Missing People Digital OOH. Missing Man Tim Beardsley.
The out-of-home campaign for charity Missing People is returning to cities across the UK from today (Monday), with a series of regionally targeted weekly appeals.

This first appeared in Campaign UK on 16th September 2019.

Missing People Digital OOH

The executions, which will run across transit, city centre and roadside locations, feature the name, age and photo of a missing person, along with the date and location they went missing, plus the free number to call or text for sightings – 116 000.

Missing People DIgital OOH

The push is organised by adtech group QDOT and supported by media owners including JCDecaux, Maxx Media, Limited Space and Perfect Fit Media. It makes use of OpenLoop, QDOT’s dynamic creative optimisation ad server, and its measurement platform PlayTrack, which will provide independent third-party verification for the campaign.

Ross Miller, director of fundraising and communications at Missing People, said: “OOH visibility is so important in our search to find useful information that helps families reconnect with loved ones. OpenLoop allows us to run regionally targeted searches that we can update in a moment and PlayTrack provides full feedback, so we can understand exactly what presence we had across all inventory.

“Digital billboards have proven to be an immensely powerful tool in the search for missing people and we are enormously grateful to the outdoor media owners involved for their incredible support.”

The campaign first launched in 2012 and was conceived by the Outdoor Media Centre (now Outsmart). It last ran about 18 months ago.

Runaway Train Geo-targeted digital OOH. Melvin Diaz Cruz Missing
As part of the cross-industry initiative created by M/H VCCP, the out of home (OOH) advertising industry has donated ad space valued at more than $3 million to feature regionally targeted photos of missing children across the U.S.

Today, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and advertising agency M/H VCCP have launched Runaway Train 25, a cross-industry initiative to reinvent the search for missing children in the U.S. As part of the initiative more than 450 digital billboards and transit screens will support the campaign ahead of National Missing Children’s Day on Saturday, May 25th 2019.

Organized by the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), and produced by Grand Visual, the campaign aims to harness the public’s help to join the search by publishing the names and photos of missing children and raising awareness of the number to call for sightings; 1-800-THE-LOST.  The digital OOH activation spans 14 media vendors and runs across rail, roadside, and high street locations in over 40 U.S states, including major cities NYC, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.

Runaway Train geo-targeted digital OOH

The campaign is delivered through OpenLoop, the dynamic creative optimization server from QDOT. OpenLoop takes the data feed from NCMEC and publishes each missing child case in a geo-targeted push to digital billboards in and around the region the child went missing. “It’s about using clever ad tech to reach a broadcast level audience, whilst delivering tactical and relevant information at a community level,” said Grand Visual’s COO Ben Putland.

The digital billboards also promote Runaway Train 25, a new music video, released today, as part of the broader initiative, which reinterprets the 1990’s award-winning Soul Asylum song “Runaway Train” with musical artists Jaime N Commons and Skylar Gray feat. Gallant. Directed by RSA Films’ Emmy award winner Jake Scott, the music video uses geo-targeting technology to change the missing children featured based on where the video is viewed.

Both the DOOH creative and the music video encourage people to visit runawaytrain25.com and share the video across their social channels to help publicize #MissingKids and #RunAwayTrain25 through their personal networks.  

Runaway Train geo-targeted digital OOH

“Last year NCMEC assisted with over 25,000 cases of missing children, the vast majority were runaways,” said NCMEC President and CEO John Clark. “Thanks to the outdoor advertising community and all of our amazing partners, this highly targeted campaign gives us visibility in transit locations across the U.S.  Campaigns like this can play a vital part in the search and the ability to run multiple cases that are geo-targeted across more than 40 states will be a true game changer.”

“We know that it only takes one person to find a missing child. This powerful campaign is a great example of OOH, online, and social media working together to ensure photos of missing children are distributed as widely as possible,” said OAAA President and CEO Nancy Fletcher. “It’s about driving awareness and spurring action; everyone has the ability to make a difference in their communities.”  “There is nothing more powerful than when a community comes together to solve a problem. We conceived of Runaway Train 25 to bring art and technology together in a way that resonates with communities across the country so that NCMEC can bring home more kids than ever before.” John Matejczyk, founder and Chief Creative Officer, M/H VCCP.

Waitrose launched a digital OOH Christmas campaign to promote a variety of deals on firm festive favourites, such as chocolate, champagne, and party food. The campaign showcases the latest deal with a store-specific call to action to tempt Christmas shoppers instore. The activity runs nationwide across rail, transit and retail locations from 30th November – 15th December.

Created by Adam & Eve DDB, and produced by Grand Visual, the campaign features the latest deals alongside appetising product shots, such as festive truffles, caramels, and pralines along with the announcement that it’s ½ price on chocolate boxes today only. Festive food is promoted with the line “At Christmas, there’s nothing quite like Waitrose,” and a geo-targeted play-out directs shoppers to their closest store.

OOH media was planned and booked by Manning Gottlieb OMD and Talon, and spans 1,408 digital 6-sheets across the UK. Creative delivery and geo-targeted playout is managed through OpenLoop, which updates promotions and dynamically inserts store locations. The creative can then be updated at a national and local level when stocks run low at proximity stores.

