Underground storytelling

What made you look at a billboard for more than two seconds this week? A witty headline, an attractive man or woman welcoming the beach season or a poster full of text? Anything but the last probably.
Nevertheless a chain of German hardware stores even designed a series of those to explain their business model in very detail and create a narrative brand experience in public transport.

Experience

Waiting for the next underground train might take a bit of your precious time: at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz from 4 up to 15 minutes — at least when you just missed a train and depending on the frequency at the day time. People in groups tend to chat with each other while individuals use their electronic devices to communicate or escape – or start watching the poster ads surrounding them.

Most billboards are designed to be seen for seconds only: A full-bleed image and a tight headline have to catch a person passing by. Such big, though uncomplex information aren’t made to take their audience for more than a glimpse and therefore don’t appear with more than an additional subhead.

The hardware store chain Hornbach had a different perspective on this and went another route: A series of poster stories – all headlined “Hornbach unabridged” with an average reading time of about one minute – was created and installed at U2 underground station. Self-referential, but contradictory questions like “Isn’t it madness stocking a screw that’s sold once every 154 days?” or “Why a longer route of 4.9 km is shorter” were used to pull the commuters into reading. The rather extensive, but reasonable body text delivers a spirited explanation.

Challenge

The poster ads – as easy to read and nicely headlined they might be – have to cover a relevant topic and contain meaningful findings for their broad readership in order to create a comprehensive brand experience. This is given with Hornbach’s billboards, since Germany is Europe’s foremost DIY nation with the biggest per capita spending on building materials by far.* Whatever the reason is, the maker mindset of the German post-war generation makes the insights into Hornbach’s business a matter of general interest – albeit primarily for a male audience, of course.

Goal

All poster ads should not be created equal. A billboard next to a highway has an entirely different attention span than one at a place where people spend minutes waiting for someone or something. As the Hornbach case shows, context and location should have a remarkable impact on the complexity of information. Until now only very few brands consider this and contextually adapt their content within one medium to its various, but unique locations.

The placard installation takes advantage of the setting and phase of waiting to lure people into reading information they usually would not search for by themselves. Hornbach’s introductive questions aren’t some preying on people’s minds – but time and space is right and so they embrace this informative just as entertaining offer to bridge their given time on the platform.

* – Average spendings per capita in European building centres:
1. Germany: € 1,072 — 2. France: € 694 — 3. Portugal: € 412
[Source: Finanzkat.de]

Overview

+ taking advantage of available time in moment of waiting
+ giving brands an exceptionally huge attention span
+ can be entertaining and informative for readership
! demand of relevant stories for broad audience
! appropriate length of text and adequate type size