How Posterscope and EE got late night commuters home safely
Getting home safely after a night out is every party-goers priority. EE/BT were keen to identify ways to ensure that women and other vulnerable people made it home safely and turned to Posterscope, London's out of home sites and cutting edge technology to deliver the help and guidance they needed. The campaign went on to pick up the Innovation awards at The Drum Awards for Out of Home. Here is the award-winning case study.
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This campaign brought to life in stunning fashion the incredible creative concepts which won 1st Prize at Ocean’s Creative Competition in 2022. Not satisfied with having a great idea, EE were determined to ensure the public were able to benefit from this groundbreaking idea & their market-leading network. Using the latest innovations in Digital OOH including facial recognition software and AR this campaign offered real utility to citizens, made a bold statement of intent on the public screen and made a usually impersonal format directly accessible to viewers, leading to significant uplifts in both sentiment and awareness of EE’s connected network despite only being run during the hours of darkness.
Background
For those who live in major cities, the night is a time of excitement & fun to explore new spaces, catch up with old friends and make memories. However, cities after dark can be dangerous places, particularly for women & vulnerable minority groups. Recognizing a key societal problem and continuing to take a leadership position in the field of female & LGBT empowerment, EE devised Stay Connected at Night, utilizing the power of OOH in harness with the latest technological innovations to guide people home safely as they move around cities at night. EE used their power as the country’s number one network to help both customers & non-customers stay safe with the UK’s first technology-enabled route home.
To address the increasing concerns over safety at night, Manchester City Council launched the Women's’ Night-time Safety Charter, to make the city safer at night and boost the nighttime economy. As a key part of the fabric of city life, OOH was the ideal format to offer practical help to citizens and make their journeys safer, a reassuring presence particularly in the light of high-profile victims of violence such as Sarah Everard.
Objectives
On a practical level, EE wanted to help consumers get home safely through the use of essential apps via their award-winning network, showing the value for money of EE (rather than fighting a race to the bottom on price with competitor telco brands). Working with the key insight that “Of course, I want to have a reliable network – post Covid, I am out and about a lot more. But I also need to make sure my plan has enough data and it doesn’t cost too much each month – especially at the moment as I’m having to watch my outgoings more than usual!”, EE wanted to drive awareness of their Stay Connected offering in a meaningful & practical way to their target audience of Students & under 30s in Manchester.
For this target audience, value for money & quality service are prerequisites for their mobile provider, so EE was determined to demonstrate their credentials in a compelling & engaging manner. Consideration & FCPI (first choice purchase intent) were the key objectives for this activity, as they are the key drivers of brand success for EE.
Strategy
We decided to own the night and help those moving around the city to get home safely. This meant being live throughout the night which other brands may avoid, and having a dominant share of voice so that people could not miss EE. Instead of focused on daylight hours, this activity would be live from 8 pm – 3 am, at all parts of the night out and the night shift. Fewer people would see EE, but the media value would be of far greater value to those who did. Targeting Students & under 30 year olds, we focused on Manchester, home to one of Europe’s largest student populations and one of the most vibrant nightlife’s in the UK. The city has also suffered from high profile stories of night-time assault, and wanted to offer true public utility to viewers.
The campaign would need to use some of the latest innovative technology to deliver clear, practical information in real-time and provide advice to viewers to help them access safe spaces, plan their journey home with live transport data, draw attention to phone charging facilities and brighten up darkened streets with brighter screens.
Execution
To ensure the benefit of the campaign were felt by as many as possible, we activated this campaign from 27th February onwards (before the clocks moved forward & the long winter nights were still occurring, and after the February payday when the number of people socializing begins to climb again after Christmas). The activity ran from 8 pm to 3 am on key dates for socializing across the week, on prominent Large Format Digital & D6s across student hubs and key nightlife areas in Manchester City Centre.
The campaign used 4 innovative technologies to power the creative executions:
Light up – D6s used Ocean’s LookOut facial detection software which detects when a single person approaches and becomes brighter, illuminating a darkened walk home.
Augmented Reality – a live camera feed has a directional overlay, showing people a street-view with directions to safe spaces overlaid on the screen. Screens detect approaching pedestrians and respond accordingly, sharing location-specific travel options.
Live Transport Data Feed – the dynamic content part of the campaign, powered by Liveposter, used real-time transport data to help people get home safely. Each poster location used departing transport information to highlight the next departing buses, trams, and trains, with the nearest mode of transport displaying on each poster location.
Phone Charging – digital copy drew attention to mobile charging points on OOH Streethubs across the city center.
Alongside OOH, the campaign was also supported with social media posts on Instagram & Tiktok, posts from influencers & digital audio.
Results
The campaign was an incredible success, delivering both clear improvements in EE’s brand metrics and reaffirming their positioning in the eyes of the public as a real leader on meaningful issues. As a nighttime campaign, the available audience was only 7% (source: route data) of that during the day which makes the campaign performance all the more remarkable as research was conducted across the broader population.
85% associated EE with the message ‘Stay Connected’
Brand consideration amongst the target audience of 16-34’s was 74%
46% believed that EE was teaching people how to use their travel apps to travel safely at night.
37% believed EE was taking action to help make the world a better place
As well as featuring in the national press (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11789971/EE-smart-billboards-guide-clubbers-home-nights-Manchester.html), the campaign educated people on how to get home safely at night as well as driving talkability around the topic. Pete Jeavons, Marketing Communications Director at EE, said 'This campaign is a brilliant example of how our Stay Connected Data can play an important role in our customers' lives. We're excited to be using cutting edge advertising technology in a new and creative way to demonstrate how EE keeps customers connected when they need it the most."