Good fortune - The Star | Clapboard Ad Archive

The Star’s Good Fortune campaign in Year 2017 represents a standout example of interactive brand activation in the hospitality and tourism sector, leveraging high-traffic commuter environments across Sydney to merge technology, cultural relevance, and entertainment during Lunar New Year. Developed by agency m2m in partnership with Yakusan Brand Experience Group and JCDecaux Australia, this experience drew thousands of passersby into direct engagement by inviting them to input their birthday on digital screens and instantly discover their Chinese zodiac animal, a ritual deeply embedded in Lunar New Year traditions. Going beyond static commemoration, the installation heightened emotional connection by enabling users to immediately participate in a game with the promise of winning a prize, thus maximizing dwell time and incentivizing repeat interaction. By foregrounding the live touchscreen demonstration as its primary creative device, the campaign follows what Clapboard’s taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#1 Demonstration — employing an unambiguous, hands-on showcase of how branded engagement works in situ, rather than relying on crafted storytelling or dramatized scenarios. This direct approach ensured that the value proposition was both accessible and tangible, allowing The Star’s brand to be experienced in real time and reinforced through play, surprise, and reward. The decision to tie activation to audience data (date of birth) elevated personalization at scale, capitalizing on the universal appeal of horoscopic curiosity while anchoring The Star’s credentials as a destination that understands and celebrates key cultural moments. The digital OOH medium proved an ideal canvas, as commuters became participants, not simply viewers, their everyday journeys punctuated by a brand encounter charged with luck and festivity. In a crowded experiential landscape, the campaign’s success lay in transforming passive foot traffic into motivated, goal-oriented interaction — advancing the sophistication of what hospitality marketing can achieve in the public realm. The Good Fortune activation earned a score of 63/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. The campaign matters because it demonstrates how adaptive technology and culturally attuned gamification can create magnetic in-the-moment brand experiences, signaling a template for tourism brands seeking to turn fleeting attention into immersive engagement.