Tag: mobile marketing

Burger King Burn that Ad

In Brazil, Burger King and ad agency David SP use augmented reality to “burn” competitors’ ads through consumers’ mobile phones. The reward is simple and immediate. Participate, and you earn a free Whopper.

Burger King expects to give away 500,000 Whoppers through the promotion, pushing more people to use Burger King Express, the service that lets customers pre-order food for pickup.

How “Burn that Ad” works

The mechanic turns rival advertising into a trigger. Here, the mechanic is one simple action that immediately returns a coupon reward. You point your phone at a competitor’s ad, the experience “burns” it in AR, and the payoff is a Whopper coupon. It is a direct, product-first incentive tied to a single action.

In quick-service restaurants, where choice is made in seconds, immediate incentives can shift behaviour faster than storytelling.

Why the reward is the strategy

This is not a brand-film play. It is a behavioural exchange. The AR effect is decoration. The engine is the immediate product reward tied to one action. The real question is whether your mechanic creates an immediate, low-friction exchange that makes a new behaviour worth trying. Because the reward is immediate and tied to one action, the AR burn becomes a conversion trigger rather than a gimmick. The customer does something specific in the moment, and Burger King pays them back with something they value immediately. That makes participation scalable beyond the novelty of AR.

Extractable takeaway: If you want people to adopt a new operational path, design a one-step exchange where the reward is immediate, tangible, and triggered by a single action.

The operational goal: Burger King Express

The giveaway is not only about footfall. It is designed to drive adoption of pre-order pickup via Burger King Express. The campaign builds a reason to try the service, not just the product.

What to steal

  • Make competitors the trigger: Turn a competitor’s presence into your acquisition trigger, without relying on complicated steps.
  • Keep it low-friction: Keep the action simple and the reward tangible.
  • Scale an operational behaviour: Link the incentive to an operational behaviour you want to scale, such as pickup pre-order adoption.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Burn that Ad”?

A Burger King Brazil promotion that uses augmented reality to “burn” competitors’ ads on mobile phones and reward participants with a free Whopper.

What is the incentive?

A free Whopper, delivered via the promotion’s reward mechanic.

How many Whoppers does Burger King plan to give away?

500,000.

What is Burger King Express?

A Burger King service that lets customers pre-order food for pickup.

What business behaviour does it push beyond the giveaway?

Using Burger King Express to pre-order food for pickup.

Voice Chocolate

On Valentine’s Day, women in Japan record a voice message on their smartphone. That voice is transformed into a unique chocolate pattern, and a premium patisserie, Mont St. Clair, delivers the custom chocolates to the men they love. The recipient then uses a special app that recognises the AR markers in the chocolate, and the voice message plays back from the smartphone. Here, “AR markers” means a scannable visual pattern the app recognises to trigger the audio playback.

The campaign comes from Docomo (Japan’s largest mobile phone company) working with agency Hakuhodo. The business context is straightforward. Voice communication traffic falls sharply over the last 15 years, largely due to messaging apps. Docomo uses the ritual of Valentine gifting to make voice feel emotional and “worth using” again.

The real question is how you make a declining behaviour feel emotionally valuable again, not just functional.

This kind of work beats a “make voice cool” content push, because it turns voice into something people already want to give, keep, and replay.

Why this works as mobile, packaging, and emotion in one system

This is not content about voice. It is voice turned into a physical artefact. The chocolate is both the gift and the interface. The phone becomes the capture tool. The app becomes the playback layer. In Japanese consumer telecom marketing, the emotional “why” is built in when the interface is also the gift.

Extractable takeaway: That combination matters because it closes the loop between human intent and digital capability. Make the message spoken, then tangible, then audible again at the moment of receiving.

The pattern to steal

If you want to revive a behaviour that is losing ground, the structure here is repeatable:

  • Pick the cultural moment. Find a culturally accepted moment where the behaviour already makes sense, in this case Valentine gifting.
  • Create a keepable token. Convert the behaviour into a physical token people want to give and keep, not a disposable digital asset.
  • Reveal at the right moment. Use an interaction layer (AR, scan, app) that reveals the emotional payload at the right moment, for the recipient.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Voice Chocolate”?

A Valentine concept where a recorded voice message is transformed into a chocolate pattern, delivered as a gift, then played back via an app that recognises AR markers in the chocolate.

Who is behind it?

Docomo in partnership with Hakuhodo, with chocolates delivered with help from Mont St. Clair.

What problem is it addressing?

Falling voice communication usage driven by messaging apps, by making voice feel meaningful again through gifting.

What is the core experience design move?

Turn a voice message into a physical interface, then use a scan-to-reveal mechanic so the voice returns at the moment of receiving.

Coca-Cola: First Drinkable Advertising

You are looking at a Coke Zero ad on a billboard, on TV, in print, or even on radio. Instead of just watching it, you Shazam it. On your phone, Coke Zero appears to pour into a glass on-screen, and that moment converts into a free Coke Zero coupon you can redeem at select retail stores across the US.

The premise is blunt and smart. Many people think they know the taste of Coke Zero, but they actually do not. So Ogilvy & Mather creates a campaign where the quickest route from awareness to belief is not another claim. It is immediate trial.

How “drinkable” advertising is engineered

This execution turns Shazam into a universal call-to-action layer across media. Here, “drinkable” means the ad triggers a mobile pour moment that turns into a redeemable coupon for immediate trial.

  • Any channel can trigger the experience. Billboard. TV. Print. Radio.
  • The smartphone becomes the conversion surface. Visual payoff first, then the coupon.
  • The coupon bridges straight into retail. “Try it now” becomes a physical action, not a brand sentiment.

The important part is not the novelty of animation. It is the end-to-end path from message to product-in-hand, because the Shazam trigger and coupon make the next step unambiguous.

Why this works as shopper marketing, not just a stunt

The campaign is designed to reduce the classic friction points that kill trial. In performance-led shopper marketing, the fastest path from awareness to belief is reducing trial friction and making redemption immediate.

Extractable takeaway: If you want trial, design the interaction so it ends in redemption, not in more content.

  • No guessing what to do next. Shazam is the behaviour.
  • No abstract promise. The ad demonstrates “taste” by pushing you to the real thing.
  • No delayed gratification. The reward is immediate and concrete. A redeemable coupon.

It is experiential marketing that does not require a pop-up installation or a live event. The experience travels with the media buy.

This is shopper marketing done right. It treats media as the first step of redemption, not as a detour into “engagement.”

The real question is whether your media can trigger immediate trial without adding steps or new infrastructure.

Steal this: Shazam-to-trial loop

If you are trying to drive trial at scale, this is a reusable model.

  1. One trigger across channels. Create a single interaction that works across channels.
  2. Mobile as the conversion surface. Use mobile to make the experience feel personal and immediate.
  3. Redemption, not delay. Close the loop with a retail mechanic that is simple to redeem.

Do that well, and “engagement” stops being a vanity metric. It becomes a measurable bridge to purchase.

A few fast answers before you act

What makes this advertising “drinkable”?

Shazaming the ad triggers a mobile experience that ends in a free Coke Zero coupon. It is designed to turn exposure into real-world trial.

Why use Shazam in the first place?

It provides a consistent interaction across media formats, including channels where clickable links do not exist.

What business problem is this solving?

Driving immediate trial for a product where many people assume they already know the taste, but have not actually experienced it.

What is the key CX detail that makes it work?

A simple, familiar action. One step to trigger, then a clear reward that can be redeemed in-store.

How do you prove this is more than a stunt?

Measure Shazam activations and coupon redemptions, then compare trial impact against a similar media buy without the redemption mechanic.