LONDON. JCDecaux UK has delivered a sensory out-of-home (OOH) advertising experience at King’s Cross St Pancras Station to promote Starbuck’s new Iced Shaken Espresso coffee range. The immersive campaign for the leading American coffee shop brand has been devised in partnership with Havas Media UK, Talon Outdoor and Linney.
The full tunnel ‘Iced Coffee Zone’ take-over in Kings Cross St Pancras between the underground and international stations aims to bring to life the aromas and sounds of the new Starbucks barista-crafted iced coffee brand. The advertising activation is running for two weeks until 23 April.
Commuters encounter a full sensory experience via the sound effects of ice shaking and scent dispensers as they pass through the tunnel. The physical elements of the campaign have been designed by Havas Media UK.
Havas Media UK Managing Partner Andrew Darby said: “I’m based out of the HKX building in St Pancras – it’s a genuinely terrific place to eat, work and play. Every day I pass through this tunnel and pick up my Starbucks on my way to the office.
“The strategically selected site is not only a gateway to central London as proven by Oyster card data, but also to the country and world with its domestic and international train terminals.”
JCDecaux said the campaign is expected to reach 1.3 million people, directly supporting 20 nearby Starbucks stores across central London.
Talon Outdoor Business Director Nicci Loudon said: “Immersive brand experiences are becoming increasingly important to connect with audiences and create valuable emotional reactions, helping our advertising work harder.
“OOH provides the perfect platform to provide a more powerful, multi-sensory experience by adding sound and scent to enhance an already visually impactful execution creating a fully immersive experience for a new Starbucks favourite.”
Starbucks Marketing Director EMEA Sarah Harris said: “Who doesn’t love an iced coffee? People say it’s the future, but for us, it’s the present – even during winter when sales remain high.
“As we move into the warmer months, we want to remind our brilliant customers that wherever they are, there’s always a Starbucks Iced Coffee available to them. Better yet, you can now have it in an array of different flavours.” 
This feature forms part of our new Sight Lines section, dedicated to the world of airport and other travel-related Out of Home advertising and communications. It takes the same name as a successful ezine of the same name we published from April 2019 until the pandemic brought much of world travel to a halt. We are delighted to restore it, initially in column form, as the airport advertising sector bounces back with encouraging speed and vigour. All stories are archived under ‘Airport Advertising’ on the home page drop-down menu under ‘Other Revenues’.  Nowhere do the worlds of aviation and advertising converge more than in airports, often to riveting effect. Given how airports serve a crossroads of humanity, across geographies, cultures, religions, ages, advertising serves as a kind of Esperanto of the travel and communications world, a universal language that speaks to a population constantly on the move. Digitisation, once viewed as a threat to traditional airport advertising as millions of consumers looked down at their mobile devices rather than ahead (or up) at traditional advertising formats, has proved instead to be a positive game changer. Airports companies (and other travel infrastructure operators) and their concessionaires are increasingly deploying the flexibility and targetability of digital communication with thrilling impact. We’ll be devoting extensive coverage to this once again burgeoning sector with a surprise or two along the way. To borrow from both journalistic and advertising parlance, watch this space. * Send us your Out of Home advertising and communications stories to Martin@MoodieDavittReport.com |
