Tag: mobile app

Oscar Mayer: Wake Up and Smell the Bacon

If you would like to wake up to the sound of sizzling bacon on the stove and its aroma drawing you out of bed, then head over to www.wakeupandsmellthebacon.com and answer three questions for a chance to win the special bacon-scented iPhone attachment.

The contest is being run by Oscar Mayer, and they are giving away 4700 bacon-scented iPhone attachments over the next month. Winners can then use a custom Oscar Mayer alarm app to automatically activate the iPhone attachment every morning.

How the stunt is engineered

The mechanism is a neat combination of utility and theatre: a giveaway device plus a dedicated alarm app. The theatre is the story-worthy prop that makes the idea easy to retell.

In FMCG marketing, a physical add-on that turns a brand promise into a daily ritual can outperform a one-off ad because it creates repetition without feeling like repetition.

The real question is whether you can turn a product cue into a repeatable moment people choose to replay.

This is a strong stunt because it earns replay inside an existing morning routine, not just in a one-time impression.

Why it lands

This works because the alarm app and scent attachment turn Oscar Mayer’s core cue into a repeatable, at-home sensory demo.

Extractable takeaway: Scent and sound work as marketing when they are attached to an existing habit. If the brand can own a repeatable moment in the day, the campaign shifts from impression to ritual.

It turns a product truth into a sensory demo. Oscar Mayer does not need to persuade you that bacon is appealing. It just recreates the cue that already does the persuading.

It makes the call-to-action playful. “Enter to win” is normally forgettable. Here it is a gateway to a story-worthy object, so the contest itself becomes shareable.

It upgrades branded content into branded utility. Branded utility here means a tool people use for their own sake. The alarm is not only entertainment. It is a behavior change, because the phone becomes part of a new wake-up routine.

Borrowable moves from the bacon alarm

  • Pair a simple app with a tangible artifact. Physical wins feel rarer than digital, which increases talk value, meaning how likely people are to mention it unprompted.
  • Design for daily replay. The strongest “stunts” are the ones that can be re-experienced without needing a second ad.
  • Make the entry mechanic frictionless. Fewer questions, faster entry, and the prize does the marketing.

A few fast answers before you act

What is being promoted here?

A contest for a bacon-scented iPhone attachment, supported by an alarm app that triggers the attachment in the morning.

Why does this qualify as more than a gimmick?

Because it converts a brand promise into a repeatable experience. The “demo” happens in the user’s real life, not just on screen.

What is the main behavior change the campaign creates?

It pulls the brand into a daily wake-up habit, which creates repeated exposure without needing repeated media placements.

What makes it shareable?

The object is inherently story-worthy. People can describe it instantly, and the idea is unusual enough to travel as a headline.

What is the key risk?

Link rot and platform change. If the app link, device compatibility, or contest site stops working, the core mechanic collapses.

Coca-Cola Mini Me: 3D-Printed Mini Figurines

After Volkswagen, Coca-Cola is the next brand to tap the 3D printing trend.

For the launch of its new mini bottles in Israel, Coca-Cola with their agency Gefem Team came up with a campaign that allowed anyone to create 3D mini figurines of themselves. To get one in real life, users had to work a bit.

So first users created the minis using a mobile app. Then they had to keep them happy by feeding it and taking care of its needs.

There was even a virtual supermarket within the app that you could visit to buy your groceries for your mini self.

Those who successfully participated were then invited to the 3D printing lab inside Coca-Cola’s factory in Israel, where they received the mini versions of themselves.

Why this is more than a 3D-printing stunt

The 3D print is the reward, not the whole experience. The real engine is the progression loop, meaning a sequence of small repeat actions that earn a bigger payoff. This is smart campaign design because it makes the physical output feel earned, not handed out. The real question is whether your campaign creates a loop people will return to before you ask them to share anything.

Extractable takeaway: Gate a physical prize behind repeat micro-actions and it stops feeling like a giveaway. It becomes a trophy with a simple story: “I earned this.”

  • Personal creation. You do not receive a generic giveaway. You create “you”.
  • Ongoing engagement. Feeding and caring builds repeated interactions over time.
  • Escalation to the physical world. The factory lab visit turns digital participation into a memorable moment.

The virtual care loop makes the prize feel earned

The app mechanic is intentionally effortful. You have to keep the mini happy. You have to manage its needs. Even the virtual supermarket reinforces routine and “ownership”.

That matters because it shifts the figurine from a freebie into a trophy. Something you earned by participating.

In consumer brands that run digital-to-physical activations, effortful repeat interaction is often what turns novelty into recall.

