Mazda Canada: The Head Turning Billboard

Mazda Canada kicked off the launch of the all-new MX-5 RF with a high-tech digital billboard that kept track of every head that turned to look at it. Powered by custom vision learning software, the billboard which prominently features the MX-5 RF, detected if a passerby was looking at it and then updated the real-time running tally of the number of heads turned. Launched February 6th, 2017, the innovative billboard was installed in the busy retail concourse level of the Royal Bank Plaza on Bay Street in Toronto for four weeks as part of a larger out-of-home campaign in-marketing during the same period. The billboard was not only the first of its kind for Mazda Canada, but also for media partner, PATTISON Onestop and PATTISON’s interactive arm, Fourth Wall, which managed the production. “The MX-5 RF itself was really the inspiration for the work”, notes Ryan Spelliscy, Chief Creative Officer, J. Walter Thompson Canada. “We felt that the advertising we create should be as eye-catching and innovative as the vehicle itself.”