Air Quality Campaign
Shocking new data on air pollution reveals that nearly 8 million (25%) addresses in the United Kingdom have air pollution levels above World Health Organization limits. The data comes from addresspollution.org, which has today rolled its London pilot out nationally. Air quality reports are now freely available for every UK address.

The initiative, by AMV BBDO and policy activist group Central Office of Public Interest (COPI), is also attempting to drive legal action to force the disclosure of air pollution ratings within the property industry. This would mean estate agents, property websites, surveyors and conveyancers are obliged to disclose air pollution, in the same way they have to disclose other deadly substances, such as asbestos. An explosive 20-page Queen’s Counsel legal opinion, released with the campaign, reveals a ‘strong legal argument’ estate agents will be negligent for not doing so.

Air Quality Campaign

Originally launched in 2019 as a London pilot, addresspollution.org received nearly one million visits at launch. Off the back of that success, funding was secured to commission 1.5 billion new data points from university Imperial College London.

addresspollution.org can now reveal the levels of three toxic pollutants anywhere in the UK in an easy to understand Air Quality Report (AQR). The health implications for living at the address are also given. People are then urged to sign a petition demanding that estate agents and property websites disclose air quality to buyers and renters.

Air Quality Campaign

The rating system, approved by experts at the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London, needed to be simple. It combines information design, brand identity and graphic design to make an invisible killer visible.

Scott, Art Director at AMV BBDO, says: “We’re dealing with concentrations of pollutants measured in micrograms per cubic metre. On top of that, there are three different pollutants and they’re all invisible. We had to communicate complicated information quickly and efficiently, while nodding to the toxicity.”

 

Designer Director Mario Kerkstra adds, “Air pollution exists on a microscopic scale but its effect on lungs, the brain, heart and even the womb is profound. We needed a visceral way of expressing the different levels of air pollution in more than a coloured banded system. Spikes exist in nature as a warning sign, a sign of danger. They felt right for this.”

The agency has created a hard-hitting national campaign launching the system which visualizes the damage invisible air pollution causes. The campaign centres on geo-targeted animated digital ads featuring spiky typography which ‘breathes’ according to the air pollution at that location The ads are running across 651 digital out of home screens around the UK. The media sites were donated by Open Media, Foris Outdoor, City Outdoor, BlowUp!, JCDecaux, Clear Channel Outdoor, Alight Media and Global Outdoor.

Air Quality Campaign

A blitz on Instagram will also see a number of posts exposing the high levels of pollution in different sites in the UK. The strong, eye-catching social media pieces also feature different organs, such as breathing lungs covered with spikes. Funds to get the addresspollution.org pilot live were originally raised through a successful Crowdfunder campaign, making this a truly people-powered campaign.

Humphrey Milles, founder of the Central Office of Public Interest, said: “Air pollution affects everyone. It is a dangerous, invisible killer. With this national roll out, it would be shameful for the property industry to not start acting in an honest, transparent way. Lives depend on it. Everyone has a right to know what they’re breathing. And with the public finally able to see this invisible problem, the government will need to swiftly act to bring air pollution levels down.”

The data-driven approach breaks new ground for AMV BBDO. Copywriter Ben Polkinghorne says, “Back in 2019 we were asked to come up with an idea that tackles inaction on air pollution. Little did we know we’d end up spending our time developing a rating system with scientists and uncovering legal loopholes. We’ve literally been living and breathing the stuff for years, so it’s fantastic to get this next phase of the project out into the world.”

To get a free air quality report for your address and sign the petition, visit addresspollution.org.

Letter to Zion Digital Billboard

Cephas Williams, founder of the Black British Network, has launched an inspirational campaign, which features on Out of Home (OOH) digital screens throughout November and December, publicising his moving Letter to his son  Zion written in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. The move is currently supported by 19 UK industry leaders including Phil Thomas, Keith Weed, Stephen Woodford, Jude Kelly, Barry Cupples and Paul Polman.

