25 brand activation photo ideas: a shot list for launches

Before the doors open: setup and arrivals

Make the moment a few days ahead, so there is time to print the cards and test them with two different phones.

1. 01

   Make the moment in your colours

   Name it, set it to start before the doors open and end after the last guest leaves, and set the invite card's colours to your brand.

2. 02

   Pick the size and the shots

   Sizes run from 8 guests to unlimited, one payment through Apple or Google. For an evening, 10 or 16 shots each is plenty.

3. 03

   Choose a film look

   Vintage or Black & white sets one look for every guest, so the roll looks like one night. Original leaves guests free to switch.

4. 04

   Put the card where people stop

   The card is a QR, a link, and an 8-character code on a perforated ticket. Print it for the door, the bar, and the cloakroom, or put it on the screen by the stage. Guests get the papershot app if they need it, type a name, and shoot, with no account.

The first five prompts are for the people coming through the door.

• The sign outside, from the street.
• The queue outside, before the doors open.
• Your first look at the room.
• The welcome drink, in your hand.
• Whoever you came with, at the door.

The product, and steering the shots

Guest Lens is how you steer what guests shoot. Your shot list shows in every guest's camera, each prompt up to 80 characters, and a prompt ticks itself off when a guest captures straight from it. Pick the prompts from this page that suit your room, and keep the list shorter than the shots each guest has, so there is room for what they spot themselves.

• The product, in someone's hands.
• The detail you noticed first.
• The demo, from the front row.
• Someone trying it for the first time.
• The product somewhere nobody planned to put it.

The people, and who owns the photos

• A guest's first reaction.
• The team, mid-conversation.
• The best question of the night, and who asked it.
• Two strangers who met tonight.
• Whoever travelled furthest to be here.

Guests own what they shoot. As the host you can use their photos for the event itself and inside your company, as our terms set out. For a campaign, ask the person who took it.

The launch moment

The reveal lasts seconds, so warn the room. One line from the stage a minute before is enough: “Cameras out, the reveal is next.”

• The room at its fullest.
• The countdown, from the back.
• 10 seconds of the reveal.
• Faces at the reveal, not the stage.
• The first toast after it.

Every guest can add one video, 5 to 30 seconds, filmed in the app in 4:3. Set the length to 10 seconds and make the reveal your video prompt: you get it from every part of the room, and nobody films the whole speech.

Then ask the room one memo question, such as “What did you think when you saw it?” Each guest can leave one memo, 5 to 60 seconds, in their own voice, and as the host you hear every one.

After the doors close: review and download

• The last guest out.
• The team, once the doors close.
• The room, empty.
• Something a guest is taking home.
• The street outside, on the way home.

Set the roll to develop the next morning, or after a delay you choose. Until then, guests see a blurred tile for each shot, with who added it and when, and you see everything, so you can delete anything that does not belong before it develops.

Then download the roll for the team at full resolution: one photo at a time, or the whole moment as one .zip. Photos and videos save to your library, and memos save as files. A paid moment is kept 30 days after the roll closes.

Moderation, privacy, and business setups

There is no public gallery, no search, and no feed; the invite page shows the moment's name, date, and code to anyone with the link. As the host you can stop a guest posting and delete anything. Anyone in the moment can report a photo, video, or memo, and we look within 24 hours; anyone can block someone. Every upload's thumbnail is screened by an automated service. More in private photo sharing for events.

For bigger rooms we set a moment up to fit: the invite card in your colours, more guests, a longer keep, and one invoice. Talk to the team on the pricing page. The same setup suits a night for your own team; see the office party page. Everything else is on the brand event page.