Light therapy in Out-of-Home advertising: A new way of coping with dark winters

In many parts of the world people experience feelings of sadness or lower energy during the dark winter months. Innovative companies have sought to create positive brand associations with initiatives to bring daylight to the streets by using Out-of-Home. Over 400 miles north of Stockholm, the city of Umea has short winter days with very little sunlight. The Swedish energy company Umea Energi decided to cope with this problem by installing phototherapy ultra-violet lamps in the bus shelters to give people a sense of sunlight during those short winter days. The light comes from environmental-friendly sources.   JCDecaux Iceland implemented a campaign for Orkusalan, a whole sale electricity company for households, in the city of Reykjavik. There was extra lighting in the bus shelters to give a sense of daylight to commuters. Orkusalan also had a website solskyli.is (meaning “sun shelter”) where people could count how much daylight was left each day.   JCDecaux Estonia conducted a similar campaign for the yoghurt brand Valio. To promote their new yoghurts with added vitamin D, light therapy lamps were installed in JCDecaux bus shelters. By having Valio yoghurt, consumers can get their daily vitamin D intake even during the dark winter months. In the same way, they can benefit from light therapy whilst waiting for their bus.