On The Scene: unwanted objects get new lease of life in Google Pixel World of Magic
In this episode of The Drum’s ‘On The Scene,’ we jostle with birds, balls and traffic cones to meet Google’s creative strategist Stephen Messham and discover the Google Pixel World of Magic.
World of Magic offers a new twist on product demos to promote the Google Pixel 6 Magic Eraser tool
When we heard the words ‘free donuts,’ a ‘secret portal’ and an ‘unexpected photobooth,’ The Drum couldn’t resist the opportunity to head down to Piccadilly Circus in London to transport into the Google Pixel World of Magic and find out what it was all about.
To bring to life the Pixel 6’s artificial intelligence-driven Magic Eraser tool – which uses machine learning to make unwanted objects that appear in photo backgrounds disappear – the World of Magic invited Londoners into a playful brand experience to explore the new features for themselves. The campaign activation was a collaboration between Google, Anyways Creative and Amplify.
The Drum’s assistant editor Jenni Baker caught up with Stephen Messham, creative strategist at Google, to experience first-hand the World of Magic alternate reality, where commonly-erased objects including pylons, traffic signs, cones, lampposts and even cows are set free.
“The World of Magic is a fun and fantastical experience pulling together all of those unnecessary and unwanted items that you may find in your photography in the real world, and gives them a place to shine,” explains Messham.
The creative concept for the campaign was devised by creative agency Anyways Creative, and also includes a digital and cinema film that shines a light on the objects the new Magic Eraser tool removes from photos, as well as their journeys into the World of Magic.
Building on this, Amplify brought the tool into the real world through the hands-on experience, which transported guests through a retro high-street photo shop into the World of Magic.
The experience encompassed a series of lively photo experiences, hands-on moments with the Magic Eraser feature in the ‘Unexpected Photobooth,’ and a series of interactive installations celebrating the wonderful world of ‘Deleted Delights.’
“The opportunity to creatively world-build around a specific feature was so exciting to us,” Amplify’s creative director Vicky Baker tells The Drum. “We used the physical environment to tell the product story through a myriad of ways; delving into the science powering Magic Eraser [and] showing the feature in action, all while bringing to life the creative possibilities the technology unlocks, from the functional to the fantastical.
“The approach to the space was to create two distinct but connected worlds. Firstly [by] breaking the format of the classic retail store front, creating a photography store environment for guests to get hands-on with the Pixel. And secondly [through] a joyful, explorative, shareable home for all the items erased by the feature. We wanted the guest journey to reflect the narrative of the campaign film, so an act of deletion propels visitors from one world to the other. Similarly, everything deleted from the shop front finds its way into the World of Magic.”
If you have a live experience or marketing stunt taking place over the coming months that you think we should be covering, get in touch here.