In summer 2024 a global tech brand wanted people to try its smart glasses for themselves. So we took demo teams to where the crowds were: the trains into Glastonbury, the Wimbledon queue, the EE Studios store at Westfield London, the Olympic fanzones and London Freshers Fair.
Almost everyone we met was on their way to a train, a court or a lecture, so we had about two minutes.
- 10,400+interactions
- 3,900+demos
- 12live days
Let people try it
The fastest demo is the one where the person holds the product. Telling someone what smart glasses can do takes a minute and changes nothing. Putting the glasses on them and playing a song takes thirty seconds and gets the reaction you want. Visitors said the same two things at every event: they had no idea glasses could do this, and they expected them to cost far more.
“These are game changing. I feel like I’m living in the future.”
Go where people already stop
Queues, platforms, fan villages and station exits all have one thing in common: people standing still, a little bored. At Wimbledon we worked the queue, the tent village, the Fan Village and the stations at Southfields and Wimbledon: 85 shifts, 2,296 demos and 4,066 interactions. At the Team GB Fanzone at King’s Cross during the Paris Olympics we ran 726 demos, with a money-off card for every one.
Plan for hygiene and kit
Anything that goes on a face gets wiped before every try-on, in front of the person, so they see it happen. Expensive demo kit is signed out and signed back in at the end of every shift, and it moves between sites with someone responsible for it. It sounds like admin, but it’s how you still have kit on day twelve.
People understand the product once they’ve tried it.
Count from the first demo
The brand wanted demos, engagements, how many people already knew the product, demographics, quotes and photos, reported the morning after every event, so the team counted from the first demo. Decide what you want back before the team starts. Reconstructing numbers at the end of a festival day never works.
The summer led straight into a bigger brief: in-store ambassadors in Currys, John Lewis, Smyths and Argos for the run-up to Christmas.
Checklist
- A demo short enough for people on their way somewhere
- Locations where people already stop: queues, platforms, fan villages
- Wipe-downs in front of every guest
- A plan for expensive kit
- A reporting format agreed before day one
Common questions
Where do tech demos work best?
Where people are already standing still: queues, platforms, fan villages and station exits.
What should a demo team report?
Demos, engagements, how many people already knew the product, demographics, quotes and photos, sent the morning after each event.
How do you handle hygiene?
Anything that goes on a face gets wiped before every try-on, in front of the person.
Tell us where your audience will be and we’ll plan the demo around their two minutes.
