To celebrate the Romanian cinema release of Star Wars Episode VII “The Force Awakens” before Christmas, French-owned supermarket chain Carrefour Romania put interactive billboards into 150 of its outlets which allowed customers to use Jedi-like gestures to buy products.

The stunt was part of a longer running loyalty promotion, where Carrefour shoppers are being rewarded with collectable ‘shells’ or cards featuring characters from the new Star Wars film. There are 72 characters to collect, plus a special album to keep them in.

The interactive billboards featured pictures of a range of goods, interspersed with Star Wars toys and merchandise. Using Kinect technology connected to an iPad, the billboards tracked shoppers’ gestures and let them ‘grab’ images of the products they wanted and drag them into a virtual shopping trolley icon.

They could then make their way to a special counter where a real trolley with the products they had selected was waiting for them, along with money-off vouchers.

The “Shop With The Force” promotion also rewarded shoppers with extra collectable cards when they bought certain items.

The fully integrated campaign, created by Publicis Romania, was promoted across all media. A TV ad for the loyalty campaign featured the famous Star Wars main theme recreated using sounds that can be found every day in Carrefour stores.