The Platinum Jubilee: A Great Showcase for the Possibilities of OOH

After seventy years of dedicated service, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee. A once in a lifetime event, the public was given an extended bank holiday to celebrate. Which of course, they did by getting outside and being a part of this national event.

Over the four-day event, both live and TV audiences were wowed with a traditional trooping of the colour, an eccentric pageant and a star-studded concert. This provided a huge audience for OOH, with McDonald’s and John Lewis both capitalising on this opportunity.

Outstanding OOH Moments at Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee

The Weekend Footfall Increased +17.1% 

Footfall over the Jubilee week was up an impressive +17.1% vs the May average, with the number of people visiting shops increasing by +17%, also. 8.5 million tube journeys were made throughout the four-day weekend as well as over 13.5 million bus journeys.  

Despite current cost of living concerns, the hospitality industry benefited well from the Jubilee weekend too. Spending at restaurants rose +41.5% over the weekend, with a +67.3% increase in spending at pubs, bars and nightclubs. This boost is estimated to be worth 2 billion to the hospitality industry.

OOH Formats Stealing the Show  

From the drone light show to the dazzling projection mapping onto Buckingham Palace; these were just a couple of incredible executions that wowed audiences. They are also innovative ways that brands can advertise using OOH.

Keep reading for OOH formats that are fit for royalty and have the power to elevate a brand’s reach beyond the streets.

Bus Advertising 

Seven classic London buses played a surprisingly big role in the Queen’s Jubilee pageant, each wrapped to represent a different decade of the Queen’s reign. To achieve this, the buses were completely wrapped with different icons and memories from the decade it was representing. To top it off, the buses were ridden by iconic Brits including Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Sir Cliff Richard.

There are currently 37,800 buses in service across the UK, resulting in 4.5 billion annual journeys, 2.2 billion of which are made on London buses alone. According to Route, bus advertising reaches over 48 million adults over a typical two-week period, resulting in incredible reach for advertisers.

Bus advertising is well received with 4 in 5 Londoners recalling seeing a wrapped bus and 85% preferring buses with ads.

Projection Mapping 

At the Concert Party, as day turned into night, the scene was set for an incredible projection mapping show. Buckingham Palace lent itself as a customisable backdrop for the performances as well as a blank canvas in which images and videos of the Queen throughout the years were illustrated.

Projection mapping allows brands to seamlessly blend a building canvas with brand creative. We carefully build bespoke content which interacts with and amplifies the building’s features. The result is a turbocharged DOOH installation with serious impact.

Often iconic and famous buildings that tower over target cities to amplify the message even further are chosen.

Drone Light Show 

Before the final act, audiences were left stunned by a spectacular drone light show of the Queen’s favourite things. These included an animated Corgi, teapot and swan. As the show ended, the drones formed a message that read, “Thank You Ma’am.” Using 400 drones, it was reported that the show could be seen away from Buckingham Palace.

Consisting of illuminated and choreographed groups of drones, drone light shows can recreate desired images and words in the sky via a computer program that creates flight commands from graphics. To find out more about the brand-building capabilities of drones, please click here.

The Jubilee has provided us with some inspiring examples of OOH executions and showcased how they can be used to maximum effect. Talon’s Creative Solutions team and Grand Visual are on hand to support and develop your campaign ideas.

If you found this blog inspiring and want to discuss how you could execute a campaign for royalty, please get in touch.