Tag: Peugeot

The first campaigns on Pinterest

Pinterest is one of the most talked about and fastest growing social networks of 2012. What makes this social site different from the others is its pinboard-styled social photo sharing feature that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections.

Since its still very new, a lot of major brands out there don’t know what to make of it. However, a couple have already found creative ways to exploit the potential of the new social media destination…

Women’s Inspiration Day by Kotex

In Israel, Kotex found 50 inspiring women and looked at what they were pinning on Pinterest. These women were then sent virtual gifts. If they re-pinned it, Kotex would send a real gift via mail. Smoyz, the agency behind the effort, claims nearly 100% of the women posted something about their gift, not only on Pinterest, but on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram…

Puzzle by Peugeot Panama

Peugeot’s Panama unit ran a contest that awarded fans who completed their Pinterest puzzle. The brand’s Pinterest profile featured images of cars running over two or more boards. In each case, a board was missing. To get the missing pieces, fans had to go to Peugeot Panama’s website.

Color Me Inspired by Guess

Guess challenged its fans to create boards based on four spring colors: Noir Teal, Hot House Orange, Red Hot Overdue and New Plum Light. The participants were asked to title their boards as “Guess My Color Inspiration” and pin at least five images (each tagged with #GUESScolor) in them. Four winners were then chosen by fashion bloggers Kristina Bazan of Kayture, Michelle Koesnadi of Glisters and Blisters, Jennifer Rand of Belle De Couture and Samantha Hutchinson of Could I Have That.

Pinterest Lottery by British Midland International

British airline “bmi” launched a game of chance to engages its fans. With “Pinterest Lottery“, bmi encouraged fans to re-pin upto six images of its seven travel destinations Beirut, Dublin, Marrakech, Moscow, Nice, London and Edinburgh. At the end of each week, the company choose a number at random and the users who had re-pinned the image with that number would qualify for a chance to win a free return flight.

Take The Car Challenge

Here is an interesting take on those famous old “Touch The Car” endurance competitions of the days gone bye…Peugeot launched the “Take The Car” challenge online, where users would compete live from around the world to score a week with the car of their choice.

After connecting with Facebook, users could choose a car, then click-and-hold down the mouse for as long as they possibly could. Every time someone joined the competition, their profile pic would appear on the car in real time, so users could actually see their competitors in the challenge. While all this was going on for hours on end, the website spat out over 9,000 words of pure sales information to help brainwash contestants into wanting the car! 😆

Peugeot 408: Print ad with a real airbag

To advertise the safety benefits of the Peugeot 408, Brazilian agency Loducca put a mini airbag inside a print ad. Readers were invited to hit a marked spot on the page and see what happened. On impact, the tiny bag inflated, demonstrating in miniature what an airbag would do.

The ad appeared in Brazil’s business magazine Exame and was reportedly distributed with protective packaging so the airbag would not trigger by accident.

In automotive safety marketing, the highest-performing proof is the kind you can physically trigger yourself.

A magazine page you have to hit

The mechanism is brilliantly blunt. You do not watch a crash test. You perform a micro impact with your hand, and the medium responds. That action turns a passive read into an experience, and it makes the “airbag” benefit impossible to ignore.

Standalone takeaway: When a product claim is about protection, the strongest creative move is to make the audience feel a cause-and-effect demonstration, not just read about it.

Why print becomes more credible when it behaves like a product

Print normally communicates through trust in words and images. This ad adds a different kind of credibility. Mechanical proof. If it inflates on cue, the viewer’s brain files the message as something closer to engineering than persuasion.

That matters because “safety” is a hard attribute to sell with rhetoric alone. People want reassurance, not adjectives.

The packaging is part of the idea

The special packaging is not just logistics. It signals intent. This is a controlled, designed interaction. It is also a reminder that experiential print has operational realities. If you build an ad that can go off in someone’s bag, you must engineer the distribution like you would engineer a product.

What to steal from this execution

  • Make the claim triggerable. If the benefit is physical, design a physical proof moment.
  • Keep the interaction single-step. One obvious action, one immediate response, no instructions needed.
  • Let the medium do the explaining. The inflation is the headline. Copy becomes supporting detail.
  • Design the supply chain, not just the concept. Packaging, safety, and consistency are part of creative effectiveness.
  • Use spectacle sparingly. The wow moment is strongest when it directly maps to the product truth.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Peugeot 408 “airbag in a print ad” idea?

A magazine ad with a real mini airbag insert that inflates when the reader hits a marked spot, mimicking an airbag deploying during impact.

Why does this work better than a normal safety print ad?

Because it converts a claim into a physical demonstration. The reader triggers the proof, which feels more credible than copy alone.

What makes interactive print feel premium instead of gimmicky?

When the interaction is directly tied to the product benefit and works reliably. The mechanism should be the message, not a disconnected trick.

What’s the biggest risk with mechanical inserts in magazines?

Execution risk. Misfires, non-fires, and distribution issues can overwhelm the idea. The production and packaging have to be engineered as carefully as the concept.

How can a brand replicate this approach on a smaller budget?

Design a tactile proof moment using simple materials and one clear action. The key is immediate cause-and-effect that maps cleanly to the claim.