Our live traffic data powers McGarryBowen ad campaign
By: Kevin Fu
Both John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) are about the same driving distance from Manhattan, yet many New Yorkers are stubbornly loyal to JFK. United Airlines, who moved their New York area base of operations from JFK to EWR in 2015, worked with creative agency McGarryBowen to challenge the perception that JFK is the faster drive.
To prove this, McGarryBowen is using our real-time traffic data to power live ETAs in ad units across the city, pitting travel times to EWR and JFK against each other. EWR is most frequently the quicker drive — it’s hard to argue with real-time data.
Our Directions API provides global, real-time traffic conditions powered by over 225 million miles of mobile sensor data collected daily. It’s typically used in conjunction with our other APIs to provide routing and optimization for use cases like asset tracking, on-demand logistics, and transportation.
The Directions API powers the dynamic messaging from the McGarryBowen campaign, and this is apparently the first time live traffic data has been incorporated into standing digital ad units in NYC 🏆.
McGarryBowen brought the campaign to life using over 120 electronic LINK units on sidewalks throughout Manhattan, moving billboards on buses, and an absolutely giant billboard above Penn Station. Each ad unit pings our Directions API every five minutes, showing ETAs from that unit’s unique location to each airport. The ETAs on buses update dynamically as they roam the city.
Congratulations to United Airlines and McGarryBowen on an innovative, effective, and informative campaign — we hope to see more like it. The campaign will continue to run until the end of the year. Send us a picture in front of an ad, and we’ll send you a t-shirt!
Think you could use real-time location data in your next campaign? Let us know how we can help.
JFK vs EWR: which is a faster drive? was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.