A street at night by a railway bridge in Tokyo, lit by large digital screens on the buildings above, with taxis on a wet road and people walking on the pavement.

The ad is only half the story.

What a brand meant. What someone actually felt.

Decodes
ChatGPT Shows an Airbnb Booking Ad Under Its AI Answer About Desert Solar Towers
ChatGPT Shows an Airbnb Booking Ad Under Its AI Answer About Desert Solar Towers

Three ads in one ChatGPT chat on I-15 from Las Vegas into California, and the Airbnb card that appeared under an answer about desert solar towers, decoded from both sides.

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Ramp Made Receipts Funny. I Saw It on My Way Out of O’Hare.
Ramp Made Receipts Funny. I Saw It on My Way Out of O’Hare.

Ramp’s “Chase Global Markets. Not Receipts.” board at Chicago O’Hare, decoded through a consumer lens, a brand lens, and the marketing psychology behind why it works.

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day × Google Maps: A Film Promotion Built into a Daily Habit
Spider-Man: Brand New Day × Google Maps: A Film Promotion Built into a Daily Habit

A Spider-Man: Brand New Day hunt built into Google Maps and Street View, decoded through a consumer lens, a brand lens, and the marketing psychology behind why it works.

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Spider-Man Took Over Times Square. It Didn’t Need to Say Anything Else.
Spider-Man Took Over Times Square. It Didn’t Need to Say Anything Else.

A Times Square billboard takeover for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, decoded through a consumer lens, a brand lens, and the marketing psychology behind why it works.

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About HaELM

Why HaELM exists.

HaELM studies the other half: what a campaign becomes once it leaves the agency and reaches a real person. Every Decode starts with an ad seen in the wild, photographed, dated and placed, then read from both sides: the choice the brand made, and how it may land on the person who sees it.

From the Field

Somewhere Real

Every ad HaELM decodes started somewhere real — a street, a screen, an airport wall. New York and Chicago are archived below; more cities are coming.

Archived Central Park in autumn, with Manhattan towers rising above the trees
New York
 Archived A yellow billboard on a building above a downtown Chicago street
Chicago
 Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge in fog, its orange towers fading into the cloud
San Francisco
 The Hollywood sign on the hills above Los Angeles
Los Angeles
 A teamLab Biovortex Kyoto ad on a train, showing the walk from Inari to Kyoto station
Kyoto
 The Jack Trice Stadium sign at Iowa State University in Ames
Ames
 Delhi Humayun's Tomb editorial photograph
Delhi
 Mumbai Marine Drive editorial photograph
Mumbai
 A Tokyo street at dusk, with a tall office tower and a bus at the crossing
Tokyo
 The Marina Bay skyline in Singapore, reflected in a lily pond
Singapore

Photos are HaELM’s own, except Delhi and Mumbai (Unsplash).

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Reach out about the Decode, a collaboration, or anything worth a second look.