In Brazil, 68% of women say they feel unsafe getting around alone after dark. At a deserted bus stop between 8pm and 5am, the only thing typically present with them is a digital advertising screen. Eletromidia, the country’s leading out-of-home advertising company, and AlmapBBDO decided that was exactly the infrastructure they needed.
The Mechanic
The Abrigo Amigo project, originally named the Guarded Bus Stop, takes Eletromidia’s existing digital OOH panels at the most isolated bus shelters and converts them into live safety terminals after dark. A woman waiting alone presses a button or triggers a sensor on the screen. A real, trained security operator appears on the display in real time. They stay on the call, visible and present, until the bus arrives. The screen does not show an ad during this time. It shows a human face.
The hardware additions required to make this work were practical rather than elaborate. Night-vision cameras, microphones, and a live internet connection were added to the existing digital panels. The structural footprint of the bus stop did not change. No new real estate was acquired. Eletromidia simply made its own inventory functional in a way it had not been before.
The system operates between 8pm and 5am at the targeted stops, covering the hours when the risk to vulnerable users is highest. During daylight hours, the panels run as standard digital advertising units.
The Pilot and the Rollout
The initiative launched as a pilot in Campinas in April 2023. The results were direct enough to justify rapid expansion. The stops fitted with the system reported zero incidents during the pilot period. The service was running approximately 150 calls per night. By September 2023, Eletromidia and AlmapBBDO announced a rollout to 100 locations across São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Campinas, with activations staged in response to local data about demand and user pool size.
The expansion was funded through a combination of brand partnerships and government support. Santander, Vivo, Bradesco Seguros, Sempre Livre, Diageo, and Anhanguera all contributed as brand partners. The city and state of São Paulo and the federal government provided additional support. The brand partners’ involvement is structurally significant. Their advertising spend is funding a safety service rather than a media placement in the conventional sense, which changes the commercial relationship between the advertiser, the media owner, and the public using the infrastructure.
The Commercial Logic
Rafael Gil and Rodrigo Almeida, executive creative directors at AlmapBBDO, described the dual purpose the project serves: Abrigo Amigo allows Eletromidia to demonstrate just how technologically advanced its advertising infrastructure is, while simultaneously providing a fundamental service for society and standing by women in their hour of need.
The commercial argument for Eletromidia is straightforward. A media company that converts its panels into safety infrastructure at zero cost to the user generates a category of attention and press coverage that no conventional OOH campaign could buy. Every brand that associates with Abrigo Amigo is buying a placement inside a social service rather than a standard advertising slot.
Alexandre Guerrero, CEO of Eletromidia, described the ambition plainly: “Abrigo Amigo is an innovative initiative that uses technology to address a major social issue in the daily experience of major urban centres. Eletromidia is dedicated to transforming cities.”
The Award and the Wider Implication
The campaign won a Gold Lion in the Media category at Cannes Lions 2024, recognising the structural innovation of converting existing OOH inventory into a live safety service rather than simply running a campaign about women’s safety.
The broader implication sits beyond Brazil. Every city with digital OOH panels at isolated bus stops has the same infrastructure already in place. The Guarded Bus Stop required no new hardware category, no new regulatory category, and no new public expenditure framework. It required a media company to decide that its inventory could do something more useful between midnight and 5am than display an advertisement for a product nobody was awake to buy.
Campaign Name: Abrigo Amigo / Guarded Bus Stop
Agency Name: AlmapBBDO
Brand Name: Eletromidia
Location: Campinas, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
