out-of-home 2 | SunMatrix Ramble

Pepsi Max: Unbelievable Bus Shelter

Pepsi Max for its new ‘Unbelievable’ campaign rigged an ordinary bus shelter in London, to perform tricks on unsuspecting travellers.

Using a custom see-through digital display, people waiting at the bus shelter were made to believe that they were actually seeing things like hovering alien ships, a loose tiger, a giant robot with laser beam eyes and so on.

The reactions to these ‘unbelievable’ scenarios were then captured and put in the below viral video.

Why this works. Even before you talk about “tech”

The technology is impressive, but the mechanic is simple. Here, “mechanic” means the repeatable audience interaction pattern, not the underlying tech. It takes an everyday moment. It inserts a believable layer of impossible. Then it lets people do the rest. React, laugh, point, film, share. Because the impossible is framed inside a familiar “window”, disbelief lands fast and reactions become the content. In high-footfall urban out-of-home environments, a brand moment has to work wordlessly, in seconds, for strangers who did not opt in.

Extractable takeaway: If you can turn passive waiting time into a personally witnessed story, you get emotion, proof and distribution before you spend on media.

That is the real move. It transforms passive waiting time into a story that feels personally witnessed.

The bus shelter as a “media product”

This activation treats the bus shelter like a product interface, not just a placement. It has inputs and outputs. Here, “activation” means a physical installation that creates a live brand experience in public space.

Input. People arrive with low expectations and spare attention.
System. A “window” that looks like reality, then breaks it in a controlled way.
Output. Instant emotion, social proof from nearby strangers, and a camera-ready moment.

In other words, it is not only out-of-home. It is an experience designed to be recorded and re-distributed.

The real question is whether your experience turns bystanders into witnesses, and witnesses into voluntary distribution.

What makes it shareable. And why the video is the second product

The live moment is the first product. The viral video is the second product. The second product extends the reach far beyond the street corner.

Tech is optional. If the premise is not instantly legible, it will not travel.

High signal in seconds. You understand what is happening instantly.
Escalation. Each new “unbelievable” scene raises the stakes and keeps attention.
Human faces. The reactions are the content. The brand stays present but not intrusive.
Social permission. If others are reacting, you react too. Then you share.

What to take from this if you build brand experiences

Design the moment first. The best “viral videos” start as real-world moments people want to show others.
Keep the premise instantly legible. If it needs explanation, it loses momentum.
Make capture a feature. If people will film it, stage it so the footage works.
Build a repeatable format. One idea, multiple scenarios, consistent payoff.
Let the audience star. The most believable proof is human reaction, not brand claims.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Pepsi Max “Unbelievable” in one sentence?

It is a London bus shelter activation that used a see-through digital display to create impossible scenes, then turned real public reactions into a viral video.

Is this augmented reality?

It functions like augmented reality for the audience, because it overlays illusions onto what looks like a real street view, even though the experience is delivered through a physical digital screen.

Why do people share this kind of content?

Because it triggers instant emotion and disbelief, and it is easy to explain visually. People share it to pass on the surprise.

What is the key design principle behind the activation?

Make the better story happen in the real world. Then make it easy for the story to travel as video.

What is the practical takeaway for marketers?

When you create a moment that people genuinely want to record, distribution becomes an outcome of the experience, not a separate media plan.

Plan: The Erasable Billboard for Girls’ Education

A large illustrated billboard appears in a busy city square. People donate, receive a simple eraser, and start rubbing away the artwork. As the top layer disappears, a second illustration is revealed underneath, shifting the story from girls working to girls going to school.

Plan has reported that tens of millions of girls worldwide are pushed into work instead of education, while in many less privileged countries boys are more likely to get access to schooling. To spark action, Plan and CLM BBDO created an erasable billboard with an illustration designed to be removed to reveal another illustration underneath. The billboard ran in central locations in Paris and Berlin. Passers-by were invited to donate in exchange for an eraser, then use it to change what the billboard showed.

Why the “erasable” mechanic is so strong

The mechanism does two jobs at once. It raises money, and it makes the issue understandable without explanation. The before-and-after is literal. Work disappears. School appears. The donor is not only informed. The donor performs the change. Cause-led campaigns should treat participation as the message, not a bonus layer.

Extractable takeaway: When the donor completes the transformation with their hands, the message becomes a memory and the donation feels consequential.

Definition-tightening: the eraser is not a gimmick. It is the interface, meaning the simple physical tool that gives the donor viewer control over the story. Because the act of erasing creates ownership, it makes someone more likely to donate, talk about it, and remember it.

