle is opened, and that signal kicks off a pre-set sequence in the environment, lights, music, props, anything the system is wired to control.

In European FMCG brand launches, connected packaging is a direct way to turn a product claim into a lived experience because the consumer action, opening the bottle, becomes the start button for the story.

Why this lands in a bar context

Bars already run on anticipation. People are there for the next moment. StartCap simply makes that “next moment” programmable, and ties it to the brand in a way that feels earned rather than announced.

It also builds social energy without forcing “sharing” prompts. When something unexpected happens in a shared space, people naturally look up, react, and talk. The product becomes the cause of the reaction.

What the brand is really proving

This is less about a new cap and more about a new role for the brand. Strongbow Gold positions itself as the catalyst for a better night out, not just a drink choice. The technology is the proof device that makes that positioning tangible.

What to steal for your next connected-packaging idea

  • Make the trigger unavoidable. Opening, pouring, unwrapping. The action must be natural.
  • Design for surprise, not complexity. One clean signal, one clear payoff, then scale the choreography.
  • Use the environment as media. If the space reacts, you earn attention without buying more screens.
  • Keep it safe and reliable. In live venues, failure is public. Redundancy matters.

A few fast answers before you act

What is StartCap in one sentence?

A digitally connected bottle top that uses RFID to trigger events in the surrounding environment when the bottle is opened.

Why is packaging-triggered tech so effective?

Because it links the brand to a physical action the consumer already performs. The experience starts at the product, not at an ad.

What is the biggest risk with “connected bar” activations?

Operational fragility. If sensors misread, activations lag, or the venue is too noisy to notice outcomes, the magic disappears.

Does this need a smartphone app to work?

Not necessarily. This model can be environment-driven. The venue infrastructure can detect the trigger and run the experience without asking the guest to install anything.

What should be measured to judge success?

Participation rate, repeat triggers per guest, dwell and sentiment in the venue, plus any post-event lift in brand consideration and trial.

Ben & Jerry’s #CaptureEuphoria: Instagram OOH

Ben & Jerry’s jumps onto the Instagram wave with a photo contest that challenges fans to capture their “euphoria” towards the brand. Winners from around the world are then featured in special Ben & Jerry’s advertising, including local print, bus station placements and billboards that appear near their homes.

The mechanic: a hashtag that turns into local visibility

The idea is straightforward. Fans post Instagram photos that represent “euphoria” and tag them with #captureeuphoria. Ben & Jerry’s curates a set of winners, then brings those images into the real world by placing them as local advertising close to where the photographer lives.

This is hyperlocal out-of-home (OOH) as a reward. Instead of giving people a generic prize, the campaign gives recognition that is geographically personal.

Standalone takeaway: A social contest gets more powerful when the payoff is not only online. It is something the participant can physically encounter in their own neighborhood.

In global FMCG marketing, the strongest social contests create an offline payoff that feels personal, not promotional.

Why it lands: recognition beats “stuff”

Most contests promise products, vouchers, or a one-time win. This one promises status. Your photo becomes the ad. Your community becomes the audience. That flips the usual relationship between brand and fan, and it makes participation feel less like a transaction and more like belonging.

What Ben & Jerry’s reinforces by calling it “euphoria”

By anchoring the idea to a feeling rather than a product shot, the campaign invites more creative submissions and a wider interpretation of what “Ben & Jerry’s moments” look like. The brand gets a stream of fan-made images that reflect joy and personality, and the best of it becomes media.

What to steal for your next community-first contest

  • Reward participation with identity, not only incentives. Public recognition can outperform discounts when the brand has true fans.
  • Make the submission format native. A hashtag plus a photo is a low-friction action people already understand.
  • Close the loop in the real world. If you can turn online creation into offline visibility, the story becomes more memorable.
  • Keep the brief emotionally clear. “Capture euphoria” is an instruction people can interpret without overthinking.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Ben & Jerry’s #CaptureEuphoria?

It is an Instagram photo contest where fans post images tagged #captureeuphoria, and selected winners have their photos featured in local advertising near where they live.

Why is the offline ad placement the key twist?

Because it turns participation into public recognition. The reward is visible, personal, and rooted in the winner’s own community.

What makes this different from a standard UGC contest?

Instead of only reposting winners online, it converts fan content into out-of-home and print media, which raises the perceived value of being selected.

What should a brand be careful about with hashtag-based submissions?

Moderation and curation. If the hashtag stream is unfiltered, off-brand or disruptive content can hijack the gallery effect.

How do you measure success for a contest like this?

Track volume and quality of submissions, unique participants, sentiment, earned reach from reposting, and the lift in brand engagement during the campaign window.