When billboards become love letters
For a sweet Valentine's Day campaign earlier this year, some of South Africa's busiest roads carried messages that had nothing to do with sales or product launches. Instead, they carried love notes.
Drivers stuck in traffic and pedestrians crossing busy intersections looked up to see heartfelt messages dedicated to friends, parents, partners and everyday heroes. Some were playful. Others were moving and sincere. All of them came from ordinary people who wanted to spread the love in a unique way.
The messages were part of Cadbury Dairy Milk's "Share the Love" campaign, powered by DOOHshare – a consumer-engagement platform developed by Tractor Outdoor and Ignis Labs (both part of Glynt).
"This campaign was designed to broaden the meaning of Valentine's Day. Instead of focusing only on romantic relationships, Cadbury Dairy Milk invited South Africans to celebrate anyone who makes life sweeter."
Ruchelle Mouton, Chief Marketing Officer, GlyntHow the campaign worked.
People were invited to submit messages through QR codes placed on billboards or through links shared online. Those links directed them to a Cadbury Dairy Milk branded mobisite where they could write a short dedication to someone they cared about, and even add a photograph to commemorate a special moment.
Phila Combo, strategic portfolio lead at Starcom (media agency for the campaign), adds: "This campaign reflects the power of combining media innovation with human insight."
The campaign generated 11,812 visits to the mobisite and 1,837 message submissions, delivering a conversion rate of roughly 16%. Each message then passed through a moderation process that combined AI-powered filtering with human review before appearing on screen.
Over the campaign period, the out-of-home component reached more than 1.4 million people and delivered over 10 million impressions.
Thabang Modiba, brand manager for Cadbury Dairy Milk, says: "Cadbury Dairy Milk has always been about generosity and connection."
Built in a week with AI-assisted tools.
Mouton explains that the DOOHshare platform allows moderated user-generated content to be dynamically published across digital out-of-home networks. Campaign platforms traditionally take between four and eight weeks to build, but by using AI-assisted development tools and automated workflows, the teams were able to build and deploy the system in roughly one week.
Outdoor advertising has always been designed to capture attention. Cadbury Dairy Milk's Share the Love campaign did more than that – it shared a taste of real love and connection, making the world just a bit sweeter.