PUMA Goes Big with OOH Ad Campaign

Static billboards aren’t enough for brands to generate attention anymore. Consumers today are overwhelmed by advertising, not only on billboards, but also on smartphone screens and even inside their connected cars. The all-encompassing nature of advertising is leading some brands to explore more technology-driven, hyper-targeted approaches.

With consumers today asking for more authentic, personalized experiences, the German apparel manufacturer PUMA recently launched an outdoor campaign that involved audience targeting, programmatic capabilities, and situationally aware screens with hologram technology. PUMA worked with Havas Media and the outdoor ad platform Firefly to design a weekend-long campaign during the 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago. Together, the companies outfitted smart media displays with hologram projectors to display 360-degree images of PUMA’s newest sneaker on the roofs of parked cars in front of multiple Chicago landmarks.

“We wanted to reach fans in a unique way that was personalized and relevant — in running the standout campaign around the NBA All-Star game in Chicago, we were able to reach the most relevant audience and serve content that aligned with their interests,” says Kaan Gunay, CEO and co-founder of Firefly.

Firefly is best known for its full-motion advertising, placed on top of ride-share vehicles and taxis, and its ability to “hyper-target” advertising content by showing specific messaging based on real-time location, event, day-of-week, time-of-day or other data source, like weather or sports scores.

This is actually the second campaign PUMA has worked on with Firefly. The two companies worked together previously during the launch of PUMA’s flagship retail store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. In that campaign, PUMA utilized situationally aware digital screens with granular geotargeting capabilities to reach New Yorkers at the street level. The goal, explains Firefly’s Gunay, was for the campaign to feel “local and relevant.”

This time around, PUMA outfitted Firefly’s smart media displays with hologram projectors and created holographic images of its new sneaker. Gunay says the brand wanted to reach fans in a unique way — and Firefly’s outdoor ad platform allowed it to connect with targeted customers without feeling inauthentic.

“In 2020, brands have to move beyond media planning to build great media experiences for consumers and audiences,” Gunay says. “With this innovative technology, we’re able to deliver a premium media experience to PUMA’s audience in a completely new and meaningful way otherwise impossible with traditional methods of advertising.”

Projected impressions for the OOH components of this campaign, including the hologram, amount to roughly 1 million. However, the NBA All-Star Weekend campaign was part of a much larger initiative that PUMA is working on to promote its basketball products. Although PUMA isn’t sharing its larger campaign results publicly, Gunay says the company has seen a “notable bump” in interest. Firefly plans to run a footfall traffic and brand lift study during subsequent media flights to generate additional insights about the campaign. Gunay expects those results to be available towards the end of June.

“In a world of constant push notifications and mobile ads, consumers are looking for a better way to connect to the physical world,” Gunay says. “Successful brands are aware of this, and they’re leveraging innovative technology to stand out and meet their audience in a way that feels personalized and relevant to their everyday life.”

Stephanie Miles is a senior editor at Street Fight.