The thing I love about transit station takeovers is that you get to see a whole campaign in one place. By the time you emerge into the daylight, you've had a chance to really experience the campaign, and the feel of it in a way that you just can't get from a single ad. Nike has taken that to a whole new level with their takeover of the 14th Street A/C/E subway station in Manhattan, and they make those impressions #count.
This is part of Nike's "Life's a sport. Make it count" campaign for the Nike+ FuelBand (a futuristic-looking wristband that measures and counts your athletic activity through the day). Even though I was running late, I couldn't help but stop and snap a photo of every one of these ads. There are 38 of them! Practically every ad space in the upper level of the station was filled with a different ad. I found only two duplicates.
Here are a few of the ads:
Click here to see a photo gallery of the whole set (38 different ads)
There are two things about this campaign that I am especially impressed with. The first is the their abundance. 38 different ads in a single location! Under normal circumstances, that would be a pretty cool accomplishment, but in this case it takes on another dimension because of the overall message of the campaign. The message is that every activity you engage in during your day counts. Having so many different messages, activities and viewpoints really reinforces this.
The second thing I love is to see a brand that knows how to use a Twitter hashtag the right way. I have seen so many brands try to use hashtags without really understanding them. So here comes Nike, giving you the opportunity to make a passionate public statement, challenging you to use the #counts hashtag as part of that statement. It's not their whole slogan (although they have a #MakeItCount hashtag too). They were smart enough to claim a single word, making it easy to incorporate into the flow. Using a hashtag the right way really #counts.
For more outdoor campaigns that have caught my eye, check out: