Qualcomm's Satisfying Rube Goldberg Machine Welcomes You to the Invention Age

This is the Invention Age, and over 30 years of Qualcomm’s mobile leadership has led to it. To celebrate this new age and inspire the next generation of inventors, Qualcomm put technology in student’s hands in a uniquely creative way.

To welcome the arrival of the Invention Age, McCann New York worked with Qualcomm to draw on Qualcomm’s long-standing partnership with FIRST, a non-profit organisation that engages kids in exciting, mentor-based, research and robotics programs that help them become science and technology leaders, to bring a diverse team of young competitors together to create an all-new Rube Goldberg Machine. The hero spot features the STEM kids presenting the mesmerising mechanical masterpiece in action, and shows that when collaboration and creativity meets Qualcomm Snapdragon technology, we can accomplish anything. The machine works it’s magic to ultimately spell out 'Welcome to the Invention Age', with dominoes.

"Qualcomm has unlocked 5G and with it, this period called the Invention Age," said Garrett Ponder, senior manager, marketing, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "What we created with these FIRST students isn't just a Rube Goldberg machine. It is a true representation of what the Invention Age is all about - teamwork, collaboration, inspiration, and technology."

In addition to partnering with the San Diego FIRST Tech Challenge Chapter, Qualcomm and McCann New York also worked with domino art influencer Lily Hevesh and chain reaction machine influencer Steve Price to help build out the Snapdragon-powered machine.

This reimagined Rube Goldberg machine features a mixture of cutting edge tech and quirky analogue parts, all triggered by an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on a Qualcomm Snapdragon powered smartphone, of course Given the machines complexity, getting it to work from beginning to end was no easy task. In fact in took 23 attempts to film the entire machine in a single take, functioning successfully. The result is a mesmerising display of creativity and technology at work.

The campaign launched this weekend at the FIRST Tech Challenge kick-off on the Qualcomm campus in San Diego and on Qualcomm live channels on September 7th. It will continue to run on Qualcomm.com, Qualcomm social channels, as well as on the influencer’s YouTube playlists and social.