Construction hoardings can be fairly boring and lifeless, but they obviously serve a purpose in protecting the work that is going on behind them.    The problem is, you never know what that work is.

Thanks to a new initiative that we’ve been working on, at (London) Gatwick Airport things are different.
 

This morning the first giant barcode went up on a hoarding outside the North Terminal shuttle interchange.  Using the Stickybits mobile application (which works with Android phones and iPhones), passengers can scan the code to get a short video showing how the shuttle line was built.

And that’s just the start.  Over the coming months more large barcodes will be appearing around the airport, which together will form a Gatwick Discovery Tour, where passengers can find out more about the airport’s £1 billion investment programme.

We’re really thrilled by this campaign as we think it’s a novel way to bring something static, and often unsightly, to life.   This also makes Gatwick Airport the first airport in the world to use standard barcodes as an audio-visual information tool, not to mention the first UK brand to be officially using Stickybits.

Above – Gatwick Discovery Tour: Scan the barcode from this picture with Stickybits to watch the video

Update - Stickybits founder Seth Goldstein tells us that the Gatwick Stickybit is the world’s largest!

(For more info, we’ve got a short release up here, and for photos go to the Gatwick Flickr page)