A campaign was launched last week by the Outdoor advertising Association of America (OAAA) and OOH media companies in an aim to show the strong and positive relationship between out of home media and social media, on the lead up to the 10th Annual Advertising Week. This campaign will involve more than 2,500 billboards across the country, which is aiming to show the American public that Out of Home advertising is in fact ‘EverywhereUR’.
Image sourced from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard
“OOH is the perfect medium to allow advertisers to engage with the public because it is everywhere you are, reaching consumers where they spend more than 70% of their waking hours – outside of the home,” said Nancy Fletcher, OAAA president & CEO.”- http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/out-of-home-advertising-brings-people-to-times-square-billboard-224125921.html
This campaign gives every American an opportunity to display their personal pictures and images on one of the digital billboards in Times Square. All the public has to do is take the photo they want displayed and tweet it mentioning the hashtag #EverywhereUR. These photos will then be filtered for appropriate content where it may then appear as part of a photo reel on a digital billboard at Times Square.
The pictures that are chosen to be displayed will have a photograph taken of them on the billboard and re-tweeted back to the owners twitter account. This can then be kept as a keepsake of their image on a billboard at Times Square.
“The proliferation of social networks has taken OOH to new heights, positioning the medium to emerge as a key advertising option that amplifies integrated marketing campaigns,” added Fletcher. “Through this campaign, we hope social media users enjoy seeing themselves in the bright lights of Times Square, and we hope advertisers see the effectiveness and versatility of America’s OOH network.”- http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/out-of-home-advertising-brings-people-to-times-square-billboard-224125921.html
The technology provided in allowing the public to take part in the OOH campaign has been donated by Aerva. Aerva is a digital signage technology firm that is capable of allowing real-time interaction between OOH and applications via mobile devices.
Format production for OOH formats including billboards has been donated by Circle Graphics, which is one of the largest producers of graphics with large formats. This campaign will continue through until September 27th, giving users that time to submit any pictures and continue using the hashtag.
This reminded us of the first episode of the TV programme ‘Touch’; a lost mobile phone makes its way around the world, it ends up in the hands of a young girl, who (thinking the video on it is of someone famous) somehow attaches it to a public digital billboard, the mobile phone is ultimately reunited with its original owner. This TV series shows the power advertising, even Hollywood acknowledges it!
There has already been massive response to this hashtag with people posting pictures of themselves both modelling and casual, pictures of their children and pictures of food etc. To take part in this just tweet your picture with the hashtag #EverywhereUR.
Come on The Outdoor Advertising Association of Great Britain, we want this in the UK! Maybe we will see you around?