Tag: Wieden + Kennedy

Honda Jazz Interactive TV Ad

You watch the Honda Jazz “This Unpredictable Life” TV spot. At the same time, you open a companion iPhone app and literally “grab” what is happening in the ad. A character jumps onto your phone in the exact moment it appears on TV. Then you take that character with you and keep playing after the commercial ends.

Wieden + Kennedy London is behind this interactive TV campaign for the new Honda Jazz. The idea is simple and sharp. Use the iPhone as a second screen that syncs to the broadcast and turns a passive spot into a real-time experience. Here, “second screen” means the phone becomes the companion interface while TV stays the primary video canvas.

What the iPhone app does while the ad plays

The mechanic is “screen hopping.” The iPhone app recognises the sound from the TV ad and matches it to predefined audio fingerprints. That timing tells the app exactly which character or moment is live in the commercial, so it can surface the right interactive content on your phone in real time. Because the sync is driven by the ad’s audio, the handoff can happen on the exact beat the viewer sees on TV, which is what makes the interaction feel seamless.

In European consumer-brand marketing teams, this pattern matters most when broadcast reach and mobile engagement are owned and designed as one experience.

The real question is whether your second-screen sync can stay instant and obvious enough to feel like part of the spot, not a separate product.

What happens after you “grab” a character

Once a character lands on your iPhone, you interact with it away from the TV. You can trigger behaviours and mini-interactions, including singing into the phone to make characters react and dance. The TV spot becomes the gateway. The mobile experience becomes the engagement layer you keep.

Why this matters for interactive advertising

This is a clear step toward campaigns that treat broadcast as the launchpad and mobile as the control surface. When the second screen is tightly synchronised, you can design moments that feel native to the content people are already watching, rather than forcing a separate “go online later” call-to-action. This is worth doing when the sync is instant and the post-spot interaction is fun enough to continue without the TV.

Extractable takeaway: If you want broadcast to create action, design the mobile handoff so it happens on the same beat the viewer sees on TV, then give the phone a simple loop that keeps going after the spot ends.

This is also not the first time an iPhone engagement model starts to bridge media and action. A related example uses a similar iPhone-led interaction pattern for coupons and augmented reality: location based augmented reality coupons.

Design cues to reuse from this campaign

  • Anchor everything on a single trigger. Let the TV spot be the trigger, and let the phone pick up the same moment without delay.
  • Make the interaction obvious in one move. “Grab a character” is a clean mental model that needs almost no instructions.
  • Carry the payoff beyond the broadcast window. Treat the spot as the gateway and the phone as the layer that continues after the ad ends.
  • Keep the experience playful, not feature-heavy. Simple behaviours and reactions beat complex menus when timing is the point.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “screen hopping” in advertising?

Screen hopping is when content “jumps” from one screen to another during a live experience. Here, the TV spot triggers synchronized content on an iPhone so viewers can capture and interact with elements of the ad.

How does the Honda Jazz app sync to the TV commercial?

The app uses audio recognition. It matches the ad’s sound to predefined audio patterns so it knows what is playing at any moment and can show the right character or interaction on the phone.

What is the value of a second-screen experience like this?

It extends a short broadcast moment into a longer engagement loop. The ad becomes a gateway. The phone becomes the interactive layer that continues before, during, and after the spot.

What should a brand get right to make this work?

Timing and simplicity. The sync must feel instant, the interaction must be obvious, and the “reward” for participating must be fun enough to carry beyond the TV moment.

Old Spice: The Social Response Campaign

One body wash campaign that owned the conversation

This Old Spice case study takes us through the insight around targeting men and women at the same time to generate conversation around body wash. When it launched, the campaign managed to capture 75% of all conversations in the category.

To continue the success, Old Spice & Wieden + Kennedy created the next level, where Mustafa, now a household hero, a character people recognized instantly, engaged with the fans directly. The response campaign consisted of around 180 customized videos which engaged the fans directly. Thus it became the best social campaign ever to have been created.

Here are some stats of the campaign.

  • On day 1 the campaign received almost 6 million views (that’s more than Obama’s victory speech)
  • On day 2 Old Spice had 8 of the 11 most popular videos online
  • On day 3 the campaign had reached over 20 million views
  • After the first week Old Spice had over 40 million views
  • The Old Spice Twitter following increased 2700% (probably off a lowish base)
  • Facebook fan interaction was up 800%
  • Oldspice.com website traffic was up 300%
  • The Old Spice YouTube channel became the all time most viewed channel (amazing)
  • The campaign has generated 1.4 billion impressions since launching the ads 6 months ago
  • The campaign increased sales by 27% over 6 months since launching (year on year)
  • In the last 3 months sales were up 55%
  • And in the last month sales were up 107% from the social responses campaign work
  • Old Spice is now the #1 body wash brand for men

And without further a-due. The best social campaign ever.

