Tag: Leo Burnett

Sukiennice: Secrets Behind Paintings

The Sukiennice Museum in Krakow is one of the oldest museums in Poland, and it is reopening after a complete renovation. The problem is not the building. The problem is attention. Young people do not automatically find 19th-century Polish art interesting.

Leo Burnett Warsaw gets the challenge to pull this audience back in, and answers it with an integrated campaign anchored by the New Sukiennice augmented reality app.

The mechanic: bring paintings to life with viewer control

The app turns the visit into an interactive layer. Point your phone at selected works and the paintings come alive, revealing their stories through short films and animated moments. Instead of reading a label first, you get pulled into a scene first, then you choose to go deeper. Here, viewer control means visitors choose when to trigger the story and whether to go deeper.

In European museums trying to win younger audiences, lightweight AR can translate static collections into short, shareable stories without rewriting the institution’s identity.

Why it lands: it swaps “art history” for narrative tension

This is not about making the museum more “digital”. It is about making the first minute feel rewarding. Young visitors do not need more information at the start. They need a reason to care. That works because short films give the paintings a hook, and the phone becomes a bridge between a familiar screen habit and an unfamiliar art period.

Extractable takeaway: If the barrier is “this feels irrelevant”, do not lead with education. Lead with story. Give people one fast, emotional moment they can experience, then let curiosity pull them into context and detail.

An integrated campaign that keeps the app from being a lonely download

The real question is how you make a heritage visit feel immediately worth a young person’s time without turning the art into a gimmick.

The app plays the central role, but it does not stand alone. The campaign also uses billboards, social media and e-cards to create buzz and point people toward the experience. The intent is clear. Get young people to show up, then let the AR layer turn “I visited” into “I discovered”.

The buzz generated by the campaign is described as attracting a significant share of Krakow’s population to the museum.

What to steal for your own cultural or heritage activation

  • Start with one irresistible moment: pick a small set of works and make them unforgettable, rather than trying to animate everything.
  • Put the story before the lesson: emotion first, interpretation second.
  • Make it usable on-site: the experience should work in the gallery without long setup or instructions.
  • Design for “showing a friend”: the best museum tech spreads when people can demonstrate it in seconds.
  • Support it with media that explains the payoff: billboards and social should communicate the “why” of the visit, not just the existence of an app.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the New Sukiennice app?

It is an augmented reality museum app designed to bring selected paintings to life and reveal their stories through short film content during a gallery visit.

Why is AR a good fit for 19th-century painting?

Because the barrier is often distance. AR can add narrative entry points and context quickly, helping visitors connect emotionally before they engage intellectually.

What makes this more than a tech demo?

The app is positioned as the core of an integrated campaign. The surrounding billboards, social media and e-cards create the motivation to visit, and the on-site experience delivers the payoff.

What’s the biggest risk with museum AR?

Friction and distraction. If setup is slow, or the experience pulls attention away from the original work instead of back into it, the technology becomes the point and the art loses.

How should a museum measure success here?

Look at youth attendance lift, repeat visits, time spent in targeted rooms, and whether visitors progress from the AR moment into deeper engagement like reading labels, joining tours, or exploring more works.

Air Swimmers: Flying Shark and Clownfish

Have you ever seen a fish that can swim in the air with smooth, life-like motion. Air Swimmers is a US-based company that developed these remote controlled, helium-filled flying fish.

They are designed for indoor fun even in small rooms. Air Swimmers describes them as running on four AAA batteries, one in the body and three in the controller, with up, down and 360 degree turning control.

How it works

The mechanism is lighter-than-air buoyancy plus simple steering controls. The helium does the lifting. The controller provides direction and small adjustments that make the movement read as “swimming” rather than “flying”. The technology fades into the background, and the illusion becomes the product.

In consumer retail for playful tech products, the fastest path from curiosity to purchase is a demo that looks impossible at first glance, but becomes obvious after ten seconds of watching it move.

The real question is how quickly your demo turns “that can’t be real” into “I want to try that”.

Lead with the impossible-looking motion first, and let the explanation come second.

Why it lands

It delivers a clean emotional sequence. Surprise first. Then control. The viewer sees it drift like a creature, then realises someone is steering it with precision. Because buoyancy handles the lift, small steering inputs read as effortless, which makes the motion feel alive and shareable. That makes it instantly shareable because the value is visible without narration or specs.

