5 Of The Best Data-Driven Outdoor Electronic Signs

Properly targeted outdoor electronic signs are often in the news these days, as brands look for new and innovative ways to reach their target markets. It’s always a good idea to see what other companies are getting up to when it comes to marketing and advertising, to see if there are any ideas you can use to further your own campaigns. Here are just a few inspiring data-driven digital billboard ad strategies that might give you a few pointers.

Age UK

Christmas last year saw the charity launch a UK-wide digital out-of-home campaign called No One Should Have No One At Christmas. Geo-targeted digital posters were used, drawing on information from the trust’s loneliness heat maps to show people walking past how pensioners in their area are affected by loneliness and isolation during the festive season and beyond.

Virgin Trains

This campaign, run across the UK, saw the billboards change based on congestion levels on the roads. It aimed to align with the motorist’s mindset at that particular moment, so made suggestions like “avoid all this bleeping traffic” during the morning rush hour. This was followed up by a strong call to action: “Leeds to London, 2HRS 14MINS”.

Adshel & Universal Sony

This agency worked alongside Universal Sony to really engage with the Spiderman fan base when The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro came out a few years ago. The billboard that was set up gave members of the public the chance to turn themselves into the next Spider-Man villain simply by scanning an image using facial recognition software and then turning it into Electro, the name of Jamie Fox’s dastardly character in the movie.

Mini’s Not Normal campaign

This outdoor campaign saw the car brand put up digital streets along a busy road in London, with fun messages flashing up at drivers of Minis such as “hey cream Mini, what’s your secret?” and “hello, blue Mini driver”. Motorists were also offered smoothies and bacon sandwiches in the morning or a bunch of flowers and a tank of petrol on the way home at participating service stations. And drivers could also opt to have their picture taken to be displayed on the billboards with a bespoke message as they approached them.

Spotify

This is a great example of a really personal campaign, drawing on big data to come up with an innovative and inspiring billboard ad idea that no doubt worked wonders. The brand opted to make use of the huge amounts of data it collects to showcase the listening habits of people using the service on massive outdoor billboards.

It was fun, it was tongue in cheek and it was also successful in drawing attention to all sorts of different events throughout 2016. For example, one UK billboard read: “Dear 3,479 people who streamed ‘It’s The End of the World As we Know It’ the day of the Brexit Vote. Hang in There.”