Here’s a standout billboard from the fast food chain everybody loves to hate. The clever use of the billboard’s base to resemble a straw provides immediate association between an ad and a specific product. Giving away special collectable cups with each milkshake purchased during a specific time would be a great addition to this promotion.
(From Star Geek)
Interactive billboards seem to be gaining more steam. While the MINI billboard I featured earlier just produces information about passing vehicles, this Fiesta Ford billboard in Belgium allows those passing by to directly engage themselves in the information provided. Using any cellular phone, you send an SMS code displayed on the board after which the billboard will tell the sender to “continue” and send a question back. If the question is answered correctly, the billboard automatically enters the sender into a drawing for a new Ford Fiesta. This billboard is a somewhat crazy, but fun way to encourage people to take notice of your advertisement and connect themselves with your product! In addition to the grand prize car, Ford Fiesta might want to add other promotional giveaways as prizes for the SMS billboard game to encourage more people to “play.”
(Via Adverblog)
I can’t decide if this billboard from MINI USA is frightening or just really cool. In several major cities, MINI (creator of the famous MINI Cooper) has placed billboards that can actually recognize passing MINI vehicles and greet the driver by name. Apparently the boards contain built in sensors that can immediately identify individual cars and retrieve basic information about the owner. Rest assured, MINI owners give their consent to tag their cars with information so no one’s privacy is being unwillingly violated. There are still other concerns associated with this type of advertising including the potential for drivers to become distracted and cause accidents.
While the campaign certainly earns my respect for innovation and creativity, the “Orwellian” quality of the ads might turn some people off the brand. A less subversive way to demonstrate customer appreciation might be sending mini-owners personalized holiday gifts.
In a metropolitan area like New York City, digital billboards saturate entire blocks. You can see digital billboards on top of taxis to television-like displays in bus shelters, like this one from the TLC show, Jon and Kate Plus 8. Similar to the commercials broadcasted on regular TV, digital billboards give you glimpse of the products best features. In the example of Jon and Kate Plus 8, the billboard shows funny antics by the Gosselin kids and more. I watch this show fairly often so I must have caught the red light like three times before realizing I should be crossing the street. I was so distracted! O, what other kind of promoting will the media industry think of next to catch my attention?
(Photo via Cherry Flava)
A light bulb illuminates whenever someone walks beneath this billboard for The Economist, a popular political and international affairs publication. I like the eye-catching nature of this board: a passerby may glance over the ad then notice it light up and turn back to look again. The image of the light bulb also reflects The Economist’s aims “to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.” (From The Economist website.)
Though the board contains no other text other than simply “The Economist” its message is extremely clear, making it an excellent blend of guerrilla marketing and traditional billboard advertising.
Ok first off, if traffic was so sluggish that I could solve a Sudoku puzzle I would cry then I would definitely be looking for another mode of transportation. Actually, if traffic was slow enough to read and absorb any highway billboard, traffic must be WAY too congested! But despite all that, this witty billboard by De Pasquale was a really great way to promote Air Train in Brisbane, Australia.
This is really funny guerilla marketing! This human shaped billboard was creating by Mother London, an eccentric advertising agency. A gargantuan female is taking her photograph at the picture booth in a mall in London with her massive lower back tattoo exposed.
This is one of a series of imaginative sculpture ads that were done for London Ink, a reality TV show featured on Discovery Channel’s Real Time channel. The premise of the show is based on a tattoo shop owned by Louis Molloy and the tattoo culture in London.
Gone are the days of slapping your brand name on a billboard and tossing it up on the side of the street. The best ads these days incorporate extreme creativity, eye-catching aesthetics, and, in some cases, professional engineering. Just ask people at the ad agency Leo Burnett, which designed this McDonald’s sundial billboard in Chicago.
The metallic arch is perfectly placed above the ad to cast a big “M” shadow over each item at the appropriate time of day. As if America’s fast food woes weren’t bad enough, this billboard suggests six different Mickey D’s items you can eat, one per hour, until the noon hour signals Big Mac time. Hey, even those who argue that advertising is evil can’t say this isn’t ingenius. I guess the only knock against it is that the hours on this clock run counter-clockwise.
If you’ve been anywhere in New York City recently, you may have spotted one of the “Ana’s Eyes” billboards or bus ads that have been cropping up everywhere. The simple black and white signs provide no information other than the simple message, “See the World Through Ana’s Eyes.” Every time I saw one of these advertisements I was always intrigued and perplexed. Who is Ana? What is so different about the way she sees the world?
Lately, I noticed some of the billboards providing a little more information: “See the World Through Ana Tzarev’s Eyes.” Ana Tzarev is a Croatian born, self-taught artist currently residing in Monaco. The billboards are in place to promote her New York gallery which will open to the public on November 24th and also host numerous artistic and cultural events. While the billboards are extremely vague, their mysteriousness has created a buzz of curiosity amongst New Yorkers making it an extremely effective campaign.
I wonder if the gallery is planning on doing any additional promotional activity. The campaign has focused mainly on billboards, buses and phone kiosks thus far, but I think the “See the World Through Ana’s Eyes” slogan could transition very well to totes and apparel.
I am just reminiscing about all those moments when I thought the person on the other end of the phone was so intrigued by what I was saying that they were struck with silence; in actuality I was talking to myself the whole time!!! I REALLY hate dropped calls!
This ad was a great outdoor billboard that truly leveraged the idea of being larger than life. Dropped calls ruin the consumers’ experience of using a cell phone so the fallen piece of the ad not only reinforces the inconvenience of the dropped phone call but also shows that the former wireless phone company known as Cingular wanted to alleviate this nuisance.
