As the most photographed city in the world, New York’s famous landmarks offer amazing photo opportunities. Canon wanted to help everyone get the best photos possible all around the city.

So, we created smart billboards – digital screens and trucks equipped with giant LED monitors — that tapped into real-time API data to provide customized photo tips to photographers at the city’s most visited locations.

We determined the most popular areas in NYC where people were known to take the most photos, and then established our media in those places.

For our strategy to work, the creative had to be personalized for each location, so our billboards tapped into readily available data feeds – including weather, traffic, light, etc. – which were then analysed to determine the most relevant photo tips to serve based on current conditions in the area.

With less than two months to plan and execute, we developed over 200 data-influenced photo tips to be served as animated videos on each of our billboards, tailoring the tips to each location to enhance relevance.

We built a custom program that tapped into various real-time API data streams, which were layered and analyzed to determine the most relevant photo tip to serve at any given moment.

Our billboards provided photographers with the most relevant tips for their current conditions – from rainy and sunny days, to special events and beautiful traffic light opportunities. If conditions suddenly changed, the creative was immediately updated.

At certain locations, we even deployed “street teams” to offer assistance to photographers in need of additional coaching, and to give them access to try out Canon cameras and products.

Canon Photo Coach generated more than 27 million earned media impressions, with two million impressions alone being generated through on-the-street engagement.

Additionally, the effort drove a 1,485% increase in brand engagement and exceeded average weekly social shares for the brand by 31% despite a lack of online media support.

To maximize our exposure, we needed to reach photographers at the most photographed locations in New York City, the moment they were taking photos. We determined these locations through a combination of social listening and photo metadata analysis.

Then, we established our billboard media placements featuring real-time, responsive data capabilities essential for the campaign to succeed at these locations.

Canon’s mission is to help everyone realize their creative vision, and to provide the tools and knowledge to make it a reality – in a way that informs and inspires.

Many amateur photographers lose great photo opportunities just because they are not aware of what can make a great picture. Canon saw an opportunity to not only help them to capture unique images, but to help educate them about what goes into taking a great photo in the process.

Our objective was to create a campaign reflective of Canon’s heritage of being an innovative, technology-focused brand — characteristics found in all of its products – that provided photographers the tools and knowledge needed to take amazing photos. And, our messaging had to reach photographers at the most critical time – right when they were snapping their shots.