To make it possible, we developed an exclusive app called “Emergency Route”, that connects the GPS of the rescue teams’ smartphones to the digital billboards around the city using GSM bands (3G and 4G).

Now, if a rescue team opens our app and informs that it’s in attendance, the smartphone sends a message to the billboards that are on the way, asking drivers to leave the left lane free in advance.

The execution of our project started in São Paulo City, one of the most congested cities in the country, with hundreds of ambulances circulating to assist its 12 million inhabitants.

We’ve chosen to start our project in the main avenues of the city that already have digital billboards in the sidewalks. These avenues have the greatest concentration of vehicles passing by.

Our idea only works because there’s an integration between mobile and OOH media. Data transits in these two universes.

The actual geolocation of the rescue teams’ smartphones is a real-time data extremely relevant to this activation. Without this data, it couldn’t be possible send the messages to the billboards that are precisely 1 km ahead of the ambulances.

The digital billboards use this information to replace the ads that are being displayed in favor of our warning, so ambulances can have the left lane free to go.

For the first time ever, JCDecaux billboards are being used to save lives. Three ambulance companies (with more than 30 vehicles each) are already using our app. More than 20 digital billboards are displaying our emergency message and this number is increasing.

In less than a week, our message aired more than 2000 times in the billboards. Rescue teams that are using our app avoid, in average, 4 km per attendance.

87% of the ambulances drivers that are using Emergency Route think the app is an efficient solution. They noticed it helps to get faster in the emergency location.

We’re using a traditional media space in a non-traditional way. Our message can be displayed anytime, without a pre-estabilished media plan.

Brands give space to our communication and, thus, drivers leave the left lane free so the ambulances can pass by freely even in peak hours.

We’re using the city digital billboards located in the biggest and most congested avenues of São Paulo to spread the word, so our target audience are drivers that commute there during peak hour.By being stuck in traffic, they can read, understand and react to our message on the spot. Our message can be displayed anytime, without a pre-estabilished media plan. The rescue team just have to activate our app.

São Paulo is a city with 6 million vehicles and more than 200 km of traffic during peak hours. When a rescue team needs to help a victim over that period, it takes twice the time to get to the emergency location, delaying the delivery of medical care.

JCDecaux decided to do something about it and use its digital billboards to warn drivers ahead of time about the passage of the ambulances. Doing this, drivers yield and help to create an exclusive route so ambulances can pass freely through congested avenues.