Wednesday night saw us pick up another haul of prizes, this time at the Creative Out of Home Awards. Five of the campaigns we worked on over the past year won awards, with a further seven garnering Commendations.

We were honoured to receive the prestigious Chairman’s Award for our work alongside Adam & Eve DDB on “Google Front Row”. Our other award winners were “Pepsi Max Unbelievable Bus Shelter” in the Viral category, and “Google Front Row” for Innovation. Grand Visual work also picked up seven Commendations, including our Sydney, Australia “Into the Storm” AR activation in the International category, and “Google Outside” in the Digital Campaign category.

“Dove Ladies Day”, and McDonald’s “See one. Want one.” — activity we also had a hand in — received awards in the Multi-platform Campaign and Experimental/Ambient categories respectively.

What with our recent wins at the Mediapost Digital Out of Home Awards, November has been a proud month for GV.

In July, Grand Visual opened its doors in New York City. It’s been an eventful and satisfying few months as we set about integrating OpenLoop, our dynamic campaign management tool, into the US networks, and building on the creative production work we had already been doing for American clients.

Given that we’re the new kids on the block in NYC, you can imagine how pleasantly surprised we were to receive a bunch of Mediapost Digital Out of Home Award nominations. Our surprise turned to joy on the night when last Tuesday night we walked off with six awards, including Best in Show!

The awards won were: Best in Show for “Google Front Row”, Platform (Augmented Reality) for “Pepsi Max Unbelievable Bus Shelter”, Best Venue/Location Based Execution for “Google Front Row”, Best Park/Sports Arena/Stadium Concert Venue for “Google Front Row”, Best Execution Promoting a Brand within Industry Vertical (Beverage) for “Pepsi Max Unbelievable Bus Shelter”, Best Technology/Consumer Electronics for “Google Outside”.

It was a thrill for our work to be recognised to such a degree by the US industry, and a true highpoint to our first year in the Big Apple. We couldn’t have done it without great clients and agency partners. We hope our success at the Mediapost DOOH Awards will be an indicator of great things for the future of Grand Visual New York.

Last November saw Google launch Google Outside, a location based dynamic digital out of home pilot scheme that served up geo-targeted search results to bus shelters and Underground stations in London. For September 2014, the award-winning campaign has been expanded to offer a greater variety of content, and reach more locations.

Devised by Google and R/GA, the campaign is based on the Google Search smartphone app, and in particular highlights the voice-activated aspects of the software. Creative draws on the key functionality and visual elements of the app, with content tailored dynamically to each screen’s location to display information about local restaurants, shops, attractions, and events. Time of day, and weather conditions are also factored in to ensure that screens deliver useful information to viewers at an appropriate time.

Based on eighteen “story” types — local restaurant information, movie information, or directions to a nearby attraction, for example — the creative allows for hundreds of permutations of each story drawn from genuine searches on the Google platform. Search data is supplemented by location information and data from the Google ecosystem, with the real-time feeds and dynamic content delivery managed by OpenLoop. Analytics from the first two weeks of the activity indicates that over 2000 “stories” are being displayed each day.

Jonathan Conway, Strategy Director, Talon said, “Digital OOH is the ideal channel to show Londoners how the Google Search app can make their lives simpler. Each day we’re delivering thousands of unique search stories, continually updated to deliver the right information at the right time to on-the-go audiences. A lot of work goes on behind the scenes, but when you see it working, it feels magical.”

Neil Morris, Founder of Grand Visual added, “This innovative, contextually-dynamic DOOH campaign is pushing the boundaries in terms of sheer data payloads and the hugely ambitious content distribution. Crucially the activity is supported by real-time monitoring of the dynamic feeds and playout.”

The activity will run for four weeks on 1,240 rail, London Underground and bus shelter screens, making it the largest dynamic, location-based DOOH campaign seen in the region. Beyond Central London, locations include Guildford, Gatwick Airport, Epsom, and Watford Junction.

The campaign is created by R/GA, with digital production by Grand Visual, and dynamic campaign management handled by OpenLoop, the dynamic digital out of home dashboard. Media is provided by Exterion Media, JCDecaux, and Clear Channel, and was planned and booked by Talon and OMD UK.

Google has launched a location based Digital Outdoor campaign serving up geo-targeted search results to bus shelters and tube stations across London. As part of a pilot scheme, called “Google Outside”, the screens adapt Google Now smartphone technology – to provide people with information about their location, such as nearby restaurants, tourist attractions and businesses.

The creative displays the Google search bar and runs through a number of search terms and results for nearby, food, shopping, or points of interest. The results are tailored to the location of the screen, time of day, and also take into account things like the weather – providing information about a local cinema’s on rainy days, for example. Content is refreshed throughout the day and delivered via OpenLoop, the Digital Out of Home campaign management dashboard.

The pilot was created by R/GA London and Google, produced by Grand Visual, planned and booked by Talon and Manning Gottlieb OMD. The campaign runs across 100 Clear Channel UK bus shelters, and 60 CBS Outdoor London Underground XTP screens.