Category: Ads

The Disappearing Billboard

A glowing Audi A7 appears in mid-air on a city street at night. Then it fades. The “billboard” leaves nothing behind but steam.

The product truth. Zero emission, water vapour only

The Audi A7 Sportback h-tron is built using zero emission fuel cell technology coupled with a hybrid battery and an electric motor in the rear. Due to this, the car gives out nothing but water vapour from its exhaust.

The idea. Advertising that leaves nothing behind

With such an innovative product, Audi teams up with German agency thjnk to create advertising that mirrors the product promise. A billboard that also leaves nothing behind.

If the claim is “leaves nothing behind,” the medium should leave nothing behind too. The real question is whether the medium can behave like the promise, so the claim becomes self-evident.

Here, “disappearing billboard” means a timed projection onto water vapour, not a physical poster.

How it works. Projection onto water vapour

  • Water vapour is used as the surface.
  • The car and message are projected onto the vapour cloud.
  • The installation appears in busy city areas after dark, then disappears.

In European city streets, the hardest part of outdoor work is creating a memorable moment without leaving permanent media behind.

Why it works. The medium is the message

Instead of explaining “nothing but water vapour,” the execution behaves like it. It turns a technical claim into a visible moment people can experience, photograph, and talk about.

Extractable takeaway: When a product truth is hard to feel, design an execution that behaves like the claim. Let the medium do the proving.

Borrow the disappearing-surface play

  • Mirror the claim. Choose a medium that behaves like the product truth, so the message is the proof.
  • Make it legible fast. One glance should explain what is happening and why it matters.
  • Design for capture. Build the moment so people want to photograph it and share it.
  • Time-box the surprise. Appear briefly, then disappear, so the absence becomes part of the story.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Disappearing Billboard?

An outdoor activation where Audi projects the A7 Sportback h-tron and message onto clouds of water vapour, creating a billboard that vanishes.

What is the connection to the car?

The A7 Sportback h-tron emits nothing but water vapour, so the advertising surface is also water vapour.

Where does it run best?

In busy city areas after dark, where the projected vapour image reads clearly and feels unexpected.

What is the core mechanism?

A timed projection onto water vapour that appears briefly and leaves nothing behind.

Who creates the work?

Audi with German agency thjnk.

EmotiCoke: Coca-Cola Emoji Web Addresses

Coca-Cola, through its campaign in Puerto Rico, tries to make the internet a happier place by turning emojis into a mobile call-to-action. The brand is described as registering web addresses for the emojis that convey happiness, then using huge outdoor ads to push people to try them on their phones.

EmotiCoke Outdoor Ad

Those emoji web addresses route visitors to a landing page, www.EmotiCoke.com, where people could sign up for a chance to win the emoji web addresses for themselves.

The mechanic: emoji addresses that redirect to one place

The execution hinges on a simple redirect loop. Type a “happy” emoji as the web address (with a supported suffix), land on the same destination, then convert curiosity into sign-up. Under the hood, these are internationalized domain names (IDNs) represented in a DNS-safe format, even if the user experience is “just type the emoji.” This works because every emoji address resolves to one destination, so the user does not have to learn multiple URLs to get the payoff.

In mobile-first out-of-home campaigns, the simplest call-to-action wins because the billboard has only seconds to convert attention into a tap.

Why it lands

It takes a behavior people already practice, using emojis to express mood, and repurposes it as navigation. That small twist is the hook. It is instantly legible from a distance, it is fun to try, and it creates a low-friction bridge from street-level attention to a trackable digital interaction. The real question is whether your call-to-action can be copied from a distance and tried instantly on a phone.

Extractable takeaway: When you need mass participation from a passive channel like OOH (out-of-home), make the call-to-action both copyable and inherently playful. “Try this now” works best when the first step feels like a game, not a form.

Why .ws shows up in the story

For anyone wondering why .ws shows up, it is the country-code suffix for Samoa. The campaign is described as choosing .ws because emoji characters were not accepted on common top-level domains like .com, .net, and .org at the time. The additional brand rationale mentioned in coverage is that “.ws” could be read as “We smile,” which fits the happiness positioning.

Steal this pattern: emoji URLs as a CTA

  • Optimize for retyping, not explaining. If someone cannot replicate it from memory, you lose the moment.
  • Use one destination. Let novelty drive entry, then keep the conversion path clean and consistent.
  • Make the first interaction instant. If the page loads slowly or the redirect breaks, the idea collapses.
  • Plan for platform variance. Emoji rendering differs by OS and font. Keep the creative readable even when the glyph changes.

