16 Mar 12

More Out of Home Innovation

by Tony Jervis, Director

Hot on the heels of face recognition bus shelters from Clear Channel, JC Decaux have pushed outdoor media in another new direction by tying up with Mr Kipling cakes to dispense, yes you read it correctly, DISPENSE cakes from 6 sheet bus shelter posters. Forget tennis balls, oranges and discount vouchers (which have all been done before), the nation’s sweet tooth is now in for a treat courtesy of Angel cake.

They currently have a test/PR site on Tottenham Court Road in London, but if you thought it was only a PR stunt then think again as the full campaign of 20 x locations is being rolled out nationwide next week for a two week run.

To tempt consumers the site carries a scent function which emits the smell of Angel cake into the shelter which has a touchpad button to press and release a single snap pack cake from a dispenser. Each site contains 500 cakes and will be replenished daily, there is also a timer which limits the dispenser to release a maximum of 1 cake per minute just in case anyone thinks of emptying it and selling them on!

Costing somewhere in the region of £150,000 for the two week campaign it remains to be seen how much value Mr Kipling will derive from this campaign, but no doubt the additional PR it will generate will play an important role.