Editor's Note: Entertain the Senses
It might be official. I think I am jealous of some of the creativity in the OOH advertisements in Europe and beyond.
Okay. It might be official. I think I am jealous of some of the creativity in the OOH advertisements in Europe and beyond. I have four recent points of reference that sent me careening in this direction.
It all started back in February with the 3D ad panels that McCain Food installed in several bus shelters in a couple of UK cities including London and Manchester. In these bus shelters, the 3D panel emits the aroma of a freshly baked potato. All you have to do is press a button.
The next one came up a few days later. In Berlin, Germany’s Friedrichstrasse subway station, German ad agency Lukas Lindemann Rosinski installed digital outdoor ads for Mercedes-Benz that commuters could control with their remote car keys. (See the video of it here: www.myprintresource.com/10628575.)
A week or so later I noticed another bus shelter advertisement in Sydney, Australia that had a sound system embedded into it. NRMA Insurance outfitted the bus shelter with a custom sound system that lets the user pick songs—all with the click of a QR code. It’s not just any QR code. To get it to work, you have to like NRMA’s Facebook page and then download an app. But still: user-controlled music in a bus shelter ad.
It was topped off by British baked-goods brand Mr. Kipling. They’re taking 3D and bus shelters to a whole different level. Nineteen bus shelters have been specially converted to dispense Mr. Kipling snack cakes. This campaign was created by London creative agency 101, media agency Starcom, and media owner JCDecaux, and features live fixtures which dispense free cake from 19 specially converted poster sites. And if you can find it, one of the bus shelters (London’s Tottenham Court Road) also emits the aroma of cake.
Okay. I’m not saying that agencies here aren’t creative. There have been some fabulous OOH campaigns, but these seem to take the cake—in some cases, literally. But before we get into an “us vs. them” argument, what are some of the most innovative projects you’ve seen—or even created—recently? I’d love to see them and highlight them on MyPrintResource.com and in the pages of Wide-Format Imaging. Be sure to send them to me at denise@myprintresource.com.
