Let’s be honest: most of us pay very little attention to billboards. We pass adverts in the street so often these days, we’d spend hours getting anywhere if we gave each and every one our time.
So when American automotive company GMC wanted to advertise their new SUV Acadia, they created a great experiential activation which guaranteed to grab the attention of passers-by.
GMC created the world’s first responsive facial recognition campaign, which used hidden cameras to detect gender, facial expression, age and composition of the passing audience.
Based on these reactions, the technology enabled one of 30 responsive videos to be played, which provided each consumer with a branded billboard advert personalised to them.
The campaign saw children and adults alike laughing along as they engaged in staring contests, games and even a popcorn eating challenge – all while learning about the new car. Now that’s powerful advertising!
This first-of-its-kind campaign ran for 8 weeks at the Santa Monica Place shopping mall in America, attracting audiences to 8 special screens installed with the technology throughout this time.
Interactive billboards can be a great way to turn something that people see every day into something really exciting.
Another example of this was when Disney transformed a promotional billboard into a live streaming opportunity with Johnny Depp, dressed up in his iconic Mad Hatter costume, to create a buzz for the Alice Through The Looking Glass movie.
Both of these campaigns used to best of technology to engage, intrigue and captivate consumers, while building all-important brand love.