Spectacles feel like a toy. It has been designed with the intent of playing and hanging out with friends.

Our objective was to build an experience where we could help as many first time Spectacles users experience this memory immediately upon opening the box.

Our creative idea:

- Identify unique places where users could make content wearing Spectacles for the first time. And in parallel, design a mobile buying vehicle to meet people at their point-of-experience.

- Develop a system that creates curiosity and the ability for those people who really wanted to buy a pair of Spectacles, the opportunity to be the first to own them.

- Surprise our audience and reveal our brand story through a succession of changing images using traditional out-of-home media so that our story would be told on a large format stage.

In September 2016, about 50 billboards with the Snapchat ghost appeared in major US cities. They slowly transformed over three weeks from Snapchat to reveal Spectacles.

Spectacles were announced in a WSJ Magazine exclusive in September 2016, in conjunction with our Snap Inc. rebranding announcement. The billboards soon revealed the final creative -- Spectacles on models -- but additional product details and release details were kept confidential.

In early November, a countdown timer appeared on Spectacles.com which would soon reveal the first Snapbot and its landing location, a surprise for the Venice Beach, California community. A Snapbot video capturing our friendly Snapbot’s personality accompanied an Adweek story.

Since our launch last year, Twitter has been used to reveal Snapbot landing spots and retweet our community’s experiences.

The uniquely interactive and personal experience of the Bot elicited an overwhelming response. Hundreds of participants showed up at each location and thousands more followed their stories online.

The product launch campaign has received over 75 billion media impressions, generating approximately $54.8M advertising value equivalency, across 27,000 news stories.

Just under 7M unique visitors have come to Spectacles.com following the launch. About 35% of these visitors have regularly returned to chase the Snapbot across 81 different locations. The Snapbot Twitter pictures have received 3.5M impressions and

Most importantly, Spectacles have been used to create over 8 million snaps, which have been viewed more than 1.2 billion times on stories in Snapchat.

Spectacles are the first physical camera by Snap Inc. The sunglasses’ built-in video camera captures life’s moments from your perspective -- with the tap of a button.

The Spectacles launch campaign blends paid and earned media across TV, Broadcast, digital & social media platforms while bringing together traditional media through Out-of-Home billboards and surprising use of airport security trays. We chose to distribute the product exclusively through friendly vending machines, called Snapbots, and created a treasure-hunt like adventure for our Twitter followers.

Spectacles were announced to the world alongside the company’s rebrand from Snapchat to Snap Inc. From the outset, Spectacles were positioned as a toy.

Teasing the announcement, billboards revealed a story. For four weeks, the billboard creative evolved. The Snapchat ghost transformed to have “eyes” that were actually the Spectacles logo -- communicating our story bit by bit.

The first Snapbot landing was a surprise, garnering curiosity that resulted in fanfare. Today still, Snapbot landings are a surprise. Those inspired by adventure can go out to purchase a pair. Review units were not provided proactively to journalists - reinforcing the importance of the Spectacles Snapbot experience and idea that this product was a toy, not a “gadget”.

Twitter has been used to reveal Snapbot landing spots and retweet our community’s experiences. They are telling the product’s story.

Spectacles are the first physical camera by Snap Inc. The sunglasses’ built-in video camera captures life’s moments from your perspective -- with the tap of a button.

In order to introduce camera-glasses to the world that, while technically sophisticated, would be embraced as a toy, the Spectacles design, marketing campaign, and distribution strategy all had to work seamlessly to create a brand that was unexpected, fun and approachable.

We also wanted to help consumers make an immediate connection between the product and the unique type of content the camera could create.

To achieve this, we created surprising experiences for our community to inspire and celebrate their own stories and experiences with Spectacles. The Spectacles brand was brought to life through billboards, re-imagined vending machines, strategic communications, airport trays, a branded website and our community’s own experiences.