We live in a world where it's easier to connect than ever before. In fact, Facebook studies show we've gone from 6 degrees of separation down to just 3.5. Yet through proprietary quantitative research across China & South East Asia we discovered that people 15 to 30 are feeling increasingly disconnected and ill-equipped to make and keep the connections they value so much. (Source: Creative Agency quantitative and qualitative research)

Even in the Philippines, the friendliest country in Asia, and 8th friendliest country in the world, people are experiencing this increasing disconnection and feelings of social isolation.

We created a mechanical bench along a walk way in a busy Manila park. When two people sat down but didn’t talk with each other, it slowly contracted until they were sitting right next to each other.

At that moment, a man with a Doublemint cart would roll by and offer one of the two people a pack of Doublemint, then push the cart past without saying anything. The rest was up to our two strangers

We ran this activation in one spot in the park over the course of one afternoon – and then uploaded a summary video of the experiment captured through hidden cameras to Youtube & Facebook in order to amplify our content to a mass audience and start conversations.

The success of this idea hinged on changing people’s behaviour – and it happened right before our eyes – and before the eyes of hundreds of thousands of people who saw it online.

During one afternoon in Manila, we connected over 100 people with some sticks of Doublemint and a park bench.

People transformed from being glued to a phone and as far away as possible to laughing and chatting together. There may have even been a number exchange or two.

Most importantly, people were using Doublemint to start these interactions, as 113 out of the 114 people offered a stick of Doublemint to the person next to them without any prompting.

Within the first 48hours of upload, we saw positive responses to the video, with viewers in 54 countries outside the Philippines and an average view through rate of 77%.

Shows a little push can go a long way.