Image Sources: Coca Cola and Creativity

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the OBIE awards, which are hosted annually by the OAAA. Not to be confused with the Off-broadway Obie’s, OAAA’s OBIE awards recognize outstanding advertisements in a variety of industries including retail, public service, and beverage. In honor of the occasion, we’ll be looking back at some OBIE awards winners.

Coca Cola “Yes Girl”

One of the most iconic Coca-Cola billboards in history, the “Yes Girl” ad won OBIE’s first ever Best In Show award. Haddon Sundblom, one of Coca-Cola’s most successful artists, is responsible for the artwork in this piece. Sundblom is the same artist who created the modern day depiction of Santa Claus for Coca-Cola’s holiday campaign back in the 1930s, which you can read about here.

Starbucks “Port Authority Stream of Consciousness Installation”

This poster series in a New York subway station won a gold OBIE in the beverage category in 2010. Playing on the wandering mind, the posters make up a narrative of how your mind wanders on a long walk, ending with an encouragement to buy Starbucks coffee.

Dos Equis Las Vegas Mural

This mural by Dos Equis in Las Vegas earned its spot as a finalist in Individual Execution in 2013. Promising an “interesting time”, the number on the mural is to an automated machine that can respond to number and voice inputs. From bachelorette parties to otters that play blackjack, the Most Interesting Man in the World certainly lives up to his name. For the full script of his answering machine, read the story in AdWeek here.

On March 1-3, ANA will host their fifth annual Media Conference in Orlando, Florida. Two years ago at this conference, the media transparency issue became a big story in the industry. The conference will open with a panel that continues this discussion.

Other points of interest include content marketing, data strategy, and influencer marketing. Attendants will hear from Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer at Procter & Gamble, Kristin Patrick, CMO at Pepsi, and John Nitti, Chief Media Officer at Verizon.

At DOmedia we know transparency is one of the most important issues to agencies and media buyers. Agencies use DOmedia to take campaigns from concept to completion in a single platform, ensuring all communication and data is preserved for future use. Click here to learn more about DOmedia’s tools for media transparency. It’s just one more way DOmedia is leading the way to change how OOH media is bought and sold

You can follow all of the action on Twitter at #ANAMedia.

Get the streets talking and you’ll garner plenty of attention. That’s what Ogilvy & Mather set out to do. In early 2015, Panama City’s streets were riddled with potholes. They were not only inconvenient and dangerous, they had many drivers worried about damaging their vehicles. Ogilvy & Mather’s response was to make the streets tweet. They set up a Twitter account called El Hueco Twitero, or The Tweeting Pothole. Then, they set up pressure sensors in potholes around the city. Every time a car hit the sensor, it sent a transmission to a receiver, which resulted in a Twitter bot posting a message. The message always included the Twitter handle of the Minister of Public Works, Ramón Arosemena, so the problem could not be ignored.

The campaign did rather well, catching the attention of the Minister. He even addressed the situation on television. Panama City’s roads have seen their conditions improve. This will probably set a precedent for similar campaigns in the future.

The Tweeting Pothole from P4 Ogilvy on Vimeo.

We continue our Notable Billboards series with three more incredibly creative advertisements from Ford, Allstate and BMW.

Image Sources: Ads of the World, Ads of the World, Be Your Google

1- Ford Mustang: Burnout

This billboard debuted at the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit, the world’s largest automotive event. A smoke machine behind the rear wheel starts every few minutes, and the wheel spins to complete the effect. Obviously a billboard smoking catches attention, but this one does it for all the right reasons. If a muscle car doing burnouts in the sky somehow fails to capture the eye, the bright blue color of the car and text will certainly do the job.

2- Allstate: Marina Tower

This ad is actually a 2-in-1. In a famous Allstate commercial from 2006, a car chase results in one car flying off of the Marina Tower into the Chicago River. The other is left barely hanging on. An advertisement in the same place that the car was shown hanging reveals the same car still in that spot, right above a sign printed with the famous slogan, “Are you in good hands?” A car hanging off of a parking garage is sure to catch attention, and the familiar catchphrase leaves the image and company in a viewer’s mind.

3-  BMW Billboard War

The competition is quite entertaining in this series of ads. BMW and Audi are both well known for their quality luxury cars, but who really has the upper hand? The companies tried to one up each other in a chess match . . . over billboards. The feud started when BMW made a comment about “paramedics at a chess tournament” in an ad talking about service centers being so close in spite of not needing them. Audi retorted with, “Chess? I would rather be driving,” and a picture of the new R4. The back and forth just continued — and escalated — to reach what you see above. While entertaining and humorous, the companies also got to showcase many cars in their line and create a “picking sides” situation, which can make even consumers competitive. This isn’t the first time BMW and Audi have gone at it, and it certainly will not be the last. You can read more on this luxury battle (and others between Audi and BMW) at the link below.

For more eye-catching billboards, check out our previous post in the series.

Notable Billboards

From February 15th to February 17th, ANA will host this year’s Brand Masters Conference in Dana Point, CA. This year’s theme is “Highly Effective Brands that Drive Results” and features speakers from companies including Intel, Allstate and Snickers. The wealth of CMOs and marketing leaders create an impressive lineup for the conference, which will focus on brand marketing strategies that bring monetizable results.

Media transparency will be discussed at length, adding a timely new dimension to the typical talk of reach and frequency. Attendants will also have the opportunity to hear stories from some of the most recognizable brands in the country and how they earned their rep.

This year’s conference has already sold out, but you can still be part of the event on twitter with the hashtag #ANABrand. For those attending, several meals are included in the package, and coffee breaks present plenty of opportunities for networking. We love seeing conferences that showcase marketing-thinkers at their best. It reminds us what’s at stake as we seek to automate the tedious OOH media buying process. The work we do today will help great adwomen and admen focus on what they do best.

Learn more at https://www.ana.net/conference/show/id/BIC-FEB17