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

“A tasty and tactical campaign from Waitrose which demonstrates just how important digital OOH has become as a channel for running promotions, last-minute deals and flash sales, that incorporate location-specific information to steer people to their nearest store. That’s powerful.”

McDonald’s has today launched Traffic Busters, a unique roadside campaign that uses traffic data to automate contextual messages, aimed at tempting drivers to visit their nearest McDonald’s restaurant. The nationwide campaign reacts to the speed of traffic at each location to deliver tactical messages across premium roadside billboards from 6 th –15 th November.

Created by Leo Burnett and produced by Grand Visual, the campaign features tantalising shots of McDonald’s most well-loved burgers, fries and shakes, but when congestion levels rise, and traffic slows, the creative switches to display the brands iconic illuminated golden arches with the simple, relevant, call to action: “Stuck in a jam? There’s a light at the end of the tunnel”.

The media was planned and booked by OMD and Talon and spans multiple screen formats across 10 key cities and spanning 7 different media owners. The dynamic campaign is managed and distributed through QDOT’s digital OOH ad tech platform OpenLoop. OpenLoop analyses real-time data from Google Traffic API and triggers the relevant geo-targeted playout of content to each roadside location.

Katie Parker, Head of Marketing, at McDonald’s, said:

“This data-driven digital OOH campaign uses traffic speed to contextualise copy, reaching drivers with targeted and tactical messages that tap into their mindset in that moment.”

Dan Dawson, Chief Creative Technology Officer at Grand Visual, added:

“This tactical campaign is a great use of the medium. Simple, tantalising, recognisable product shots stimulate the appetite during fast flowing traffic, whilst longer contextual copy lines run during heavy, slow moving traffic, acknowledging the delays to deliver a relevant and powerful call to action.”

Helen Saffer, Business Director at Talon commented:

This campaign is the perfect example of Talon’s smarter as standard approach to planning, fitting seamlessly with how the client and agency want to use media and push the boundaries. Using relevant data we hand selected key sites on the busiest roads in the UK. Through smart use of data we have used Digital OOH to the best of its capabilities to ensure a contextual, striking and relevant message for consumers.

Virgin Trains is combining traffic and location data to accurately tell drivers stuck in traffic how much longer their journey will take them by car compared with how long it would take by train.

The out-of-home campaign goes live today 11 September, targeting car-driving commuters in London, Birmingham and Leeds on large format roadside screen along major arterial roads. It will run until 1 October.

Executions will for instance tell commuters travelling from Birmingham: “Current journey times to London”, “by car” and “by train”.

During particularly heavy periods of traffic, additional, 48-sheet sites at service stations along the routes will be activated.

Created by Anomaly, and produced by Grand Visual, the campaign is managed and distributed through OpenLoop, which analyses Transport API’s data and automates the information according to each poster site’s location. Manning Gottlieb OMD is handling the media and Grand Visual said the campaign is a media first.

The digital out-of-home work, which supports a broader TV, digital, OOH, print and radio campaign, is part of a new marketing direction for Virgin Trains, which is innovating in its use of technology and data.

Anomaly’s first ad for the brand since winning the account earlier this year launched in June.

Katie Knowles, Virgin Trains’ marketing director, said:

“Integrating real-time data feeds into this roadside campaign produces a clear and hard-hitting message for drivers: that Virgin Trains is a quick, easy and viable alternative. During peak travel times when congestion is heavy, the live stats deliver our message in a compelling and impactful way.”

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

“Clever use of data provides a powerful call to action for using Virgin Trains. The campaign is constantly updated throughout the day providing useful, relevant, real-time information. You can’t argue with stats like that.”

Sainsbury’s launches a nationwide dynamic digital out of home (DOOH) campaign, to continue to be front of mind throughout the longer summer days.

Evening rail commuters around the UK will see live sunset data for their local area pulled in to key commuter facing DOOH sites, displaying a countdown of how long they have left until sunset as they head home, encouraging them to embrace these extra hours with a weeknight BBQ as an example of Living Well in the summer. The campaign will be displayed on large format digital screens across the UK’s busiest stations, such as London Waterloo, Manchester Piccadilly & Edinburgh Waverley.

The campaign strategy is fueled by the insight that 83% of people believe that longer evenings are the main trigger for feeling summer is ‘officially here’. 40% then make more effort to leave work on time and 79% like to make more of their summer evenings [YouGov, 2017]. The Sainsbury’s DOOH campaign will work to keep Sainsbury’s summer campaign in line with consumer mindset, expanding the brands Living Well ethos into the frontline summer moment for Brits.

This execution has been planned to encourage people to embrace the longer evenings by communicating ‘Weeknight BBQ is Living Well’ to commuters on their way home for the extra hours the season brings, whilst highlighting that the supermarket understands the importance of these moments to the British Public.

Led by Omnicom Media Group’s PHD, the DOOH was conceived and executed through a collaboration between client agencies Talon, Wieden and Kennedy and production outfit Grand Visual. Dynamic content will be managed through OpenLoop which analyses Met Office data and automates the geo-targeted playout to each individual screen.

