Crowdfunded OOH Campaign Draws Attention to the #FreeBritney Movement

Britney Spears has been held under a court-sanctioned conservatorship overseen by her father, Jamie Spears, since 2008. But the pop icon's situation is suddenly changing, thanks in part to Hulu’s release of The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears documentary this month. The production sparked a new public conversation about the singer's legal battle over the conservatorship, which prevents Spears from having full control over her career, finances and personal life. As Spears supporters continue to fight for the singer to be released from her conservatorship—the mission of the social media-based #FreeBritney movement—outdoor advertising platform AdQuick is helping fans take the conversation offline with a crowdfunded billboard campaign. AdQuick, which provides customers with tools to plan, buy and measure OOH advertising, will use donations to purchase as many as six #FreeBritney OOH placements in the Los Angeles area, where Spears’ ongoing court battle is occurring. The planned digital billboards, public bench placements and wild postings draw attention to the singer’s situation and the campaign to raise awareness of conservatorship abuse. Once the campaign reaches its donation goal of $59,670, AdQuick will use the money to bring OOH ads to other cities. AdQuick’s vp of growth Chris Gadek said the campaign was sparked by a Britney Spears fan account tweet, which included a fake OOH mockup and suggested raising more awareness about the singer’s conservatorship with billboards across L.A. “This is about how we can model the virality of social movements through offline channels. The goal is to create a viral loop, ” Gadek said. “Somebody could see the billboard with the call to action to share with a friend or donate more money for the billboards. New people who see the billboards might share that posting with their social network, and the loop continues.” "Obviously, we want to see this conservatorship lifted and ultimately get Britney into a position where she can dictate her own life,” he added. Gadek said the L.A. placements will go live later in February around the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, where Spears’ future conservatorship hearings are slated to occur in spring 2021. They will also live in areas around LAX and Interstate 405 for wider exposure. AdQuick gained experience facilitating a crowdfunded billboard campaign in 2020 to elevate a Change.org petition supporting the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act, which would ban no-knock warrants on the federal level. The campaign was launched in response to the police killing ER technician Breonna Taylor last March, after police entered her Louisville, Ky. apartment unannounced. More than 1,900 people raised $78,000 for billboards in Louisville and Frankfort, Ky. To measure the success of these crowdfunded OOH campaigns, Gadek said AdQuick has the ability to analyze conversions across different channels. “If somebody gets exposed to OOH inventory, then goes to a store or an online website or mobile app, we can tie all those conversion successes to the OOH placement with help from third-party partners,” he said. “For the '#FreeBritney' campaign, we’ll be able to see whether these billboards drive incremental visits to the crowdfunding page and subsequently generate more donations, amplifying the message to more folks. Once we have data for those who are exposed and whether they performed an action, we can also track downstream shares on social channels.”