BMO Financial Group invites you to be a virtual goaltender with interactive billboard

Hey, this looks like fun, BMO Finacial group has installed the first interactive digital storefront advertisements in Canada, outside its flagship Toronto branch at King and Bay Streets. The eight-by-six metre display is an interactive custom LCD wall, allowing passers by to face-off with the five youth soccer players featured in current print and billboard advertising. The tech is set up by Orlando, FL based Monster Media and uses gesture-based interaction paired with touch activation, allowing people to make fools out of themselves as they desperately try to save balls before they hit the "goal". Neat!

“We wanted to start a conversation about grassroots soccer in Canada, where it is now and where it is heading,” said Sandy Bourne, Vice-President, Advertising, Sponsorship, Events and Merchandising, BMO Financial Group. “We chose this marketing platform to bring Canadians in closer contact with our grassroots campaign. This game allows them to engage with the advertisement in an exciting and new way, breaking from traditional marketing methods”

BMO currently sponsors more than 500 youth soccer teams in 60 clubs, in addition to the Canadian National teams, Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Toronto FC, so lending a wall to young players fits with BMO’s continued support of grassroots soccer and their current campaign.

"We are thrilled to fuse together this groundbreaking technology with such a catchy concept," said John Payne, President, Monster Media. "Our company always strives to be pioneers in the out-of-home space and through this campaign we have executed game-play in a way that has never been done before in Canada and is sure to resonate with thousands of consumers."

Ad agency: Cossette/Blitz
AD: Joey Gatto / CW: Tina Vahn