The real shift: from broadcast to back-and-forth

The original idea did something rare. It spoke to men and women at the same time. Then it did the smarter thing. It treated the public reaction as the next creative brief. 180 customized responses turn attention into participation.

Because the replies are both personal and public, each interaction creates a reason for more people to watch, share, and join in.

In FMCG categories where products are similar, a brand character plus high-volume two-way interaction can turn attention into a defensible advantage.

The real question is whether you are willing to treat audience reaction as the next creative brief, not a comment thread to manage.

Why this still feels like a blueprint

Most campaigns stop when the film launches. This one starts there. When the character becomes a “household hero,” the brand gains a voice people want to talk to. Brands should treat the response layer, meaning the rapid stream of direct-to-person reply videos, as first-class creative, not post-launch community management.

Extractable takeaway: If a character and tone can scale, rapid, personalized public replies convert one-time views into repeat participation.

What the numbers are really doing here

The stats are not just bragging rights. They are proof that conversation can move the entire system. Views, follows, site traffic, impressions, and ultimately sales. All tied to a campaign designed to travel socially.

Old Spice’s response playbook you can borrow

  • Build for both sides of the purchase conversation. The user. And the influencer in their life.
  • Treat launch day as the start, not the finish line. Plan the response layer.
  • Create a character and tone that can scale. Dozens or hundreds of variations should still feel instantly recognizable.

A few fast answers before you act

What was the core insight in this Old Spice campaign?

Target men and women at the same time to generate conversation around body wash, then use that conversation to fuel the next wave of content.

What made the “response campaign” different?

Mustafa engaged fans directly through around 180 customized videos, turning audience attention into two-way interaction.

What results did the post claim?

The post cites rapid view growth over the first week, large jumps in social following and interaction, major traffic increases, and significant sales lifts over months.

What is the core mechanic behind the success?

A launch film that sparks broad conversation, followed by high-volume personalized responses that keep the conversation accelerating instead of fading.

What should you copy if you cannot produce 180 videos?

Copy the structure. Launch a character-led idea that invites replies, then publish a smaller set of fast, direct responses that keep the conversation moving.

2010 FIFA World Cup: United on ESPN

As the World Cup draws to an end this weekend, it feels like a good time to share this ad that captures how this has been that one month, every four years, when we all agree on one thing.

A simple idea, delivered as a fast montage

The spot stacks up all the things people argue about, then flips the frame to the one shared obsession that temporarily overrides the noise. It is not trying to explain football. It is using football as a shortcut to “we are together for a moment.”

In global sports media, the World Cup is one of the rare moments when mass audiences synchronise attention across borders.

The real question is whether your “we” message can hitch itself to a ritual your audience already shares, without the brand feeling like it is forcing the moment.

Why it lands

It works because the insight is instantly recognisable. You do not need to know the teams or the fixtures to feel the shift from division to collective focus. The edit pace does the persuasion, not a long script.

Extractable takeaway: When you want a “unity” message to travel, anchor it in a shared ritual people already practice, then use rhythm and contrast to make the emotional pivot feel inevitable. By a shared ritual, I mean a repeated moment your audience already participates in without you.

What this kind of creative is good for

These films are less about persuasion and more about permission. They legitimise heightened emotion. They give viewers a line they can borrow to describe what they are already feeling. That is why they get replayed and quoted during the tournament run-in.

A unity film earns trust only when it starts from a real, shared behaviour.

What to borrow from ESPN’s United montage

  • Lead with contrast. Show everyday division first, then pivot hard into the shared ritual.
  • Let edit pace do the work. Rhythm and montage can replace exposition when the insight is universal.
  • Anchor unity in something real. A credible collective behaviour beats abstract “togetherness” claims.
  • End on one clean line. A short, repeatable framing gives viewers language to share the feeling.

A few fast answers before you act

What is this ad doing in one sentence?

It contrasts everyday disagreement with a single shared passion, then frames the World Cup as a rare moment of collective unity.

Why is contrast more effective here than “inspiring” footage alone?

Because contrast creates a clear before-and-after. Viewers feel the pivot from fragmentation to togetherness instead of being told about it.

What makes a “unity” sports spot feel authentic?

It reflects real fan behaviour and real tension, then resolves it through a ritual people genuinely share, like watching, cheering, and arguing about football.

How do you adapt this structure outside sport?

Pick a moment where your audience already aligns, then show the everyday differences around it. The shared ritual must be more credible than the brand claim.

What should you avoid when copying this approach?

A generic “we are all one” message with no lived context. Without a specific ritual and a clear pivot, the film becomes wallpaper.