Direct Line's New Billboards Hacks Car Radios and Geo Maps to Engage Us in Real-time

Direct Line today announces the launch of a digital out of home (DOOH) campaign – the first using large scale DOOH roadside formats – in support of its new ‘Onward Travel’ proposition.

 

Tailored to match the conditions that consumers see the advert in (e.g. raining in Manchester at 9pm or sunny in Bristol at 12noon), the campaign will use a combination of technology including geomapping and content footage feeds to deliver hyper-relevant digital adverts to consumers. 

 

With the strapline “Don’t let a little accident stop you… Direct Line will get you a taxi to wherever you’re going”, the campaign will run for two weeks from Monday 10th April across six DOOH roadside networks covering five cities.

Created by Saatchi & Saatchi and produced by Grand Visual, the DOOH billboards will synchronise with targeted radio adverts that will play to drivers as they pass the DOOH sites. Additional campaign elements include digital, social and TV.

 

Lucy Brooksbank, Head of MarComms at Direct Line Group, comments: “At Direct Line Group we are constantly striving to fix and prevent the problems our customers face. Our Onward Travel proposition reinforces to customers that Direct Line can fix things for them in a way no other company does, reducing the stress of an accident. Keeping customers moving, even when their car is off the road, is another way of us showing how we are looking to add more value so being able to visualise this through the DOOH campaign is great.”

Sam Wise, Head Of Planning at Saatchi & Saatchi London said: “Direct Line does things that no other insurer does, so it is up to us to match them. We have found Out Of Home can be a unique media channel to assert our differences. Out Of Home is a promise to the public, it is the most bold and confident media if it is used disruptively. Starting with our ‘water moves fast’ campaign last April for the Emergency Plumber Home Insurance campaign, and now with our ‘don’t let a little accident stop you’ campaign this year, we are consciously matching Direct Line’s unique propositions with our own unique and disruptive uses of the media.”

 

The ‘Onward Travel’ proposition provides customers with a taxi to their destination of choice when their car needs to be recovered following an accident. Direct Line is the first insurer to not only launch Onward Travel cover anywhere in the UK, at no additional cost, but also to cover transport of all passengers and items in the car, not just the driver.

 

Anna Berry, Head of Brand Response at MediaCom UK comments: “Smarter, more targeted DOOH makes for improved engagement and will mean more meaningful outreach to current and potential future Direct Line customers. We believe dynamic DOOH will become more and more prevalent in our increasingly connected cities, and we’re proud to part of this exciting activation. The real-time element really invigorates the campaign and reinforces Direct Line as an innovator – as it rightly deserves to be seen.”

 

Dan Dawson, Chief Creative Technology Officer at Grand Visual comments: “This campaign provides contextual relevance with creative that is tailored to the time of day, the weather and the exact location of each billboard, giving a compelling reason to pay attention.”

 

Antonietta Chioccarelli, Lead Creative Partner, JCDecaux Blue, comments: “This Direct Line campaign has demonstrated what’s possible when data, technology and creativity are expertly blended with digital Out-of-Home (DOOH).

 

Saatchi & Saatchi is championing the agility of digital and our new delivery platform to generate a truly ground-breaking campaign.

 

At JCDecaux, Team Blue encourage innovation and creative excellence and we are proud to have worked closely with our friends at Saatchi to create Out-of-Home that matters. We will continue supporting creative agencies to create for Out-of-Home, rather than simply adapt.”