The campaign, which is to support Williams’ crowdfunder initiative to support the Black British Network, aims to promote change and a dialogue not restricted to October’s Black History Month. The OOH campaign uses creative including the introductory line “I want to see a world where…” and includes subsequent copy such as “…people respect each other’s differences”, “…black history is not just celebrated in a single month”, and “…where black people are treated fairly”.  All taken from Williams’ letter as seen on LetterToZion.com.

The OOH industry is supporting the initiative in a campaign worth over £1 million, with the project led, planned and coordinated by Talon. The distinctive black and white creative copy-led messaging, which includes the iconic end-frame image of Cephas holding his son, Zion, has been developed and created by Grand Visual. It will run in November and December, and into 2021, across sites donated by Blow Up Media, Clear Channel Outdoor, JCDecaux, Ocean Outdoor, Open Media, Maxx Media and Smart Outdoor.

The Letter to Zion, written to his son as a vehicle to bring about continuous dialog and tangible change regarding the black community and wider landscape, followed the birth of his son around the time of George Floyd’s killing in the US. Cephas spent months writing this timely letter and released the letter on October 9th, his birthday.

As Cephas Williams explains,

“Unfortunately, it took the killing of George Floyd to bring about this awakening and now with companies and leaders going back into the cooler, my concern is that we have not yet successfully created something that exists independent of corporate frameworks that can be used as a tool to help bring about the change we need to see. This stance, supported by a variety of industry leaders and now the Out of Home industry in bringing my message to the wider community and beyond a single reference point, such a s Black History Month, will reinforce the message of the Black British Network, that ‘Together We Are Stronger’. The hope is to create a ‘unified knock’ that goes beyond lip service and tokenistic gestures and starts to look at primary behavioural and systemic change, to support a mission that prioritises a more reflective approach and response to the black conversation than a reactive and opportunistic one.”

Barry Cupples, Group CEO of Talon, who’s team planned and coordinated the OOH activity, adds:

“This is an unbelievably important cause that we’re very proud to be involved with alongside some amazing Out of Home media owner partners. Bringing the message to a wider audience, highlighting its importance and showcasing some extremely powerful ad content, will really stand out in this period ahead and drive the desired effect of delivering impact, action and change.”

Commitments to the Letter to Zion and the further ambitions of the BBN so far includes the support of the OOH industry through media space, plus companies like Alfa Systems, O2, Ernst & Young and Clear Channel committing to the BBN Round Table Conversations and other key deliverables proposed by the Black British Network to bring about long lasting change in this area. Clear Channel, who initially worked with Williams to amplify the ground breaking 56 Black Men ‘I am not my stereotype’ campaign in 2019 and the ‘Let’s Not Forget’ campaign in 2020, connected Talon to Cephas as part of an ongoing ambition to further unite the OOH industry in support of Williams’ message and vision for change. This is the start of an ongoing and powerful relationship that will be committed to supporting the BBN in driving the change we need to see in this country and the wider world.

#SendingLove DOOH
Brothers John and Stephen Skelton who were born and raised in Dunston, Gateshead have used digital billboards in Newcastle and Perth to send each other the biggest message of Love during the COVID-19 Lockdown.

John moved to Australia from Newcastle nearly 20 years ago and lives in Perth with Wife Judith and daughter Sarah.  They couldn’t believe it when they saw a billboard in downtown Perth with Stephen sending Love from their hometown and decided to reciprocate with a billboard of their own in Newcastle!

Stephen said “We talk every other day on the phone but I wanted to do something really special to say I’m constantly thinking of them and how they are coping as a family in these difficult times – and it doesn’t get more special than a huge billboard!”

John said “It was such a great surprise to see Stephen on a billboard in Perth, he explained how he achieved it and we decided to send our own love back with a billboard of our own in Newcastle. It really is amazing and has put a huge smile on our faces!”

This is all part of a wider advertising campaign by London agencies Talon Outdoor and Grand Visual.

The campaign encourages participants to send love to those in places they cannot travel to, by getting creative with the heart-hand symbol and uploading their pictures and locations to www.sending love.to. Participants are then invited to donate to the global COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund before receiving a photo of their picture playing on-screen in their chosen city to share with friends and family across social channels.

google digital ooh old street
Google extended its “Make Google Do It” campaign, with a clever UK-wide digital OOH push.