Why the factory lab invitation is a smart finale

Bringing people into a Coca-Cola factory adds legitimacy and drama. It also creates a content moment. A physical place, a “lab”, and a 3D print reveal that people can photograph and share.

  1. Access as a reward. The invitation itself feels exclusive.
  2. Proof of innovation. The brand demonstrates capability in a tangible way.
  3. Memory value. The experience becomes a story, not just a product launch.

What to take from this if you build digital-to-physical campaigns

  1. Make the reward personal. Personal outputs are more meaningful and more shareable.
  2. Use a progression loop. Repeated small actions can outperform a single big interaction.
  3. Finish with a real-world moment. Physical experiences create stronger recall than purely digital stunts.
  4. Let the brand environment play a role. A factory lab gives credibility and theatre without feeling fake.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Coca-Cola “Mini Me”?

It is a campaign in Israel where users created a virtual mini-self in a mobile app, cared for it over time, and then received a 3D-printed figurine version after qualifying.

How did users qualify to get a real figurine?

They created the mini using the app and kept it happy by feeding it and taking care of its needs, including buying items in a virtual supermarket.

Where did the 3D printing happen?

Qualified participants were invited to a 3D printing lab inside Coca-Cola’s factory in Israel, where they received their mini figurines.

Why include a virtual care mechanic?

It creates repeat engagement and makes the physical reward feel earned rather than given away.

What is the transferable lesson for campaign design?

If you combine personal creation with a progression loop and a physical payoff, you can turn a product launch into a longer-lasting experience.

McDonald’s Happy Table

A child sits down in a McDonald’s Singapore restaurant, opens the McParty Run app on an NFC-enabled smartphone, and places the phone on a marked spot on the table. The tabletop immediately becomes the playfield. A McDonaldLand-style racing track appears around the phone, and the whole table turns into a shared game surface.

The idea. Turning a restaurant table into play

McDonald’s Singapore introduces Happy Table as an interactive dining concept that converts an ordinary in-store table into a digital playground for kids. Instead of handing out a traditional toy, the experience uses mobile technology to project a short, location-based game onto the table itself.

Here, “interactive dining” means the table is the shared surface for a short in-restaurant moment, and the phone is only the trigger.

How it works. McParty Run plus NFC

The mechanic is simple and deliberately physical:

  • Customers download the McParty Run mobile app.
  • The phone needs to be NFC-enabled.
  • The customer places the phone on a designated table inside the outlet.
  • Once the table detects the device, the tabletop becomes a virtual racing track, with animated characters and objects appearing around the surface.

Kids move around the table to control the game, racing to collect burgers and fries while avoiding familiar McDonald’s characters like the Hamburglar and Captain Crook. The table is the center of interaction, so the gameplay is naturally shared and social.

In family-oriented quick-service restaurants, the table is the shared touchpoint everyone already gathers around.

Why this is interesting in-store

Happy Table shifts the experience away from passive, individual screen time and toward a shared activity that fits the restaurant context. The game is anchored to the location and to a physical object. The table becomes the shared interface, and the phone becomes the trigger. Because the table is the interface, participation becomes social by default.

Extractable takeaway: If you want digital play to feel additive in a physical venue, make the venue the interface and keep the phone as the on-ramp.

The real question is whether you can turn waiting time into a branded group moment without making the meal feel harder for parents.

This pattern is worth copying when the interaction is optional, short, and anchored to a shared surface people already use.

What brands can take from this pattern

A few practical takeaways that translate beyond fast food:

  • Make the physical environment do the work. When the venue becomes the interface, the digital layer feels less like an add-on.
  • Design for group behavior, not solo attention. A shared surface encourages participation and reduces the “everyone disappears into their own screen” effect.
  • Keep it short and contextual. A quick, playful moment that fits waiting time is more natural than a long-form experience that competes with eating.
  • Use familiar brand assets in motion. McDonald’s characters and food cues make the experience instantly legible to kids.

Happy Table is created by the DDB Group and runs as a pilot at select outlets across Singapore.

A few fast answers before you act

What is McDonald’s Happy Table?

An interactive dining concept in McDonald’s Singapore that turns an in-store table into a digital game surface for kids.

What do you need to use it?

The McParty Run app and an NFC-enabled smartphone, placed on a designated table inside the outlet.

What is the gameplay?

A McDonaldLand-style racing experience where kids move around the table to collect burgers and fries while avoiding characters such as the Hamburglar and Captain Crook.

What makes it different from a typical mobile game?

The table is the shared interface. The experience is designed to be physical and social, centered on a real-world location and group play.

Where is it running?

As a pilot in select McDonald’s outlets across Singapore.