A few fast answers before you act

What is EmotiCoke in one sentence?

It is a Coca-Cola Puerto Rico activation that uses emoji-based web addresses on billboards to drive mobile users to EmotiCoke.com to sign up for a chance to claim those emoji URLs.

How do “emoji URLs” work in practice?

They rely on internationalized domain name support. The emoji the user sees is encoded into a DNS-compatible form, then redirected to a standard landing page.

Why did the campaign use the .ws suffix?

Because the campaign is described as needing a suffix that accepted emoji characters, and .ws was positioned as a workable option. Coverage also cites the “We smile” wordplay as a fit for Coca-Cola’s happiness theme.

Are emoji web addresses reliable everywhere?

No. Support varies across browsers, keyboards, registrars, and operating systems. Emoji appearance also changes by platform, which can affect recognition and retyping accuracy.

What are the biggest execution risks?

Broken redirects, slow mobile load times, unclear typing instructions, and inconsistent emoji rendering across devices. Any of these adds friction and kills the novelty fast.

Durex UK: Dual Screen Ads

When the “real” ad plays on your second screen

People watch TV with a phone in hand. Durex UK used that habit to turn a standard broadcast spot into an interactive experience. Here, the “second screen” is the phone or tablet used alongside the main TV or computer screen.

Last year, Durex UK created a new way for viewers to interact with its TV ad. Viewers who used the Durex Explore mobile app while watching the ad on their TV or computer got a steamy alternative on their second screen.

How the dual-screen mechanic worked

The mechanism was straightforward. The broadcast spot acted as the trigger, and the Durex Explore app delivered an alternative experience on the viewer’s phone or tablet.

That split matters. The TV carried the mainstream version. The second screen carried the more private, more personal layer, where the viewer could engage without turning the living room into a shared moment.

In UK brand communications, second-screen behavior is already the norm.

The real question is whether you can separate a public broadcast layer from a private opt-in layer without breaking the story.

Why it lands in real viewing contexts

This works because it respects how people actually consume media.

Extractable takeaway: If your message has a public-safe version and a private version, keep the broadcast layer mainstream and let the personal device deliver the private layer only after an explicit opt-in.

Phones are personal. TV is social. By moving the steamy content to the second screen, Durex created a “permissioned” experience. By “permissioned,” I mean nothing intimate appears unless the viewer explicitly chooses it, on their own device. Because the broadcast spot only triggers the moment and the app carries the alternative layer, the viewer can opt in privately without turning a shared room into a shared moment.

It also rewards attention. Instead of asking viewers to tolerate an ad, it gives them a reason to participate.

The business intent behind extending TV and radio through an app

The intent is to convert passive reach into active engagement, while keeping the broadcast execution broadly acceptable. This is a smart pattern when you need mass reach but the payoff has to stay private.

Then, on Valentine’s Day this year, Durex UK repeated the same idea via radio. They released a steamy radio spot that also used the Durex Explore app to provide listeners with a similar steamy video experience on their smartphone or tablet.

That is the strategic move. One app. Multiple channels. A consistent interaction model that travels across TV, computer viewing, radio, and mobile.

Second-screen tactics you can reuse

  • Use the second screen for the private layer. Put the content that needs discretion on the personal device.
  • Make participation optional and clear. The viewer should feel in control of switching modes.
  • Design one mechanic that scales across channels. If the app is the interface, TV and radio can both become entry points.
  • Reward attention with a different experience. The second-screen payoff must feel meaningfully distinct from the broadcast spot.

A few fast answers before you act

What did Durex UK do with the Explore app?

They used it to deliver an alternative, steamy second-screen experience for viewers watching a TV ad, and later for listeners hearing a radio spot.

What is the core mechanism?

A broadcast ad acts as the trigger. The mobile app provides the alternative content on a phone or tablet.

Why is second screen a good fit for this category?

Because it keeps intimate content on a personal device, while the broadcast remains suitable for shared environments.

What business goal does this support?

Turning broadcast reach into measurable engagement and creating a repeatable interaction layer that works across channels.

What is the main takeaway for marketers?

If your message has a “public” and “private” version, broadcast the public layer and let the second screen deliver the private layer by choice.