It’s a common dilemma; you’re exiting the train station – do you jump on the escalator or work off your lunch and climb the stairs?
More often than not we take the lazier option and go for the escalator. In the Montreal Metro 85% of commuters don’t use the stairs, which is why athletic retailer, Sports Experts, chose the station for a fun and inspired experiential stunt.
The brand installed a thermal imaging device at Montreal Metro at the top of the steepest set of stairs that measured how much body heat each commuter had generated. From this it could identify who hadn’t taken the stairs and reward the ones who did.
The machine printed out discount vouchers for those who took the stairs, based solely on body heat, that could be redeemed at a Sports Experts store.
The more they sweat, the more the commuters could get so those who put in the most effort and energy into climbing the 200 stairs received the bigger discounts.
Upon seeing the screen, some went back down and up the stairs to get a better discount, or even decided to increase their reward by doing other exercises, like dropping down and doing pushups.
The activity, which marks the brand’s 50th anniversary, is well aligned with Sports Experts’ ethos that focuses less on performance and more on the smaller fitness gains people achieve day-to-day.
Busy transport stations provide a great platform for an experiential marketing campaign. A fun campaign can help brighten a person’s day and take them away from the drudgery of the everyday commute. Kit Kat did just that with this stunt on a bus stop in Columbia which challenged commuters to a dance off. And so did Ben & Jerry’s with this giant cereal bowl filled with plastic balls in the middle of New York City’s Grand Central Station.
Exciting and fun campaigns like these that give commuters a positive experience make a lasting impression and generate brand love.