Michael Florence, chief strategy officer, PHD, said:

“Powerful data insight enables PHD’ers to get in-tune quickly with customers in order to weave campaigns into the daily fabric of their lives, ensuring brands are thought of, more often, in more buying situations. Combining these insights with the new possibilities that dynamic DOOH advertising offers means we can react and engage in exciting and interesting ways in OOH environments. This Sainsbury’s summer activation is a great example of consumer rhythms planning in action.”

Ellie Dixon, campaign manager, Sainsbury’s, said:

“The nations’ love of longer evenings offered us an amazing opportunity to combine data and our Living Well brand message with something unique and specifically tailored to customer mind set. We work with PHD to ensure our campaigns are aligned to the rhythms of customers lives, but this is the first time we have created something this bespoke, based on what we know about consumers and what the summer season means to them.”

Ben Putland, managing director of QDOT, said:

“This campaign uses the scale and immediacy of digital OOH to target commuters with a dynamic countdown to sunset. Dynamic content is delivered through OpenLoop and provides a powerful call to action to make the most of the long summer days with a sizzling weekday BBQ.”

Martin Pittendreigh, business director, Talon said:

“This campaign is the perfect canvas to demonstrate the flexibility and data driven creativity Digital Out of Home now provides. By linking data driven technology and forensic audience site planning, Sainsbury’s Summer ensured effectiveness through relevancy and provided summer evening inspiration to our audience.”

Today, Age UK is launching a geo-targeted DOOH campaign to raise awareness about the plight of loneliness amongst older people over the festive period and, indeed, at other times of the year too. The activity will see the charity take its “No one should have no one at Christmas” message nationwide in a geo-targeted and contextually relevant campaign spanning roadside digital billboards until the 4th December, 2016.

The DOOH campaign draws on the charity’s ground-breaking ‘loneliness heat maps’ which show the risk of loneliness among older people in every neighbourhood in England. Grand Visual produced the campaign from repurposed poster artwork and each execution referenced locally relevant figures with subtle motion techniques added for those sites that permit it, like Signature’s CityVision, Holloway Head billboard in Birmingham, which announced ‘There are 41,000 lonely older people in the West Midlands’ alongside the strapline “No one should have no one” and call to action to visit www.ageuk.org.uk.

The nationwide DOOH campaign was planned and booked by Talon and runs across Primesight, Signature and Clear Channel roadside D48 networks. The DOOH activity supports a larger outdoor push and is part of a fully integrated campaign spanning direct response and social media. The campaign aims to drive donations, encourage people to volunteer and take action locally, and raise public awareness of the issue more broadly.

Beverley Sullivan at Age UK, commented:

“It is important to highlight this issue at Christmas, a time of year when many older people may feel especially lonely and ‘left out’ of the festivities. DOOH gives us the opportunity to reach a national audience with locally relevant messaging which we hope will really resonate with people and encourage them to help Age UK to combat loneliness at Christmas and throughout the year.”

Dan Dawson, Chief Creative Technology Officer at Grand Visual, commented:

“Digital Out of Home is the ideal medium for reaching a broadcast audience with locally relevant messages. Contextual relevance provides a deeper level of emotional engagement and provides a great impetus to get involved and go online to find out more.”

Netflix, the on-demand streaming service for watching TV shows and films, has launched a socially enabled Digital Out of Home campaign targeting students across the UK. The campaign entices students to interact by posing regular questions alongside a University specific Twitter hashtag and features localised replies on digital 6-sheets across 36 UK Universities.

The campaign consists of 6 different executions and poses questions on a range of popular themes from horror and superheroes to hit TV series Breaking Bad. For example, in Manchester students are told “There’s a haunted shed full of horror titles on @NetflixUK but which one gets Manchester students hiding behind the sofa? Join in at #NetflixUoM”. Both questions and Hashtags are regionalised and replies are geo-targeted in a University specific playout powered by OpenLoop.

The Digital Outdoor campaign is produced by Grand Visual, planned and booked by MEC and Kinetic with creative from Feref. The Twitter activity is managed by We are Social and delivered using the OpenLoop dashboard to a national network of on-campus screens provided by Redbus and Popcorn Outdoor. The campaign will constantly evolve staying fresh and relevant throughout the eight week booking period and will be supported by linear content as well as a static poster campaign.

Three’s ‘#danceponydance’ ad, featuring a Shetland pony moon-walking to Fleetwood Mac has been extended onto digital Out of Home screens. Already making waves online, now the user generated videos created at PonyMixer.com are debuting on digital screens across rail, mall and cinema environments.

Created by Wieden+Kennedy with digital Out of Home production by Grand Visual, the socially enabled, dynamic digital OOH campaign is both geo-targeted and sound enabled. The creative runs through a series of Pony Mashup videos set to different music genres from Bollywood to Boy Band with the call to action to make your own Mashup at PonyMixer.com.

Users simply share their own Mashup videos via Twitter and hashtag their local Digital OOH site for the chance to get their creation on the big screen. The live Twitter feed is pulled into OpenLoop and then delivered to the specified screen with the participants twitter handle, dedication and video.