OOH advertisements including billboards and interactive campaigns may have seen their best days already and with the onset of digital age, primarily social media – the interest in OOH billboards has declined as more brands have shifted their focus to digital. Other than the rise of digital space, the economic downturn that hit India and elsewhere post 2008 has also contributed to the overall decline of OOH activities.
This doesn’t mean that OOH campaigns are no longer relevant and the consumer impact has diminished. It just means that now advertisers have to make their outdoor campaigns even more interactive and experiential than ever before. Some of the world’s most creative experiential campaigns have shown that outdoor activities can be very powerful. As the marketers realize that the future of advertising doesn’t rely solely on digital but a mix of traditional and new medium – referred to as tradigital (traditional + digital).
If advertisers can create an offline experience that is worth talking and sharing about, people can’t help but talk about it to their friends and family, and the advertiser’s goal is met. Let’s take a look at some of the world’s most creative OOH experiential activities followed by examples from the indian space.
This OOH campaign comes from France for a calcium rich mineral water brand called Contrex. The campaign included placing a set of pink exercise cycles equally spaced next to each other, at a public place where people gather and take a stroll – surrounded by french architectures.
Contrex’s mineral water bottles were placed just below these exercise cycles. As soon as the curious onlookers, primarily women sit on these cycles and try it, a neon light starts to light up on the floor, just below the front tyre of these cycles and the light would travel further from these machines as the women continue to keep pedaling. When more women join, the lights travel all the way to the architecture in front them, at a distance and a neon male stripper appears and music begins to play.
As they keep pedaling, the stripper dances to the tune and starts stripping. At the end, a message is displayed how easily they have burnt 2,000 calories. The women then get off the bikes and drink Contrex’s mineral water. This particular type of risque campaign may not strike chords with the Indian audience but such ingenious offline ideas help a brand capture people’s attention more than anything else.
APPLE MACBOOK AIR SWING – BUS STOP SHELTER
This ingenious experiential advertising idea comes from Apple brand for its MacBook Air, where it places a swing instead of the usual bench you find at bus stop shelters. What could stimulate best than an experience that reminds you of your childhood, especially as most women can relate to swings.
CYCLE BRAND INCENSE BUS SHELTER CAMPAIGN
It is an experiential promotional campaign by the Indian incense brand Cycle brand Agarbatti. Six bus shelters and one hoarding were converted into mini pandals (structures usually built for placing Hindu idols) branded with the brand’s posters and a cut-out of the Hindu god Ganesha. The shelter would have incense being lit from 8am till 9pm everyday, so the people could experience the fragrance of the brand’s incenses and an audio of Aarti (devotional songs) would be played along. If that was not enough, the shelters were bluetooth enabled and anybody could use their phone to download lord Ganesha-themed ringtones, wallpapers etc.
