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It has been a busy start to 2016 in Out-of-Home media. Across the globe, new technologies are being used by advertisers to take bigger risks and be truly creative in the way  they communicate with their audience.

Below are five Out-of-Home campaigns from January, February and March of this year that have resonated with the people in the city’s they’ve ran and beyond. They range from the light-hearted and funny, to useful and at times serious – touching on issues that people may rarely think about.

Dubai, UAE | 38Smiles: Abandoned Lives

Every year in Dubai, the same number of pets are abandoned as cars. These cars dot the landscape, but the pets that are abandoned, more often than not, become invisible. To bring attention to this issue, 38Smiles joined forces with MullenLowe MENA and turned these same cars into outdoor ad panels. Motion sensors were attached to the cars so when a person walked by, the sound of a trapped animal inside would draw them to the car. When there, a vinyl sticker on the window explains the issue and directs them to the 38Smiles website, where people can donate or even adopt an animal.

Image: Campaign ME

Stockholm, Sweden | Reebok: ZPump 2.0

Do you think you can top 17 kilometres per hour at a sprint? Would you try in a crowded thoroughfare for the chance to win a new pair of sneakers? Reebok posed this very question to the people in Stockholm in March by fitting an outdoor ad panel with a built-in speed camera and tracking technology to measure how fast people could run past. Those who were able to top 17 kilometres automatically unlocked the panel and received a new pair of Reebok ZPump 2.0 sneakers.

Image: Adweek

Vienna, Austria | Caritas: Donation Thermometer

To encourage donations to heat one of the city’s largest homeless shelters over winter, the charity Caritas (which runs the shelter) joined forces with JCDecaux Austria to turn three panels in the busiest areas around the city into money banks, so that passer-by’s could put their coins into the panels. As it was so simple to donate, and the panels were located in such busy areas, donations were able to be maximised over the course of the campaign (it ran from mid-December and all through January 2016).

Image: Tamara Frois

Boston, United States | New Hampshire Department of Tourism: Ski Shelters   

Looking to draw Bostonians to its picturesque ski resorts, the New Hampshire Department of Tourism launched a campaign around the city in January and February. The tourism department fully wrapped bus shelters with typical panoramic views from the mountains and ski slopes, along with matching advertising panels throughout the rest of Boston. One bus shelter’s bench was turned into a ski lift chair, a great prompt if any to escape the grind and hit the slopes!

Image: JCDecaux North America

New York, USA | Tribeca Film Festival: ReACTOR

To celebrate the fifteenth year of the Tribeca Film Festival, festival organisers and J. Walter Thompson have teamed up to create the ReACTOR. It’s karaoke with a twist – instead of belting out a tune, passer-by have a chance to re-enact some of the most iconic movie scenes (think, When Harry Met Sally, The Devil Wears Prada, The Sixth Sense). The machine also acts as a critic and depending on how good a person’s acting chops are, they are able to win two tickets to the festival!

Image: Tribeca Film