Austin City Hall: Hello Lamp Post Austin

Insight, Strategy, and the Idea
Utilities and street furniture are the goose bumps of any 'smart city’– they’re so ubiquitous that they have become invisible to us. So, to celebrate 30 years of Austin’s City Hall "Art in Public Places Program”, we brought those utilities to life. And to conversation. The project started in Feb 2015 and it led the conversation at the city during SxSW Festival.

Execution
Hello Lamp Post is a playful SMS platform, inviting people to strike up conversations with familiar street furniture using the text message function of their mobile phones. LOOK FOR THE CODES: All street furniture has a physical reference code already assigned to it by the City Council; SAY HELLO: Send a text in this format: Hello object #reference code e.g.“Hello Hydrant #B6291” to 512 580 7373; KEEP TALKING: You’ll soon get a reply. Answer the object’s questions and learn what other people have to say.

Results
Hello Lamp Post Austin was a great success. Since February 2015 to SxSW (6 weeks), we had a high level of engagement and many conversations were raised by the project: 18,253 text messages received; 6,800 conversations; 1,826 objects spoken to by players. Project had a great media coverage, that crossed Austin's limits, including The Guardian, Huffington Post, Fast Company, Fox 7 News, Daily Mail, Wired, Creative Review, The Telegraph, among others.

Plus
There were a range of promotional materials to raise the visibility of the project for citizens. As well as press coverage, it was important for us to have a physical presence in the city to make sure everyone new about the project. This presence ranged from large lamp post and building banners, to smaller interventions such as stickers, posters, t-shirts and posters. We also organized a public launch party to signify the start of the Hello Lamp Post going live in the city. And, most important, Hello Lamp Post became a platform, so it will be replied in many other cities - already done: Tokyo (JAP), last May 2015. Already scheduled: Rio (BRA), for the 2016 Olympics.