KitKat's New Billboards Are Truly Touching: They Give You a Free Massage

Date: October 29, 2015

Summary:
Talk about a touchy-feely campaign!

Body:
Talk about a touchy-feely campaign!

To promote KitKat's launch in Colombia, J. Walter Thompson and Mindshare installed 20 billboards in the capital city of Bogota.

That may sound like a typical move, but these were no ordinary out-of-home ads. According to JWT, tiny motors in the signs "activated a system that transferred pleasant vibrations to the lower and upper back of the user. All you had to do was lean against the billboard, and it would give you a quick and comforting massage."

Hey, if you were taking the bus to a massage parlor, this would save time.

The idea was to give stressed-out commuters "a break," which, of course, ties in with KitKat's familiar taglines, which include "Give me a break" and "Have a break, have a KitKat." The billboards were geolocated on Google Maps, with Twitter and Facebook support, to drum up interest.

Sure, the whole idea sounds mildly pervy. But unlike another notable bus-stop branding ploy, at least people didn't have to get all handsy with random public-transit riders. And according to the case study, the results were pretty impressive: That big guy in the leather jacket around the 0:22 mark seems positively blissed-out—and observe how the hardhat goes for the soothing butt massage.

Best of all, no one got electrocuted (that we know of).

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