Absolut Interactive Whirlpool Bottles

The Situation and Solution:

Absolut Vodka® recently launched a new platform in Canada called “Makerfest”, in which they collaborate with the maker community to share Absolut-inspired artwork with their fans. Hfour created a unique technology-based art piece called the “Whirpool Bottle Glorifier”, in order to showcase the iconic Absolut bottle in an interactive and engaging way for their national Makerfest event on August 9, 2014.

What worked:

The bottles were immediately interactive, and once a small group of consumers figured out how to control the vortexes, the idea spread rapidly. There was no barrier to entry, like is frequently found in interactive brand presentations.

Sharing the brand: when a consumer took a picture of the installation, they were taking a photo of the logo and the bottle. This was a significant bonus on image based social media.

Multi-user interaction: more than one person could interact with the bottle array at the same time.  This meant shorter line-ups and less frustration.

Near and Far: Because the system was designed to create vortexes in both 40 and 150oz bottles, the large bottles could be seen from across the room, while the smaller bottles created a realistic interactive scale.

The Result:

This campaign won Bronze in Brand Development Campaign of the Year at CPRS ACE Awards

Guests at the national Makerfest event were impressed and mystified by how the vortexes worked. People were tweeting and instagramming the results. The hashtag for the event, #makerfest, trended all night partly thanks in a large part to the bottle whirlpools.

Since then, these units have been used at dozens of events to promote Absolut, creation, and art.