With a history in electric transportation that dates back to 1989, ECOtality North America has worked on every Electric Vehicle(EV) initiative in North America since the 1990’s. Under the guidance of ECOtality, the EV Project will install the largest EV infrastructure to date. The EV Project is scheduled to deploy 15,000 chargers and 8,300 EV’s in 2011. All chargers will have an individual digital display that will inform consumers of their charge event status and deliver advertising.
This season, the leaves are changing, the air is getting crisper, and the big brands are taking it outside… Outside of the home, that is.
When deciding how to build excitement and promote tune-in for the new fall schedule, Fox chose to move away from the TV commercials to focus on OOH, taking advantage of traditional formats along with digital billboards and networks. The driving factor behind the new move to digital? — the ability to show full-length pilots for some of this season’s lineup, such as “Raising Hope” and “Lone Star”. Full pilots ran on three major airlines, the Hotel Networks and Princess Cruises, and street-level video networks at subway stations.
Next up: Budweiser. The king of beers (whose recent sales would suggest he’s been overthrown) needed to find a way to cozy up to young under-30 beer drinkers. The solution? In-bar promotions. The bait? Free beer! The campaign started earlier this week, encouraging under-30’s to “Grab some Buds,” and reaches it’s high point tonight as the brand hosts the “Budweiser National Happy Hour.”
So what does a company do when they want to reach active 20 and 30-something’s who don’t spend their time watching TV and surfing the net? They go to them! Just ask Mitsubishi, who recently found a new way to reach the M-Generation, their target demographic whose lifestyles closely tie in with some of the vehicles’ “personalities”. The brand decided to take it on the road, showing up at races, trail heads for mountain biking, dog parks and more, asking people along the way–“What Are You Into?”
MINI’s utilization of out-of-home advertising opportunities never cease to amaze (and entertain) me. To say each is more creative than the last would be a lie–not because the quality goes down, but because each individual execution is so unique, it’s like comparing apples to oranges. Over the past few years, MINI has managed to take one of the oldest forms of advertising–billboards–and transform it into an event, capturing attention nationwide. But recently, they’ve added a new element to their approach: digital out-of-home.
For the launch of the new 4-door MINI Countryman, the company took more of an interactive approach, actually getting consumers involved in the advertisement. Over the summer, replicas of the new car made special appearances in shopping centers, stations and streets around the UK. The challenge: how many people can you fit in a MINI? And although the cars looked packed to the brim with crammed-in people gasping for air, they were, in fact, empty.
So how did they do it? Using video cameras inside the MINIs, passersby could take the challenge, packing as many people as possible into the car while recording the whole scene. Then, the footage was projected onto the inside of the MINI, as if the challengers were still inside. Participants could then share the video with friends via Facebook.
Remember some of MINI’s other executions the past few years, some of which landed them in the 2010 OBIE Awards Hall of Fame and as finalists for AdWeek’s Best Out-of-Home Ad of the Decade?
The campaign for MINI Clubman also made it as a finalist for the 2009 Out-of-Home Media Plan Awards.
From sad shrimp to tequila trains, people and companies all around the Gulf Coast seem to have jumped on the OOH media train to improve the situation left in the wake of the BP oil spill.
From the beginning, the issue has been one of raising awareness, change, and funds to help local residents. To do this, Adams Outdoor Advertising used the power of OOH media to bring the situation into daily conversations. Using their own billboards, they posted creative showing a sad face with eyes made of shrimp and a mouth made of an oily brushstroke. Not only is the ad effective in getting your attention, it also brings the realization that the spill touched everyone in the area… especially those fishermen whose livelihoods depend on ocean life.
On the other side of the spectrum, Patron Tequila took a fun approach to raising money for Gulf residents. The St. Bernard Project partnered with The Patron Spirits Company to create the “Patrón Tequila Epicurean Express,” a restored 1927 train car that toured the country, stopping for two nights in select cities. In exchange for donations, people could board the train for a cocktail party the first night, while big spenders were also invited to a gourmet dinner the second night.
Other areas of the Coast, such as the Florida Panhandle, are finding creative ways to lure tourists back to the area they claim is unaffected by the spill. And what better way to inform people that your vacation destination is as oil-free as ever than to show them? VP of marketing for the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, for example, is using digital billboards to post images of the pristine beaches she snapped using her iPhone. The images are then displayed alongside messages like “Our Coast is Clear” and “Wish you were here.”
Who says the mundane tasks of our lives can’t be spiced up a little bit? The people at Volkswagen clearly have the creativity to do just that. After the wildly popular Fun Theory experiment, Volkswagen has now rolled out its sister campaign, the Fast Lane Theory. Life is always a little more fun in the fast lane, doesn’t it seem? Even better when you’re cruising in a Volkswagen on the Autobahn in Germany.
In the Alexanderplatz subway station in Berlin, Volkswagen constructed a slide to run the length of the stairway so that when walkers approached at the top of the stairs they had 2 options: a) take the stairs allll the way down or b) zip down the slide in 2 seconds. What would you pick? Check out the excitement that ensues.
In another unexpected place, the grocery store, the genius VW people assembled a grocery cart with a skateboard attached to the bottom, just under the handlebar. Think back to what you did as a kid (which most likely drove your mom crazy): run with the cart, jump on the bottom shelf and coast down the aisles, narrowly missing the four foot high display of paper towels at the end or the elderly lady reaching for the sugar on the top shelf. The reactions are the greatest part of the experiment, in my opinion. There were some people who were a tad confused by all the fun during such a boring chore as grocery shopping and others totally embraced the fast lane. Either way, we applaud Volkswagen for bringing out the kid in everyone again.
Across the pond, a VW competitor has also created a promotion gimmick this summer. Volvo is working to bring back the essence of movie drive-ins, only this time with all Volvo cars provided. You don’t even need a driver’s license! Dubbed the ‘€œVolvo Starlite Urban Drive-In‘€, Volvo has picked the cultural Truman Brewery in London to host the event. Once you’ve booked your tickets, pick out one of the 25 Volvos on location to pack in with a friend – 2 per car – and enjoy the movie on screen, whether it is Dirty Dancing or Grease. You can’t go wrong with Johnny Castle’s twisting hips or Danny Zuko’s retro leather jacket. Feeling hungry? Order some popcorn from one of the waitresses zipping through the lot on her roller skates. The Starlite’s success was so overwhelming (tickets sold out in less than a minute!) the creators are considering packing up and taking the event nationwide.
