Marketers often view channels as silos with their own unique agendas and media formats. However, with the rise of digital integration, those channels are now evolving and blending together, with end users increasingly making less distinction between the media types.
For brand marketers, that means letting go of consistent messaging across every touchpoint in favor of a new, more nuanced goal, one that considers the communication canvas in full, conveying different parts of the story to different channels. By taking advantage of each channel’s strengths and creating unique extensions of a story based on those elements, the possibility for a deeper and more engaged experience emerges.
Outdoor Media is often looked over but the following outdoor media pieces both engaged and intrigued consumers. Some were part of a true Transmedia campaign, while others were merely hints of what could have been if all the channel pieces would have been tied together.
True Blood
The marketers at HBO get it. They understand the importance of Transmedia Storytelling and most of all they understand the importance of entertainment. Their Outdoor Media campaigns help highlight the season’s storyline while creating advertising that is compelling and engaging. Season 2 True Blood DVD Campaign.
For the movie “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”, an outdoor media street art campaign was launched. Utilizing the slogan ” Evolution becomes Revolution” the campaign threw down the gauntlet to British Street Artists and took inspiration from anti-establishment sloganeering and street graffiti. Thru art and outdoor media, the agency was able to instill the perception of an imminent ape uprising in an unexpected way and created an audience emotional reaction before anyone stepped foot into a movie theater.
For the movie “Contagion”, an outdoor media campaign was created using the star of the movie, Bacteria. Lowe Roche , a Toronto-based agency, worked with CURB media company and microbiologists and immunologists to create the one-of-a-kind signs, which were essentially gigantic petri dishes onto which different bacterial and fungal solutions had been carefully painted to spell the name of the movie. It’s terribly gross but for the people who walked by it and watched it grow before their eyes, it became very compelling and once again the consumer was emotionally engaged prior to ever setting foot into the movie. Here is a great video showing the small sign growth: Contagion Bacteria Billboard.
So, next time you are working on a campaign- remember that if done correctly, outdoor advertising is a great channel to utilize.
