Welcome back to A Creative Review with James Cooper. Today Coop throws caution to the wind for an innovative billboard that makes water out of air!

Combining Physical & Digital to Do Good

All advertising follows trends. We can try but we can’t escape it. There are often multiple trends happening at the same time. Of course we strive for originality, but sometimes an overlap of trends or something that hits the sweet spot of two trends can be, well, sweet. 

One current trend is the combination of physical and digital. The Nike Chalkbot robot for Livestrong (Boooooo!) during the Tour de France took this particular trend mainstream. Once someone wins an award everyone follows suit. I think this still has some way to go though, unlike Lance. I think we will continue to see more cool little science projects played out in the real world like this billboard that makes drinking water from air in Peru.

The other trend is doing something Good. Livestrong (again, boooooo!) was supposed to be doing that, arguably still does, but that trend has been around for a lot longer and will stay around for a lot longer. Corporate Social Responsibility or ‘doing Good’ is where digital was about 10 years ago - in other words it’s one slide at the back of an agency presentation deck. But as sure as Lance’s doping, you can be sure that this page will turn from one to two or three and will gradually work it’s way up to the start of the deck - just like digital has now, replacing the poor old 30 second TV spot. 

So that’s a long winded way of saying, yeah this is cool. It’s now, it’s hip and oh look, a neat little case study film just in time for the awards shows deadlines! 

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That’s all folks! Want to get involved? Send us shots of the best [or worst] outdoor advertising you’ve seen, and we’ll choose one every week. Just email coop@adstruc.com.