Billboards during this day and age have become more than just a static piece of wood that has a picture of an ad on it. Now these ads are moving, changing, working nature into the ad, and so much more. The reasons for it are also so that the audience is more engaged in what is being advertised. These days brands need to do more to capture the attention of the audience as you only have about five seconds to do so before their attention is taken elsewhere. Ads that are digitally created have even more of an impact on the audience as this is what is most trendy right now, digital! Technological advances these days have been at their peak and agencies need to stay on top of these trends if they want to effectively advertise their product or service. Let’s get into what kinds of ads the target audience is most receptive to and what brands achieved that the best these past few years with the top 10 best out of the box mobile billboards!
GMC Acadia SUV
Let’s get into our first example, an interactive campaign done by GMC for their new Acadia SUV. This campaign was particularly unique as it has not been used very often before as most brands are hesitant to try out this new technology. This mobile billboard used facial recognition for the target that passes by and stands in front and would display an ad for that person or group based on their demographics like age and gender. If there was a family that stood in front of the kiosk it would play an ad targeted towards families, if a young man walked by it would display an ad targeted towards his demographic as well. This type of technology peaks the interest of the consumer as it gets them to interact with the ad and they feel like they are a part of something. When an ad is personalized the audience feels like the brand cares for people like them and will therefore trust the brand even more.
McDonald’s
Our second example here is of a campaign that McDonald’s has done in the UK that went more creative and incorporated the changing weather to its ad. We all know that when it comes to food and drink specifically it is always about the timing and weather when a consumer decides when and not to purchase a cold or hot drink. This digital billboard was wired to know the weather data in the area and catered the ad displayed based on that. When the weather was about 22 degrees Celsius the ad would be displayed onto the screen where those passing by would be more tempted to purchase the cold drink based on the hot weather. When the weather went about 25 degrees Celsius the ad on the screen would then include the city’s name and the current temperature so passerby’s would know and would be even more tempted to go to McDonald’s. These types of ads are very clever as it toggles with real world situations that would better attract the target based on the timely manner.
Ad Council
This next example is of an ad that was displayed on various bus shelters that was targeted towards frontline workers such as healthcare workers, grocery employees, bus drivers and more. The non-profit organization Ad Council displayed ads as a live display of tweets that the citizens of the U.S. around the area were posting thanking frontline workers for their service during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ads were placed on bus shelters that were along the same route of the nearest hospital, grocery store or highways. This campaign is simple yet has a major impact on those who view it especially since it has real time information being posted every few hours.
CVS
This next example is of a campaign that CVS ran in New York Times Square Beauty Mark Social Media Campaign. They created a digital ad campaign targeted towards unedited and un-altered beauty. They encouraged the target audience to post onto social media a selfie without any make up or filters and use the hashtag #BeautyUnaltered. These photos would then be posted on the digital ad space in Times Square and would feature a new person’s unedited image every 10 seconds. This campaign garnered 3.6 billion impressions and was a heavily used hashtag and gained a large amount of recognition.
Finally, a creative advertising campaign for Google was displayed on a digital billboard in the UK in various locations such as London, Birmingham and Manchester. This campaign was called “Make the Most of Summer ” and was targeted towards typical and popular search terms the people of the area would typically type into Google during the summer months. Some of these statements include “Parks near me” or “Best ice cream in Glasgow” and depending on the weather of that day the phrase displayed would show accordingly to the data gathered by the billboard and Google. This campaign was most effective as the people of the UK are very particular about weather and having bright summer days are very much favoured so using weather to reel in the consumer to use Google maps and search bar is a very clever and effective form of advertising.
Digital Perks
Out of home advertising is effective on its own, however adding the extra aspect of digital and making the ads more interactive for the consumer makes it all that much more effective and can promote brand loyalty. Consumers love ads that include them in it or get them to do a quick task and makes it all the more memorable and will encourage them to check out your product or service all the more. Effective advertising these days includes all the aspects of the growing and changing world such as the latest technological advances. So, finding clever ways of incorporating that into your brand’s campaign will prove effective with the results it generates.
