Project Feature: HP Laptops Digital Launch Mechanism With Audience Participation & Interaction

Almost half a year ago around mid-2022, our partners at Total Brand Activation Hong Kong reached out with a challenge – to conceptualise a digital launch mechanism suitable for HP’s new laptop launches.

Over the next few days, it got me thinking – a key advantage and marvel of web-based technology is the ease of connection and communication. Everyday, thousands of people connect to game servers and play various games with each other. We connect to messaging servers and send WhatsApp, Telegram and other instant messages to each other. Why not integrate the concept of mass communication (i.e. audience participation and interaction) into a launch mechanism?

This would give brands an opportunity to connect with their audience so that they feel like a part of the launch. But how could this concept be represented in the user experience? Perhaps… The audience could form a part of the new laptop for this launch?

That’s when it struck me, and here’s a quote from the original message –

I have a very unrefined idea… Something like a dark laptop on the screen with a QR code for the participants to scan. Participants [who] scan the QR code can key any character on their keyboard. Every time a unique key is pressed, the corresponding key on the laptop on the screen is lit up. Continue until all keys are lit up, then the VIP presses the “power” button and the laptop boots [up] to play the launch video.

With that, both teams got to work, and this is the result –

Used as the launch mechanism to launch HP’s new laptops in both Malaysia and Indonesia, participants scanned a QR code on a laptop’s silhouette to launch a virtual keyboard on their own mobile devices. Then, on the emcees’ cue, they could start tapping the keys on their virtual keyboard and the correspondin keys on the laptop on screen would light up.

Here’s a closer look –

Why we’re excited: the ability to use audience participation as a trigger for launch mechanisms means that it can be applied across other verticles and purposes as well. For example, audience participation can turn a new logo from an outline to a full-coloured version during its launch. In another example, audience participation can stock all the compartments and levels in a launch of a new refrigerator.

Interested in integrating audience participation in your launch mechanism? Let’s have a chat!