The campaign demonstrates how Google Assistant can help with a variety of everyday tasks. The activity runs across transit, retail and city-centre locations until 8th July, Old Street roundabout has an extended run which lasts until 3rd August.

google digital ooh old street

The ‘Make Google Do It’ digital OOH creative uses two creative threads. The first features the Google Home Mini and highlights the versatility of Google Assistant, its main product, by demonstrating how it can help to “Play it. Skip it. Time it. Dial it. Forecast it. Remember it. Schedule it. Prep it. Do it.”

The second creative thread demonstrates Google Assistant’s ability to help with everyday tasks in a Q&A style activation at Old Street Roundabout. Here copy is linked to time, day, location, and major cultural events such as the World Cup, Wimbledon, and Pride London. Additionally, it pulls in local and contextual information such as “Feeling hungry Old Street? or “Can’t find the mythical Shoreditch cash points?” to highlight Google Assistant’s ability to provide location-based relevance.

Created by R/GA London and Google UK, Grand Visual was responsible for the production & delivery whilst media planning & buying was taken care of by Talon and OMD. The digital OOH campaign is part of a broader integrated global campaign that is running across cinema, TV, out-of-home, press, display and social media.

Meg Ledger, Client Manager, Talon said:

“OOH was the perfect channel to communicate how Google Assistant can be your playful sidekick throughout the day. Working collaboratively with Grand Visual, Google, OMDUK and R/GA we were able to maximize the effect of OOH by deploying clever contextual creative assets to tap into a relevant frame of mind for busy on the go audiences”

Dan Dawson, Chief Creative Technology Officer, Grand Visual, said:

“This campaign took over 100 pieces of copy to deliver. By using smart scheduling, Google has created a fresh, timely and engaging campaign that reaches a mass audience and demonstrates just how far the medium has come.”

Walkers DOOH

AMV BBDO’s promotion for Walkers ‘Spell and Go’ invited people to collect the letters from special packs and spell a destination to win one of 20,000 holidays.

As part of the campaign for this promotion, Walkers launched an interactive poster that invited passers-by to add select letters to their collections by making the shapes of those letters with their bodies. The letters to create are automatically served up by the poster and users are guided through the process with playful and humorous messages of encouragement.

The poster uses a bespoke creative technology solution, combining touch-screen, real-time gesture recognition and state-of-the-art machine learning to identify the postures replicating each letter. It is a truly innovative use of this technology for the brand.

Planned and booked by Talon, the campaign was live on with Signature Outdoor in Manchester on 9th – 10th May and on 19th – 22nd May.

Watch the Video here

The SSE Commonwealth Games campaign on a screen in Liverpool

SSE, the official energy partner of Glasgow 2014, features rising sports stars Jade Jones, Aled Davies, Michael Conlan, Eilidh Child and Craig Carfray in an outdoor advertising campaign to mark the Commonwealth Games from 23 July – 3 August, with the strapline “proud to support our athletes today”.

The dynamic digital out of home campaign will reach audiences nationwide in roadside, retail and airport environments, and calls on fans to back their home nations using twitter.

Fans are encouraged to tweet messages of support using the associated hashtags #GoEngland, #GoScotland, #GoWales and #GoNI. As the tweets increase, they will be dynamically fed by Grand Visual’s OpenLoop technology, in real-time, to the digital scoreboard, to record the nation receiving the most support during the Games.

The winning nation will receive funding for future sports stars from SSE.

The campaign — planned and booked by OMD UK and Talon, with production by Elmwood and Adam & Eve DDB, and digital technology by Grand Visual — will appear on outdoor digital and static sites at Trinity Leeds, Oracle Reading, Birmingham Bullring and Bluewater Kent; Edinburgh, Liverpool and Belfast Airport through JCDecaux, Clear Channel, Ocean and Eye.

