Ads 9 | SunMatrix Ramble

Thalys: Sounds of the City

To encourage people to use the train to go and explore nearby cities, railway service Thalys creates three interactive billboards. Each billboard represents a city, and each is host to more than 1,000 unique sounds from that city.

Pedestrians who walk past these billboards are invited to plug in with their personal headphones and start exploring. So instead of using headphones to block out the city, they are made to use them to rediscover one.

When a billboard becomes a listening device

The mechanism is the whole point. A city map on a billboard doubles as an audio interface. Plug your headphones into different points and you unlock different sounds, turning a familiar out-of-home billboard format into a self-guided micro journey.

That matters because the interface makes exploration feel self-directed, which is why the destination becomes memorable before the trip starts.

In European high-speed rail travel, nearby cities compete on spontaneity and sensation as much as price or schedule.

Why it lands

This works because it flips a modern habit. Headphones usually remove you from your surroundings. Here they pull you into a destination you have not reached yet, using curiosity and discovery instead of discounts and slogans.

Extractable takeaway: If your audience already carries an interface, design the experience so their default behavior becomes your entry point. Then reward exploration with variety, so people keep trying “one more” interaction.

What Thalys is really selling

The real question is not how loudly you advertise a nearby city, but how quickly you make it feel explorable.

For travel brands, a sensory preview like this is stronger than another fare-led message.

The campaign sells proximity. You do not need a long promise about travel. You get a sensory preview that makes the next city feel close and personally explorable, even in the middle of your current one.

What travel marketers can lift from this

Turn passive media into a tool. If the unit does something, people approach it voluntarily.
Build a library, not a single message. 1,000+ sound fragments makes repeat interaction feel natural.
Use “rediscovery” as the hook. Familiar objects can become new experiences with one clever twist.
Let the audience choose the path. Interactivity creates viewer control and longer dwell time.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Thalys “Sounds of the City”?

It is a set of interactive billboards that let passersby plug in headphones and explore a city through a large library of location-specific sounds.

Why use sound instead of visuals?

Sound creates immersion fast and feels personal through headphones. It also differentiates travel advertising that usually relies on images.

What behavior does the idea exploit?

People already carry headphones and use them in public. The billboard redirects that habit from blocking out the world to exploring a destination.

What is the main metric to watch for OOH interactivity like this?

Dwell time, repeat interactions per person, and any measurable lift in intent or searches for the featured routes and cities.

How can another brand apply the pattern?

Identify a “portable interface” your audience already has, then design a physical touchpoint that turns exploration into the reward.

Brake New Zealand: Living Memories

Five families sit down to meet someone they have not seen in years. Not in footage, and not in memory. They are shown a new portrait of what their child would look like today if the crash had not happened.

That is the emotional core of “Living Memories”, a campaign created for New Zealand road safety charity Brake with Y&R New Zealand. Five bereaved families volunteer their stories and photographs. A forensic age progression specialist creates an age-progressed sketch for each child, then Weta Digital applies a film-grade 3D character workflow to render those sketches into lifelike portraits.

From forensic sketch to a portrait that feels real

The mechanics are deliberately simple and respectful. Start with family photos. Build a plausible “today” version using forensic age progression. Then use a VFX-grade craft process to land realism: facial structure, skin texture, hair, lighting, and the small imperfections that make an image feel like a person, not a concept.

In interviews about the project, the team describes avoiding the usual driver-centric shock formula. Instead, the work reframes a fatal crash as a theft of future, not only a loss of life. The portraits are the device that makes that reframing unavoidable, which is why the work lands as empathy instead of another warning people learn to tune out.

In road safety communication, behaviour change work gets stronger when it makes consequences specific, personal, and imaginable, rather than statistical and abstract.

Why it lands without lecturing

The real question is how to make the cost of a crash feel immediate before another family has to imagine the years that never happened. It works because it replaces generic warning language with a concrete counterfactual. That counterfactual means a specific life that should have continued. You are not asked to fear injury. You are asked to face a specific life that could have continued. That shift moves the message from compliance to empathy, and empathy is harder to shrug off. This is a stronger road safety move than another driver-centric shock ad because it turns consequence into empathy instead of noise.

