Nest Labs
Media: Experiential, Stunt
When a former colleague called from Nest Labs (before the Google acquisition), I jumped at the opportunity to help a true start-up in the tech industry. I didn’t know a lot about them, but thought the beginnings of their brand was already something cool and obviously had some serious star power at the helm with Tony Fadell (the Podfather) and Matt Rogers.
During my time at Nest, we pitched a number of ideas to management on how to help launch their second product, the Nest Protect. The Nest Protect was a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm that elevated the aesthetic of the standard issue detector, and balanced that appeal with a set of connected features that let you control the Protect remotely via your mobile device or your account on the Nest Web page.
What you see here is what we came away with. The Nest blue fire engine was the perfect vehicle to introduce the new product to the world. Heads-Up, voice alarms, Nest Wave, messages to your phone, Nightly Promise—they're all about keeping your family safe in an emergency, and helping you feel safe when there’s nothing to worry about. So when people saw the customized fire truck roll up, they immediately attributed safety with the product.
The journey began with searching for and buying a used fire truck on Craigslist. Once it was purchased we needed to properly Nest-ify it. So without a second thought, I crossed my fingers and turned to some guys I’d talked with before, West Coast Customs. These guys were amazing and a joy to work with. Over a couple months time, they transformed the used red Craigslist fire truck into a sleek, highly functional, bad-ass brand vehicle.
Nest went on to partner with Uber to give pedestrians a ride, as well as visit retailers like Home Depot for live demos where store employees and customers could learn about the product and share their experience. On one side of the truck, you were able to release smoke to test the Heads-Up feature of Nest Protect, which you can then wave to hush. You can try out an emergency alarm in another chamber, or go around to the other side of the truck to print your #nestfiretruck Instagram photo and visit the kids area.
After completing what they called the Nest Fire Truck Tour, the truck was sent overseas to educate those across Europe. You can see here some of the tourist stops it took along the way.
Nest Fire Truck
Nest co-founder Matt Rogers at CES 2014
Preview the ultimate firetruck with Nest
Nest Fire Truck tour poster
San Francisco
Paris
London