Recently, Tesco, a British supermarket chain with stores spread across nearly a dozen countries around the world, hit upon an innovative and frankly ingenious way of using digital billboards to draw attention to their brand.

The billboard in question is located in Dublin, Ireland and is a simple, blank white screen where messages appear periodically.  What makes this campaign unbelievably effective is the fact that the company has hired a local copywriter, stationed such that he can observe the foot traffic passing by the billboard.

So, for instance, if a person is walking past the billboard carrying a loaf of bread, a message might appear that reads, “Hope you got that bread at Tesco!”

This highly personalized approach is the tightest advertising targeting possible, and when people began seeing messages on the billboard meant for them personally, it electrified social media, drawing worldwide attention to the Tesco brand that continues to this day.

It’s one of those ideas that’s so simple that after someone does it, everybody else has a “why didn’t I think of that?” reaction.

The best part about this as an advertising strategy is that it can be made to work for just about any business, selling almost any product or service, and the money saved by not having an expensive design process more or less offsets the cost of having someone physically tied to that location and making those highly targeted messages appear as if by magic.

Does that idea intrigue or inspire you?  Would you like to do something similar for your next ad campaign, or do you want to head off in some other creative direction?  Either way, we can help!  Just give our office a call at 770-391-8528.  We’ll be happy to sit down with you and discuss the possibilities!