A Florida crisis center designed ads about hurricane trauma to fit on storm-damaged billboards

Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused significant damage in the Tampa Bay area. But agency ChappellRoberts saw an opportunity in the glitching digital billboards that the storms left in their wake.

The shop approached Outfront Media with a novel idea: to use the damaged boards to deliver a message of hope for the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay.

Also read: 15 creative campaigns to know about today

As outlined in an agency blog post, Outfront donated three damaged digital boards for the campaign—boards that its electricians identified as having enough unbroken LED panels to fit a legible message. Creative was then developed to fit the different configurations of each board, with a headline that read, “When everything feels broken, call 2-1-1 for help.”

In the end, the damaged boards were deemed too unreliable to actually run the campaign. (Many panels were glitching rather than fully working or fully broken.) But the agency kept the idea alive by simply running the creative that was designed for the broken billboards on fully working boards instead.

The agency team that led the project included Charlie Militello, Matt Christ and Mouzel Manugas.

“This creative solution is representative of the optimism we feel for the Tampa Bay community—even in the hurt of brokenness after such devastation, coming together with creative solutions enabled an outlet for support,” said Militello.

More Creativity coverage from Ad Age:

• See this week’s top 5 campaigns.
• Everything brands did for Halloween this year.
• Browse our daily Creativity roundups.
• Director Lauren Greenfield on teens and toxic social media.
• The best ads of 2024 (so far).

Sign up for our daily Creativity newsletter to see the best stories of the day.