Outdoor Advertising Is Booming On The Buses
Universal Pictures is to promote the DVD release of its Christmas blockbuster, Love Actually, by illuminating London busses with the latest in outdoor advertising technology.
The campaign will see red heart shapes nearly two metres high, pulsating with light, mounted on twenty of the capital’s busses throughout March and into April. The effect is made possible by new technology, dubbed Elumin8, allowing large shapes as thick as a sheet of card to be lit using power from the vehicle itself.
The Love Actually promotion will be the first time the technology has been used, designed to add an eye-catching, animated dimension to poster campaigns and reinforce advertising far more powerfully to viewers. The campaign was created by MediaCom Outdoor and Viacom Outdoor’s special projects team, Impact.
Commenting on the campaign, Aileen Coulson, of Universal Pictures Video, said: “It is a fantastic piece of innovative advertising. I strongly believe that the presence of the Elumin8 Love Actually heart across the capital will provide the perfect solution to the classic ‘how do we stand out from the crowd’ dilemma.”
Meanwhile, another bus-based campaign was announced today as Viacom Outdoor and theatre agency, Dewynters, displayed eight London buses vinyl-wrapped in the livery of different London musicals.
The buses, advertising Bombay Dreams, Chicago, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Lion King, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, We Will Rock You and The Woman in White are being used to promote London theatres in support of Ken Livingstone’s Totally LondON initiative.
The theatre buses have been placed on routes that will pass in front of the shows they promote and will travel the capital’s streets for a year in collaboration with travel authority, Transport for London.
Commenting on the buses, London’s mayor, Ken Livingstone, said: “The theatre buses campaign is a visually striking way to brighten up the capital and to promote theatre, which is one of London’s greatest attractions. I hope this new initiative will encourage Londoners and visitors to enjoy the best theatre in the world.”
Earlier this month the Outdoor Advertising Association announced that the medium’s revenues had topped £225 million in the three months to December 2003, putting outdoor advertising on course to command a record 10% market share of the market (see Outdoor Results Show Record Growth And Market Share).
Universal Pictures: 020 7307 1300 www.universalpictures.co.uk Viacom Outdoor: 020 7478 5240 www.viacom-outdoor.co.uk
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