Workers’ Compensation Board NS

Campaign Summary: Recognizing half of students work part time, WCB Nova Scotia was interested in reaching students with a message of workplace safety. As part of a comprehensive campaign, advertisements were showcased to more than 36,000 students in Nova Scotia universities via an on-campus digital network during the month of September 2007. The out-of-home digital element contributed to a 25% increase in unique web visitors in September. Market research showed that 10% of young people across Nova Scotia recalled seeing the ads on the university digital network.

The creative consisted of three, 10 second video spots featuring visuals such as bloody stiches on human skin in the shape of a coat hanger accompanied by the tag line ” More people under 25 are injured in retail than any other industry. What is your job worth to you?”

Client: Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia Media Planner: Cossette Media Agency: Extreme group

                                                

Call for Entries

At the most basic level, an advertisement must meet two criteria to achieve results; first, the message must get in front of the right set of eyeballs, and then the creative must be engaging, relevant and connect with the audience.

An out-of-home digital network can meet the first criteria but it can not do anything on the creative side on its own. In the real world, the medium is often held accountable for poor results even if it is due to poor creative direction. That means it is our responsibility to give our clients the best chance to succeed. We can do this by building the knowledge base on what works and what doesn’t in this space and sharing this expertise.

With this blog, I will attempt to create what I believe is the first destination dedicated exclusively to tracking and sharing out-of-home digital advertising campaigns. Please feel free to send me your success stories.

Fido’s new campaign hits Toronto

From a piece today in Media in Canada:

 “Fido’s fun new outdoor campaign, which breaks tonight, features two projected billboards - one with a “boyfriend,” the other with a “girlfriend” - interacting with each other by talking and even throwing virtual snowballs. Meanwhile, a cute pooch appears to jump from one board to the other. The aim is to promote the wireless video calling offered through Fido’s 3G High Speed Experience.

The digital billboards have been placed around downtown Toronto to reach Fido’s hip, urban target. They’ve been set up either side-by-side or across from each other and appear static at first, but “come to life” periodically to surprise passersby. To heighten the impact, the talking-billboard magic is being applied on a roving, unannounced schedule.”

To see a video of it in action click here. Pretty cool.

OLG goes digital in a big way

On November 23, Media in Canada had a piece on Ontario Lottery & Gaming’s latest campaign with the Outdoor Broadcast Network. The ads were running on OBN’s LED video boards in Toronto.

“Whenever potential winnings for Lotto 6/49 and Super 7 exceed $20 million, the outdoor video spots will add an element of urgency by displaying continuously updated jackpot amounts and draw deadlines.”

This is a great campaign as it leverages the technology to get past just ’selling spots’. OBN has done similar things to this in the past to truly differentiate from traditional OOH. An example that comes to mind is how they promoted California’s Leaping Horse wines this summer. When the temperature exceeded 20 degrees Celsius the video boards would display an ad for a cool, white Chardonnay. When the temp went below, the winery’s red Merlot would appear. Love it!