How an online brand got 7,000 leads from one event (playbook)
Last update: 26 May 2025 at 04:27 pm
5.00/5This week’s Great Business Stories is about how one of the most-online brands of the last decade cracked the code on real-life event presence (and the psychology that made it work).
We’re talking about Doodles. Born in the NFT boom, famous for its pastel characters and viral GIFs (you know the ones).
But it’s 2024. The NFT boom is over. Doodles is pivoting to an entertainment brand with a short film, “Dullsville and the Doodleverse,” on the way.
How to translate crypto-culture into mainstream cool?
Go IRL. Big.
With creative agency Good Kids, Doodles hit ComplexCon with an immersive booth that drew lines 50 people deep and pulled in 7,000+ subscribers: a key milestone on the way to 5.5 million views of the new short.
And behind the pastel colours is a strategic blueprint any brand can steal.
Let’s dive in 👇
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💭 Imaginary universe. Real leads.
The original plan? A standard merch kiosk, like every other brand at ComplexCon. But Good Kids had a better idea: build a world, not a booth.
At the centre was a 10-foot cartoon van, looping animated chaos on a giant LED screen, opening to sell limited-edition collectibles.
The whole scene felt like stepping straight into Saturday morning TV.
Rather than showcase Doodles, it immersed you in their universe. Gold for a brand transitioning from little slices of NFT and GIFs to a fully fledged animated world.
It was a booth that stood out. A booth that pulled you in.
But it wasn’t just about foot traffic…
🚐 Cartoon van → Conversion engine under the hood
This was about building that next chapter of the brand, one scan, one share, one fan at a time.
The backyard setup was the gravitational pull. But it wasn’t just eye candy.
Upon entering the stand, you were confronted with one-of-a-kind and limited-time only offers.
- 🐊 Limited-edition Doodles x Crocs.
- ✍️ Custom merch and posters, available only on-site, signed by Doodles artist Burnt Toast.
- 🎮 And the 1-of-1 PlayStation 5, hand-painted by Burnt Toast presented like a crown jewel.
And the merch made money, but it was the PS5 giveaway that stole the show: hand-painted by the founder, front and centre in the booth.
To enter the lottery, attendees scanned a QR code.
Most companies struggle with fake details when generating event leads.
But to win a one-of-one “grail” item: every single one of the 7,000 entries was real. Then came the real magic 🪄
You could boost your chances (and Doodles’ socials):
✅ Share + tag → more entries
✅ Follow on social → more entries
✅ Tag a friend → even more entries
You can see it worked – likes on Doodles’ Instagram posts increased 10X for the 20 posts following ComplexCon (from 5,500 to 55,000 average).
Every scan, share, and follow fuelled the build-up to the launch of their full-length debut: a carefully constructed funnel dressed like a cartoon.
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🎯 Want your booth to pull in real leads?
The right event agency turns foot traffic into follow-ups. These are the creative teams behind the most unforgettable booths.
🔗 Browse top-rated event agencies >
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🎨 Psychology in pastel: why it worked
As well as strong design and clever content, the event tapped into core psychological triggers: exclusivity, urgency, and cultural fluency.
🔐 Exclusivity & FOMO
Humans are hardwired to assign higher value to things that are scarce. It signals status. So everything at the booth was designed to feel like a prize:
- 🐊 The Crocs? Event-only.
- ✍️ The posters? Signed in real-time by Burnt Toast.
- 🎮 The PS5? Literally unique in the world.
You couldn’t get it online. You couldn’t get it later. You had to be there. Missing out isn’t just losing the product, it’s losing proof you were there.
⏳ Time pressure
When something is limited and temporary, it creates action bias: the tendency to act quickly under perceived scarcity, before processing all the details.
Doodles weaponized this perfectly. All the merch was event-only.
Once attendees saw the line forming, saw people posting, sharing, scanning… there wasn’t time to debate.
🎭 Culture, not marketing
That’s the secret sauce. These psychological levers work best when they feel native to the culture, not imposed on it.
Because the booth was so aligned with the audience language – drops, grails and hip hop – the event never felt like a marketing ploy.
It felt natural. That’s why people lined up and why they posted.
🏗️ How to make it work for any industry
It’s easy to look at a cartoon universe, a custom PS5, and Pharrell Williams and think, “that won’t work for us.”
But it can and it has:
Steve from Good Kids shared a story about a client on the opposite end of the spectrum: a real estate development firm 🏗️
Their goal? Lead gen at a trade show. Their problem? Fake emails, low-quality leads, “sorry, who are you?” when they did get in touch.
So they used the same three principles that powered the Doodles event:
- Exclusivity & FOMO
- Time pressure
- Audience alignment
The client is top secret, but it looked a bit like this:
Above their usual booth, they built a second floor: an invite-only speakeasy lounge-come-man-cave that overlooked the entire trade show.
Plush seating, bar, sport, pool, and scale models of marquee projects 🥃
That was catnip for the male audience at construction conferences (just the type to have their own man cave at home).
Exclusive access. QR RSVP. Time-gated, SMS access code. And because entry was made desirable, every lead was real.
The result? More qualified leads than ever before and 100% brand recall.
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🧲 Need to turn your event into a lead magnet?
From cartoons to construction, the right agency knows how to build buzz and results. Find the event experts who get your world.
🔗Browse top event agencies >
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🧠 Same triggers, different world
Just like at Doodles, the offer wasn’t just about the product. It was about the experience.
It was about saying: “You’re part of something rare. Something smart. Something not everyone gets access to.”
So whether you’re selling NFTs or new builds, the lesson holds:
- Make your space unforgettable
- Make your offer exclusive and time-bound
- Make participation a privilege (not a chore)
And that’s it for this edition!
And if you want to go deeper into the Doodles universe, they’ve continued to deliver a masterclass in brand activation and community building.
SXSW presence, G-Shock and McDonald’s co-brand… all built on a strong community and NFT-meets-streetwear exclusivity in entertainment form.
Stay tuned for the next edition, and hit reply to let me know what you think ❤️
-John
