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We’ve seen liquid billboards, AR billboards, and 3D billboards. But how about a playable billboard? Coca-Cola’s new campaign includes gigantic interactive Times Square billboards and a series of sustainability-focused DOOH ads. Let’s see what the iconic beverage brand did.
Coca-Cola billboard you can actually play with
Times Square became a focus of Coca-Cola’s new awesome campaign aimed at Gen Z. It features a giant billboard that shows a game you can play in real time.
The digital signage installation is comprised of 1,800 computerized LED modules and measures 42-by-68 feet. Now this is an epic immersive advertising.
The campaign was produced by WPP Open X, Grey N.Y. and Dubai Studios. Nostalgia is a big part of the ad’s appeal as it uses the vintage game and combines it with immediately recognizable brand symbols like bottle shapes and the red color.
But it’s also about the audacity to deliver something new in advertising. Many brands have tackled the idea of immersion, but Coca-Cola is currently the only one that could pull off something like playing an actual game on Times Square.
“Engaging with a digitally absorbed Gen Z audience on the streets is increasingly challenging. The onus is on brands to continually innovate and create an unmissable presence,” commented Islam ElDessouky, global vice president of creative strategy and content. “Our latest executions were focused on ‘value exchange.’ OOH is an accessible traditional medium and it’s for everyone, just like Coca-Cola but what are people really experiencing from our brand when it’s on the streets?”
DOOH promoting sustainability
Kitcast Blog has put sustainability among the top retail digital signage trends in 2024. Coca-Cola’s new campaign proves that the global brand is serious about environmental protection. Apart from the gaming Times Square billboard, the beverage giant launched worldwide DOOH ads that focus on recycling.
Running in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, the campaign features the Coca-Cola bottles and logo being “crushed” for recycling. It’s simple, visual, and effective.
“The logo is so recognizable that people instantly know what they’re looking at even when they see a version of it that looks like it has been ‘crushed’ as part of the recycling process,” said Guillermo Vega, global creative network lead at Ogilvy.
Interactive Coca-Cola’s new campaign for Gen Z
And that’s not the end of the latest Coca-Cola marketing efforts. There’s yet another innovative campaign the brand launched. Called “Catch the Coke,” it’s an omnichannel activation that invites people to “capture” the iconic Coca-Cola bottle the moment it shows on the DOOH billboards.
Why omnichannel? Because it’s integrated with social media and encourages users to share their “catch” on TikTok and Instagram.
This activation is a perfect example of the gamification of advertising and using the powers of digital signage to better engage with the target audience.
