Tag: Experiential Marketing

Fanta: Lift & Laugh

A school elevator that refuses to stay boring

Ogilvy Brazil sought to reinforce Fanta’s brand image of “joy” in the USA. So they came up with an elevator prank called “Lift & Laugh”.

An elevator in a school in Atlanta was chosen to arouse students curiosity and laughter. In the elevator they installed a device that responded to the movements and comments from the students.

The mechanic: a responsive space that reacts back

This works by turning a routine moment. waiting for an elevator ride. into an interaction loop. The environment listens, then answers in real time, so the people inside start experimenting to see what triggers the next reaction.

An ambient ad is a brand experience placed in an everyday setting, where the setting itself becomes the medium and the message is delivered through participation.

In youth and soft drink marketing, “joy” only sticks when it is felt in-the-moment, not just claimed in a tagline.

Why the prank lands with students

It creates instant permission to play. The elevator is a confined stage, the reactions are immediate, and the group dynamic amplifies everything. If one person laughs, everyone joins, and the experience escalates without needing instruction.

Because the trigger is the students own movement and comments, the fun feels earned. That makes the memory durable, and more likely to be retold outside the elevator.

The business intent: make joy a repeatable brand behavior

This is not just a one-off gag. It is a proof point for a positioning idea. Fanta turns dull places into fun places. If the experience is good enough, the brand gets earned attention plus social retell value without needing to push product features.

In the end many students did not want to get off the elevator and asked for a repeat trip.

What to steal if you want an experience people replay

  • Make the interaction discoverable. People should learn the rules by trying, not by reading.
  • Reward experimentation fast. Short feedback loops create momentum.
  • Design for groups, not individuals. Laughter spreads socially. Build for that amplification.
  • Anchor the behavior to your brand. The “why” should map cleanly to what you stand for.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Fanta’s Lift & Laugh?

It is an elevator prank experience where the elevator reacts to students’ movements and comments, turning a normal ride into a playful, responsive brand moment for Fanta.

How does the elevator prank create engagement?

It uses immediate cause and effect. People try something, the elevator responds, and the group starts experimenting together to trigger more reactions.

What should brands learn from this format?

If you want “fun” as a brand attribute, build it into a situation people already live. Then make participation the delivery mechanism, not a message about participation.

Budweiser: Poolball, football on a pool table

Coming to a Buenos Aires pub near you is the newly minted sport of Poolball, created by Ogilvy Argentina for Budweiser.

Two teams meet on a giant 7×3 meter pool table. Fifteen soccer balls are reskinned to look like pool balls. The competitors use their feet instead of cues to score.

A new bar sport with a brand stitched into it

Poolball takes two things that already belong in the same evening. Football and beer. Then it adds a third. The “I could play that” simplicity of pool. The result feels less like a stunt and more like a playable product.

Standalone takeaway: Poolball is a brand activation that fuses two familiar games into one instantly understandable format, so people stop watching and start participating without needing instructions.

The mechanic: one rulebook, two rituals

The mechanic is the entire idea. A pool table scaled up to human size. Pool-ball visuals on footballs. Pool rules translated into foot play. When the mechanic is this legible, the content is self-explaining and the crowd becomes the amplification layer.

BTL is often used as shorthand for below-the-line activity. In practice, it means a brand experience designed to be felt in the real world, then shared because it is worth retelling.

Why it works in a pub

Bar-friendly activations win when they create quick status moments. You either played it, you watched someone nail a shot, or you filmed the chaos. Poolball naturally creates all three, because every “pocket” attempt is a mini highlight.

It also lowers the risk of participation. You are not learning a new sport. You are remixing two you already know, with rules you can copy by watching one play.

The intent behind the fun

Budweiser is not selling a feature here. It is selling association. Big-game energy. Competitive banter. Social proof that the brand belongs in the centre of group nights out.

When the game is branded but not fragile, the brand becomes the host of the experience rather than the interruption inside it.

What to steal from Poolball

  • Fuse, don’t invent. Combine two known behaviours so the audience understands the format instantly.
  • Make the object the media. A giant playable artefact beats a screen when your goal is participation.
  • Design for highlights. Build in repeatable “shot” moments people want to film and replay.
  • Keep rules visible. If someone can learn it by watching one round, you have the right complexity level.
  • Let branding be structural. Brand the experience itself, not every surface area with logos.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Poolball?

Poolball is a branded game format that combines football and pool. Players kick footballs designed like pool balls on a giant pool table and score using pool-style goals.

Why does this kind of activation travel well across venues?

Because it is easy to understand, easy to spectate, and it produces repeatable highlight moments. Venues like it because it creates crowd energy. Brands like it because the crowd documents it.

What makes the mechanic “shareable” without forcing sharing?

The visual contrast does the work. A human-scale pool table and “pool ball” footballs create an immediate “what is that” reaction, so filming feels natural rather than incentivised.

How do you keep a branded game from feeling like a gimmick?

Make it genuinely playable. Simple rules. Clear scoring. Quick rounds. If the experience is fun without the brand name, the brand credit comes for free.

What’s the minimum viable version of this idea?

A single hybrid rule, one striking physical cue, and one repeatable scoring moment. If people can explain it in one sentence, you have the right foundation.