When outdoor comes indoor
Characteristics of great outdoor campaigns
Don’t we all love a superbly executed outdoor campaign? Especially the ones where the outdoor creative’s impact and reach moves beyond just the location where it was installed.
Recently, the billboard installed by BBC, for its new series Dracula attracted a lot of eyeballs online, taking its reach much beyond the local geo. Here’s a link on how it has captured internet’s imagination and a short video showcasing the terrific creative thought.
What works for it:
The element of surprise: Everything is in front of the viewer but it comes across as a surprise
Integration with the Brand: The creative thought is deeply integrated with the concept of Dracula. The shadow is visible only during night and disappears when the Sun comes out
Last year, Netflix also took similar approach to build awareness for its upcoming horror series Ghoul. It painted the symbol of Ghoul (see the image below) across the outdoor billboards which were promoting its own series Sacred Games (already released) and it was done pretty much overnight. This led to a series of tweets, FB posts and coverage in digital media.
What works for it:
The element of surprise: The billboards for Sacred Games were already installed and people were used to seeing these. The symbol of Ghoul appeared literally overnight, deliberately painted in an amateurish manner and without any other explanation
Piggybacking: The Sacred Games series was already talk of the town, courtesy high decibel campaign by Netflix. The Ghoul campaign piggybacked on the existing sites and hype, enhancing the reach and impact digitally, beyond the immediate outdoor sites
Some brands have also executed interesting Outdoor campaigns which integrate users as a creative element. Case in point is this outdoor campaign by Adidas in India.
Adidas installed a billboard in New Delhi with a rope attached to it, with no explanation on what’s supposed to be done with it. A few enterprising youngsters started pulling the rope and slowly more people joined their effort. When the force on the rope was strong enough, the Football cut-out displayed on the billboard moved, dropping a real Adidas Telstar football on the crowd pulling the rope, giving them the aha moment.
What works for it:
The element of intrigue: While the crowd knew that something is going to happen when the rope is pulled, there was still a sense of intrigue about what will happen when it is pulled
Integration with the Brand: Adidas was celebrating World Cup 2018 and the team spirit. This was aptly demonstrated as only when a few people came together as a team, there was sufficient force on the rope to reveal the football
Snickers took the involvement of viewers further in its outdoor campaign, featuring Marilyn Monroe. and Willem Dafoe. The campaign prompted the viewers to whip out their smartphones, make videos of their experience and share it with the world on Social Media. This provided free, organic amplification to the campaign.
What works for it:
UGC for digital amplification: The creative execution was designed to get viewers excited/entertained and prompted them to post the video of their experience on social media. Small things matter such as the DOOH was installed at the right height, at a busy intersection with organic footfalls, the gratification (Marilyn turning to Willem) was quick leading to quick, short videos, etc.
Piggybacking: It piggybacked on the Super Bowl commercial by Snickers which featured Willem Dafoe and Marilyn Monroe
Another approach to bringing outdoor inside the house is to do something totally outrageous. Like the outdoor installation by British Airways near Heathrow airport. It was huge, it was enabled by cutting-edge tech and it was in your face.
To sum it up, what should work for an outdoor campaign to come indoor:
Create a sense of surprise/intrigue
Integrate the execution with the brand
Piggyback on ongoing campaigns
Leverage creation of UGC for social media amplification
Be outrageous right out of the box
Rohit
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