Extractable takeaway: If your product’s value is delight, design a demo that creates a visible illusion, then reveal just enough control to make people want to try it themselves.

Guerrilla activation lessons from Air Swimmers

  • Make the demo the message. If the value is visual, build your marketing around one clip that proves the experience in seconds.
  • Use “living motion” as the hook. Here, “living motion” means movement that reads like a creature rather than a machine, so people treat it as a moment worth filming.
  • Turn everyday space into a stage. Air Swimmers were also used as a guerrilla execution for SEA LIFE Speyer in Germany. Reported coverage describes Leo Burnett Frankfurt sending “flying sharks” through Frankfurt, including public locations and public transport, to turn the city into a temporary “aquarium” and build awareness for the aquarium in the Rhein-Main region.
  • Design for spectators, not only users. The best stunts create a second audience. Passers-by who do not control the object still get the full story.

A few fast answers before you act

What is an Air Swimmer?

A helium-filled balloon “fish” you steer indoors with a handheld controller, designed to move with a swimming-like motion through the air.

Why does it feel more impressive than other RC toys?

Because buoyancy handles the “floating,” so the control inputs translate into smooth, creature-like movement rather than noisy, mechanical flight.

What makes a product like this easy to market?

The demo is the message. One short clip communicates the full value without specs, because the motion is the proof.

Why was this a good fit for a SEA LIFE guerrilla execution?

Because it is thematically aligned with marine life, instantly attention-grabbing in public spaces, and it creates a moving spectacle people want to film and talk about.

What should the first ten seconds of the demo show?

Start with the “impossible” floating motion, then reveal the steering control quickly, so people understand it is real and want to try it.

Jeep: Compass Remote Postcards

One of the oldest and most effective ways to sell a product is with a good demonstration. Leo Burnett Brussels takes that approach and gives it a fresh spin for the Jeep Compass by turning the demo into a journey people can follow.

Cameras are strapped onto a few Jeep Compasses, and the team sets out to find the most remote post locations they can. Direct mailers are then shipped from these far-flung places, pointing recipients to a site where they can follow the trip and see the Compass in action.

Remote postcards as proof, not promise

The mechanic is simple. Put the product in the environment that proves the claim, document it, then send a physical artifact from the place itself. The postcard becomes evidence that the vehicle actually got there, not just a line in a brochure.

In automotive marketing, demonstrations land best when the proof is embedded in the distribution, so the message and the evidence arrive together.

The real question is how to turn an off-road capability claim into proof people can hold, trust, and retell. This is stronger than a spec-led demo because the proof is built into the medium itself.

Why this lands

This works because it collapses storytelling and verification into one object. A postcard from a remote location is inherently credible. Add footage from the route, and the demonstration feels earned rather than staged, even for people who only skim the campaign.

Extractable takeaway: If your product benefit is “go anywhere” or “handle more,” make the medium carry the proof. Send something that could only exist if the product performed as claimed.

What the campaign is really optimizing for

Beyond awareness, this is built to move the vehicle into active consideration. It gives prospects a concrete reason to re-evaluate the vehicle, and it creates a narrative that sales teams and enthusiasts can retell without needing technical jargon or spec sheets.

How to adapt this demonstration pattern

  • Turn proof into an artifact. Physical mail can signal effort and credibility.
  • Design a followable journey. A route with checkpoints is easier to remember and share than a one-off stunt.
  • Keep the CTA tight. One action. Follow the trip. See the product perform.
  • Make the environment do the persuading. Terrain and remoteness communicate capability faster than copy.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the core idea of the Jeep Compass remote postcards?

Use real remote locations as the demonstration, then mail postcards from those locations and direct recipients to follow the journey and watch the vehicle perform.

Why use direct mail instead of only video?

A postcard from a remote post office feels like proof. It is a physical signal that the journey happened.

What makes this a product demonstration, not just content?

The route and the mailer are consequences of the capability claim. The campaign structure is built around showing the vehicle doing the work.

What kind of products benefit most from this pattern?

Products with a capability claim that is easy to show in the real world. Durability, reach, range, off-road, endurance, or access.

What’s the biggest risk if you copy this approach?

If the “proof” feels manufactured or the journey is hard to follow, the credibility advantage disappears. The checkpoints and documentation need to be clear.