The 10 best digital bus shelter adverts

Public transport is the method of choice for any major city, more and more take trains and buses as they make their daily commute to work. Because of this, shelters are a prime spot for advertisers due to the amount of traffic (pun not intended) that filter through these services every day.

The majority of adverts are simply posters yet there are always inspired ideas out there that show a willingness to think outside the box and do something different to catch people’s attention. Here are what we feel are the top ten digital adverts ever to feature in a bus shelter.

Domestic violence – Amnesty international

Where: Hamburg, Germany

Portraying its message in a very literal sense, the first image shows a scene of a husband attacking his wife. Yet when someone begins to look at the advert, an eye tracking camera, installed over the image notices this and after a brief delay changes the image accordingly. The new image shows the couple smiling and cheerful, emphasising the tagline “It happens when nobody is watching.”

Interactive touch screens – LGE

Where: London, Manchester and Glasgow

To coincide with the launch of LGE’s new Chocolate handsets, touchscreens were installed in five shelters in London Manchester and Glasgow. The bus shelters featured information about their new products as well as trailers for James Cameron’s film Avatar, which was due for release at the time.

Only use electricity when you need it – Osram

Where: Cape Town, South Africa

The world’s largest energy saving light bulb manufacturers wanted to spread the message “Only use electricity when you need it” and so devised this simple but effective campaign. The shelter itself is dark but when someone sits down on its bench, the entire shelter lights up. The advert educates users by example about how easy it is to save energy and to switch off appliances when not used.

Big Brother 2008 – Channel TEN

Where: Perth, Austraila

An unusual advert as it engages people not by imagery but through mobile phones. Bluetooth transmitters were installed across twenty bus shelters across Perth.

Once Bluetooth users were within range of the advert, they would get an anonymous text message telling them that they are being watched with the details of whatever bus stop they were at. A second text would be sent to them 30-40 seconds later revealing the purpose behind the text advertising the show.

Weighing scales – Fitness First

Where: Amsterdam, Holland

Anyone commuters waiting for a bus could sit down on the bench and see their measured weight on the Fitness First advert beside them. Whether they were successful in using guilt to get people to join their health club has yet to be revealed.

Community gaming: Yahoo!

Where: San Francisco

While one example on this list has had touch screen on display, Yahoo went one step further with touch screens and introduced Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby to twenty different bus shelters, allowing commuters to play against other commuters at a different bus stop.

The service had four different games to play which were updated in real time with various neighbourhoods competing against each other. There were no prizes for winning but they made for a fun distraction for commuters on their way to work.

Vitamin water recharge – Glaceau

Where: Boston, New York, Chicago & Los Angeles

Installed by agency Crispin Porter & Boqusky, this ad allows commuters to recharge their phones, iPods or other mobile with three USB ports. The ports are located in the image of the drink, allowing you to recharge your batteries (literally) in the hope that you’ll later purchase the product so that you’ll recharge your batteries (metaphorically).

Digital thermometers – Norwegian Air Shuttle and Barnes, Catmur & Friends, Auckland

Where: Norway and New Zealand

In a bid to tempt people to use their services or, depending on how you view these campaigns, cruelly tease them, both Norwegian Air Shuttle and Barnes, Catmur & Friends Auckland set up electronic thermometers during the winter in bus shelters to inform commuters what the day’s temperature was.

If the sight of seeing temperatures in the minus figures didn’t depress them, below it had info saying that they should check out their services to escape to somewhere warmer.

New Zealanders suffered a worse fate by being informed about what the temperature was in Fiji.

Steaming hot coffee – McDonald’s

Where: Vancouver, Canada

Technically not a digital advert but is still an interesting way of catching the attention of commuters . To try and entice members of the public to avail of their free coffee offer during breakfast, McDonalds installed a steam machine into their bus shelter ad which activated every so often. The steam would emit from the image of a McDonalds coffee which would reveal their message.

Bluetooth Graffiti – Ecko Clothing

Where: Hamburg, Germany

Promoting Marc Ecko’s clothing range through graffiti, digital canvasses were installed in bus shelters where anyone with a Bluetooth phone could spray their own graffiti with the cursor of their phone.

Are there any that we missed? If so, let us know.