- The out of home (OOH) advertising industry has partnered with the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America's national parks, to help launch a nationwide public service campaign celebrating the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016.
The Find Your Park public service campaign kicked off in Times Square digital signage, including the iconic NASDAQ and Marriott Marquis digital billboards.
Part of a multi-faceted two-year public awareness effort encouraging people of all backgrounds, particularly millennials, to discover and reconnect with their public lands, the OOH campaign will help drive awareness and understanding of parks and deepen public engagement.
Find Your Park, which kicked off the first week of April, was celebrated in Times Square and Madison Square Park at official launch events on April 2 with secretary of the interior Sally Jewell, National Park Service director Jonathan B. Jarvis, and National Park Foundation interim president Dan Wenk. During the Times Square event, digital billboards displayed arresting images of national parks. Similar creative will be displayed on billboards, bus shelters and buses across the country through May on donated media space.
Following the event in Times Square, the National Park Foundation hosted an interactive event in Madison Square Park that connected people digitally to national parks across the country through Find Your Park Virtual View Kiosks.
The Find Your Park installation gives visitors the opportunity to experience all 407 national parks in an interactive one-minute musical rotation. It uses audio, visual, and geo-location elements to inspire a new generation to discover the breadth of the national parks and the work of the National Park Service. To complement the installation and further demonstrate that it is easier than ever to "Find Your Park," Find Your Park Virtual View Kiosks will be stationed at the launch event to connect visitors directly to National Park Service staff, influencers and park-goers at national parks across the country.
April 2 marks the start of Phase 1 of the OOH public service campaign. In June, the OOH industry will launch Phase 2 with equally visually powerful executions that will juxtapose images of a well-known national park with lesser-known national parks and National Park Service programs, further pushing awareness and understanding of all that the National Park Service is and does. In 2016, Phase 3 OOH creative will focus on celebrating the centennial.
“When the National Park System was created in 1916, no one would have imagined that technology could someday enable schoolchildren in New York to explore parks thousands of miles away with the touch of a button,” said secretary of the interior Sally Jewell. “While we never want a virtual experience to replace a genuine connection, we are hopeful the display will provide a gateway that inspires people to visit their parks and fall in love with the beauty, history, and culture that make up our national parks and public lands.”
Mobile billboards in Madison Square Park offered participants in the kick-off of the National Park Service 2016 centennial celebration a look at the OOH campaign creative.
In special recognition of Earth Day, which falls during National Park Week, the OOH industry will launch a national digital roadblock on April 22 featuring the Phase 1 creative on digital OOH formats across the US.
