by Benny Taubman, OOH TODAY Editorial Intern
Nickelytics and Serve Robotics Collaborate to Reignite Iconic Smokey Bear PSA Campaign
In 1944, the USDA Forest Service created an iconic public service advertising (PSA) campaign, with a fluffy brown spokesanimal, to raise public awareness regarding forest fire prevention – the Smokey Bear campaign. Fast forward to 2022 and the campaign celebrates its 78th birthday, making Smokey Bear America’s longest-running PSA. After almost 8 decades of service, Smokey and his catchphrase – “Only you can prevent wildfires” – remain an iconic piece of American pop culture. However, because of an innovative new OOH Smokey Bear PSA campaign, the celebrity bruin should not prepare to hibernate quite yet.
Preventing wildfires in California is now more important than ever due to rising temperatures, an ongoing drought, and historically low rainfall. To raise awareness for wildfire prevention, Nickelytics – an OOH company that pays rideshare and delivery drivers to wrap their vehicles – is partnering with Serve Robotics – an autonomous delivery company – to bring Smokey Bear to a futuristic new platform: delivery robots.
“We are delighted to increase public awareness of wildfire prevention while helping reduce emissions and traffic congestion in Los Angeles with our friendly sidewalk robots,” said Touraj Parang, Serve’s Chief Operations Officer.
Here is how the campaign will work: Ads with Smokey will be wrapped around Serve’s self-driving delivery robots in Los Angeles. As they complete deliveries for Uber Eats, Doordash, and other delivery platforms, the eye-catching and sidewalk-occupying automatons will raise awareness for wildfire prevention in the region. Informing the public is extremely vital because nearly 9 out of 10 of all wildfires are caused by humans. Alarmingly, in 2021 alone, approximately 34 wildfires destroyed over 7,853 acres of forest in Los Angeles and the surrounding counties.
“Launching this campaign with Smokey Bear is a significant milestone for our team and only the beginning of our expansion in the Los Angeles market,” said Judah Longgrear, co-founder and CEO of Nickelytics. “We look forward to amplifying Smokey’s message and measuring the expected increase in campaign engagement using our real-time digital measurement capabilities.”
In addition to the delivery robots, Nickelytics is working to expand the wildfire prevention campaign into the electric vehicle space. All in all, an OOH campaign might just provide the fuel Smokey needs to spark a whole new generation of forest conservationists.
Nickelytics, a Techstars backed startup, is a platform that makes launching hyper-local out-of-home advertising as simple as posting online ads. Nickelytics brings together the physical presence of outdoor advertising with the power of digital technology for unbeatable results. Nickelytics leverages out-of-home advertisements through premium mobile assets, such as gig economy vehicles, autonomous delivery robots, e-scooters and electric vehicle charging networks to help marketers reach customers regardless of location. Mobillity asset owners also receive another stream of revenue by partnering with marketers.
