• by Colin Kirkland , July 17, 2024

Amazon-owned audiobook platform Audible is rolling out an out-of-home (OOH) campaign based in augmented reality across screens in major urban hubs that is set to reach over 60 million people worldwide, making it the world's largest global AR brand campaign.

The campaign, which will be displayed on 12 screens in New York's Times Square, Washington DC's National Harbor, London's Meridian Steps and more, was created by production studio DOOH.com, media agencies GroupM OOH and Wavemaker, as well as London-based creative agency Fold7, which helped Audible launch its first-ever global brand campaign last month, which explored how the company immerses listeners in extraordinary worlds while they go about their day-to-day lives.

The visuals for this new campaign take on the same perspective, but utilize AR to transform these gigantic digital billboards into immersive environments.

According to Audible, the global campaign is the first to use WinDOOH technology, otherwise known as “mass participation AR,” which integrates 4k weatherproof cameras with visual effects and animations to create AR experiences directly on the screens.

DOOH.com took live images of the view behind each screen, Audible explains, and then created a window illusion displaying this cityscape background onscreen, which was then transformed into varying fantastical worlds inspired by popular Audible Original titles like the sci-fi book Project Hail Mary and the fairy tale retelling of “The Little Mermaid.”

“Times Square in New York City, a flagship location for the ad, showcases a mesmerizing underwater scene populated with stunning jellyfish designed to captivate viewers amidst the hustle and bustle,” the company said in a recent statement.

“Unlike traditional AR OOH executions, GroupM's WinDOOH does not require viewers to use mobile devices to view the interactive elements,” explains DOOH.com CEO Andrew Phipps Newman. “Instead, cameras integrated into the screens blend high-end visual effects, graphics, and animations with real-world video feeds. This innovation allows anyone viewing the screen to experience the AR elements with the naked eye.”

The large-scale AR ads will run for four weeks across the U.S. and Canada and for two weeks across the U.K., Audible says.