The days of the landline are long gone. Pay phones are a rarity. And kids today don’t know what a rotary phone is. But with the takeover of digital communication, there’s now a kind of novelty to the phone call that brands are capitalizing on this year. Enter: the hotline.
Not just for information, emergencies or support, hotlines are being worked into experiential marketing campaigns to add a personal, immersive touch and connect consumers with limited-time content, promotions, celebrities and even fictional characters.
At Canva Create 2025 in April, Canva gave attendees access to an open phone line, inviting them to leave voicemails about what they loved about the brand’s signature annual event in L.A. and what they would like to see in the future. The Canva Loveline was set up across three phone booths equipped with blue rotary phones, and participants picked up the handset to “spill the love” in a safe space.
To hype fans up for the “Percy Jackson Experience” at San Diego Comic-Con, Disney Branded Television set up billboards and signage around the Gaslamp District that asked, “Have you seen Pan?” Passersby were encouraged to call a number if they spotted the Greek god of the wild, and before the activation even opened, more than 3,000 people had already dialed in.
Fans of the book series and Disney+ TV show recognized that incorporated into the hotline number (833-GRO-VER1) was the name of a central character, Grover, who answered in distress because he got trapped in a cave looking for Pan. He relayed the coordinates of his location before being disconnected—a key aspect of the season-two plot.
Doritos set up a hotline as a tie-in with the final season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” Promoted as the “Doritos Telethon for Hawkins” with an ’80s-style commercial and limited-edition product bags, the 1-855-4-HAWKINS hotline plays messages from David Hasselhoff, Paula Abdul, Alf and more. Fans can leave their own messages, and the “boldest” ones will be broadcast on “telecast” social content and ads.
Over in the beauty space, oral supplement brand Biosil centered its 30th anniversary campaign around the Biosil Hotline, where consumers can dial 1-833-4BIOSIL to hear actress Kelly Rutherford respond to a series of “beauty crisis” messages that spotlight common concerns, like thinning hair, fine lines and brittle nails. The goal of the hotline is to educate listeners on how Biosil supports these issues and share “a little reminder sometimes that we’re doing just fine.”
The brand hosted a 30th birthday party in Manhattan on Sept. 18, with Rutherford in attendance, and pale blue rotary phones were dispersed around the venue for attendees to call the Biosil Hotline and leave the celeb brand ambassador a message. “She might just call you back…”
Featured photo credit: Canva
