Austin City Limits Battle of The Brands: Hulu House vs Coke Studio
A Texas Immersive Sandbox Analysis
When I hit up a music festival, I’m not just there for the headlining acts or the festival vibes; I’m all about those branded experiential activations. You know, the booth where you snag a free branded koozie, the photo op with zany branded props, or the branded tent with a giveaway sweepstakes.
Okay, let’s be real.
Most of these so-called “experiences” aren’t very experiential at all. With the Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) becoming a big budget battleground for brands, I had to see how the major players were making their mark.
This year, the big spenders were Hulu and Coke, each striving to be the standout immersive experience at the festival.
Hulu House: The Shortest Escape Room of All Time
The journey into Hulu’s world began with a brief and underwhelming funhouse, featuring three tiny hallways adorned with mirrors, lights, and decorations. Eventually, we found ourselves in a pristine, green living room, with Hulu’s branding prominently displayed above the big white couch. Once a sufficiently large group had gathered, our host welcomed us to Hulu’s escape room, where we needed to unlock a secret phrase to make our exit.
The split second after the host ends her spiel, the fun begins and all 15 of us spread out in every possible direction touching every possible thing in sight. Within seconds, someone flips over a painting on the wall revealing the hidden message, to which he yells: “Hulu has live music!”
Just like that. It’s over. We solved it. And as a reward, we get to go upstairs where there’s free swag (except they’ve run out) and some poorly constructed games like a big Connect Four where all the pieces get stuck.
What’s commendable is that Hulu attempted to make an actual immersive experience. For those precious 30 seconds of the escape room, right up until someone uttered the magic words, I was no longer at ACL. I was transported to a different world with a mission to find clues.
What worked really well was that Hulu drove home their key message without spelling it out for us. In fact, they ingeniously made us declare it to them: “Hulu has live music.” I know it, anyone who successfully navigated the escape room sober enough knows it, and now you know it too.
What was lame was that experience design forgot why people love escape rooms in the first place. The audience's motivation for an escape room is… to escape! It’s the challenge. The puzzles. The investigation. Better still is the satisfaction of solving it collaboratively with others. In Hulu’s escape room, it was everyone for themselves and no real solving to be had.
Coke Studio: AI Came Up with This Idea, Right?
Over at Coke Studio, the game plan was quite different. We were informed that we were now part of a band, destined to record our music video with the aid of artificial intelligence. To kick things off, we answered a series of simple multiple-choice questions on a tablet, aimed at deciphering our vibe, preferred music genre, and ideal locations for our music video. While waiting for our turn in the recording booth, we were invited to explore the waiting area upstairs.
This upper level was decked out with musical instruments and photo opportunities. Yet the real gem was the unobstructed view of the Honda stage, where 30 Seconds to Mars was delivering an electrifying performance. The view and sound quality were so good that we reluctantly left when our number was called, nearly having to be dragged away.
Inside the studio booth, we were directed to stand in front of a green screen backdrop. A screen displayed us and our music video recording in real-time, complete with a generic “AI-generated” rock soundtrack that we danced to, perhaps a tad longer than necessary. Finally, the screen directed us to a QR code for downloading our music video. As a parting gift, we each received a free lip balm and a Coke. Cheers!
The best part of this experience was the waiting area. Utilizing it as a midway stop was brilliant, allowing festival-goers to soak in the coveted Zilker Park scenery while preventing any lingering.
What was disappointing was that it didn’t really seem to be a true AI-generated experience. Given the limited variables in our questionnaire, the number of unique music video experiences was decidedly finite.
And the Verdict? A Tie for Lost Opportunities
So, who takes the crown in this showdown? Well, from an advertising and awareness standpoint, both Hulu and Coke made their mark at the Coachella of Texas. However, when we examine these activations from an experience design perspective, both fell short of their full potential.
Hulu deserves credit for crafting an interactive experience with a clear message. They managed to make the user vocalize their campaign. On the flip side, they overlooked the audience motivation of an escape room — connection, collaboration, and the challenge of puzzle-solving.
Coke, in its quest for innovation, strayed into gimmicky territory and lacked a natural connection to the festival atmosphere. In this regard, Hulu emerges as the advertising strategy winner, even if its experience design leaves much to be desired. Reverse engineering their briefs reveals that Hulu started with a strategy, while Coke started with an execution.
Hulu Brief: How might we let fans ‘discover’ that Hulu is the streaming destination for live music?
Coke Brief: How might we let fans ‘create’ in an AI-generated music video?
In the end, both brands did make fans active participants in their experiences. Hulu sought to remind us of a core product differentiator, while Coke simply aimed to remind us of its existence. But in a world where even the biggest brands and budgets are often all noise and no concert, one can’t help but wonder: Why do these behemoth brands seem to miss the beat, especially with they have an audience predisposed to an immersive experience?
What might it look like if the goal wasn’t to process as many people as possible? What might it look like if the goal wasn’t to steal you away from the festival experience, but to enhance it?
In the realm of branded festival experiences, it seems true immersion remains an elusive prize that money can’t buy.
