Intel Web Content Goes Underground

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

This Intel campaign, planned by OMD, is running for two weeks across London West End DEPs and XTP from 11 September.

Whilst many other digital screen networks around the world are taking web content and publishing it on screens (and have been for many years) this is the first time that CBS Outdoor has, as they say “directly publish web content onto London Underground digital screens in real-time”

CBS Outdoor and McCann Erickson claim it as an “‘Intel’ligent digital media first” (Intel, like most brands won’t be happy with their brand being thrown into a word like that) which is a stupid play on words (who writes these press releases?)

Jon Lewen, Account Director at CBS Outdoor’s Alive told us “Digital outdoor is the hottest new advertising medium around, so it’s exciting for us to see the flexibility of the medium starting to be used to such effect with bespoke treatments such as this.”

The campaign, which looks really good by the way, was created by McCann Erickson and produced by their digital division Chrome and MRM.

The purpose of which is to extend Intel’s online Intel Studio activity onto the Digital Escalator Panels (DEPs) and Cross Track Projection (XTP) networks providing consumers on the move with real-time content updates.

The Intel Studio website encourages people to create, enjoy and share their music digitally. The Studio allows unsigned bands to upload tracks which other site visitors can then listen to and rank according to their favourites. The best acts as voted for are then offered support slots at a series of Intel Studio gigs.

Bespoke content for the DEP screens links to the Intel Studio web site and reveals the current top 5 bands across various music genres.

Each DEP tracks a different music genre and provides a chart for that type with the actual band names, chart positions and band photos pulled in live from the Intel Studio website each time the ad runs.

Therefore the chart as shown on the DEPs will change following real-time voting trends.

Mark Fallows, Director of Digital Content at McCann Erickson also told us “Pushing the boundaries of what is possible using emerging digital outdoor technologies demands that we work more collaboratively with media owners. For us CBS Alive have been the perfect partner. Not only do they take creative ideas as seriously as we do, their great range of formats offer us complete creative flexibility . Working closely with the CBS team in the early stage of the creative development process allows us to maximize the creative impact of our work, and make the most the medium for our clients”

Whilst not exactly an industry first, it’s great to see CBS Outdoor testing the boundaries of what is possible with their technology – rather than just playing on the ‘uniqueness’ of their DEPs as they have done in the past.

This an innovative campaign with one of the world’s major brands – it’s good to see Intel advertising in this digital medium at last


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