Outfront's OOH campaign sends virtual valentines via Instagram

Brief:

Outfront Media, a seller of subway ads and other out-of-home (OOH) advertising, is running a campaign for Valentine's Day that urges commuters to scan heart-shaped QR codes on digital billboards to activate an augmented reality (AR) filter in Instagram Stories. The AR filter has a Valentine's message that Instagram users can share through the image-messaging app, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.
Outfront's "Share Love" campaign, which launched yesterday and runs through today, shows the QR code on pedestrian-level digital billboards nationwide. Larger-format billboards display a web address that smartphone users can visit in a mobile browser to access the AR filter.
Instagram users who tag Outfront and a friend in an Instagram Story will see their posts shared to the @outfrontmediausa account, giving their messages extra reach, per the announcement. Outfront Media was formerly named CBS Outdoor before a rebranding in 2014, when it was spun off from CBS in an initial public offering.

Insight:

Outfront's "Share Love" campaign updates the tradition of sending valentines for the digital age while combining social media, mobile devices and OOH advertising in a seamless activation. The campaign aims to show how multichannel campaigns can work with Outfront's OOH platform, which has 500,000 displays in more than 70 regional markets of the U.S., its website explains.

OOH advertising is an effective way to reach on-the-go adults who are difficult to reach through channels like broadcast TV. OOH is the most preferred ad format among millennials and Generation Z, per a study by researcher Kantar Millward Brown. Consumers are 48% more likely to click on a mobile ad after seeing a similar ad in an OOH format first, researcher Ocean Neuroscience found in a separate study. One of four consumers will post an image of an outdoor ad to Instagram, per Nielsen. That kind of social sharing helps to extend OOH advertising into the digital realm, supporting viral reach.

A growing number of brands have blended social media with OOH advertising, a powerful channel that urges consumers to visit physical locations while also triggering measurable responses through mobile devices. European dessert brand Gü this week launched a Valentine's Day campaign that combines social with digital OOH in London's busiest rail station to reach on-the-go consumers.

Previously, Constellation Brands' Modelo beer brand in October unveiled an OOH push for Day of the Dead, the annual celebration observed in Mexican culture, featuring a billboard that springs to life via augmented reality. Coca-Cola's Fanta soda brand last year launched a similar campaign that let Snapchat users point their smartphone at billboards, while McDonald's deployed an OOH promotion that included an integration with the same image-messaging app.