INTRO
On March 11th, 2020 the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a Pandemic. This led the World Out of Home Organization to ask the question, what can OOH do when everyone is being told to stay at home?
We wanted to rally the OOH industry for a uniting cause, sharing positive messages to counter all the negative headlines. By opening billboard space up to the general public, we could give people the opportunity to share personalised messages, and see themselves on iconic screens around the world. Hopefully adding a few more smiles on people’s faces, and sharing a little love.
EXECUTION
So we created an OOH powered, socially shareable campaign that sent love around the world. Encouraging people to get creative and send their ‘Heart Hands’ photos and messages to the friends, family and places that they were missing. We broadcast these messages on billboard screens all around the globe, sharing ‘in-situ’ photos to encourage further amplification on social media.
The World out of Home Organization rallied members, with 68 Media Owners generously donating $15 million USD worth of billboard space, and some of the most iconic billboards and locations around the world, including Piccadilly Lights in London and Nasdaq Times Square.
RESULTS
Social and PR amplification meant that the OOH campaign, at a time when everyone was staying in, still reached an audience of over 138 million worldwide.
The campaign generated/ran on $15 million USD worth of donated media space. And over the period the campaign was live, over a thousand people around the world had their moment of fame and shared love on some of the most iconic billboards and locations around the world, including Piccadilly Lights in London, Nasdaq Times Square, and Central Worldwide House in Hong Kong.
Mark Flys from WOO commented:
“At a time when there was lots of uncertainty in the world and anxiety was rising, it was great that we could use OOH as the canvas for #SendingLove around the world – and put a smile on thousands of faces by giving them their moment of fame on a billboard. We had families #SendingLove to the places they were meant to be on vacation and friends #SendingLove to loved ones in other countries. We even had some brothers send reciprocal messages to each other via billboards from Perth, Australia and Newcastle, England.
And on a personal note, it was great to see so many of our global members come together, spend time, effort and resource to support this campaign when the industry was going through one of it’s most trying times to date. It really is a testament to the power of OOH, and what we can achieve when we work together.”