Title	COUGHING BILLBOARD
Brand	APOTEK HJÄRTAT
Product/Service	STOP SMOKING PRODUCTS
Category	B07. Use of Ambient Media: Large Scale
Entrant	AKESTAM HOLST NOA Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	AKESTAM HOLST NOA Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement	IUM Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR	AKESTAM HOLST NOA Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production	AKESTAM HOLST NOA Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Magnus Jakobsson	Åkestam Holst NoA	Creative Director
Evelina Rönnung	Åkestam Holst NoA	Art Director
Hugo Wallmo	Åkestam Holst NoA	Art Director
Lars Bæcklund	Åkestam Holst NoA	Art Director
Mariette Glodeck	Åkestam Holst NoA	Copywriter
Sara Clewemar	Åkestam Holst NoA	Account Director
Jennie Strinnhed	Åkestam Holst NoA	Account Manager
Nisse Axman	Åkestam Holst NoA	DP Director
Henrik Adenskog	Åkestam Holst NoA	Producer
Johan Eklund	Åkestam Holst NoA	Digital producer
Alex Picha	Åkestam Holst NoA	Digital Producer
Eric Karlsson	Åkestam Holst NoA	Motion Designer
Lotta Person	Åkestam Holst NoA	Graphic designer
Ida Persson	Åkestam Holst NoA	PR strategist
Andreas Lind	Cameralink/Andreas Lind	Photographer
Henrik Gånheim	State Interactive	Technical Director

The Campaign

We created a digital billboard that actually coughs when you smoke near it, and suggests healthier nicotine products. Annoying? Maybe to some. Effective? Most definitely. To most bypassers it seems like an ordinary billboard. But when someone near the screen lights a cigarette, the billboard awakens and the model featured in the billboard starts coughing to remind you about the health risks of smoking. Then the (hopefully) surprised smoker gets tips on various nicotine-products to substitute smoking (and coughing). The billboard is equipped with outdoor cigarette smoking alarms that react to smokers lighting up and smoking anywhere near it.

Creative Execution

We installed a device in the billboard to detect cigarette smokers. Not just an ordinary smoke detector, that would never work efficiently, because ordinary detectors don't always react to cigarette smoke, especially not outdoors. That´s why we used a more innovative smoke detector that actually detects people having a smoke, rather than just the smoke. So, when it can't detect the smoke, it spots the glow from a cigarette or the flame from lighting one up. The same technique is also sometimes used outside some hospitals and gas stations in non-smoking areas. This technique was a crucial part of making this billboard work outdoors. The billboard ran between christmas and new year’s eve at Odenplan Plaza in central Stockholm.

The global spread of the campaign was mindblowing. The earned media reach were 430 millions. It put the outdated topic of the dangers of smoking on the map again. It made some smokers angry, but it made most people happy, and once again, it made smokers realize that smoking isn't good for you, and reminded them about healthier nicotine products.

The Coughing Billboard is a media innovation, using digital billboards combined with cutting-edge smoke and heat detectors to create a new type of playful and relevant consumer experience. And through just one single clever media placement around New Year’s resolution time, we generated a cascade of global attention for the campaign.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The strategy was to give Swedish smokers an entertaining yet firm push towards quitting smoking, around the time when most people resolve to quit - New Year’s Eve. The sensors of the billboard made it self-selecting towards the target group of smoker on location, while the film documentation of the installation enabled it to reach a large share of Sweden’s population. But more than providing a relevant and fun reminder, the billboard also tapped into Swedish politeness - motivating people to give up smoking not just for themselves, but for the people around them. Social stigma and improving how other people perceive you are strong drivers, especially in Swedish society, and gave the campaign an extra boost towards changing behavior for the better, and driving sales for the pharmacy’s anti-smoking products.