Insight
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently stated that the Zika virus is a global health emergency and requires an urgent answer.
Strategy
To try to solve this problem, NBS ad agency created the Mosquito Killer Billboard - an out-of-home panel equipped with technology that attracts and kills the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.
Execution
A device was installed on the panel. It spreads a solution in the air containing lactic acid – which reproduces the smell expelled by the human sweat – and also of CO2, which reproduces the human breathing.
The combination of these two substances attracts the mosquito at a distance of up to 2.5 miles.
To enhance this attraction, fluorescent lights were installed at the base and at the top of the panel, facilitating the approximation of the mosquito.
As the Aedes flies, on average, four feet above the ground, this is an ideal media to capture and kill the mosquito.
The places, where the customised panels were positioned, were chosen according to the number of zika and dengue outbreaks in the area.
All the technology and settings information is available online (mosquitokillerbillboard.com) under a Creative Commons NonCommercial-Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. This means that anyone can download and reproduce it in any city of the world.
Results
- 200 killed mosquitoes per billboard a day
- Almost 6,000 dead every five days
- 40 other countries have shown interest in implementing the project.
The invention became the talk on several TV shows, generating awareness about the issue and about Posterscope. In less than 10 days the case uploaded on the NBS YouTube channel got over 100,000 hits.
Big media outlets and specialised blogs carried the story, including Ad Age, The Verge, Springwise, The Drum, BBC, CNN, Fox News, Huffington Post, Discovery Channel, and the list goes on and on.
Others local media companies helped to spread the news in countries as, Mexico, Costa Rica, Poland, Italy, Greece, Japan, China, Sweden, Canada and boom! The project was officially a worldwide hit.
The company is receiving requests to install more totems everywhere.