Potatoes, Viruses and Tic Tacs (Outdoor Ads)

I have decided to highlight three extremely innovative outdoor advertisements: 1) a billboard 2) a bus shelter 3) a store front.

1) Coming to Times Square February 14, will be a 300-foot empty Tic Tac container. When people scan the QR code with their cellphones they will appear in the giant Tic Tac container using augmented reality. To increase the stickiness of this outdoor location, people can then share their pictures via Facebook or Twitter thus extending the reach of this billboard.This is all part of Tic Tac’s “shake up your life” campaign which features many billboards that all unlock something different when you scan the QR code, including games. Looks like Heather has created a refreshing way to captures us all. 

Image above is my creation, I have no idea what the actual billboard will look like. Pipilotti Rist eat your heart out!

 2) Over in England McCain Foods is getting inventive. Their bus shelter features a jutting potato and when you press a button the shelter smells like a bake potato and chives. In theory this sounds great, but I’m always in a terrible mood when I’m waiting at the bus shelter so I’m not sure how good it will be to associate McCain’s Bake Potatoes with this negative experience but kudos for creativity. 

3) The last one is a little closer to home: Toronto. Here advertising firm Lowe Roche had to promote the film Contagion on a $15,000 budget. Taking their cues from a movie about viruses Lowe Roche created signs promoting the movie using fungi and viruses. These signs were installed in a vacant store front that the company rented out. The end metrics on this campaign were amazing!  You can watch the fungi and impressions grow in Lowe Roche's youtube video.

All these campaigns had a limited reach because of their format. However, their creativity has allowed the campaigns to transcend their physical limitations and become viral. The last one became viral the other two are still relatively new, like in the last week, so we will see what happens.