Richard Evans, Business Director at OMD UK said:

“Outdoor represents a fundamental pillar of our Glasgow 2014 strategy; delivering strong impact and making sure that each of the home nations are fully aware of SSE’s support for the games”.

Moët & Chandon dynamic execution

This Summer the first dynamic digital OOH campaign by Moët & Chandon featured live tennis scores displayed in central London locations keeping tennis (and champagne) lovers up to date on the latest from Queen’s (Aegon Championship) and Wimbledon.  

The campaign captured the excitement of real-time game play, enabling Moët & Chandon to creatively engage with tennis fans across the capital.  The scores-based campaign featured on large-format digital sites across central London, including the Cromwell Road, Vauxhall Cross Island, City of London Gateway, Canary Wharf and Westfield Eat Street.

The activity was planned and bought by KR MediaCom. Grand Visual produced the creative assets, and the live feeds across multiple media owners were managed by OpenLoop, the digital out of home campaign management dashboard enabling brands to provide a relevant and timely brand experience for the target audience. 

An example of the Indeed.co.uk live job search dynamic DOOH creative

Top job site Indeed.co.uk launched a data-driven dynamic digital out of home campaign last week that will run over the course of two weeks on London cross-track projection (XTP) sites.

Utilising the powerful capabilities of Grand Visual’s dynamic DOOH campaign management tool, OpenLoop, the activation combines real-time job searches from the Indeed.co.uk website with geolocation to present commuters with job search information tailored to their viewing location.

Real-time job searches are passed into OpenLoop and filtered for suitable terms before being combined with location information. The system identifies the longitude and latitude of the job search location (e.g. South East London), then targets an appropriate XTP screen on which to display the information.

Evening rush hour commuters are presented with creative that shows the wide range of jobs that are being searched for in their specific location at that particular moment.

Tim Last, Grand Visual’s Products & Services Director, described the activation as “a clever example of using real-time data from genuine searches to power an engaging dynamic campaign that has real relevance for users”.

The campaign was conceived and planned by Mullen, with media booked by MediaCom, and digital production and campaign management by Grand Visual.

Post Office Mothers Day DOOH

To promote the Post Office’s special next day and Saturday delivery services, a dynamic Digital Out of Home campaign launched ahead of Mother’s Day to capitalise on the live conversations occurring on Twitter. The campaign provided a live tally of the number of tweets discussing the shared experience of how best to celebrate Mother’s Day!

The campaign used a selection of search terms to measure popular themes around Mother’s Day – such as expressions of love, gift ideas, and panic, and displayed the number of tweets mentioning these terms from a large, live sample. Tactical messages supported the live tally alongside details of the Post Office’s guaranteed special delivery options and the call to action “pop in to your local branch”. The tally was updated throughout each day and pushed live to screens via OpenLoop.

The campaign was planned and booked by Mindshare and Kinetic and ran on bus shelter LD6s, rail D6s and London Underground XTPs from Tuesday 25th to Friday 28th of March.

Sony UGC DOOH

Sony PlayStation has instigated a UGC powered Digital Out of Home campaign to build anticipation ahead of the PS4 launch on 28th November. The campaign invites the public to upload photos of everyday items that look like a PlayStation symbol for the chance to win a PS4, and incorporates their photos into the nationwide outdoor campaign.

The people powered campaign takes user photos uploaded to www.playstation.com/symbols and integrates them into the creative alongside the contributor’s name and the strapline “This is for the players, this is PS4”. The campaign is delivered via OpenLoop, the Digital Out of Home campaign management dashboard, and is constantly refreshed with new photos throughout the day.

The campaign was created by Drum, planned and bought by MGOMD and Talon, with production by Grand Visual. The campaign can be seen on screens across the UK including the London Underground, Shopping Malls, In-Bar screens, Cinema Foyers and Student Unions.

The Digital Out of Home activity supports a broader Outdoor campaign which also saw the OXO Tower decorated with the PlayStation symbols this month, plus extensive TV, print and online elements. The console, which went on sale in the US on Friday 15 November, quickly sold a million units in the first 24 hours of release.