Field Case 01 · Marketing mechanisms
One car. One frame. One code. Frame Hunt: the Reel people kept pausing, again and again.
For a Greek e-shop we made an Instagram Reel of a car driving past. One single frame carried a coupon. Viewers rewound, paused, missed and tried again. We've rebuilt it here so you can play it.
- Attempts
- 0
- Closest
- —
- Frame
- 0 / 159
Space or a tap on the video to pause, ←/→ to move one frame at a time. Unlimited attempts.
In our version, the code gets you a free 45-minute strategy session. Game terms
The percentage appears once enough people have played.
The game needs JavaScript. The description below tells you what happens.
The game in words: a few seconds of video show a car passing along a road. In one single frame, a code appears. The player pauses with Space or a tap; stop within six frames of the right one, a quarter of a second, and the server issues a unique code for a free strategy session. There's also an untimed step mode, with the arrow keys or the slider on a phone.
How it got you
Play → Decode → Deploy- Mechanism
- Ht · Hidden in time + Ch · Conversational commerce. The reward lives in one frame; the DMs are the till.
- Psychology
- Pausing turns watching into a skill game: an information gap the viewer wants to close. Loewenstein, 1994 · academic research
- Platform signal
- Every miss is a replay, and watch time is Instagram's top ranking signal. "Can you catch it?" gets sent to friends, and sends carry reach to people who don't follow you. Adam Mosseri via Social Media Today, 2025 · platform statement
- Honest range
- The campaign numbers aren't public yet. They go up as soon as they're cleared for publication. It happened. We'll publish the numbers once we've verified them in the client's own account.
The story
It happened. We'll publish the numbers once we've verified them in the client's own account.The client: a Greek e-shop.
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An e-shop with no TV budget
A Greek e-shop, an Instagram account and no TV budget. Whatever happened would have to happen inside the feed.
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The idea
Instead of one more discount announcement, we hid the discount inside the video. In one frame. Catch it and it was yours.
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The shoot
A car in motion. The job was the balance: fast enough for the frame to slip past in a fraction of a second, sharp enough to read once you stop it.
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The coupon frame
One frame carried the code. At normal speed you barely see it. Paused at the right moment, it reads clearly. Viewers knew it was there; they had to catch it.
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The replays
The Reel went up on the e-shop's Instagram. Viewers rewound, paused, missed and tried again. The Reel went viral.
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The DMs
Then came the messages. The client's DMs filled up.
The rule we've kept ever since, for every mechanism: the DM reply is designed before the video goes up.
Why it worked
Your audience isn't bored. Your format is.
In 2025 the average Instagram Reel drew engagement equal to 0.52% of the account's followers. What breaks through does one of three things: it forces a replay, forces a send, or pulls time onto your own site. Frame Hunt does the first two and keeps the till inside the platform.
Socialinsider, Instagram benchmarks 2025 · vendor figure
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Pausing becomes a skill game
The viewer knows something is there and hasn't seen it. That information gap creates the curiosity that holds the eye on the video.
Loewenstein, G. (1994). The Psychology of Curiosity. Psychological Bulletin · academic research
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Every miss is a replay
Miss the frame and you rewind. Every rewind is watch time, and watch time is the first of the three signals Instagram ranks Reels by, alongside likes and sends.
Adam Mosseri via Social Media Today, 2025 · platform statement
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"Can you catch it?" gets sent
You don't just like a challenge; you send it to someone. According to Instagram, sends count for more when it comes to reaching people who don't follow you.
Adam Mosseri via Social Media Today, 2025 · platform statement
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The DM is the till
The code is redeemed by message. The path from "I saw it" to "I bought it" never leaves the platform, and every conversation is started by the user, as Meta's messaging rules require.
The lineage
From KFC to Instagram
We didn't invent the mechanic. We moved it to where the audience is today, on a Greek SME budget.
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2006
KFC "Buffalo Snacker" (US)
A TV spot with a code word in a single frame; viewers slowed it down on their DVRs.
More than 70,000 coupon requests.
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undated
O2 (Triad, Slovakia)
A pause game in Instagram Stories and YouTube pre-roll: pause at the right moment, get a code, win a phone.
46% watch-through against a 27% benchmark (not a control group).
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2023
Heinz "Slow This Ad"
A 0.57-second spot in a NASCAR broadcast; slowed down on a microsite, it revealed a discount code.
Applied Arts 2023 winner (Social Streaming). +164% traffic to heinz.com, per the award entry.
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Netex, Frame Hunt
The same mechanic, native to Reels: for a Greek e-shop, with no TV budget and the DMs as the till.
From KFC we keep one rule: always announce the hunt. Then it's a contest, not a hidden message. That's how we run every mechanism we build.
Third-party results are mostly self-reported, from award entries and vendors. They show a mechanic can work, not what it will do for you.
Eight sectors, one mechanic
The mechanic stays the same. What hides in the frame, and how it's redeemed, changes.
Eight examples, from a car dealership to a plastics plant.
