Walkers transforms London Bus Shelters into tweet-activated vending machines

The campaign, created by OMD UK, AMV BBDO, Talon and Clear Channel, is the latest activity in the brand’s Do Us A Flavour campaign and will be live for two weeks from 29th August to 11th September 2014 at two Oxford Street and one Clapham Junction locations.

Today Walkers launches a UK first for out-of-home advertising, by unveiling three tweet-activated digital vending machines at bus shelters in central London locations. The campaign, created by OMD UK, AMV BBDO, Talon and Clear Channel, is the latest activity in the brand’s Do Us A Flavour campaign and will be live for two weeks from 29th August to 11^th September 2014 at two Oxford Street and one Clapham Junction locations.

A witty advert filmed by AMV BBDO, will reveal Walkers ambassador Gary Lineker appearing to sit inside the bus stop vending machines. Passers-by will be encouraged to tweet @Walkers_busstop and on receipt of each tweet, Lineker will seemingly respond by dispensing free packets of the new Do Us A flavour finalist crisps.

Launching in January 2014, the Walkers Do Us A Flavour campaign challenged the nation to suggest a brand new flavour for the chance to win £1million. The six ‘finalist’ flavours (chosen by a judging panel which included David Walliams and Marco Pierre White) are; Sizzling Steak Fajita, Chip Shop Chicken Curry, Pulled Pork in a Sticky BBQ Sauce, Ranch Raccoon, Cheesy Beans on Toast and Hot Dog with Tomato Ketchup. Over the course of the two weeks, each of the three digital vending machines will be stocked with one of the six finalist flavours (260 packets of crisps per day). The public will also be encouraged to vote for their favourite flavour at walkers.co.uk.

Elsewhere the Do Us A Flavour campaign is being supported with additional TV and digital media activity and a soon-to-launch two week collaboration with Capital FM, brokered by OMD UK. From 1^st September the radio station’s popular DJs will promote their own flavour ‘heroes’ from the shortlisted finalists. A video of the unique vending machine experience and ‘making of’ footage, created by AMV BBDO, will be released on YouTube on 8^th September.

On the Twitter vending machines Lee – Teng Chung, Walkers Marketing Manager, says, “Walkers loves bringing fun to the nation and we are extremely excited to launch the first ever Twitter vending machine on the streets of London this August. The Do Us A Flavour campaign has taken the nation by storm, so we are delighted to offer them the chance to try the new flavours through the first ever interactive Twitter vending machine. We can’t wait to hear more about what the public think of each of the unique flavours.”

Neil Chapman, Head of Create at Clear Channel UK, said: “With Walkers wanting to fuel and amplify opinion of the six new flavours, the tweet-activated vending machine was the perfect way to drive both conversation and sampling through a moment of fun. The creative addition of Gary’s residence inside the machine makes this a brilliant execution which I’m sure will raise a smile from everyone who sees the campaign. This was a great collaboration between all parties and perfectly shows how you can continually redefine out-of-home and push the creative boundaries of what can be achieved.”