An Unknown 100-Year-Old Granny Revived Spain's Subway Ads

Jun. 05, 2024

A few months ago, Madrid woke up with a question: Who is Marina Prieto? That's what thousands of Spaniards asked when they came across photos of a 100-year-old lady in Madrid's subway stations. A granny's Instagram photos of her watering her plants, eating churros, or taking a nap filled hundreds of advertising spaces in the capital overnight.

People started searching for her, following her, discussing her on social media, and even taking selfies with her pictures on the billboards. But nobody knew who this lady was and why she was here.

• Was there a brand behind it?
• Was it a gift from her family? 
• Was she real?
• Was it a strange 100th birthday celebration?

Well, it was all a JCDecaux campaign created by DAVID Madrid.

In recent times, investment in outdoor advertising in Spain had decreased significantly, something that JCDecaux wanted to change with a campaign showing that their media works.

And that's where Marina Prieto comes in. A tender 100-year-old grandmother who shared her own content on social networks but only had 28 followers. If she could become famous thanks to OOH media, any brand could.

David Madrid and JCDecaux placed all of her profile photos on the more than 300 outdoor media spaces in the metro that brands hadn't bought. Then, people and the press started talking about Marina, following her (she grew +39,285% followers), interacting with her (+13,405% engagement) and even wanting to collaborate with her.

And when the buzz around Marina was at its highest, JCDecaux seized the opportunity to unveil their involvement in front of industry leaders at the Effies. Here they showed the power of subway ads, convincing brands to reinvest in the media again. This resulted in more than 180 brands such as Havaianas, Samsung or and HBO Max investing in the subway advertising again, reaching all-time record bookings for JCDecaux.