When traditional media becomes smart

For the smartest marketing ideas and brand experiences, I have always looked online and to digital media. After all that's where I find innovation in communications  - with personalized applications, interactive games, social platforms, commerce, video, augmented reality.. it's an ever evolving space for creativity.However in the last year, I have been noticing a new trend of brilliant thinking taking place in the world of what we think of as traditional - the 2D sheets for posters, billboards and print magazines. This world that I thought of as dead to me and the newer generations, are being rethought and reinterpreted into useful, purposeful materials that not just convey a marketing message - but have intrinsic physical value that can be experienced in real life by people or communities. Here are some examples:

• A billboard that generates clean drinking water from air in Lima, Peru for University of Engineering & Technology (UTEC)
• A billboard for insect repellent that kills bugs in Milan, Italy for Orphea
• Posters and billboards that act as furniture in France by IBM 'People for Smarter Cities'
• Bus stations that let you charge up your mobile in the US by VitaminWater 
• Magazine ad that lets you power up your cell while lying in the sun in Brazil by Nivea Sun Line.

All of these examples are 'on-brand' - IBM's smarter use of materials within the city environments which aligns perfectly with their Smarter Planet and Smarter Cities campaigns.  Vitamin Water offering electrolytes for your body and energy for your phone. Nivea lets you stay in the sun protected and powered up with your phone.I never thought I could be excited by a billboard.. but it looks like this might just be the next interface for innovation.