To showcase its festive #ChristmasTogether advertisement this year, Waitrose set up a digital outdoor ad at Westfield shopping centres that is accompanied by artificial snow flurries every 30 minutes. The holiday campaign is set to run on the weekend leading up to Christmas at Westfield locations in the Shepherd’s Bush and Stratford districts of London.
In the #ChristmasTogether advertisement, a group of villages are snowed in at a local pub and come together to make the most of the situation by making a collaborative group meal.
Over the course of the last few years, some billboards have become increasingly theatrical, introducing living elements and interactive features that transform the act of simply viewing into an ad into an engaging, experiential event .
Snowing Billboard Ads
Waitrose's #ChristmasTogether Outdoor Ad is Accompanied with Falling Snow
Trend Themes
1. Interactive Billboard Ads - There is an opportunity for brands to create immersive experiences for their audience through interactive features in billboard ads.
2. Experiential Advertising - Creating theatrical and engaging billboards that provoke sensorial and memorable experiences can lead to brand recognition and differentiation.
3. Hyper-targeted Out-of-home Advertising - By leveraging data-driven insights, billboard ads can be hyper-targeted to reach specific audiences with personalized messages.
Industry Implications
1. Advertising Industry - As billboards become an increasingly theatrical and creative medium, the Advertising Industry should constantly seek for innovative ways to deliver memorable experiences to consumers in outdoor settings.
2. Retail Industry - With the rise of hyper-targeted out-of-home advertising, the Retail Industry can leverage billboard ads to drive sales by displaying personalized campaigns to potential customers near their stores.
3. Tourism Industry - Tourism players can rely on experiential advertising for outdoor campaigns that create a sense of anticipation or longing, through billboards that allow customers to interact with effective virtual experiences or sensory demonstrations.