Tag: Experiential Marketing

smart: eBall interactive ping pong duel

At the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in 2011, Daimler promoted the third generation smart fortwo electric drive with a special interactive game event. Berlin-based Proximity BBDO designed a game called eBall that translates the joy of a highly responsive car into something visitors can play.

Visitors sign up with their driver’s license, get quick instructions on forward and reverse, and then step into a live ping pong duel. Instead of a controller, they use the car itself. Driving forward and back moves the “paddle,” with measurement technology tracking the rally on a large display.

In European automotive launches, live interaction works best when it turns a technical attribute into a simple skill people can feel and repeat.

When “responsive” becomes the gameplay

Electric drive messaging often struggles because it is full of abstractions. Efficiency, torque, responsiveness. eBall makes one of those claims physical. The faster and more precisely you control forward and reverse, the better you play. That is a rare alignment. The product behaviour is the mechanic.

Standalone takeaway: If your product promise is about control, speed, or precision, build an experience where performance is visible to a crowd and felt by the participant in under a minute.

The tech trick is invisible on purpose

As described in coverage of the installation, the paddles on the LED wall are controlled by two real smart fortwo electric drive cars using laser measurement and transmission technology. The important detail is not the hardware. It is the immediacy. When the wall responds instantly, the player trusts the cause-and-effect and stays in the duel.

Why the driver’s license step matters

The license check does two jobs. It manages safety and liability, and it creates a small “this is real” threshold. You are not playing a simulator. You are operating a vehicle in a branded arena. That seriousness increases attention, and it makes the win feel earned.

What smart is really selling here

eBall does not try to convince you with specs. It frames the car as a fun, responsive object that behaves like a sports device in the hands of the driver. The subtext is clear. If it can play ping pong with precision, it will feel effortless in tight city driving too.

What to steal for your own event mechanics

  • Translate one attribute into one action. “Responsive” becomes “hit the ball back.” No extra storytelling required.
  • Design for spectators. The LED wall makes the game readable from distance, so the crowd becomes the amplifier.
  • Keep the control model binary. Forward and reverse is legible, teachable, and low-cognitive-load.
  • Make the feedback immediate. Interactivity only feels truthful when response is fast.
  • Engineer the queue. A duel format naturally builds anticipation and repeat attempts.

A few fast answers before you act

What is smart eBall?

It is a live event game where visitors play a ping pong style duel by driving a smart fortwo electric drive forward and backward to control a digital paddle on a large screen.

Why does ping pong fit an electric city car story?

Because it is a precision game. It makes responsiveness and control visible in a way a brochure cannot, and it fits the “small, agile, quick” associations smart wants to own.

What makes this different from a normal driving simulator?

The controller is the vehicle, and the outcome is public. That changes the psychology from private play to performance, which increases energy, memorability, and word of mouth.

What is the biggest operational risk with this kind of activation?

Latency, safety, and throughput. If the system lags, people stop trusting the interaction. If safety or queue management fails, the experience becomes stressful instead of fun.

What should brands measure in a “playable product demo” like this?

Participation rate, average dwell time, repeat plays, audience size over time, and how many people capture and share the experience, plus any downstream test-drive or lead signals.

Flashmob Marketing Hits: April 2012

A big red push button sits in a quiet Flemish square. A sign says “Push to add drama”. Someone presses it, and the street turns into a live TV scene.

Flashmob marketing has been quite a fad in the last weeks. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, a flashmob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time and then disperse. The whole act is normally recorded on video and then put on the web to generate more buzz.

In brand marketing built on earned attention, flash mobs are a way to convert physical spectacle into shareable media without buying every impression.

Three street moments worth watching again

Daily dose of drama

To launch their new digital channel in Belgium, TNT placed a big red push button in a quiet Flemish square. A sign with the text “Push to add drama” invited people to use the button. And then the “ordinary day” collapses into staged chaos.

Why it lands: the invitation is frictionless, the payoff is immediate, and the viewer at home gets the same shock that the passer-by gets on the street.

