Viral marketing case study: Pepsi Max creates monster mirror stunt

Digital marketing industry case study library

For Halloween 2014, Cinemagoers at the Odeon Bayswater in London were given a shock in the venue's toilets as their appearances in mirrors were morphed to look like a Halloween clown. This case study looks at how Pepsi Max made smart use of augmented reality and social media to get the most out of a scary stunt.


Case study summary

• Pepsi Max ran an augmented reality mirror prank in a London cinema
• The project went viral, getting over 2m views during the Halloween period
• It also helped AMV BBDO win various awards for best outdoor advertising campaign

The challenge

Pepsi was running a new brand repositioning campaign called “Unbelievable” and wanted to use seasonal milestones to help amplify its UK reach via social media.

The solution

Created for the brand’s Unbelievable Channel, Pepsi Max used a series of hidden cameras to capture the reactions of those caught out by the revolting reflections. The fitted modified bathroom mirrors in the toilets of the cinema transformed the reflections of visitors into Halloween characters including crazed grinning clowns, vicious werewolves and flesh-eating zombies.

The Monster Mirror stunt used facial tracking technology and augmented reality software, with the brand working with a number of agencies to execute the activation including advertising agency AMV, creative technologist James Rowley, Thibaut Weise from Faceshift, Jon Hammond of Just Add Music Media and RAD London.

The results

The project went viral, getting over 2m views during the Halloween period. It also helped AMV BBDO win various awards for best outdoor advertising campaign.

Aman Matharu, digital marketing manager, beverages, at PepsiCo, said: "Since launching the Unbelievable YouTube channel in January, Pepsi Max has regularly created and published shareable content that utilises the latest technology and innovation to showcase unbelievable feats and experiences.

"Halloween provided the perfect opportunity to deliver an interactive augmented reality experience for Odeon Bayswater customers in a fun, creative and slightly spooky way."

Copyright ©2000-2024 Digital Strategy Consulting Limited | All rights reserved | This material is for your personal use only | Using this site constitutes acceptance of our user agreement and privacy policy