THE OUT OF HOME PROJECT

Short List
TitleTHE OUT OF HOME PROJECT
BrandCLEAR CHANNEL
Product/ServiceSHELTER FOR HOMELESS
Category A07. Use of Real-time Data
Entrant PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production BANNERBOY Stockholm, SWEDEN
Credits
Name Company Position
Hannes Kerstell Prime Client Director and PR Strategist
Jennie Körnung Prime Project Manager
Hanna Belander Prime Creative Director
Felix Holfve Prime Art Director
Robin Wiman Prime Art Director
Daniel Wahlström Prime Media Specialist
David Klagsbrun Clear Channel PR and Communications Director
Ola Klingenborg Clear Channel CEO Clear Channel Northern Europe
Charlotte Lindqvist Bannerboy Executive Producer
Alexander Falkhammar Bannerboy Creative Developer

Why is this work relevant for Creative Data?

The Out of Home Project is based on data - and the creative use of it is the foundation of the project. It’s a great example on how you can use different data from different sources for something good. It’s built on a state-of-the-art data driven system.

Background

Our mission was to show the possibilities that digital screens have to offer. Furthermore, Clear Channel is an active player in the cities where they are present through developing their screens in many different ways. Our starting point was the great amount of homeless people that are increasing in Sweden every year. This year, the question was more relevant than ever before. We chose to take advantage of the fact that winter was approaching, and that there are more and more vulnerable people in need of extra help. The City of Stockholm has also given directives that more shelters need to open up when temperatures reach -7 degrees. The problem was that few found their way to the shelters. Therefore, we wanted to showcase the digital possibilities through creating something that truly contributes to social benefit.

Describe the Creative idea / data solution (20% of vote)

The winters in Sweden can be cold – and at extreme temperatures the risk for fatal frostbites increases. Therefore, temporary shelters open up all around Stockholm when temperatures drop below -7 degrees. The problem is that too few know that they exist and where they are located, which results in that too few find their way to the shelters. We wanted to solve this. So, we turned Clear Channel’s network of digital billboards into an emergency system. When the temperature dropped to negative 7 degrees or colder, the screens directed homeless people to their closest emergency shelter. By using real-time data and GPS coordinates, collected from a number of organizations and institutions. At temperatures above -7 degrees, the screens showed information about the nearest free breakfast is located or other real-time information.

Describe the data driven strategy (30% of vote)

To ensure that we were going to solve an actual problem, we teamed up with organizations like Stockholms Stadsmission (a Swedish charity tackling homelessness through social care, work integration and education) and Ny Gemenskap (a non-profit organization offering food and shelter to homeless) early on to form the idea to meet real challenges. We collected data from those charity organizations and paired it with data sourced from open APIs such as weather, GPS coordinates and time. These partners gave us access to insights and data which helped us further understand the problem. During the winter, more organizations showed interest in contributing, and we were able to connect them to the emergency system, displaying their information in real-time. Depending on day, time, location and temperature, the digital screens displayed different messages. We used digital out of home displays in areas with a high concentration of homeless people.

Describe the creative use of data, or how the data enhanced the creative output (30% of vote)

We created a program using the coordinates provided by Clear Channels out-of-home units to map out a route to each location using Google Distance Matrix API. After cleaning up and formatting the data provided by the API we created a precomputed table that we could easily access without having to rely on third party services, ensuring stability even in a scenario of the internet going out. This table contained the unique screen ID, coordinates and the distance to every shelter from that coordinate. We made use of a weather API from SMHI to fetch local temperature/condition updates. We limited the API update frequency to sync up with the institute to avoid unnecessarily straining their systems, saving the temperature in local storage until a new request was made. Assets and scripts were hosted on Amazon Web Services in a single page, versions of the screens were selected in real

List the data driven results (20% of vote)

89% of people reached by the campaign have a positive impression of the message, which means that the initiative had the second highest liking of all measurements in Sweden ever done by Clear Channel since they started measuring 20 years ago. A total of 78% have become more positive towards Clear Channel after having seen the campaign, in comparison with the benchmark of 30%. Furthermore 4 out of 10 became interested in buying a product or service from the sender, which is higher than the benchmark of 2,5 out of 10. When it comes to communication, the project has reached over 78 million people in earned organic media, thanks to 120+ Swedish and international news articles. A month after the project started, an 85 precentral increase could be recorded with people saying that they experience that they get information about the homeless’ situation from outdoor advertising.