The British weather is uncertain at best. We all hope for the glorious sunshine of summer, but often have to settle for tepid rain. And whatever weather we get, we complain; it’s too hot, too cold, there’s nowhere outside to sit when it’s sunny – a nightmare!

Imagine walking out of a busy station looking for the ideal place to go for that first drink of the night. To help guide consumers and prime them for drinking Pimm’s, we created a new data stream from sensors installed in bars and pubs which understood - in real time - how many seats were available in a nearby pub garden or inside.

The sensors fed data into a digital outdoor campaign which served dynamic, localised creative that helped our thirsty consumers find a seat in the sun, or inside if it was cloudy to enjoy a Pimm’s and Lemonade.

The localised creative featured the name of the nearby pub and featured a half-full or nearly-full Pimm’s Jug to demonstrated how near the pub was to capacity. If the weather was sunny and over 16 degrees, we told people where there were seats in the sun, if the pub was filling up fast or if there was plenty of space.

On days less than 16 degrees we directed people to the pub near them where there were seats inside. The sensors measured occupancy every five minutes so that pubs were removed when they were full: people were only directed to pubs with capacity.

The digital out-of-home was supported by dynamic mobile paid search activity on Google, which replicated the out-of-home idea using the sensor data to inform localised search copy.

Please see ‘confidential information for the jury’ for results

“We’re really excited about this trial which marks both a unique partnership with some of our customers and innovative use of footfall and thermal sensors in an out-of-home campaign. We’ve chosen transport networks to try to win that vital first drink of the night. When the sun is shining, we know our consumers enjoy a Pimm’s and find somewhere with the space to do – and we’re using technology to help them do just that,” Jonathan Ansell, New Technology & Media Innovation Manager, Diageo.

We used emerging technology to help put a classic British brand on the front foot by developing ‘media as a service’ – an innovative campaign that helped people find seats in the sun, or in the shade, to enjoy a Pimm’s Cup.

We needed to find a low-cost way to measure how busy pubs were in real time so we looked to the start-up community to find a technology solution. We found an iBeacon start up to run a trial negotiated with nine popular pubs in Victoria and Clapham in London. We installed signs inside the pubs that explained to the public we were using this data to inform advertising.

The sensors picked up on signals being sent by drinkers’ smartphones to understand how full the pub garden and bar itself were in real time. We then anonymised this data to turn it into an ‘index of busyness’.

This busyness index was combined with a real-time feed of local weather conditions, using a dynamic content management system, to deliver tailored copy to digital six sheets in close proximity to the on-trade locations.

Pimm’s is a quintessentially British tipple that is synonymous with the great British Summer fun. The Pimm’s O’Clock campaign has been running for several years inviting Brits to kick back and enjoy some downtime at the end of the day with a Cup of Pimms.

However it faces competition from rising craft beer, fruit flavoured cider and sparkling wine that are all targeting the same warm weather occasions. With greater competition we needed to find innovative ways to ensure Pimm’s O‘Clock was top of mind for consumers especially in the on trade.

Historically, Pimm’s had used use out-of-home media to be front of mind nears bars and pubs. We saw an opportunity to play to the always on digital economy and use out-of-home media to deliver add value to our drinkers.