2021 Winner
BronzeBest in Out-of-Home/Ambient/Place-Based Media
Government of Canada
(Public Health Agency of Canada)
"The C(ooh)VID-19 Dashboard"
Cossette Media
(Public Health Agency of Canada)
"The C(ooh)VID-19 Dashboard"
Cossette Media
In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the Government of Canada found itself in uncharted and unprecedented territory. It was vital to reach as many Canadians as possible through all available communication channels, and inform the public of health protocols. Their awareness campaign was not only about changing behaviours, but also about saving lives.
The pandemic changed Canadians’ habits and, as a result, they needed to review their advertising practices. For example, was OOH still relevant in a pandemic? Measuring the actual behaviour of citizens would provide some answers, but survey data was unreliable as it was based on perception, not reality. They had to take the pulse of the population differently to adapt their media placements.
At a time when many advertisers had pulled their advertising budgets from OOH, they saw it as an opportunity. They hypothesized that despite the recommendation to stay home, thousands of Canadians were still getting essential goods, while others were unfortunately not following the recommendations. In addition, some provinces were less stringent than others on containment measures. Outdoor advertising could therefore be a relevant communication channel in their media mix if they had a good understanding of the actual behaviour of Canadians.
This led them to develop their own insight tool, the COVID-19 dashboard, in partnership with Hivestack, a Canadian company specializing in programmatic advertising. This custom-built platform allowed them to track actual traffic patterns around the OOH media in real time to synchronize the delivery of the advertising message with the actual traffic measured in front of the OOH faces.
To arrive at the final product, they first had to ensure that the data used by the partner was compliant with privacy standards, a must for their client. Several discussions took place between their team, Hivestack's team and the government to ensure that the data that was going to feed the tool met the strictest privacy requirements.
They also had to ensure that the visualization platform was easy and quick to use to meet their need for flexibility in planning. It also had to allow them to monitor the evolution of Canadians' behaviors by day, by region and by type of display face to keep a real picture of the situation.
After several iterations, the dashboard was finally created. Thanks to the anonymously collected data, they finally had a true picture of traffic near the billboards, and it was at this point that their initial hypothesis was validated. Canadians were still moving, they were just doing it differently.
However, they were still not satisfied. Although they had solid data to support their approach, they wanted to be sure it worked. Would Canadians still pay attention to billboards if they were exposed to them? The agency worked with Hivestack to develop a survey that would measure the effectiveness of their approach. They worked together to define the parameters of the questionnaire before
launching the survey.
Their approach allowed them to use a media type that had been neglected by many. They were able to leverage the analysis and visualization of real, relevant behavioral data to guide their strategic thinking and design effective OOH campaigns, while benefiting from reduced costs and a large, high-quality inventory. Indeed, since many advertisers had already given up on OOH, they were one of the few advertisers to use the medium.
It was also the first time for the government that OOH creative delivery was influenced by real-time traffic data. In fact, the message was displayed only on signs that measured a minimal concentration of people in the vicinity, or that detected multiple devices in close proximity within a small perimeter, making the delivery of the contextual social distancing message even more relevant.
In addition, programmatic OOH offered them an activation advantage because with just a few clicks, they could launch national campaigns across multiple OOH partners' inventories. Plus, they could change the parameters in a short period of time, which was critical given the importance clients place on flexibility, and the dynamic nature of COVID campaigns.
The campaign reached 9.1 million Canadians and 44% of respondents recalled seeing the ad. Of those, 47% said the government's messages caused them to change their behaviour and 59% said they encouraged their loved ones to follow the measures.
They achieved their goal in a time of pandemic by using signage, which everyone thought was unnecessary at the time. Not only were they successful in raising awareness of COVID-19, and influencing the behaviours of Canadians, but they also helped save lives.
The pandemic changed Canadians’ habits and, as a result, they needed to review their advertising practices. For example, was OOH still relevant in a pandemic? Measuring the actual behaviour of citizens would provide some answers, but survey data was unreliable as it was based on perception, not reality. They had to take the pulse of the population differently to adapt their media placements.
At a time when many advertisers had pulled their advertising budgets from OOH, they saw it as an opportunity. They hypothesized that despite the recommendation to stay home, thousands of Canadians were still getting essential goods, while others were unfortunately not following the recommendations. In addition, some provinces were less stringent than others on containment measures. Outdoor advertising could therefore be a relevant communication channel in their media mix if they had a good understanding of the actual behaviour of Canadians.
This led them to develop their own insight tool, the COVID-19 dashboard, in partnership with Hivestack, a Canadian company specializing in programmatic advertising. This custom-built platform allowed them to track actual traffic patterns around the OOH media in real time to synchronize the delivery of the advertising message with the actual traffic measured in front of the OOH faces.
To arrive at the final product, they first had to ensure that the data used by the partner was compliant with privacy standards, a must for their client. Several discussions took place between their team, Hivestack's team and the government to ensure that the data that was going to feed the tool met the strictest privacy requirements.
They also had to ensure that the visualization platform was easy and quick to use to meet their need for flexibility in planning. It also had to allow them to monitor the evolution of Canadians' behaviors by day, by region and by type of display face to keep a real picture of the situation.
After several iterations, the dashboard was finally created. Thanks to the anonymously collected data, they finally had a true picture of traffic near the billboards, and it was at this point that their initial hypothesis was validated. Canadians were still moving, they were just doing it differently.
However, they were still not satisfied. Although they had solid data to support their approach, they wanted to be sure it worked. Would Canadians still pay attention to billboards if they were exposed to them? The agency worked with Hivestack to develop a survey that would measure the effectiveness of their approach. They worked together to define the parameters of the questionnaire before
launching the survey.
Their approach allowed them to use a media type that had been neglected by many. They were able to leverage the analysis and visualization of real, relevant behavioral data to guide their strategic thinking and design effective OOH campaigns, while benefiting from reduced costs and a large, high-quality inventory. Indeed, since many advertisers had already given up on OOH, they were one of the few advertisers to use the medium.
It was also the first time for the government that OOH creative delivery was influenced by real-time traffic data. In fact, the message was displayed only on signs that measured a minimal concentration of people in the vicinity, or that detected multiple devices in close proximity within a small perimeter, making the delivery of the contextual social distancing message even more relevant.
In addition, programmatic OOH offered them an activation advantage because with just a few clicks, they could launch national campaigns across multiple OOH partners' inventories. Plus, they could change the parameters in a short period of time, which was critical given the importance clients place on flexibility, and the dynamic nature of COVID campaigns.
The campaign reached 9.1 million Canadians and 44% of respondents recalled seeing the ad. Of those, 47% said the government's messages caused them to change their behaviour and 59% said they encouraged their loved ones to follow the measures.
They achieved their goal in a time of pandemic by using signage, which everyone thought was unnecessary at the time. Not only were they successful in raising awareness of COVID-19, and influencing the behaviours of Canadians, but they also helped save lives.
Credits
ClientGovernment of Canada - Public Health Agency of Canada
Communications Director: Natalie Rieger
Program Manager, Partnerships/Marketing: Monica Pantusa
Senior communications advisor: Alexander Jasperse
Communications officer: Laurence de Montigny St-Onge
Media Agency
Cossette Media
Account Director: Adriana Novoa
Media Strategy: Jean-Philippe Masse
Media Partners
Hivestack
Representatives: Ben Bookbinder, Dana Tisch
Product Director: Dara Pourafzal
UX Design: Thomas Kearvell