Turning billboards into bags

Leftover vinyl from billboards, bus shelters and bus wraps were used to create these bags for Chevrolet Canada:

Headache lights

Here is a bus ad in Toronto for Aspirin:

Fry night light

Here is a print ad from Canada for McDonald's:

Too bad this is only a print ad, it would make an amazing piece of direct.

Christmas pictograph print, eh?

Here are the Christmas-infused print ads for Canadian toy retailer Brain Candy Toys: 

This series of print revisits the concept of mixing adorable graphics, mathematics and pictograms that were used earlier this year, giving it a pinch of seasons greetings.  The Christmas-y ads mathematically represent the stories of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, the toy distribution protocol of Santa Claus, and A Christmas Carol's Ebenezer Scrooge being visited by 3 Pacman ghosts.   

This Christmas iteration of the pictogram theme is not as clear as the fairy tale version and it required a little more noodle-scratching on my part to riddle it out.  Perhaps that speaks more to the fact that I need to brush up on my Christmas stories. Why is Santa's Coming list being multiplied by 2?  And then I realize, it's because he's checking his list ... checking it twice.  That made the print ad more enjoyable once I figured it out.  

But the Scrooge print ad seems uber-minimal, even for my minimalistic tastes.  What about Tiny Tim, eh?

Urban boxes

Here is an ambient ad in Vancouver for furniture and home decor store Urban Barn:

Boxed versions of a Bënch, Hydränt and Littër bin were placed in front of an Urban Barn store. 

Looks fast... even in park!

Here's an out-of-home campaign for the Mercedes Benz 2012 C-Class Coupe in Canada:

Blurred 3D models of a mailbox, street parking sign and fire hydrant were placed next to the 2012 Mercedes Benz and a billboard that reads:

Looks fast.  Even in park.  The 450hp 2012 C-Class Coupe.

Not every car can be a MINI

Here is an ambient stunt for MINI in Canada:

For Halloween, MINI car covers were placed over other vehicles so these owners can experience the playfulness of owning a MINI.

An unexpected beetle

Here is an augmented reality app in Canada for Volkswagen:

Passersby can download the associated app and scan Volkswagen billboards to see the animated "Juiced Up" version of the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle. 

Ambient speech bubbles

Here is an ambient campaign for the Calgary Film Festival:

 

Stickers that resemble speech bubbles were placed on random posters in Calgary with quotes like "Film festival?  Isn't that French?," "Film Festival?  No thanks, I'd rather read,"  "Film Festival?  Is this what hippies do with their money?, "Film Festival?  But I'm not Athiest," "Film festival?  Well laa-dee-daa.," "Film Festival?  No thanks, I only like movies with famous people in them.," "Film festival?  Maybe if I'm drunk."    

Restore your hairline with these outdoor posters

Here are some 3D posters in Canada for Hair Club:

Constructable billboards

Here are some billboards from Canada for Canac Hardware Store:

Portions of these ambient-y billboards appear as if they had been popped to construct a "Fence," "Shutters," and "Reindeer" for Santa.

Birds magically fly out of this hat

Here's a billboard in Quebec for the Quebec City Magic Festival:

To show a "magic trick" via outdoor, this ad featured the quintessential top hat used by magicians.  As pedestrians walked by, it would seem like birds were flying out of the top hat.  Being a magical festival, they don't "reveal their secrets," but I assume their secret trick is bird seed. 

I really like the concept of this outdoor ad, but I think it would have been even more of a spectacle if the part of the billboard that said "Festival de Magie de Quebec" was smaller so they could have had a larger top hat.  More birds could feast on the seed, and would have been more dramatic if a whole flock of birds flew out.

Interactive ice sculpture promotion

Here is an ambient ad from Canada for McDonald's "Cool off with $1 Drinks" promotion:

$4,000 worth of Canadian dollars, or "loonies" as the Canadians like to call them, were encased in sheets of ice and shaped into the iconic McDonald golden arches.  People chipped away at the seven foot tall ice sculpture for the icy coins. 

Bottled water plants

Here's an ambient ad for Desani bottled water in Canada:

Topiary plants were shaped to looked the bottled water. 

 

Iron Kore coupons are not for the weak

Here is a promotion for Iron Kore Performance Training in Toronto, Canada:

Concrete slabs were used as coupons to attract people who were serious about their workouts.  

The brick reads: 

Present this coupon for:

One free month package

Iron Kore Performance Training

Smart little gifts

Remember what I was saying about miniatures?  Here is a series of cards mailed out during the holidays from Smart Canada.  Miniature-sized holiday goodies were made and affixed to the card.  It included tiny candy canes, wrapping paper, tinsel, ornaments and a vinyl record of Christmas favorites.  

A smart car may be small, but it provides a big amount of joy.

Honda breakfast prize

This out-of-home ad is for Honda in Vancouver:

The Prize on Vimeo.

They constructed a large breakfast cereal box with cereal O's that people could actually play with.  The Honda Civic was arranged so it looked like the car was the special prize inside the box.

Educational pictograph print, eh?

Here's a great series of print ads for Canadian educational toy retailer Brain Candy Toys in Nova Scotia: 

 

The print ads use a combination of cute graphics, pictograms and mathematics to give a quick visual rendering of The Three Blind Mice, Humpty Dumpty, Cinderella and the Three Little Pigs.

What is the conversion rate for Monopoly money?

This is a fun promotion for McDonald's Monopoly game in Vancouver:

There are some nice touches in this promotion including a sidewalk decal that looks like the Monopoly GO square, and the Monopoly money tunnel.  Since chances are most people do not walk around town with Monopoly money in their pockets.  

The explainer doesn't say what the conversion rate was for Monopoly money to get the free fries.  I am kind of curious since it looked like cashiers were giving away Monopoly money as "change."  But if customers are already in McDonalds, spending fake money for free fries, the odds they'll spend real money on a burger or drink to go with their fries is pretty good.

Goo things come to those who wait

For Easter, the Cadbury Cream Egg Canada site has a Cad-a-pult.  Very cute.  

Not to be confused with a Cat-a-pult.

The arrow on the site is marshmellow, eh?  [Nice touch].  So you enter the coordinates.  I chose the Empire State Building.  ...and this part does take some time to load.  They do things a little slower in Canada, eh?  Then you pull down the Cad-a-pult arm and then you GOO!  Actually I held down too long, and my Cadbury egg rolled away.  It actually took me five tries to properly launch my egg, and I missed the Empire State Building by a bit.