Using WebRTC capabilities in a marketing campaign is not new – we saw real-time, two-way video functionality put to use with WestJet Airlines’ ‘Christmas Miracle’ campaign, where passengers were able to video call with Santa. Now, creative agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay (BMB) is using interactive video to power an interactive campaign for Grolsch, a Dutch brewery and beer company.
The idea behind Grolsch is one common among beer companies; “Artfully Crafted,” “Made of More” “The Champagne of Beers” and “Probably the best beer in the world,” all elicit the idea that they are one of a kind. Grolsch set out to communicate that it is a “rare character” among lagers. So, it launched its “Rare Character Test.”
Grolsch website visitors are prompted to take a character test by talking to the company’s resident “psychoanalyst” for a chance to win a free four-pack of Grolsch beer. Users are prompted with this message:
After a text with a country name is received, the psychoanalyst will call users to tell them whether they are a “rare character” or not.
This campaign is one of the first integrating interactive video and telephony functionality, creating a seamless, interactive and personalized user experience. The campaign’s art director Olly Wood and producer Mealnie Lowings told Digital Arts Online users’ broadband speeds, mobile network coverage and call and video syncing issues were included in the challenges to develop the campaign.
It used the Twilio call platform to make the campaign possible. The cloud communications provider has been involved in the development of WebRTC and integrating telephony into the browser. This campaign is a step toward that integration…although it’s not quite there yet. If this campaign were to get a little more sophisticated in terms of WebRTC and bridging the gap between telephony and online technology, users could have called or messaged the psychoanalyst right from the interactive video. If their answer of a country did indeed trigger a winning response, the psychoanalyst could have appeared in the video, instead of calling users on the phone. Still, I like where Grolsch’s and BMB’s heads are at – it’s an indication that companies from different industries are understanding the power of interactive video online, and are experimenting with how it can be implemented into their business strategies.
Twilio Client allows enterprises to add high-quality click-to-call features to Web applications, making it easier to customers to speak directly to agents online. Developers can use Twilio’s API platform to build in-app dialing, conference calling, group testing, mobile app distribution, two-factor authentication and much more.
Check out the video of the full campaign ad below:
Edited by Cassandra Tucker
