This winter, Clear Channel Sweden is using its digital billboards to help Stockholm’s homeless find their nearest shelter. The Out of Home Project sees ad content from Clear Channel’s digital billboards replaced with directions to the nearest homeless shelter when the temperature drops to freezing conditions.
The initiative uses data sources such as time, weather and location as triggers so that when the temperature drops below City of Stockholm’s crisis limit of minus seven degress Celsius, Clear Channel’s digital billboards display directions to open shelters nearby. It is a completely new initiative, bringing organisations that look after homeless people in Stockholm together for the first time on an OOH platform to provide a complete picture of the shelter networks in the city. Across Stockholm, fifty-three billboards have been activated for the pilot programme, focusing on areas that are known to be gathering points for homeless people, which will last over two months.
Ola Klingenborg, Vice President of Northern Europe, Clear Channel International, told us “Our billboards are located where people are, and thanks to technology, we can develop solutions that can help both people and cities. This is something we see as an extension of our work in creating true value in the cities we operate in.”
When temperatures hit Stockholm’s crisis limit, the city of Stockholm together with churches and non-profit organizations open emergency shelters for those not covered by social services, however; information about the establishment of the shelters often does not reach the homeless in time. The Out of Home Project tackles this communication problem by activating Clear Channel’s digital panels which reach over a million people a day in Stockholm.
When the temperature is above the city’s crisis limit of minus seven degrees Celsius, the billboards display information on where people can donate necessities and how one can become a volunteer, as well as open day shelters for breakfast and warmth during the day.
The Out of Home Project was developed by Prime Weber Shandwick on behalf of Clear Channel Sweden. Hanna Belander, Creative Director at Prime Weber Shandwick, was quoted as saying “Out of Home media has never been more relevant. By using digital billboards, we are able to connect with a target group otherwise difficult to reach, while benefitting from an incomparable reach throughout the city. We are proud over that we, by having a value creation perspective on our work, have built something scalable that can make a difference”.
Since launching in November, additional non-profit organizations in Stockholm have asked to be a part of the emergency system, further increasing the potential of the project to help the homeless escape the cold.