Tag: online video

The Noite: Troll Ad Button

To promote a new season of The Noite, Publicis Brasil plays directly with a habit online video has trained into everyone. Skip the ad and move on.

Instead of treating that skip as the enemy, the campaign introduces a second choice. Viewers can click either “Skip Ad” or “Troll this ad”. The “troll” option leads to an unexpected piece of content that stays connected to the original message, and the campaign claims the result was four times more views than comparable pre-roll.

Turning a skip moment into a choice

The mechanic is not more targeting or louder creative. It is viewer control at the exact moment attention usually collapses. If you want to leave, you can. If you want to “troll”, you get rewarded with a playful detour that still carries the show.

In online video advertising, where skippable formats condition people to minimize attention, a simple interactive choice can convert avoidance into participation.

Why it lands

This works because it admits the truth of the format. People dislike being delayed. So the campaign reframes the pre-roll as a game with an opt-out, not a lecture with a countdown. The second button also creates curiosity, because it promises a different outcome than the usual “wait or skip” loop, and curiosity is one of the few reliable reasons people volunteer attention.

Extractable takeaway: If your audience’s default behavior is to escape, build a choice that makes staying feel like a self-directed action, then pay it off immediately with content that still ladders back to the brand.

What the show is really optimizing

The stated win is views, but the deeper win is sentiment. The Noite positions itself as culturally fluent in the platform’s frustrations, and that makes the promotional message feel less like interruption and more like shared humor. It is a promotion that behaves like entertainment.

The real question is not how to stop people from skipping, but how to make the pre-roll moment feel worth choosing.

The smarter move is not to fight skip behavior. It is to design a branded detour that respects it.

What to borrow from the button logic

  • Design at the drop-off point. Put your idea where attention usually dies, not after it.
  • Offer a real opt-out. Interactivity only feels fair if “leave” is genuinely available.
  • Make the alternate path rewarding fast. The payoff has to arrive immediately or the trick reads as manipulation.
  • Keep it on-message. The detour can be weird, but it should still be clearly linked to the original proposition.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the “Troll Ad Button” idea in one line?

A skippable pre-roll that adds a second option, “Troll this ad”, so viewers choose a playful alternate experience instead of simply skipping.

Why is a second button more effective than a better pre-roll film?

Because it changes the relationship with the format. It turns the moment into a decision the viewer owns, which can trigger curiosity and voluntary attention.

What metric did the campaign claim?

That it generated four times more views than similar pre-roll executions.

What is the key risk with “interactive pre-roll” mechanics?

If the alternate option is not genuinely different or feels like a trick, viewers punish the brand with distrust and faster skipping next time.

When should you use this pattern?

When your audience already expects to skip, and your brand can credibly reward curiosity with content that feels entertaining and immediate.

Grolsch: The Movie Unlocker

Paying for movies with a credit card is framed as yesterday’s behaviour. Grolsch positions a new alternative as “Movie Unlocker” technology, letting consumers use the beer bottle itself as the key to watch movies online.

The bottles are described as being fitted with custom Bluetooth beacons that transmit a unique code when brought close to a laptop or smartphone with Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, enabled. That code verifies the user and unlocks access to the chosen movie.

How the bottle becomes the checkout

The mechanism is a proximity-based redemption flow. Open the beer. Bring the bottle near your phone or laptop. The beacon transmits an identifier. The partner website receives it, validates it, and then grants access.

Functionally, it’s the same “code under the cap” idea, but moved from manual entry to a one-touch interaction triggered by distance and Bluetooth.

In consumer promotions, frictionless redemption mechanics often outperform bigger media spend because they turn the product into the access token.

Why “bottle-as-ticket” works

This lands because the value exchange is immediate and physical. The bottle is proof-of-purchase, and the unlock moment happens in the same context as consumption. At-home. On-device. With minimal steps. That makes the reward feel like a feature of the product, not a separate campaign hoop.

Extractable takeaway: If you want high participation in a reward mechanic, eliminate typing and logins where possible. Use a physical trigger that makes redemption feel like a natural extension of the product ritual.

What the brand is really optimizing

The real question is how to make purchase verification feel like part of the product experience rather than a separate redemption step.

