Ray-Bay Plays “Truth or Dare” at Sundance

Sunglass vendor Ray-Ban has just wrapped on a live promotion at the 2009 Sundance Festival that encouraged attendees to hop into confessional booths or a specially equipped taxicab and play a quick round of video “Truth or Dare.”

The campaign asked visitors to this year’s Park City, UT, festival to record a 30-second video either revealing a secret or performing a stunt and to permit those to be posted to a page within Ray-Ban’s primary Web site. Web visitors can also register at the site, choose a Truth or Dare challenge, and upload a 30-second video of themselves.

Ray-ban judges will select a winning submission by March 7. The winner will receive an expense-paid trip for two to next year’s Sundance.

The campaign was a new live elaboration on Ray-Ban’s long-running advertising tag line, “Never Hide,” brand manager Claudia Trujillo said.

“Ray-Ban has been an official sponsor at Sundance for seven years, sponsoring the Ray-Ban Visionary Award,” she said. “But this year we wanted to extend our presence beyond just the one award night. So we also sponsored the ASCAP Music Café together with the Sundance Institute and the ASCAP Society. We also wanted to engage with consumers and let the engage with the brand, both at Sundance and beyond.”

The Truth or Dare activation kicked off on Jan. 15, a day before the Sundance Festival began, and continued until Jan. 25. The campaign consisted primarily of three branded Ray-Ban Confessional booths placed in high traffic locations near the ASCAP Café, one of the primary Sundance ticket booths, and inside a Park City Ray-Ban retail partner.

Street teams encouraged passersby to enter the booths and take part in the Ray-Ban challenge, by revealing suggested “truths” such as the festival attendee they consider most overrated or their guiltiest movie pleasure. Optionally they could go for dares such as “jump into someone else’s picture wearing your Ray-Bans” or “bust out your best dance move.”

Participants who entered the confessional booths were told their responses would be uploaded to the Web site and entered into the “Truth or Dare” contest. They were also given photos taken in the booth after their confession, as an incentive to take part.

Besides offering the confessional booths, Ray-Ban and activation partners Zoom Media and Show Media wrapped three Park City taxi vans with Ray-Ban marketing and equipped one with a video camera operator. Riders were offered free transportation anywhere within Park City in return for offering up some testimony in the “Truth or Dare” contest.

Street teams from Zoom Media publicized the promotion and also took videotaped submissions from Sundance visitors on the streets of Park City.

“Some of those were really funny,” said Zoom Vice President of Business Development Drew Berridge. “People would literally get out of the cab and drop in the middle of Main Street, stopping traffic to do the ‘Worm’ or attempting to break dance. These are entertainment-industry people, so they’re accustomed to performing for a camera.”

Collateral materials such as coasters, napkins and clings were distributed to area bars for the “Ray-Ban Truth or Dare” campaign. But Trujillo said the decision was made to place the confessionals away from bar areas because of concerns about the noise levels.

While the promotion got “some amazing content” from celebrities, Berridge said, only a limited number of those clips will appear on the Ray-Ban Web site since many of the famous Sundance attendees who offered up their secrets or their performances were sharp enough to withhold publication consent.