Reno-Depot: Street Swatches [image]

Credits & Description:

Title: Street Swatches
Agency: Sid Lee
Brand: Réno-Dépôt
Country: Canada
Entrant Company: Sid Lee, Montréal
Advertising Agency: Sid Lee, Montréal
Media Agency: Astral Media, Montréal / Sid Lee Media, Montréal
Production Company: Sid Lee, Montréal
Creative Director: Alex Bernier (Sid Lee)
Art Director: Alexandre Béland (Sid Lee)
Copywriter: Alexis Caron-Côté (Sid Lee)
Creative Technologist: Julien Roub-Charland (Sid Lee)
Creative Technologist: Zachary Labrosse-Rémillard (Sid Lee)
Strategy:
The Street Swatches bus shelter is perfectly in line with our brand platform for it is both clever and amusing. Although Reno-Depot’s customer base is comprised mainly of DIFM (do it for me) jacks-of-all-trades in Quebec, this particular piece targets a much broader audience. The bus shelter was also a fun way to get a bit of inspiration while waiting for the bus.
Execution:
The concept was simple. We cleared out the ad space in a bus shelter to install a custom sensor that would detect real-life colours and identify their SICO paint matches. Inside, people could see all the colours the sensor was picking up in front of them (shirts of passersby, buses, etc.) and their SICO paint matches. We chose a busy intersection with a lot of pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicle traffic. For a whole day, people were able to interact with the sensor and find inspiration in a world of colours.
Synopsis:
Reno-Depot is one of Quebec’s largest homegrown hardware stores, proudly serving homeowners and contractors since 1993. In the last two years, it has raised the bar with “Sky Swatches” and “The Cursor.” The former detects the sky colour, matches it to one of SICO’s paint colors, and displays the digitally, while the latter, a banner application, matches any real-life colour to an actual SICO paint colour in real time. Since homeowners are always looking for inspiration, what better way to help them than to give them the tools to get inspired? In order to make it easier and faster for them to explore, we developed a bus shelter ad last October that could pair everyday colours with matching paint tones in real time.
Campaign Description:
The goal was simple. We had to promote the SICO paint product line and its plethora of colours at Reno-Depot, so we stripped down a regular bus shelter and replaced the ad space with a custom-built sensor that paired colours captured in real time with a colour from SICO’s paint line—showcasing SICO’s world of colours for everyone at the bus stop.
Outcome:
The location was key. We wanted a high traffic area where the sensor would pick up a variety of colours. With about 15,500 daily users, the bus shelter we found was the perfect location.