• by Aaron Baar , June 7, 2017

The fictional battle between the Autobots and Decepticons will be coming to the real-world freeways this summer through a partnership between out-of-home media company Lamar Advertising and Paramount Pictures, the company releasing the latest "Transformers" movie. 

Using technology created by Vehcio, billboards in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and four other markets will deliver personalized messages to passing drivers about which side of the intergalactic war their car is on. A driver of a Honda Civic, for instance, may see a message declaring “Attention! Your Honda Civic is an Autobot.” The technology had previously been used for a campaign for Chevrolet, says Ian Dallimore, director of innovation and sales strategy for Lamar Advertising.

“We’ve done dynamic digital out-of-home campaigns in the past with Paramount Pictures. Most recently, 'Baywatch' with weather-triggered digital OOH creative,” Dallimore tells Marketing Daily. “The Paramount Pictures team expressed interest in the vehicle recognition technology after seeing the success of the technology of [the previous] Chevy Malibu campaign. We came together and collaborated how this could be possible with the Transformers 5 campaign.”

The campaign uses cameras mounted 1,000 feet ahead of the digital billboards, scanning vehicle grills to identify cars. Once a make and model are identified, the board switches from a generic “your car” message to one identifying the passing car. The technology takes into account traffic speed to calculate the precise moment and length of time to display the personalized message. 

“During the collaboration and brainstorming process with the Paramount Pictures marketing and creative team, we wanted to have an element of surprise to the creative,” Dallimore says. “The [technology] allowed Transformers 5 to have a one-to-one conversation with drivers.”