Tag: Experiential Marketing

Mercedes-Benz: Flying Car

Mercedes-Benz, with the help of Ponto de Criacao from Brazil, executed a highly segmented vertical action to increase visibility for the brand among top executives and business people. Stickers of the SLS AMG, also known as “gull wing”, a new edition of the brand’s iconic model, were stuck to windows in shuttle flights frequently used by the target audience.

Flying Car by Mercedes Benz

As a courtesy, passengers also received a miniature car.

Flying Car by Mercedes Benz

In one month, 100% of the target audience was reached, nearly 400 executives.

Why this placement is so effective

  • Context does the work. The illusion only makes sense in-flight, which turns a standard window view into a brand moment.
  • Precision beats scale. Shuttle flights concentrate the exact audience Mercedes-Benz wanted, without wasting impressions.
  • Low friction, high memorability. A simple sticker creates an instant “did you see that?” effect, then the miniature car extends the memory.

What to take from it

When the audience is narrow and valuable, distribution can be the idea. This activation did not rely on complex tech. It relied on selecting the right corridor, placing the message where attention is naturally high, and creating a visual that feels native to the moment.

A few fast answers before you act

What was “Flying Car” by Mercedes-Benz?

It was a targeted activation that placed SLS AMG window stickers on shuttle flights, creating the illusion of the car “flying” outside the aircraft window for executive travelers.

Why use shuttle flights for this?

Because those routes clustered top executives and business travelers, delivering near-perfect audience fit with minimal wasted reach.

What role did the miniature car play?

It extended the experience beyond the flight as a physical takeaway, reinforcing recall after the moment passed.

What is the transferable pattern?

Pick a narrow, high-value corridor, design a context-native visual that only works there, then add a small physical extension to carry the memory forward.

McDonald’s: Adult Playland in Sydney

A Playland built for adults, not kids

In order to awaken the inner child in McDonald’s adult consumers, McDonald’s and DDB Sydney built an adult sized Playland in the middle of Sydney.

Supersizing the familiar to make it feel new again

The mechanism is physical and immediate. Take an icon people associate with childhood, then rebuild it at adult scale and put it directly in the path of commuters. It is not a message about fun. It is fun, placed in public, with no explanation required.

In Australian CBD commuter culture, a surprising public installation can interrupt routine and create instant permission to behave differently for a moment.

Why it lands: it removes the awkwardness of “acting like a kid”

Adults do not need to be convinced that play is enjoyable. They need permission. By making the Playland explicitly adult-sized and placing it in the city centre, the brand turns nostalgia into a socially acceptable break from routine.

The business intent: rebuild emotional closeness through participation

This is a reconnection play. Instead of asking adults to remember McDonald’s, it gives them a shared experience they can literally step into, then ties that memory back to the brand.

Since the time of the launch in March, McDonald’s reported that more than 300 people have taken advantage of this playground on a daily basis and engaged with McDonald’s in a way they had not for years.

What to steal if you want adults to engage physically in public

  • Use a recognisable icon. Familiarity lowers the barrier to participation.
  • Change scale to change behaviour. Adult-sizing makes the experience feel legitimate, not childish.
  • Place it where routine is strongest. The contrast is what creates attention and talk value.
  • Make the experience the proof. Participation creates memory faster than any claim can.

A few fast answers before you act

What did McDonald’s build here?

An adult-sized Playland installation in central Sydney, designed to let adults play in a familiar McDonald’s-style playground environment.

What is the core mechanism?

Rebuild a childhood icon at adult scale and place it directly in the path of commuters. The experience is the message, with no explanation required.

Why does it work psychologically?

Adults do not need to be convinced that play is fun. They need permission. Adult-sizing plus public placement makes participation socially acceptable.

What business intent does it serve?

Rebuild emotional closeness through participation. A shared, physical experience creates memory and talk value that a standard campaign claim cannot.

What is the most transferable takeaway?

If you want real engagement, put a recognisable, low-friction action in a high-routine place, and let participation do the persuasion.

3D Holograms: Two Marketing-World Examples

3D holograms are a great way to attract and engage consumers. They can be quite effective if your brand is having trouble getting noticed or if your product’s capabilities can best be described using images and animation.

Though brands find it daunting to venture into this, there are still some brands out there bold enough to try it. Here are some nice examples.

Why holograms can cut through

The strength of a hologram-style display is that it behaves like moving product theater. It can stop people mid-walk, and it can compress a lot of “show, do not tell” explanation into a few seconds.

For marketers, the practical question is not “is it cool?” It is “does motion plus depth make the story easier to grasp than a flat screen or static print?” When the answer is yes, the format can earn attention fast.

Coca Cola In-Store Display

This example shows how a hologram-style display can work as an in-store attention magnet. The content is pure visual storytelling, which makes it easy to understand at a glance and easy to remember later.

Samsung Jet Launch

At launches, holograms can do a different job. They help dramatize product capability and create a sense of spectacle that standard stage content often struggles to match. That spectacle then becomes a shareable proof that something “big” happened.

What to steal if you are considering holograms

  • Pick one message that benefits from depth. If depth is not doing work, you are paying for novelty.
  • Design for walk-by comprehension. People should get it in under three seconds.
  • Keep the loop tight. Short, repeatable sequences beat long narratives in retail and event contexts.
  • Make the hero action visible. If the product feature is the star, animate that feature, not abstract brand graphics.

A few fast answers before you act

When do 3D hologram displays make sense for marketing?

When you need fast attention in a physical space, or when animation plus perceived depth explains the product better than flat media.

What is the main advantage over a normal screen?

Presence. The illusion of depth makes the content feel more like an object in the space, which can increase stop power and recall.

What is the biggest execution risk?

Paying for the format without a story that needs it. If the creative is not designed around depth and motion, the result feels like expensive wallpaper.

How should success be measured?

Dwell time, footfall impact near the unit, assisted recall, and any downstream action that matters to your context, like store inquiry, trial, or social amplification.

What is a practical way to keep cost under control?

Start with one hero unit and a short content loop, then scale only if you can prove incremental attention and understanding versus simpler formats.