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The reveal with a free service
- The Reel
- A new model's showroom reveal, in 12 seconds.
- What the frame hides
- In one frame, on the number plate, a code for a free first service.
- How it's redeemed
- Send the code by DM; the service slot is booked over Viber.
- The rule
- An announced hunt; the service terms are in the caption.
Use caseAI Front Desk
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What did Rex eat?
- The Reel
- A dog wags its tail on the exam table. The caption says: "Pause at 0:04".
- What the frame hides
- Three or four frames of a drawn X-ray: inside the stomach, a rubber duck.
- How it's redeemed
- The code on Viber books the annual check-up and switches on vaccination reminders. No discount on a clinical procedure.
- The rule
- The X-ray is a drawing, never a patient's scan. Humour yes, fear no. Vet advertising rules are checked by a lawyer before the shoot.
- Why it works
- Amusement is a high-arousal emotion, and high-arousal content gets shared (Berger & Milkman, 2012).
Use caseClinics & veterinary practices
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The hidden cove
- The Reel
- A drone flight along Crete's south coast.
- What the frame hides
- In one frame, the coordinates of a cove few people find, and a code.
- How it's redeemed
- The code by DM gets priority on a small-group trip there, plus the "cove of the month" guide.
- The rule
- Rotate locations, respect Natura 2000 areas, never overload fragile coves.
Use caseWind Window
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Blind price
- The Reel
- Three glasses, three tasters, three hidden prices: €9, €19 and €65. One of the wines is ours.
- What the frame hides
- For three frames, at 0:06, the labels show.
- How it's redeemed
- A "blind box" in the e-shop: three unlabelled bottles and a scorecard.
- The rule
- No comparisons with named competitors. Alcohol rules: no targeting of minors.
- Why it works
- Price changes how pleasant we find a wine (Plassmann et al., 2008, PNAS).
Use caseFood & beverage
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The defect in the frame
- The Reel
- A film-extrusion line at real speed, for production engineers on LinkedIn.
- What the frame hides
- In one frame, a defect circled: "Did you see it? The camera sees it on every part."
- How it's redeemed
- The code opens "Send us 20 photos of a defect" and a conversation about a Plant X-Ray.
- The rule
- Line footage only with the plant's permission; nothing confidential in shot (screens, recipes, customer names).
Use caseVision quality control
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The code on the towel
- The Reel
- A drone flight over the hotel at sunrise.
- What the frame hides
- In one frame, an early-booking code written on a folded towel on a sunbed.
- How it's redeemed
- The code works only in the hotel's own booking engine. Today, just 8.7% of room nights in Greek hotels are booked in real time on the hotel's own site. HOTREC, European Hotel Distribution Study 2026, via To Vima · industry body
- The rule
- If the code is a discount, the lowest price of the last 30 days is shown beside it.
Use caseHotels & hospitality
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The free week on the whiteboard
- The Reel
- A 45-minute class as a 15-second timelapse.
- What the frame hides
- In one frame, on the gym whiteboard, a code for a free week.
- How it's redeemed
- The code on Viber books the first session.
- The rule
- Written consent from everyone who appears in the clip.
Use caseDo 20 Squats
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The flaw we don't hide
- The Reel
- A flat walkthrough, in 15 seconds.
- What the frame hides
- In one frame, the flat's honest flaw: "Bus stop under the window, 7:30am". Whoever catches it books the first viewing.
- How it's redeemed
- The code by DM gets priority on viewings.
- The rule
- The flaw is also written in the listing description. The frame is a game, not a cover-up.
Use caseSunlight Time Machine
This image was created with an AI tool (AI Act, Article 50).
Guardrails
This page's game terms are on the "Frame Hunt terms" page: the prize, the number of codes and their validity are set out there. Frame Hunt terms
- The hunt is always announced, in the video and in the caption. EU law bans subliminal techniques; an announced game is a contest.AVMSD, Article 9
- Every prize has written terms: who can enter, what they win, how many codes exist, how long they're valid, how they're redeemed.
- If the code is a discount, the announcement shows the lowest price of the previous 30 days.Directive (EU) 2019/2161
- No "share or tag to enter". Sharing is always optional.Meta Pages policies
- The code frame never strobes: never more than 3 flashes a second.WCAG 2.3.1
- Codes are issued and checked on the server, with a rate limit. The right moment isn't written into the page code.
- Automated DMs reply only to people who wrote first.
- Greek rules on promotional games are checked by a lawyer before any client campaign.
The other hemisphere
When the DMs fill up, someone has to answer.
A mechanism that works moves the workload from reach to the inbox. The AI Front Desk answers web chat, Viber and WhatsApp, and Instagram DMs can join the same flow. It checks codes, answers the same ten questions and books appointments.
It says it's an AI in its first sentence, and a human is always one step away.
AI Front Desk for chat from €390/month + €2,500 set-up.
Your sector has a hidden frame too. Let's find it.
In a Mechanism Sprint we design your mechanism, shoot it, measure it and set up the DM replies before it goes live.