Extractable takeaway: If you need behaviour change, pick one vivid, human “missing future” moment your audience can picture in seconds, and build your creative device around making that moment feel undeniably real.

The brand and charity intent behind the emotion

Brake’s job is awareness plus support for people affected by road trauma. This execution earns attention without spectacle, and it gives the charity a clear platform story to carry through the week. For Y&R, it is a case study in how craft and restraint can outperform volume, especially when budgets are limited.

What to steal for your next high-stakes message

Stop telling people to “be careful”. Show the specific, lifelong cost of one decision.
Use a single, truthful device. Here, it is age progression plus realism, not a pile of tactics.
Cast real stakeholders, not actors. Voluntary participation carries moral weight and credibility.
Let craft carry the persuasion. When realism is the point, invest in the details that make it believable.
Build the story for earned reach. The reveal moment is inherently newsworthy and shareable.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Living Memories” in one sentence?

It is a Brake New Zealand road safety campaign that uses forensic age progression and Weta Digital craft to show what five children killed in crashes might look like today.

What is the core mechanism?

Family photos become age-progressed forensic sketches, then those sketches are rendered into realistic portraits so the audience can emotionally grasp “lost futures”, not just “lost lives”.

Why use portraits instead of crash scenes?

Portraits shift the message from fear to empathy. They make the consequence personal and imaginable, which tends to travel further than generic warnings.

How do you keep work like this from feeling exploitative?

Consent and dignity are the guardrails. Participation must be voluntary, families must control boundaries, and the storytelling must centre the person lost, not the brand or the spectacle.

What is the most reusable lesson for other topics?

When you need serious behaviour change, replace abstract statistics with a single, concrete “this is what is missing” moment that people can picture instantly.

Powerade: Workout Billboards in Berlin

A billboard does not just tell you to train. It invites you to climb it, lift it, or punch it, right there on the street, then hands you a Powerade when you are done.

Powerade, with the help of Ogilvy & Mather, set up several workout billboards in Berlin that, apart from advertising the product, also doubled up as workout equipment to emphasize the brand’s attitude, “You have more power than you think”. Here, “workout billboards” means the billboard structure is built to be used as simple exercise equipment.

People practicing their rock climbing, weight lifting, and boxing skills on the unique billboards were also rewarded with some free Powerade to help replenish their electrolytes.

Why this works as outdoor advertising

The mechanism is a clean value exchange. The brand offers an activity that creates immediate proof of effort. The participant gets a short challenge and a visible outcome. The product then shows up as the natural next step, not as an interruption. Because effort comes first, the product feels like a reward rather than an ad.

Extractable takeaway: When outdoor media gives people a small, safe task to complete, the brand message lands as earned proof, not as a claim.

In sports and performance brands competing for attention in dense urban spaces, turning an ad surface into a usable experience is a direct way to earn participation instead of only impressions.

What Powerade is really buying

This is not mainly about reach. It is about association. The ad makes the brand feel like a training partner, not a poster. It also turns physical engagement into a public spectacle, which draws more people in and makes the moment more memorable than a standard billboard.

The real question is whether your activation gives people something they can do in public, not just something they can look at.

Steal-worthy moves for participatory OOH

Make the product a logical reward. The drink lands because effort comes first.
Design for participation, not just viewing. If people can do something, they will stop and watch others do it too.
Keep the idea explainable in one line. “Billboard that is also a workout” travels fast.
Let the environment do the distribution. Public performance creates its own audience.

A few fast answers before you act

What is a “workout billboard” in this campaign?

A billboard installation that doubles as real workout equipment, so people can climb, lift, or punch as part of the brand experience.

Why does turning a billboard into equipment change behavior?

It shifts the role from passive viewing to active participation, which increases time spent, memorability, and the likelihood people talk about it.

What is the main value exchange for the audience?

A quick public challenge plus a tangible reward. Free Powerade after effort makes the product feel earned and relevant.

What is the biggest execution risk?

If it looks unsafe, complicated, or embarrassing, people will not try it. The interaction has to feel obvious and low-risk at first glance.

What is the simplest way to apply this idea without building hardware?

Create a participatory moment that produces visible effort and a clear reward, even if the “equipment” is replaced by a simpler challenge format.