British Airways Debuts Airplane-Tracking Billboard

British Airways can claim a first in advertising, having launched its new Look Up campaign, which includes a custom animated billboard that updates to track actual flights overhead.  The ad displays a little boy pointing to the sky, and his finger follows the path of an actual plane.  The billboard also displays the plane’s flight number and origin.  Innovative ads like these capture the imaginations of their audiences and provide a more positive experience of being advertised to, while also ensuring higher levels of engagement.

Smart Trash Cans Track Passers By

UK startup Renew is equipping a few of London’s Renew Pods with “Renew Orbs” which use WiFi to track the proximity and speed of people walking past and identify the maker of their smartphone. The company allows clients to use the trash cans to construct statistical analyses on ‘trending demographics’ in high profile locations – for example, many iPhone users walk down a specific block. Many Londoners will be shocked to find out that this is actually happening without their permission, raising the same privacy issues as many other forms of tracking softwares. So it won’t be surprising to read about backlash against this software and tracking in the name of targeting advertising.

BMW Mini Turns Car Into Digital Billboard

As part of its ‘Mini’s Not Normal’ campaign, the automotive company put 48,000 LED lights onto one of its signature cars to broadcast your Tweets and Vines. It’s driving around London until August 19th, and customers can use the hashtag #MINIartbeat – or the Mini’s Facebook app – to get posts to appear on the car. What’s more, Mini will send a clip of the user’s post on the car as a souvenir. Though it’s reminiscent of Mercedes’ ‘invisible car’ promotion from last year, it adds the important element of conversation and social engagement to the bright mobile experience.  

Burberry Launches Smart Personalization With Made To Order Line

Burberry has begun offering seamless (ha, ha) personalization of garments from its Made to Order line.  Customers can now order outerwear and accessories straight from the runway in-store, online, or from mobile devices. Garments will be delivered nine weeks later with personalized nameplates, and an embedded technology that, when scanned, will trigger a short film of the actual garment’s creation on a mobile device.  As an added bonus, inside Burberry’s Regent Street location in London, the film can be triggered on smart mirrors.  This is only one facet of Burberry’s exemplary adoption of technology, including its strong use of social media and other creative interactive installs in stores.