This month's Good Media Idea comes to us from Smartwater and their "Life Distilled" campaign. It highlights the possibilities that are available when a brand harnesses the power of Out-of-Home combined with beacon technology. The campaign ran earlier this fall in London and used beacons to target select passerby's of certain billboard locations with interesting factoids via push notification, ie. “Click here for the Top 5 ‘distilled’ things to do in Hoxton By Reem Kanj on behalf of GLACÉAU smartwater #lifedistilled.”
It could only target people with the Crowdit or Mapway Bus apps with notifications enabled - but a local insight from a London influencer delivered right to your pocket is going to produce some brand affinity.
Why we like it: It's an innovative use of technology and provides a surprising interaction for the consumer. It's doubtful that anyone found this intrusive, especially since the brand was providing helpful information rather than spamming you with coupons. We like how it extends an out-of-home buy with mobile activation. Plus it is "on brand" for this advertiser: a Smartwater message delivered to your smartphone. Read more about the campaign on Media Life's website.
This tactic does have some drawbacks - scale being one of them - but for the right brand this can add a lot of life to a OOH campaign. What good media ideas have you seen lately? Leave a comment and let us know.