A Creative First – DOOH & Dynamic HTML5 for Ubisoft

Ubisoft, AGCS and Ocean Outdoor Netherlands have partnered to produce the first ever dynamic HTML5 Digital out of Home advertisement in the Netherlands.

Ubisoft approached AGCS and Ocean Outdoor to create a high impact concept that would create awareness among gaming community about the upcoming release of the new Ghost Recon Breakpoint video game in the Netherlands. Ubisoft selected DOOH as the perfect medium to reach a large audience in digital cities across the Netherlands during peak commuting times, when their target customers were most likely to be travelling.

AGCS and Ocean Outdoor set to work in delivering an advanced ‘creative first’ execution that would utilise HTML5 technology and utilise the range of creative material that was delivered by Ubisoft. During the creative process a number of proposals were made and two key executions were chosen.

Real time HTML5 countdown timer

AGCS proposed to implement a dynamic timer into the creative, counting down to the release date of the video game to build awareness, excitement and urgency among potential buyers: this was the first time that an HTML5 dynamic countdown timer has been used on a DOOH creative in the Netherlands, thanks to Ocean Outdoors HTML5 ad serving capability.

Daily dynamic creative change

In another creative first AGSC produced a dynamic creative which automatically changed on a daily basis. The DOOH creatives were coded to pull the current date via javascript code and serve a different creative based on the set dates and times. Teaser style imagery was used during the early phases of the campaign, while recognisable characters from the game were shown during the last days before release, all the while the countdown timer would tick away creating urgency and interest.The campaign ran for a total of 7 days on several screens across the country.

Final countdown

During the last hour of the campaign Ocean Outdoor Netherlands ran the creative for a full hour on all placements across the Netherlands. Placed on huge screens, the countdown timer ticked down to midnight to celebrate the launch of the fantastic new game Ghost Recon Breakpoint. A great campaign success for Ubisoft!

Faster development and implementation

Using HTML5 to develop DOOH ads significantly speeds up the production process and enables changes to be made quickly, as opposed to editing multiple individual video files. HTML5 ads also provide an opportunity to scale across many screen formats, which is ideal as many DOOH screens vary in size.

‘Ubisoft Netherlands are really excited to be at the forefront of DOOH creative technology and campaigning. We see the combination of HTML5 and DOOH as really important in providing an engaging ad experience and raise awareness among our audience’

Milan van Valkenhoef, Ubisoft Esports & Live Brand Manager

‘The future for creatives produced for DOOH is HTML5. Ubisoft Netherlands made use of the creative freedom it gave them by embracing its capabilities. It resulted in a production by AGCS that added relevance to the campaign using real-time data.’

Daan Krijnen, Head of Innovation, Ocean Outdoor Netherlands