For their customer Mercedes-Benz Vans, ad agency Lukas Lindemann Rosinski implemented an interactive outdoor event on Wall AG’s digital advertising displays in Berlin’s underground station Friedrichstrasse. This display blurred the line between classical outdoor advertising and interactive entertainment. Under the slogan “Key to Viano”, passers-by were offered the unprecedented opportunity to control the digital advertising displays using their own remote car keys…
For the PRE-SAFE® precrash system from Mercedes-Benz, ad Agency Jung von Matt in Germany made chaotic traffic intersections safer.
Everybody was able to look around the corners into the streets as if the walls were transparent, and could therefore detect potential hazards in time to avoid them. To achieve this, they used a camera to film what was going on around the corner. The images were then projected onto a 18/1-format billboard on a building corner so all motorists and cyclists could see them.
In February this year four two-person teams left four cities, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Tampa Bay, to goto Dallas, Texas in a custom-designed Mercedes-Benz car that was fuelled by Twitter.
Of course the cars were not physically running on tweets, but virtually they were. The reason for Mercedes-Benz saying that the race was “Tweet-Fueled” was because each of the four teams had to get the support of their home cities to drum up enough support on Twitter to get them to the finish line in Dallas.
In the end the campaign had almost 30,000 active participants with over 72,000 Facebook Fans and 77,000 Twitter Followers who generated over 150,000+ tweets to power the cars. The campaign videos generated about 2 million views, while the twitter reach pushed over the 25 million mark.
The smart move is that social support is not commentary. It is the engine of progress. That turns spectators into participants, because every tweet has a clear meaning. It helps your team move.
The structure is simple. Four teams. One destination. A visible race. But it is the social mechanics that create the volume.
In real-time social entertainment, participation scales when the audience can visibly change the outcome, not just comment on it.
It was a social-powered race where four teams drove from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Tampa Bay to Dallas, and their progress was powered virtually by Twitter support from their home cities.
Not because tweets powered engines physically, but because tweets served as the mechanism that enabled teams to accumulate the support needed to reach the finish line.
Almost 30,000 active participants, over 72,000 Facebook fans, 77,000 Twitter followers, more than 150,000 tweets, about 2 million video views, and Twitter reach exceeding 25 million.
It creates rivalry and pride, which motivates supporters to participate and recruit others to help their team advance.
If you can turn social activity into measurable progress toward a clear goal, you can convert audience attention into sustained participation.
