Bash! Digital-Interactive OOH

Let’s cut right to the chase – a lot of companies are going beyond traditional marketing tactics to get your 1 minute of attention. Here’s a sample list of some of the companies that did it right – either by incorporating social media, digital marketing, or intrusive out-of-home advertising.

1. Forever 21 // Interactive Billboard
Launched in 2010, this is still one of our favorite out-of-home campaigns. The interactive billboard in New York Time’s Square interacts with the passing crowd by letting the billboard model “pick up” passerbys with her hands. Other features of the project included “love tweets”, a live on-screen Twitter feed from fans that include the word “Forever 21”. 

2. Mini Cooper // Personalized Billboard
Mini Cooper has had a number of out-of-home marketing campaigns, each pretty unique and branding Mini Cooper as innovatively charming. One example utilizes a computer chip installed in Mini Coopers for drivers to receive personal messages via a digital billboard when they drive past it. Creepy as it might be seeing your name on a billboard, still nonetheless, very creative.

3. Ford Britain // Augmented Reality 
Ford’s interactive screen in malls allowed users to hold a virtual model of the car within the palm of their hand. By simply stretching their hand in front of the screen, a Ford model assembles right before their eyes on the screen, with the options of virtual buttons to change car colours, open doors, fold seats, and watch demos of the car in action. The user interface is based on hand gestures and natural movement, making it very easy and accessible for passerbys to interact with it.

4. Mercedez-Benz // RFID + Social Media
Mercedes had ten kiosks set up at the 2011 PGA Championships to be seen by 25,000 exclusive VIP guests. Guests were given RFID chips that allowed them to log on an iPad, while at the event, then use the passes to login into the kiosks and ‘Like’ any of the Mercedes car models featured on the floor. Additionally, the guests could also login into Facebook and do a quick check-in, as well as a take a person and live picture at the kiosk. Interactivity with the people in the event, as well as people outside of it, while still being connected.

Smartphones and mobile internet has changed the ways consumers shop online, interact with brands, and view companies altogether. The same can be said for companies too; they’ve had to adapt to a new and tech-savvy consumer market than ten, even five, years ago. 

Marketers have been taking advantage of these technologies, and companies have been basing their business model on them of more recently. We found some supporting numbers from the Out-of-Home Marketing Association of Canada that indicates the ever increasing rise of digital marketing:

• Over 5 million Canadian access the web via mobile devices
• By 2013, it is expected that mobile phones will overtake PC’s as the most common web access device worldwide
• Smartphone users are 50% more likely than the general population to strongly agree  that OOH advertising influences their opinion of brands
• Almost 70% of people who own a mobile phone are texters; in 2010 over 56 billion texts were sent. Whether it’s for business or entertainment value, people respond to this trackable marketing tactic.
• On average, 30% of the on-the-go audience is willing to travel 9+ KM to redeem a mobile coupon, travelling the furthest for entertainment, retail and restaurant offers

Companies like Mini Canada and McDonald’s have employed digital, out-of-home marketing to take advantage of these numbers. Mini Canada (pictured above), for example, used an interactive night projection on walls similar to a vending machine image. They then invited viewers to select their favorite model of a Mini via text message. Lucky Penny Wines, on the other hand, used social media by inviting Facebook users to send their friends a good luck message to their friends via a digital billboard.  Via RSS feeds, their message appeared on the billboard almost instantaneously.

Jump on the digital, out-of-home bandwagon – the numbers (and sales) are going up!

How cool is this – a botanical QR code has been grown in France at Place Stanislas. Place Stanislas is a large pedestrianized square of architectural ensemble on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites promoting cultural events, such as music and art programs. According to 2d-code.co.uk, over 1,700 plants were used in the creation of the QR code over a span of 43 feet. The naturally grown QR code can be scanned from the balcony of City Hall, which then directs the user to a mobile page with information about the garden and its events as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, including classical music in the garden, a listing of their schedules, and choir member biographies.

The mobile site majestically implies that QR codes, or technology, can be seen as the opposite of nature and therefore not easily adapted by nature enthusiasts. The Place Stanislas states, “This QR code is a giant plant snap digital. The brilliance of…playing with a smartphone, a next generation phone, provides access to content that speaks of quiet nature, beautiful plants, the ephemeral garden of the eighteenth place. The technology is not necessarily the enemy. It can help put us on the way to the universal, the timeless.” Not a bad way to put it, huh?

As Place Stanislas portrays, QR codes can be a modern and creative way to engage audiences on larger and less “robotic” levels. Most QR codes that we’re used to seeing tend to stick to the traditional black and white prototype, but Place Stanislas certainly does bring a new layer of innovation to the QR code world. They’re just one example of how any organization or company can embrace mobile technology solutions, regardless of their mission, to connect with their audience.

To see more creative QR codes, check out this article by Mashable: http://on.mash.to/n8yuYu, or to find out how you can create a customized mobile solution, contact us for more information.