Projection Mapping Advertising for Out-of-Home Campaigns

A billboard waits for people to drive past it. A building that suddenly becomes your product stops them, and then they pull out their phones. That second moment is what a projection campaign is really buying: the people who see it in person, and everyone who sees what they filmed.

We plan, produce and run projection campaigns for brands, agencies and media partners, usually timed to the week when a city is fullest. If you have a message and a date in mind, talk to us about your campaign.

Projection mapping advertising turns a building into the ad itself. Projection mapping transforms these structures into display canvases for advertising campaigns or artistic purposes like public light shows or interactive art installations. Whether it's a brand takeover or a civic-scale spectacle, large-scale mapping turns architecture into a stage.

The point that defines an ad campaign is distance. Most of your audience will see the work from a street, a hotel window or a car, so we design content that leverages architectural features for depth, illusion, and story beats that read from far away. A logo that reads at arm's length can vanish at a few blocks, and the creative has to be built for the farthest viewer you want to reach.

• Site and approvals. Many cities and municipalities have specific regulations governing outdoor advertising, including projection mapping, and the site's owner has to agree before any light touches the building. For outdoor and public-space activations, we help with the practical hurdles, including power requirements, rigging safety, and the permitting timelines that vary by city and venue.
• Creative built for the canvas. The animation is designed around the building's shape and the message you need to land, not cut down from a TV spot.
• Rights in the content. If your projections include copyrighted content, it is essential to obtain proper permissions or licenses, so music, footage and partner logos belong on the clearance list from the first week.
• Safety on the street. Projections must not impair the vision of drivers or pedestrians, and the rig is planned around the people walking past it.
• Operations through the run. We handle a campaign from planning and content creation to onsite operations and final execution.
• Content you can change. You can update a campaign overnight, test different visuals for different times of day, or tie the display to social media feeds.

For the engineering behind a facade show, see building projection mapping. For brightness and weather planning, see outdoor projection mapping, and for campaigns that travel, see mobile projection mapping.

Tentpole takeovers ride the week a city is already watching: a championship, a race weekend, a festival. The audience arrives on its own; the projection gives it a reason to look up.

Partnership and product announcements use the building as the reveal. The campaign runs for a set number of nights, then the footage keeps working online.

Seasonal and recurring campaigns come back each year. For recurring campaigns, we can design a system that allows you to swap content easily, reducing long-term costs.

Guerrilla projection is the version without permission. Guerrilla projection mapping, also known as out-of-home advertising and urban projections, involves using projectors to display images, animations, or videos onto various surfaces in public spaces without formal authorization or permits. Our view is that guerrilla projection mapping is no longer a viable option for advertisers. Our guide to guerrilla projection for advertisers explains why.

• Don Julio 1942 on the Stratosphere: For Super Bowl week in February 2024, we turned the Stratosphere tower into a Don Julio tequila bottle across its south and east faces, running 4 nights from 7 pm to 2 am. The goal was to capture the attention of Super Bowl attendees and spectators from all over the city and world, and the display could be seen from the outskirts of Las Vegas.
• McLaren x Mastercard on the Stratosphere: During the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend, the tower announced Mastercard's partnership with McLaren Racing to the whole Strip, with a custom 30-second animation over four nights. The setup demanded precise coordination with local authorities to secure and section off a dedicated area.
• Nike Air Jordan at the NBA All-Star Game: With Elite Media Inc. and the appropriate permissions secured, we projected the Air Jordan brand onto the Radisson Hotel outside the arena for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, covering over 40,000 square feet.
• Dodgers on the Hollywood Sign: After the Dodgers' 8th World Series title, we turned the Hollywood Sign's "D" Dodger blue, and it was featured in national media coverage of the win.

Tell us the city, the dates, the message and the building you have in mind, or ask us to suggest one. We will come back with how the approvals would run, what the creative needs to do from the street and a timeline to the first night. Browse our projection mapping services, or contact our team to start planning.