Love it or hate it, social media has become the ultimate platform for keeping in touch with friends.
Thanks to Instagram, we can all now see beautiful pictures of friends across the globe. With Facebook we will never accidently miss someone’s birthday again. And Twitter lets us read our friends’ daily thoughts in just 140 characters.
However in 2016 (a strange yet, for many well-publicised reasons), social media, in particular Twitter, took a slightly more sour turn. Following significant political events, it became the place for users to ‘talk trash’ to those who didn’t share the same opinions.
Sports clothing brand Bjorn Borg decided things needed to change. In an attempt to turn negativity into something positive, it created a great tech-led experiential marketing stunt.
Bjorn Borg created the world’s first Twitter punch bag and placed it in All Stars Gym in Stockholm, home to some of Sweden’s toughest fighters. The punch bag cleverly worked as a keyboard with letters, numbers and symbols printed on it. Through embedded sensors that were connected to Twitter through WiFi, gym-goers were able to punch out Tweets.
The aim was to encourage people to spread love instead of insults on social media and brought to life the brand’s message ‘our rivals make us better’.
First up on the punch bag was Henrik Bunge, CEO of Bjorn Borg who sent a message of love to the CEO of rival brand Nike: “Hi Mark @Nike, CEO Henrik Bunge here. Thanks for being our greatest competitor. All my love for making us better. #DearRival”
Other fighters punched out similar positive messages: “You make me a better woman” and “You make me wake up early in the morning”.
This activation is a great example of how taking an experiential approach can help to bring a brand’s ethos to life in a creative way while being highly sharable.I It showcases how even the craziest of ideas can become a reality thanks to modern technology.
Here’s another great example of how rivalry is turned into a positive through experiential marketing.