The worst breath in the world

Tic Tac turns a simple “can you help me with directions” moment into social dread. A lost tourist asks for help in a busy square. Then, one person after another reacts as if the breath is so bad it triggers an apocalyptic chain reaction.

Why it lands: it weaponizes a universal fear, then exaggerates it so far that embarrassment becomes comedy. The crowd reaction becomes the story.

The Wouaaah Effect

For its Q10 Plus product, NIVEA in France creates a playful attention ambush on the streets of Paris. An unsuspecting woman tries a cream sample, walks on, and is suddenly met by a sequence of people lavishing her with attention.

Why it lands: it makes a product promise feel physical. The benefit is not “told”. It is acted out as a mini social fantasy.

The pattern behind the fad

The mechanism is simple. Create a one-line invitation, trigger a public spectacle, and film genuine reactions from the “mark” and the bystanders. The distribution is the video, not the street corner. The street corner is just the credibility engine.

What the brands are buying

These are not careful, message-heavy campaigns. They are attention accelerators. The business intent is to earn reach through surprise and shareability, then let the brand borrow the emotional afterglow of the moment.

How to steal the good parts without copying the gimmick

  • Start with a legible trigger. One button. One question. One sampling moment.
  • Design the escalation curve. The first five seconds decide if people stay for the next thirty.
  • Make reactions the hero. The crowd is your proof and your punchline.
  • Give the video a clean “retell”. If the concept cannot be explained in one sentence, it will not travel fast.

A few fast answers before you act

What qualifies as a flash mob in marketing terms?

A staged public action that appears spontaneous to bystanders, is filmed for real reactions, and is distributed primarily as a video asset to generate buzz.

Why do flash mob videos spread more than many traditional ads?

They feel like captured reality. The viewer gets surprise, spectacle, and social proof in the same clip, which makes sharing feel like passing on entertainment, not advertising.

What is the biggest creative risk with flash mob marketing?

People can read it as forced or manipulative. If the trigger feels like a trick, the audience turns on it and the brand takes the hit.

How do you keep a flash mob idea brand-relevant?

Make the payoff embody the brand promise. Drama for a drama channel, breath anxiety for mints, and attention for a beauty benefit are all direct translations.

What is the practical “steal” for marketers who cannot stage a street stunt?

Borrow the structure. A simple trigger, a clear escalation, and authentic human reactions, then build it for a format that you can execute safely and repeatedly.

Coca-Cola: Cheer-O-Meter

To promote the excitement around Copa America 2011, OgilvyAction worked with Coca-Cola to set up a giant screen in downtown Buenos Aires for fans to watch their favorite teams and provide unconditional cheer to the Argentinean National Team. But there was a catch. Sound sensors were installed to keep the screen on and if the fans stopped cheering, the screen would go blank. 😎

Why this activation hits

The mechanic is brutally simple. Your cheering is not just encouraged. It is required. That instantly turns a passive viewing moment into a shared challenge, and it makes “support” tangible.

  • Clear rule. Cheer to keep the screen alive.
  • Immediate feedback loop. The crowd sees the consequence in real time.
  • Social amplification built in. People around you become part of the control system.

What marketers can reuse from the idea

This is a strong example of “participation as the power source”. Instead of adding a gimmick on top of the match, the match itself becomes the reward for participation. It also turns a brand message into a behavior, which tends to travel further than a tagline.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Coca-Cola “Cheer-O-Meter”?

It is a live fan-screen activation in Buenos Aires for Copa America 2011 where sound sensors kept the match on screen only while fans kept cheering.

How did the sound-sensor mechanic work?

The cheering volume acted as the trigger. If it dropped too low, the screen went blank, pushing the crowd to keep the energy up.

Why is this effective as a brand experience?

Because it converts brand participation into a simple, memorable rule with instant consequences, and it makes the crowd feel responsible for the outcome.

What is the transferable pattern?

Create one clear rule, attach it to a real reward, then deliver immediate feedback so the audience understands their impact in the moment.