Sony Pictures dominates Waterloo station with Ghostbusters campaign

Sony Pictures Launches Immersive Ghostbusters Out-of-Home Campaign at Waterloo Station

Sony Pictures today launches a spooky Out-of-Home campaign across the UK, transforming Waterloo Station into a film-themed showcase for two weeks, to promote the release of the new Ghostbusters movie.

The campaign activity is augmented with a variety of global media-firsts debuting at the Waterloo Station spectacular today, which fittingly plays on the station’s historic identity as a departure station for mass grave transportations during the 19th century.

An exclusive immersion zone in the station’s busy commuter tunnel has been completely transformed with New York vinyl wraps and atmospheric audio, including ghostly noise effects.

Oozing ‘Slime poles’ reaching 8ft will be placed around the station, and a gigantic version of the legendary Stay Puft man breaking through the floor will dominate part of the station, where commuters will be encouraged to capture a picture and share on Twitter using the campaign handle #GhostbustersWaterloo.

Millions of commuters will enjoy a number of retail units disguised as New York subways across the station concourse, stocking Odeon tickets and Ghostbusters merchandise. Ghostbusters business cards will be given out encouraging fans to call the team’s headquarters where they will be able to hear different messages from the Ghostbusters team. The number is also displayed on phone boxes across the UK.

The campaign is uniquely immersive across the JCDecaux media network from start to finish; with advanced box office sales displayed across digital screens in malls and rail stations to drive awareness.

National content displaying fake news on ghostly sightings has also been deployed across the UK on JCDecaux’s Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) network, with comments from ‘witnesses’ and ‘paranormal experts.’ This is also being amplified with experiential activity within the incredibly busy Birmingham Bullring and Manchester Piccadilly using the iconic Ghostbusters car, the Ecto 1.

The campaign concept was created, managed and executed by JCDecaux. The creative was handled by Feref and media handled by MGOMD and Talon.

Stuart Williams, Deputy Managing Director & Marketing Director at Sony Pictures UK said: “We were very excited to work with the team at JCDecaux as a media partner for our campaign for the release of GHOSTBUSTERS in cinemas.  We wanted to deliver more than a pure awareness outdoor campaign and give people the chance to experience GHOSTBUSTERS for themselves and be part of the excitement.  Our campaign with JCDecaux has achieved this on many levels using a range of the outdoor opportunities on offer across a variety of digital screen formats, phone boxes and culminating with our takeover of Waterloo station from July 11.  This will give people the chance to have a truly immersive experience, buy merchandise and purchase their cinema ticket too.  The activity covers experiential, media, digital, publicity and merchandising and is a critical part of our release campaign to make GHOSTBUSTERS the film event of the summer.”

Emily Hyne, Client Director at Talon said: “This is a hugely exciting release for Sony Pictures, so it was imperative that our OOH execution was able to bring this to life in a real world environment. Featuring the giant Stay Puft man alongside Ghostbusters branding and characteristics at Waterloo will add something unique to one of the busiest Rail Stations in the UK. This is supported by a network of National Phone Kiosks and numerous high profile DOOH locations adding incredible impact and awareness for this very exciting release.”