Maybelline on the Secret Island: The Branded Magic Mirror X at FM4 Frequency 2024
Gold foil on the ceiling and walls, a magenta carpet on the floor, artificial turf out front – and in the middle of it all, a photo mirror you wouldn't recognize as a device at first glance. That's what Maybelline New York's presence looked like at the FM4 Frequency Festival 2024 in St. Pölten. Our Magic Mirror X stood inside not as technology, but as part of the set.
A container that doesn't look like a trade show booth
The space was a converted shipping container in the container village on the festival grounds, not far from the big Secret Island sign. From the outside, dark corrugated metal, with a strip of artificial turf and director's chairs at a counter in front. Inside, the contrast: ceiling and back wall fully lined with crinkled gold foil, the floor in bold magenta, plus large-format campaign visuals and a neon lips sign.
The effect is intentional. Anyone coming in from the dusty grounds finds themselves in a room that has nothing to do with the rest of the festival. That's exactly why spaces like this get photographed: on a phone, they look like something you discovered.
The photo mirror as a piece of furniture
For this room, we didn't just place the Magic Mirror X; we built it into the design. The device sat inside a white arched frame in the look of the campaign, with lettering and a visual on the front. Next to it stood the print column, also in white, with the output slot at hand height. Anyone standing in front of it saw a mirror in a frame – not a photo booth.
Technically, it's the same device underneath: 202 centimeters tall, 75 wide and only 27 deep, with a 70-inch mirror surface in portrait format, a Canon DSLR and two built-in flashes. The slim form factor was the decisive point here. In a container, depth is the scarcest dimension: every centimeter a device sticks out into the room is a centimeter guests don't have for posing.
The flashes took care of the second part of the job. Gold foil bounces light in every direction, the floor sends magenta upward, and blazing sunlight pours in through the open container front. Without its own light source, every photo would have had a different color cast. With two flashes, the white balance is identical on every image – that's the difference between an activation whose pictures get shared and one whose pictures stay on the phone.
Two print formats, one design
Prints came in two variants of the same layout: one landscape with three shots side by side, one portrait with three shots plus a campaign panel. Both carried the Maybelline lettering, the Instagram handles and a QR code that also delivered the image digitally to the phone.
Some of the prints never left at all; they ended up on the container wall. That happens regularly at activations and is a good sign: over the course of the day, the space fills up with the guests' pictures and becomes decoration in its own right. Anyone who comes in later immediately sees what to expect – better than any signage.
Operation without an attendant
As with the event the following year, no attendant from us was booked on site in 2024 either. Maybelline's promotion team was in the container the whole time anyway, and an extra promoter at the device would only have taken up space.
That works under one condition: the device has to explain itself. The start screen guides users through the process without text, the layout is fixed, and there's no selection where anything can go wrong. During setup, the on-site team gets a short briefing – restocking paper, restart, phone number – and after that, the station runs.
What sets a festival apart from a corporate party
At a corporate party, you know the number of guests, the schedule and the room. At a festival, you know none of that. Groups come instead of couples, the crowds are spread unpredictably across the day, and the light changes by the hour.
That's why preparation is everything: layout finished in advance, consumables calculated generously, own internet brought along, device positioned so the line and the walkway don't get in each other's way. If you sort that out beforehand, you don't need anyone to step in during the event.
A year later, we were back at Frequency for Maybelline – this time in a differently designed container and with considerably more heat. That story is in the post Magic Mirror X at the FM4 Frequency Festival.
The right devices for branded activations
The Magic Mirror X is part of the Classic Line. If the roof is low, the Magic iMirror at 180 centimeters is a better fit; if the device should feel more festive, the Magic Mirror Retro in its gold frame is the alternative. For high throughput in tight spaces, the Photo Booth Classic remains the pragmatic choice. And if guests should not only be photographed but transformed with AI, the same mirror is available as an AI photo mirror.
A photo station for your brand space
Planning an activation at a festival, a trade show or an open-air site and want the device to look like your brand rather than technology? Tell us the space, the time frame and the look – we'll tell you which device fits, what can be dressed up and what it needs on site. We work all across Austria.
