Google Outside Dynamic Digital OOH
Welcome back to another Top 5 countdown! Today we’ve narrowed down our favourite dynamic campaigns to just five (plus some honourable mentions). 

If you missed the last countdown, where we picked our favourite augmented reality campaigns, you should definitely check that out.

So drum roll please… in no particular order, here are our top 5 dynamic digital OOH campaigns. 

1. Spotify: 2018 Wrapped

To celebrate the end of another great year, Spotify revamped its popular campaign “Wrapped” with a dynamic, digital OOH twist! Spotify’s premium users were encouraged to sign up for a breakdown of their year in music – for the chance to appear on iconic billboards including Times Square and Piccadilly Lights. The campaign gave over 7000 ordinary people the chance to see their name in the famous lights. What an awesome way to wrap up a year!

2. Google: Introducing Explore

To encourage New Yorkers to explore their exciting city, Google launched this contextual, digital OOH campaign. Based on Google Maps’ latest features, the campaign made the public aware of new places and even reminded residents to check out places that they haven’t visited in a while! We love this campaign as it’s messaging continuously evolved based on what was going on at the time. Live in the Summer of 2018, “Introducing Explore” went on to win a silver OBIE!

3. Hiscox: Cyber Live

In a digital OOH first, cybercriminals were unknowingly behind this unique campaign for Hiscox Cyber Live. To drive awareness of cybercrime to small businesses, the campaign creative was responsive to real-life cyber attacks. As each attack took place, a spot on the poster would flash and pulse. A dynamic campaign that was truly unique, Cyber Live went on to win numerous awards including “Campaign of the Year” at the Campaign Media Awards 2019.

4. McDonald’s: The Iconic Weather Forecast

McDonald's McWeather Dynamic Digital OOH

We’ve seen a few dynamic weather campaigns over the years, but none as innovative as the Iconic Weather Forecast. Taking advantage of the ever-changing UK weather, McDonald’s decided to forecast the weather with a savoury twist. Overturned fries became rain, cheese-burgers became sunshine and chicken nuggets became snow… A chip dipped in sauce became the nation’s thermometer! The dynamic campaign was so popular in fact, that it ran for a second year in 2019.

5. Benadryl: Pollen Counts

Benadryl came to the rescue for hay fever sufferers with this clever, dynamic campaign. When pollen counts across the UK were irritatingly high, the reactive-creative alerted sufferers, prompting them to take action with Benadryl. Winning multiple awards, including a COOH award, the successful campaign was re-booked every summer for three years.

Honourable Mentions

It was so hard to pick just 5 dynamic campaigns, that we had to add these honourable mentions as well… Enjoy!

Top Dynamic Digital OOH Campaigns

Specsavers owned trending news and gossip with this hilarious campaign; prompting consumers to ask themselves if a leaking phone was more important than regular eye tests…

Exploring London was made easier than ever with this data-rich campaign for Google Outside. The digital OOH campaign went on to win two Cannes Lions later that year.

The out-of-home industry’s leaders encouraged other industries to “Get Out of Home,” with this tactical campaign.

Who would have ever thought that a camera-wearing cow would make for pure digital OOH gold…

We hope that you’ve enjoyed these campaigns as much as we do; stay tuned for our next countdown!

Hiscox Cyber Live Digital OOH

Originally running through February 2018, the popular campaign for Hiscox ran for a second time during October 2018. Designed to replicate any small business, we built a honeypot system to monitor live attacks from real-life hackers. As the level of cybercrime rose it caused the data-driven poster creative to evolve and react, with the results published directly to billboards. We have gathered some tweets that detail the incredible stats and social reactions during the second running of the digital OOH campaign. Enjoy!

McDonald's McWeather Digital OOH
How to Deliver Dynamic Creative Content

This article first appeared on Digital Signage Today on 14th June 2018.
By Dan Dawson, chief creative technology officer, Grand Visual

Originally used in display advertising, dynamic creative is simply another term for “personalized content,” where the content of an ad is matched to the active audience, condition or mindset. Thanks to the explosion of data sources, plus advancements in the software and hardware systems for processing data, marketers are now better equipped to deliver the right message, to the right audience at the right moment via the best channels.