Beyond “cool tech,” this is about repeat preference. It attaches a digital entertainment benefit to a beer purchase, creating a reason to choose Grolsch again the next time someone is deciding in-store.

What to steal from bottle-as-ticket

  • Turn proof-of-purchase into a trigger. Let the product initiate the unlock, not a coupon field.
  • Design for the living room moment. Redemption should work where consumption happens.
  • Keep the exchange legible. “Beer near device equals movie” is easy to explain.
  • Make authentication invisible. Users should feel the magic, not the plumbing.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Grolsch Movie Unlocker?

It’s a promotion mechanic where a beer bottle transmits a unique Bluetooth Low Energy code to help unlock a movie online.

What does BLE do here?

BLE enables low-power proximity communication so a nearby bottle can pass an identifier to a phone or laptop without pairing like a normal accessory.

Is this replacing payment or replacing a promo code?

It functions like replacing the promo code step with a proximity trigger. The “payment” is effectively the purchase of the beer tied to the unlock.

Why is this better than typing a code?

It reduces friction. Fewer steps usually means higher completion and less drop-off in promotional redemptions.

What’s the biggest practical risk?

Reliability and onboarding. If Bluetooth is off, compatibility is unclear, or the unlock flow is confusing, the perceived magic disappears fast.

Porsche 911: Birthday Song

A birthday song plays. But the “instruments” are Porsche 911s. The film stitches together sounds from seven generations of the 911 and turns them into a celebratory tune that feels like performance heritage you can hear.

For the 50th anniversary of the Porsche 911, Fred & Farid Shanghai recorded the sound signatures across the model’s generations, then made them playable online via a musical keyboard. Fans can log in, tap keys, and compose their own tracks using real 911 audio samples.

A branded “sound keyboard” is a web interface that maps recorded product sounds to notes or keys, so people can create short compositions. It turns passive listening into viewer control, and that extra participation time is what drives recall and sharing.

Reported results vary by source. One case write-up reports roughly 2.84 million video views over two months, and the keyboard being played about 1.86 million times worldwide.

Why this lands with Porsche fans

It does not explain the 911. It lets you “play” it. That is the emotional trick. The interaction makes the heritage feel accessible, and the sound makes it feel authentic. You are not learning history. You are using it. Because the keyboard makes the sound playable, the heritage stops being abstract and starts feeling personal.

Extractable takeaway: If you want heritage to feel current, turn the proof into a simple tool people can use, not a story they only watch.

In luxury automotive brand building, sound and craft cues often communicate performance credibility faster than specification copy ever can.

What the campaign is really aiming to shift

In China, the anniversary becomes a brand-image move. It reinforces Porsche as a sports-car maker by leaning on the one asset competitors cannot copy easily. The 911’s recognisable sound character across generations.

The real question is whether your brand has a defensible cue you can turn into something people can play with.

If you have an asset competitors cannot copy easily, you should design the interaction first and then use film to give it a default story.

What to steal for your own heritage-led activation

  • Turn heritage into a tool. Give people something they can do, not only something they can watch.
  • Use sensory proof. Sound is hard to fake and easy to remember.
  • Anchor interaction with a hero asset. The film gives the idea a “default” story, then the keyboard lets fans personalise it.
  • Make sharing inherent. Compositions are naturally shareable outputs. That is stronger than asking for shares.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Porsche 911 Birthday Song campaign?

It is a 50th anniversary activation that records sounds from multiple 911 generations and turns them into two outputs. A hero “Birthday Song” film and an interactive web keyboard where fans can compose their own tunes.

Why use sound instead of visuals or specs?

Because sound carries performance identity instantly. It communicates emotional credibility and heritage without requiring technical explanation.

What makes the interactive keyboard more than a gimmick?

It creates participation time and personal output. When people make something themselves, they stay longer and are more likely to share. That improves memorability.

What business goal does this serve in China?

Strengthening Porsche’s sports-car credentials by making the 911’s heritage feel distinctive, modern, and culturally shareable.

What is the biggest execution risk with sound-led interactivity?

If the interface is slow or the sounds feel too similar, the “play” loop collapses. The experience needs immediate feedback and clearly different audio notes to feel satisfying.