Charlotte Jones, Marketing Apprentice, shares how the biggest entertainment brands are using digital OOH to bring characters and storylines to life.

Did you know that US consumers spend almost as much time watching videos as they do working?¹  Or that over 60% of Millennials and Gen Z consumers stream videos daily?²  Whether you’re a film buff or a series binge-watcher, or maybe you got an account simply to see what all the fuss about Stranger Things is, streaming is a part of our everyday lives.

So it should come as no surprise that the world’s biggest entertainment clients are revelling in it – with epic digital OOH campaigns. We’ve worked closely with brands such as Amazon, Spotify, Disney and Netflix to craft memorable digital OOH experiences that bring characters and storylines from popular shows to life.

Let us show you a few examples…

Amazon Prime Good Omens

Amazon Prime brought Armageddon to Times Square with this awesome Augmented Reality experience for Good Omens.

Netflix The Haunting of Hill House

Netflix scared fans with this horrifying, Augmented Reality experience for the Haunting of Hill House at Comic-Con NY 2019.

Disney My Disney Side

Disney shared the magic at this unsuspecting mall, with an immersive Augmented Reality experience!

With the dawn of digital, it should come as no surprise that 46% of internet users say that they prefer to access music through online services than buy it offline.³  Considering there are over 7 billion internet users in the world… that is a lot of people!⁴

As well as “video on demand” brands, we have also worked closely with some of the biggest music entertainment brands, including Spotify and Google, to create awesome dynamic digital OOH campaigns. Both of these examples played important roles within the brand’s broader campaign strategy.

Spotify 2018 Wrapped

Spotify gave their premium users the chance to see their ‘wrapped’ playlist appear on iconic billboards in New York, London, Berlin & Melbourne.

Google Play Music

Google Play Music showcased the app’s ability to suggest the perfect soundtrack for the consumer’s mindset at that moment.

Want to discuss your upcoming digital OOH plans? Get in touch!

To promote its latest TV series “Good Omens,” Amazon Prime Video launched a thrilling digital OOH campaign.

The series, based upon Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name, follows the unlikely pairing of an angel (Michael Sheen) and a demon (David Tennant) as they join forces to save the world from the apocalypse. As one of the most hotly anticipated shows of 2019, Amazon wanted to bring the surreal scenarios faced by the protagonists to life with a takeover of Times Square.

As the digital OOH roadblock took over Times Square, the crowd was plunged into terrifying Armageddon scenarios through live animations and a countdown to the end of the world. The mixed reality digital billboard towered above the pedestrian plaza bringing Good Omens to life, with Kraken tentacles, UFOs and giant fish raining down on the crowd below. Just as the audience recognized themselves on the big screen the doomsday scenarios unfurled around them. The mixed reality experience created a fun and memorable experience giving participants the ability to share the moment on social media.

Supporting the apocalyptic takeover, were additional large-format digital OOH billboards around Times Square, featuring the countdown to doomsday and the start of the highly-anticipated series.

The campaign was conceived by Amazon Studios and produced by Grand Visual.

Ric Albert, Creative Director at Grand Visual, said: “The Apocalyptic AR activation stops people in their tracks in an engaging race to save the world. It provides content that connects the audience to the series storyline and immerses them in a 5-screen Times Square roadblock. The live countdowns build on the excitement and anticipation of Good Omens debut on Amazon Prime Video.”

Spotify has joined forces with country singer Maren Morris to celebrate strong women, in a socially driven digital OOH campaign that launched on International Women’s Day.

The digital OOH activation coincides with the release of Morris’ second album ‘GIRL’, bringing a powerful female perspective to the predominantly male country music scene.

#ShareYourCrown amplifies Morris’ custom Snapchat Lens which was debuted by the artist during a takeover of Spotify’s Snapchat channel. The special lens invites fans to take a picture of themselves and other important women while wearing the singer’s signature crown. These images were then shared online via the hashtag #ShareYourCrown.

Conceived in-house by Spotify’s creative team, the dynamic digital OOH activation was produced by Grand Visual. We monitored the hashtag across social media channels in real-time and published fan-generated photos to multiple iconic digital billboards across New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles and Toronto.

The digital Out of Home campaign champions powerful women by capitalizing on the positive social media buzz. This extends the reach of #ShareYourCrown to OOH audiences’ across North America in time for International Women’s day.

On 6th December 2018, Spotify extended its popular end of year marketing campaign ‘Wrapped’ with a real-time, digital OOH campaign.

The campaign sees subscribers’ music habits streamed live to digital billboards around the world including, Time Square and Piccadilly Lights. The campaign celebrates the importance of music in people’s lives and Spotify’s role as the platform of discovery.

Produced by Grand Visual, the digital OOH creative features the user’s profile picture alongside their top artists, songs, and genres, and time spent listening. OpenLoop, the digital OOH campaign management platform from QDOT, takes the live data feed from Spotify and distributes the creative to media owners across the USA, Canada, Australia, UK, and France.

Already gracing traditional billboards across the world, this is the first real-time OOH activation for the music brand and the largest multi-market live execution for the medium. The campaign was planned and booked by UM London and Rapport and ran through to December 31st.

“Our annual Wrapped ad campaign is a true embodiment of our proposition as a ‘platform for discovery.’ Our users have come to expect the year-end wrapped campaign year after year, and are eager to see how their interactions on Spotify connect to what is happening across the global Spotify community. At the same time, it serves as a large-scale ‘thank you’ to our listeners for their collective impact in shaping the platform throughout the year while further solidifying our place in the global cultural lexicon.”

June Sauvaget, Spotify’s Global Head of Consumer Marketing

 

“This is a great example of how digital brands are embracing the OOH medium more than ever before. Now that the systems and platforms are in place, a real-time data-driven multi-market activation is a natural progression for Spotify Wrapped, which seeks to reward listeners with a moment of fame and their name and music tastes in lights, on digital billboards close to home.”

Dan Dawson, Chief Creative Technology Officer, Grand Visual