IPG Media Lab Matches Hershey With Vengo For An Innovative Take On Product Sampling

Hershey looks to build buzz for the launch of its new Cookie Layer Crunch bar with a digital twist, thanks to a partnership with interactive vending machine maker Vengo orchestrated by IPG Media Lab and Universal McCann. Aiming to build social buzz and engage consumers with a fun, innovative sampling experience, the confectionery giant will place two branded Vengo interactive vending machines in Radio City Music Hall starting today, as well as one at the Hershey Chocolate World in Pennsylvania.

How It Works
This fun sampling experience begins with the Vengo machine instructing customers to take a selfie and choose from multiple branded, holiday-themed filters to make the photo more festive in real time. They will then receive a free Hershey’s Cookie Layer Crunch bar as a reward after entering their mobile number to get the selfie sent to their phone.  Throughout the experience, they are encouraged to share their holiday photo on social media.

What Brands Need To Know
Our core design aims to capitalize on the selfie filter craze and bring some fun interactivity to vending machines and product sampling. The branded holiday filters will help generate organic social buzz for Hershey’s product launch as customers are incentivized to share their personalized photos on social channels.

This type of digital OOH solution offers an effective way to reach consumers in the real world as it operates as a unique digital experience at a landmark physical location and bridges the gap between mobile, social, and OOH campaigns for maximal consumer engagement.

How We Can Help
The Lab’s Hershey team is proud to have played an integral role in facilitating this partnership and working with both sides in designing, building, testing, and implementing this next-gen vending machine experience. We developed a customized operating application for these bespoke Hershey-Vengo machines, leveraging facial recognition and tracking technologies to smoothly apply the branded filters in real time.

Our proprietary real-time selfie filter application is highly customizable and applicable to other in-store digital installations. If you’re interested in learning more about this or simply want to discuss how to leverage emerging technologies to modernize your campaigns, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit.

hersheys-vengo-wrap

Hershey’s TAKE5 Bar Delights With Interactive Packaging

What Happened
Hershey’s is experimenting with innovative packaging to provide customers with a delightfully interactive experience. Working with IPG Media Lab, ad agency Barkley, and haptics tech startup Novalia, the company created a limited-edition “Remixer” package for its TAKE5 snack bar that lets customers play DJ and create their own unique tracks with no app required. As part of its “Respect The Remix” campaign, the confectionery giant is hosting a sweepstakes on Twitter to give fans a chance to win Remixer-packaged TAKE5 bars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXm902hdxtM

What Brands Should Do
Hershey’s is commendable for this innovative use of conductive ink technology in packaging, which adds some fun and interactivity to its product. Other CPG brands should take a cue and start exploring ways to apply new technologies such as haptic feedback or augmented reality to inject some extra value to their packaging.

If you would like to learn more about how your brand can use new technologies to add some interactive fun to your product packaging, please reach out to our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) for more information or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 


Source: MediaPost

Header image courtesy of Hershey’s YouTube Video

Viacom Teams Up With A YouTube Channel To Target Millennial Moms

What Happened
In a bid to target millennial mothers, Viacom has teamed up with the top parenting channel on YouTube “What’s Up Moms” to put the latter’s branded videos on its cable networks. The first branded video, which features creative ways to use Hershey’s Chocolate during the holiday, debuted on Monday on Viacom’s cable channels and digital platforms at the same time as on YouTube. The video is a collaboration between Viacom Velocity, Viacom’s creative content arm, and the creators behind What’s Up Moms. Two more spots are slated to air next year, and will feature different brands.

What Brands Need To Do
This marks the first case of a national media owner partnering with a YouTube channel and its niche content creators in order to produce branded videos. Brands looking to create branded content for a specific demographic should consider collaborating with niche content makers who have a proven track record in reaching a demo.

Plus, with some help from YouTube’s now widely available shoppable ads, brands with great video content should have a pretty good shot at finding interested audiences and effectively move them down the sales funnel on YouTube.


Source: AdWeek

A Gut Check For 3D Printing

3D printing is one of the most buzzed about tech developments in the last year. From 3D printing candy to guns, it seems that the possibilities are endless. Yet, a new report titled Consumer 3D Printing & Scanning: Service Models, Devices & Opportunities 2014-2018 estimates sales of consumer 3D printers to not exceed one million units until 2018, up from the roughly 44,000 estimated sales by the end of this year. Like most nascent tech, consumer education and a lower price point will be critical to adoption. While we’ve seen some novel executions from the likes of Hasbro and Hershey’s which let consumers print their own versions of toys and chocolates respectively, more utilitarian use cases will catalyze uptake.