In social-impact fundraising, participatory outdoor media can turn a small donation into a visible act of change that people feel in their hands.

The real question is whether your donation ask feels like participation or just passive sympathy.

What Plan is really buying

This is a public proof of participation. Instead of asking people to “care” in private, it makes caring visible, social, and shared. Every person who erases becomes a live endorsement that the issue matters enough to stop and act.

Steal this pattern: make giving tactile

Make the transformation physical. A tangible before-and-after beats a poster full of statistics.
Use the donation as the trigger. The action should only unlock after contribution, not before it.
Let participation create the content. The billboard changes because people change it.
Design for bystanders. Watching others erase is part of the persuasion.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the “Erasable Billboard” idea?

An illustrated billboard designed to be physically erased. Donors receive an eraser and reveal a second image underneath, shifting the story from girls working to girls going to school.

Why exchange a donation for an eraser?

Because it turns giving into an action. The eraser is a simple reward, but more importantly it is the tool that lets the donor create the transformation themselves.

What makes this more effective than a standard charity billboard?

It is participatory and observable. The public sees the billboard changing in real time, which builds social proof and makes the issue easier to grasp.

What is the main emotional lever?

Viewer control. The donor does not only learn about the problem. The donor performs a symbolic solution in front of others.

What is the biggest execution risk?

If the transformation is not instantly readable, people will not engage. The before-and-after needs to be obvious from a distance and satisfying up close.

Heineken Carol Karaoke

What if you were singing holiday carols to a few friends at a karaoke bar, when suddenly your performance became a concert broadcast before thousands on the Jumbotron at a professional basketball game, in Times Square and on the screens of nearly every New York City taxicab. Would you keep singing?

That is the setup behind Heineken’s Carol Karaoke. It starts as a small, friendly singalong, then flips into a “will you or won’t you” decision in seconds. Keep going and you are suddenly performing for strangers at scale. Stop and you walk away from the moment.

How the stunt works

The mechanism is deliberately clean. Invite people to sing. Reveal the twist. Put a choice in front of them with no time to overthink. The broadcast layer is what raises the stakes, but the real content is the decision itself. Because the choice arrives before people can script themselves, the reaction reads as real, which is why the clip holds attention. The real question is whether you keep singing once the room suddenly becomes the city.

It is also built for the social era without relying on a hashtag to do the work. The reaction is the story. The story becomes the share unit. Here, the “share unit” is the few seconds where the singer realizes the stakes and chooses.

In big-city holiday campaigns, the fastest route to earned attention is a simple public challenge that people can imagine themselves facing.

Why it lands

Karaoke is already a controlled embarrassment. The campaign simply stretches that discomfort from “friends in a booth” to “a city watching”. That tension creates instant empathy and instant curiosity, because nearly everyone knows what it feels like to sing badly, and nearly everyone has imagined what it would feel like to be exposed. Heineken positions itself as the catalyst for crossing that line, not the judge of the performance.

Extractable takeaway: If you want a stunt to travel, engineer one visible, time-pressured choice that viewers can feel, then make the brand the enabler of that choice, not the evaluator.

Business intent

This is branded entertainment built around social courage. It connects Heineken with celebration behavior, and it manufactures a holiday moment that people will retell, because the premise is easy to repeat and the outcome is emotionally satisfying.

Steal these levers from Carol Karaoke

Use a decision, not a slogan. Put real choice in the frame and you get real reaction.
Make the twist explainable in one sentence. If the idea cannot be retold instantly, it will not travel.
Raise stakes with environment, not complexity. Big screens and public broadcast do more than extra rules.
Cast ordinary people. Relatability is what turns “a stunt” into “I can picture myself there”.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Heineken Carol Karaoke?

It is a surprise karaoke activation where people singing holiday carols are suddenly offered a choice. Keep singing and be broadcast publicly to a much larger audience, or stop and walk away.

Why does the “will you or won’t you” structure work?

Because the content is the decision under pressure. That creates tension, authenticity, and a clear emotional arc that viewers follow in seconds.

What role do out-of-home screens play in the idea?

They turn a private performance into a public moment instantly. The scale shift becomes the stakes, and those stakes are immediately legible to anyone who has ever felt stage fright.

What makes this kind of stunt shareable?

The setup is retellable in one line, and the payoff is emotional and human. People share it to relive the moment of courage, not to explain a complicated mechanic.

How can a brand adapt this idea without a Jumbotron?

You can swap the “big screen” for any sudden jump in visibility that feels real. For example, a live in-venue feed, a public projection, a partner-owned network of screens, or an unexpected “broadcast” to a larger nearby audience.