(7 votes, average: 3.29 out of 5)
Rumour has it that in Russia, people might just be worse at parking cars than the French (remember this campaign?!). So online Russian newspaper “The Village” have had enough and launched an app designed to help every day people shame douche bag drivers by taking a photo of the car, where image recognition reads the number plates to find the driver, before naming and shaming them in real-time across banners and media placements on popular websites in Russia.
A great example of how user generated content can be integrated into paid online media placements in real time. Plus I love the “Share to Remove” call to action on the banners. Very cool.
Geographical relevancy and an issue that means something to people are key to this campaigns success. Just not sure what “The Village” are trying to achieve with the app that drives their brand and business as I would remember the app and its talkability more than anythign else.
Technically it looks like a great app – looks good too. But, although I’m sure it’s fun for the people who are getting involved in the naming and shaming it might be a bit annoying (after a while) for the people who are presented with the pop-ups on a regular basis – especially if they’re located in a ‘Parking Douche’ hotspot! Also, will this really stop the ignorant people who park in that ‘douche’ style from doing it again? I think not. It would be much more effective if it geo-located the nearest Traffic Warden and pinged and email or a text message to them! No one likes a parking ticket! Despite that, it’s a great idea that looks like it was very well thought out and put together. Well done The Village for flexing their techy muscles and trying to make a difference.
[...] Source: DigitalBuzzBlog [...]