The smart Pop Up Billboard campaign was mainly targeted at an European audience where each country has their own laws and regulations. On German broadcast services Branded Entertainment has to be made identifiable as advertisement. But since we offer people a branded outdoor experience, these regulations don’t apply. More importantly, the campaign focused on the core ideals the smart car stands for. To persuade the audience of something they already know, the smart is ideal for busy cities, we set out to do something different instead of doing a classic ad campaign. Bringing the advert to the audience, straight into the real world.

The uncommon use of an established, common medium is the core of the creative idea. In this case the product is not put onto a poster but rather the poster onto the product. By chance smart cars in action that performed their superior skills in the real world became a living element of Pop Up Billboards throughout the city of Berlin.

Berlin is one of the most crowded places in Europe. Thousands of pedestrians and drivers were drawn to the brand just by passing the billboards. High attention was achieved because of the uncommon placements of a common medium and the integration of a living product in action.

During and shortly after the campaign smart dealers in Berlin and nearby cities reported a distinct increase of purchase requests including test drive registrations of approximately 20%. At the same time the smart website got a significant increase of visitors with direct enquiries. Based on local ips daily requests increased of 25% during the campaign. After all, sales in the Berlin area increased by almost 5% compared to the same period of the year before.

Outside of Berlin the smart billboards popped up too. On social platforms plenty of users spread the campaign by posting the images they made in the streets of Berlin.