JCDecaux: JCDecaux personal billboards

As a company, convincing leading marketing directors to show up for your business presentation can be tricky, as they are usually very busy.Every year JCDecaux struggles with this issue. That’s why this year, they decided to do something about this issue.Instead of just mailing an invitation to come to their presentation about ‘The effectiveness of outdoor’, JCDecaux and BBDO Belgium came up with “Personal Billboards” to prove the effectiveness of the medium.
Without asking for permission, they put a photo of every marketing director each in one single billboard. With no additional information. Only their name and a contact adress of JCDecaux.

Then they waited for a reaction, so the marketing directors could tell for themselves how effective outdoor still is. They reacted exactly how JCDecaux wanted: confused, shocked and a little annoyed that people kept contacting them to know what the purpose was.

JCDecaux responded with an e-mail apologizing for any inconvenience: “We just wanted you to experience the effectiveness of outdoor advertising, As you said it yourself, you got so many reactions from only one single billboard. Just imagine what our entire network could do for your brand.”

After, they could to sign up for the presentation… And why wouldn’t they free up some of their time now? After all, it’s hard to disagree with yourself, right?

So every single one of them booked a presentation, and JCDecaux reached a response of 100%. Talk about effectiveness.