Hiscox Cyber Live digital OOH

It’s the same for OOH. By simulating the cookie model from the display world, DOOH can layer real-time first and third-party data with local offline data such as time of day, day of the week, geographic location, to build, optimize and render ads that react to the environment, the audience and other factors. Add in machine learning algorithms, artificial intelligence and data science, and you really start to see just how transformative data insight will be to the future of DOOH.

What’s more, is tech-savvy consumers have come to expect this level of intelligence and responsiveness in digital communication. Having been used to seeing personalized and relevant ads online and now even during TV ad breaks, consumers expect digital OOH ads to be plugged-in, smart and responsive. As a one to many medium, DOOH can deliver tailored, contextually relevant messaging that achieves a deeper level of communication whilst avoiding the pitfalls of more invasive personalization in the online one to one world.

Rather than the creative agency designing a hero 48 sheet poster for OOH, now it’s about designing a master layout with thousands of permutations, iterations and levels of dynamism. Where data science informs every stage of the creative process, from planning, buying, concepting and production, through to execution and distribution.

Where people in different parts of the city, country or world will see different pieces of creative based on their surroundings and context. Dynamic creative ads can be rendered or created in real time, when a data source instructs. From a specific location to a recent arrival in an airport, or the weather outside, an ad using dynamic creative can serve content that is relevant to the audience context. Where the creative is so flexible, it can sometimes be quite startling to see ads that make you go “Wow…I was just thinking that.”

What Needs to Happen?

Creating campaigns that truly deliver on the medium’s creative potential will naturally mean a degree of complexity. To implement dynamic creative optimization (DCO) for DOOH requires longer lead times, involves cohesive multi-stakeholder working, and a budgetary commitment. To see DCO successfully adopted, some standardization in reporting across the DOOH world will also be needed. Advertisers need to know which version of the ad has played, when, and where, to help the campaign be as effective as possible, and to help the machine learn more.

This is why the role of the OOH specialist will become even more important going forward, indeed some of our best work has come when the OOH specialist has played an active role in both the media and creative discussions. The unique data, insight, and decades of experience in OOH planning that specialists have, will play a key role in the success of delivering synergized OOH and online programmatic campaigns.

Collaboration between agency, OOH specialist, production house and media owners is paramount and the most successful projects will always be those ones that see all parties truly working together… Driven by data, created by humans, delivered by machine.

Specsavers more important than... digital OOH

The Trailblazers

It takes brave agencies and clients to spearhead this new way of working. But, with the large amounts of data now available, it’s possible to take the guesswork out of the decision making and embrace a more fact-based approach to advertising content.

Google has been blazing a trail in tactical data-informed DOOH creative. In the UK their permanent hoarding on London’s Silicon roundabout runs localized content about cafes, weather, traffic updates, and provides information on what people are searching for.

For the launch of Pixel 2, Google ran a U.K. wide campaign that integrated traffic, rail, time of day, and location data, to bring to life the phones key features at the most appropriate time. And, in the U.S., Google Play Music ran a multi-market DOOH campaign to replicate the music app’s ability to suggest the perfect soundtracks based on the consumer’s mindset in that moment.

Food, fashion and retail brands are also making creative inroads. Fast food giant McDonald’s has been honing its messaging, promoting McCafé’s Iced Frappes when the sun shines, and diverting commuters stuck in traffic jams to their nearest restaurant. The online bidding site eBay has also promoted products and deals based on hyper-local real-time weather conditions.

McCafé Iced dynamic digital OOH

Transport and automotive brands are certainly not being left behind. Audi ran a tactical roadside campaign promoting the intelligent technologies available in their latest cars. Using traffic, time and weather data to trigger the most suitable technology features for the conditions such as the ‘Pre-Sense’ safety feature during heavy traffic, or their quattro-on-demand; all-wheel drive technology during adverse weather.

By exploiting the context effect, and running responsive, data-driven creative, DOOH campaigns can remain relevant, compelling and aligned with consumer mindset.

The Upshot

Data can inform the creative process and help optimize both the media and message whilst the campaign is running. The holy grail.

Dynamic Creative, joins the dots between data-driven media planning and the mindset of a consumer at a given time, in a given place. That is powerful.

Now we need to use it. We need forward thinking brands and agencies to collaborate and make it happen. To help forge these new ways of working, using data-informed workflows, and cohesive multi-agency teams. The machines cannot take over the world of OOH, but they can make it smarter, and more agile. Machines can optimize against the rules that humans set but in real time.